A pleasant afternoon event has now blossomed into a three-day celebration of art, entertainment and gardening.
The Two Rivers Gallery is celebrating its 10th annual Artists in the Garden Tour today through Sunday with a full roster of activities.
The kick off is at the gallery tonight at 6 p.m., which highlights locally sourced hors d'oeuvres and regional beverages. Guest speaker Marli Bodhi, UNBC environmental planning student and master gardener, will talk about growing local food, sustainability and how to utilize green spaces in urban areas during the kick off event.
Saturday morning sees composting and container gardening workshops along with gardening discussions with local author Barbara Rayment at the gallery from 9 a.m. to noon.
Next up is the main event where 25 artists and eight musicians are found in eight gardens around the city to showcase their talents in a beautiful setting.
The garden tour begins in the afternoon and guests have the option of driving themselves or taking a shuttle leaving the gallery at 12:30 p.m.
The gardens featured are diverse, including one that is half vegetable garden, half garden.
"We're interested in the local gardening movement and local food movement and we wanted to bring together the relationship between environment and culture and try to play on those ideas," said Jean Chisholm, special events coordinator at the gallery.
The gallery is offering a picnic lunch prepared by Sassafras, a local catering company that will feature local food.
On Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. UNBC will showcase it community gardening initiatives to the public for free.
"We'll be able to get a peek into the interesting, experimental and ground-breaking things that they're doing up there and that's kind of exciting," said Chisholm.
Friday's social kick-off is $15, the garden tour and workshops are $30, the picnic lunch is $15, or $50 for all three. Children ages five to 12 cost $12. Shuttle bus service is $10. For more information call 250-614-7800.
