Aug 02, 2017 by Erin Stewart Quinte West News,
Everyone is welcome to visit the 25 gardens which include a bird, bee and butterfly garden, formal knot garden, oriental garden, white garden, rose garden and edible garden.
Owners Deanna Groves and John Riedl, also owners of the Garden Place landscaping company, came up with the idea nine years ago and thought it would be great to put their landscaping skills to good use to bring garden tourism to the area.
“We would like to hopefully contribute to the community by adding a different tourist attraction and bring the gardening crowd here,” said Groves.
It’s hard to pick a favourite garden, said Groves, but she’s particularly fond of the bird, bee and butterfly garden.
“I would think the bird, bee, butterfly garden is probably my favourite because we are very much in tune with the environment and we like to pass on important information to the public about helping our bee populations and the butterfly migration and so forth,” she said.
MP for the Bay of Quinte Neil Ellis and Quinte West Mayor Jim Harrison along with Deputy Mayor Jim Alyea and members of the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce attended the official grand opening of the gardens on Tuesday, Aug. 1.
Harrison said it’s great to see all of the hard work that’s been done.
“We’re thankful because this is what I call a down to earth project,” he said.
“It’s great, you can see this is beautiful all the way down through and all the things they’ve done, so creative and so natural, very attractive.”
Suzanne Andrews, general manager of the Quinte West Chamber of Commerce, thanked Groves and Riedl on behalf of the chamber and business community.
“I know it’s going to have a great economic impact for all of the businesses in the area so thank you very much for putting not only your dreams and your thoughts out there but your money and sweat equity and everything you had to do,” she said.
Ellis said it’s organizations like the Quinte Botanical Garden that can partner with governments to make the riding a great area.
“I look at the tourism and what you’ve built out here in the last year, hats off to both of you,” he said. “You’ve got a lot of support and you make our job easy so thank you both.”
So far, the response has been great, said Groves, with multiple tour buses, weddings, and groups wanting to come through.
Located at 664 Glen Ross Rd. in Frankford, the gardens are open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. six days a week with the exclusion of Wednesdays for maintenance. Admission is $10 per person and children under six can enter for free.
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