Carol spent more time getting her garden ready for the garden tour than most of us spend on our yards all year long. Gardening and decorating her garden is her passion.

Carol added Sedum angelina to a blue pot in a shadow box frame antiqued and hung on her shed with other tiny finery.

And her garden decoration entertains family, friends and visitors of all kinds. Last year Carol spent days getting the garden ready with little decorations and pots filled with tiny plants and small displays to entertain and delight visitors to the Mount Arrowsmith Rhododendron Society spring fundraising garden tour. I didn’t see it after the event but I am thinking Carol put away most of the decor items. It would have been too much to mow around and keep the tiny pots watered and fluffed all summer.

A cotoneaster branch squeezes out through a gap in the fence to entertain walkers down a back alley in Qualicum Beach. The fence is so old it has lichens growing on it.

Not everyone has the time Carol has to decorate her garden but even if you just enjoy a single pot on your patio or a single plant growing through your fence, the garden is a place of fun, entertainment, refuge and delight. Enjoy these images of the year just past and remember to grow what you love. It will reward you in pleasure!