Prairie Glow Acres Garden Tour 2026
July 14th, 4pm to 8:30: Looking forward to hosting fellow garden lovers in my community!
If there is one thing I love, it’s a garden walk.
Which is why from the moment we moved onto our 5 acre property in East St Paul, I knew I had to use the framework and layout of the property to create the most whimsical sequence of garden rooms, each leading naturally to the next.
So I thought I’d take a moment and lead you through what you will see on the tour I’m hosting July 14th, 4pm to 8:30, tickets available for $20, along with some special goodies.
Click here to purchase a ticket.
On this tour, you’ll meander up the long driveway, flanked by bluffs of Manitoba maple and Bur oak, Manitoba’s only native oak species, beautiful mature spruce, and a long strings of lights along both sides (just for fun!).
The kids and teens will be your first greeters where you check in with your name, and they will be hosting a cute lemonade/iced tea stand for a dollar, with cute dried floral bunches from our gardens for $2, along with a few other merchandise options! All will be cash only, we will have change available.
Then you’ll pass through the beautiful front brick beds I lovingly call “Dahlia alley” and around the corner to the shade beds at the front of the house, leading immediately to full sun beds packed with perennials, lilies, border flowers and cut flowers, that line the walkway to the deck. It was a tricky area to plant as the trees create beds that are both full sun and full shade all in one area. But after 7 years, I do believe it’s looking beyond lovely.
From there to the right, beyond the hanging tree swings on the giant oak, the Glowhouse Gardens will invite you to a magical space where a giant chessboard surrounded by hydrangeas, border gardens with roses and whimsical little treasures to discover, with the lit up greenhouse turned fairy tea house nestled in. You are welcome to go in and look around or sit and soak it in, just please remove your shoes at the door.
Flowing to the right again from that area, you’ll discover a little bridge area under lush willows and spruce, and a former pond turned into an area for mature yellow Itoh peonies (which will likely be blooming) with creeping Jenny spilling out over the rocks.
From there you’ll hit the Steps-Stone Gardens: nine 4’ x 8’ raised beds with brick seating area, and flagstone pathways leading through the gardens bursting with food and edible flowers.
Across the lawn you’ll see the white fenced gardens with the little wooden gate, which was the original farmhouse on the property’s foundation. Now it is the home to a large raspberry patch and 6 raised herb beds overflowing with culinary and tea plants you just need to stop and smell.
Around the back of that garden, almost hidden from sight, a red mulch pathway through the trees, (lovingly named The Fairy Forest since when my kids were little), takes you to beyond the tree-line to a sprawling space, the Back Gardens.
You’ll be greeted by the 80 yard golf hole tee-box nestled into the windbreak, and just past it, the Pumpkin Arches: 10 more beds with squash, onions, garlic. Beside those, raised beds of brassicas and tomatoes, yellow raspberries and the in-ground rows of potatoes.
In the centre of the back gardens, The Cutting Beds. All cut flowers grown for beautiful bouquets should be in full bloom. A horse-shoe shaped raised bed filled with zinnias envelops another spot to stop and sit and take in being surrounded by blooms.
Flowing around the other side, you’ll pass the golf green, and on re-entering the main yard, you’ll pass the Chalet Poulet, my chicken coop (please do not open the doors) where you can peek in at the ladies and check out the pathways to the shed and woodshed.
Then you are onto the back beds along the house, with a ramshackle mix of perennials and cherry tomatoes and a little fun, and the beautiful large circular fire-pit nestled under huge willows and oak trees across from the newest tree here - a stunning Autumn Blaze maple named The Bruce Tree for my dad. Weather permitting we will light the firepit around 7:30.
And finally, the large deck with planters and seating and a couple raised beds used as “cocktail gardens” filled with great additions to cocktails, mocktails and teas. Feel free to have a seat and look out over all the spaces from a higher perspective!
Where are you located in east St. Paul?