Home & Garden

Garden tours, home shows and horticultural events across the county

Where Rural Charm Meets Garden Design

Wellington County’s mix of century farmhouses, riverside cottages and small-town gardens makes it a favourite destination for home and garden enthusiasts. Local horticultural societies in Fergus, Elora, Erin and Arthur organise self-guided garden tours each summer, opening private backyards and heritage properties to visitors for a single afternoon. These tours often reveal gardens tucked behind unassuming century homes, cultivated by the same families for decades, with mature trees and perennial beds that could never be replicated in a single season.

Spring and early summer bring home and garden shows to community arenas and fairgrounds, where local landscapers, nurseries, builders and renovators set up booths alongside seminars on everything from perennial planting to sustainable landscaping. These shows are a popular stop for homeowners planning renovations, as well as gardeners looking for hard-to-find native plant species from local growers.

Popular Home & Garden Events

  • Self-guided garden tours through private and heritage properties
  • Spring home and renovation shows with local contractors and suppliers
  • Horticultural society plant sales and seed exchanges
  • Farmhouse and barn restoration open houses
  • Seasonal container-gardening and floral-design workshops
  • Native plant and pollinator-garden demonstrations hosted by conservation groups

Talking to the Gardeners

Garden tour hosts are frequently on hand to answer questions about specific plants, soil conditions or landscaping choices, making these tours a genuinely educational outing for anyone looking to improve their own garden. It is common for visitors to leave with plant recommendations, and sometimes cuttings, gathered directly from tour hosts who are often as passionate about sharing knowledge as they are about their own gardens.

Restoring Century Properties

Many of the properties featured on home tours are century farmhouses or heritage cottages that have been carefully restored by their owners, often over many years. These open houses give visitors a rare look at the work involved in balancing historic character with modern living, from reclaimed barn-board interiors to period-appropriate landscaping designed to complement a building’s original architecture.

A Season for Every Gardener

Garden tours are typically held in late June and July when perennial beds are at their peak, while home shows cluster in March and April ahead of the spring renovation season. Many events are hosted as fundraisers, with proceeds supporting local horticultural societies and community beautification projects, including streetscape planting in the county’s downtown cores.

Good to know

Comfortable walking shoes are recommended for garden tours — most involve strolling between several properties within a village or along a rural concession road. A small notebook is handy for jotting down plant names and tips shared by garden hosts.