This Year’s Festival: August 11-20, 2023
Events & Activities
From August 12th-21st, join us with with various activities including self-guided tours, garden explorations, contests and demonstrations.
See Gardens your Way – On the Garden Promenade
August 12-21st
Explore over 75 gardens in the Capital Region by bicycle, by bus, or by foot!
- Bicycle to the gardens of your choice with the help of Escape Tours and Rentals. They provide garden-themed self-guided tours, or you can rent a bike and tour the way you wish. All gardens are accessible by bicycle.
79 Sparks St., Ottawa, ON K1P 5A5
- Take a relaxing bus tour of the gardens on the Lady Dive Hop-On & Hop-Off double-decker bus to visit numerous gardens on the Capital’s Garden Promenade. You can decide where to get off the bus and spend time in the garden.
44 Sparks St., Ottawa, ON K1A 0R7
- Feeling adventurous? Check out the 7 Self-Guided Tours of Garden Promenade to explore on your own or with friends.
Everyone renting a bike or taking a bus tour, will receive a Year of the Garden 2022 pin.
Botanica Cocktail @ Tavern at the Gallery
August 12th – 21st
380 Sussex Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 9N4
Enjoy the official drink of the Ottawa Garden Festival while unwinding at Tavern at the Gallery, situated in the gorgeous sunken garden of the National Gallery. The Botanica Cocktail, carefully crafted by the Tavern mixologist, celebrates the essence of the garden spirit. Available for the duration of the festival.
Canadensis ‘Beyond the Edge’ – Artist Gardens
Saturday, August 12th – 14th
Experimental Farm, Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3K1
A weekend of garden-themed activities presented by Canadensis.
Activities planned: A Company of Fools presentation of ‘The Tempest’, Food Concessions, Meet the Garden Artists and visit the gardens, Yoga in the Garden, and the Roaming Garden Wheelbarrow creation and displays (vote for your choice).
Friday, August 12th
A Company of Fools presentation of the Tempest
7–8pm
For more info: https://fools.ca/?event=canadensis
Saturday August 13th
Display and Sale of Fine Garden Art and Garden Themed Art by Local Artists
10am–2pm
Meet the Garden Artists and tour the site
10am–12pm
Meet the Garden Artists and tour the site
2–4pm
Creation of the Roaming Garden Wheelbarrows – vote for the best display
10am–5pm
Sunday, August 14th
Picnic in the garden and walk-about
11am–2pm
Visit the Artists’ Gardens
- Outcrop/Stonecrop
- Mitigomij and the Ancient Oak
- Erratic Grass
- Row by Row
- Prismatic Grass
- BeeHaven Pollinator Garden
*Food and beverage service tbc as well as Ice Cream Truck
*Also looking at possible musical entertainment but not confirmed
gARTden Exhibition @ Art + galerie
August 12th – 21st
Art + galerie, 531 Sussex Dr, Ottawa, Ontario K1N 5S6
Art + galerie is thrilled to be a part of the Ottawa Garden Festival! For this Exhibition, we will be prominently featuring 10 of our landscape and floral artists… and invite you to experience nature transformed by creativity!
Roaming Garden Wheelbarrows
August 13th – 21st
Downtown Ottawa
This will be a fun and unexpected event as part of the Ottawa Garden Festival.
Members of Horticultural Societies, Garden Clubs and Master Gardeners will transform 8 wheelbarrows into a wonderful garden displays on August 13 at Canadensis Beyond the Hedge. These will then be transported to various sites in the downtown core of Ottawa, daily, for locals and tourists to be surprised by these garden displays creating a unique garden photo moment.
Garden Wheelbarrows are created by:
Gloucester Horticultural Society
- Candace Dressler
Old Ottawa South Garden Club
- Kathleen Fischer
- Marilyn Whitaker
Greater Ottawa Water Garden Society
- Suzanne Carr
- Rosemary Campbell
Master Gardeners
- Josie Pazdzior
Ottawa Garden Club
- Pauline Yelle
- Cynthia Hoisak
Yoga at the Gallery
August 13th & 20th
Tavern at the Gallery, 380 Sussex Dr, Ottawa, ON K1N 9N4
Join Brittany Bryden for an outdoor Pure Flow experience in the National Gallery’s Sunken Garden, a place to connect, bond, and relax. Registration required.
Garden Immersion @ Fletcher Wildlife
August 14th, 17th & 21st
Fletcher Wildlife, Near 865 Prince of Wales Drive, Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3K1
Garden Immersion to Rest & Re-Connect
A sensory immersion in the gifts of the garden. We’ll rest & de-stress as we awaken to nature’s sounds, scents & many-coloured wonders.
Join Andrea Prazmowski in the meadows and pathways of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden on a gently-guided experience to help you rest your mind, re-charge, and come alive to the gifts of nature. Andrea will set a slow pace and offer invitations to help us awaken our senses and notice the details we often miss when we’re in a hurry or our minds are pre-occupied.
