Dragon Gardens Tour

Dragon Gardens had it's first garden tour and open house on Saturday, June 20th. And we think it was a big success!

In the spring, we went to Pauline Woods, the market manager for the Matthews Farmers' Market, and asked if we could have a garden tour this summer. She had already lined up a farm tour for May in response to customer feedback from the 2008 season. Pauline thought this was a logical next step and agreed to let Dragon Gardens Tour become a special event for the 2009 season.

The tour was designed to show people our garden, to help them understand the basics of garden design, to promote our daylily and perennial sales, and to get our name out in the community. We also wanted to provide a way to give back, so we decided that admission to the tour would be a donation of canned or dry goods for Charlotte's Second Harvest Food Bank.

There were 28 eager gardeners who visited us on Saturday and donated 60 pounds of canned goods to charity. Many left with plants and cookies, and all left with a better understanding of how to improve their gardens at home. Or at least who to call for help. We hope that this tour will continue to expand our plant sale business at the market and to also jump start another component of the business -- garden consulting and garden photography.

This morning Pauline passed along a nice email from one of our visitors. We have our first testimonial!

"My husband and I took the Dragon Garden's tour on Saturday - what a delight. On top of learning about Garden Axis, and rooms, we had a stimulating and educational lecture on Propagation by someone who really knows his stuff and is so enthusiastic about it. John's presentations and sharing of information was outstanding , encouraging. Although I probably will buy my daylilies from him, I will try some Hosta reproduction from seed and maybe even try and root some of the 60 year old boxwoods from my back yard in East Charlotte. Thank you for setting it up with John. It was so encouraging and refreshing to do something like this. Really makes for a special outing."

With success like this, we are already talking about having tours showing off the different seasons at Dragon Gardens! Fall and the mums, spring and the tulips...... Stay tuned!

Postscript: We like to pass along special thanks to Michelle, Morgan, and Michael for assisting in the final garden clean-up and prep on Friday. They worked hard in the heat of the day to put the finishing touches on the beds, the hardscape, and the lawn. Also, thanks to Janice and Vernon for lending their table for the refreshements. Good friends and family make our success even more sweet.