This kind of “slow time” in nature has been shown to reduce stress levels, boost the immune system and brain power and creativity. Many people also discover a renewed connection with themselves and with all of nature.
These are free walks on August 14, 17 and 21, as part of the Ottawa Garden Festival, sponsored by Gardens Ottawa. Pre-registration is required, with an opportunity to donate to the Fletcher Wildlife Garden, a demonstration project of the Ottawa Field Naturalists Club, showing how to create wildlife habitat in the city.
You’ll receive all the details — where to meet, what to bring, etc. — with your order confirmation, but feel free to contact Andrea through the Eventbrite event page if you have any questions before registering. To register, click HERE.
Creative Gardening @ Vincent Massey Park
August 16th & 18th
Vincent Massey Park, Heron Rd, Ottawa, Ontario K1V 2E4
Come out to connect with nature in a creative way! Therapeutic Horticulture is the purposeful use of plants and plant-related activities to promote health and wellness for an individual or group. Sessions are run by a Horticultural Therapy Practitioner.
Sessions will include sensory experiences and active listening as well as creative exercises and activities such as planting microgreens, flower pressing, nature self-portraits and nature mandalas & weaving.
This event is free. CLICK HERE to register
Yardshare Workshop
August 16th – 7 to 8pm
Join us for a free virtual workshop which explores what you need to know to share your yard to support a neighbour to grow food.
Register for free online on JustFood.ca
Growing Food in Ottawa Workshop
August 18th – 1 to 2pm
Join us for a free virtual workshop which explores what you need to know to grow food in your own backyard.
Register for free online on JustFood.ca
Summer Flower & Edibles Show @ City Hall
August 20th – 1 to 5pm
Ottawa City Hall, 110 Laurier Ave. W, Ottawa, Ontario K1P 1J1
This large Flower Show is organized by the Ontario Horticultural Association District 2 and will be professionally judged. It brings together amateur floral arrangers to create floral designs as well as Horticultural Society members to exhibit flowers and vegetables from their gardens. The public will have a chance to participate in exhibiting in special open classes. There will be two special floral demonstrations at 2 pm and 3 pm. A silent auction of floral designs will be available at 4:00pm. There will be a Tribute to Ottawa Year of the Garden Heroes at 1 pm.
Entry to the show is free. For more detailled information and full schedule, visit HERE.
Festival News
2022 Celebration Gardens
Inviting every Ottawa resident that has a garden to send to a photo of their garden and sign it up as Year of the Garden 2022 Celebration Garden. Our goal to be the city with the most Celebration Gardens since we are ‘A City of Gardens’. Let’s do it.
Enter to win a “Live the Garden Life” coffee table book (valued at $39.95), and a Scott’s gift package worth $150!
Win 1 of 2 $100 gift cards from Robert Plante Greenhouses!
Plant Friendly Business
An invitation to the public to submit a photo of a business that utilizes plants in a way that WOWs them. Nominate a buisness that uses plants to enhance their clients’ experience with palnts and proves that Ottawa is truly ‘A City of Gardens’.
How to participate? Easy, go to the Ottawa Garden Festival Facebook, upload your photo, tell us which business, what you think, and you have a chance to win one of our numerous participation prizes!
Enter for a chance to win a “Live the Garden Life” coffee table book, valued at $39.95!
Win a $100 gift card from Robert Plante Greenhouses!
Ottawa's #BestGarden613 Contest
Ottawa’s Best Home Garden is an initiative aimed at showcasing Ottawa’s green thumb and fine folks who are augmenting the beauty of our city and contributing to Ottawa ‘A City of Gardens’.
Gardeners now have until August 20 to submit their gardens at their best.
Registration is currently open to submit up to three recent photos of your backyard, OR balcony garden to be eligible for prizes. Visit www.apt613.ca for more information and to register your garden.
The grand prize winners will be announced on Apt613.ca on August 30, 2022.
25th Anniversary of the Community Gardening Network Celebration
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary, Just Food is celebrating all residents who grow food on balconies, in back and front yards, in school grounds, in community gardens, in food forests, in parks, on rooftops, within businesses, in greenhouses, and on farms.
Thousands more people would like to grow food locally. We can make this happen together.
A Call to Action will be released August 16 as part of the Ottawa Garden Festival, with ideas on how YOU can support the growing movement of food growing and edible landscapes in urban, suburban and rural neighbourhoods.
This will be followed up by two, free online workshops:
Yardshare – What do you need to know to share your yard to support a neighbour to grow food?
What can be done to increase options for growing food in Ottawa?
Workshop: Yardshare
Aug 16, 7-8pm
Free
Workshop: What can be done to increase options for growing food in Ottawa?
Aug 18, 1-2pm
Free
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