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Our 6th Annual Central Iowa Tour of Water Gardens is now history and the numbers look pretty rosy. We had a similar number of tour participants on both the Ames and Des Moines tours -- about 400. We will not have an exact count because of the way we sold tickets but that is okay. For comparative purposes we had close to 600 tour in Ames last year (2000). That eclipsed the number from the 1999 tour by about 150 people. Every year we keep adding to our numbers and next year promises to be even better. I have over half of the gardens lined up so far from people that have contacted me wanting their garden on the tour. So, if you want to place your garden on the tour or know of a garden that has to be on the tour, please contact me. As for the exact accounting of the money we will have those numbers in the next few days when our committee meets for our wrap-up meeting. Things should look good for our organizations to be able utilize those dollars for educational activities.
One of the challenges we face is to try and include gardens from some of the outlying communities. Just how do we include gardens from Jefferson, for example? That would be quite a trip for people to tour in Ames or Des Moines and then to travel to Jefferson. What about Perry, Marshalltown, Fort Dodge, and etc.? There really are a bunch of wonderful gardens and we need a plan.
Well, here is my idea -- What about having the tour last for six days for the outlying communities -- Monday through Saturday. On the weekdays tour hours would be 6 until 9 PM and on Saturday, the hours would be 9 till 6, except for the night tour gardens. Now, the gardens in Ames and Des Moines and close communities would only be open on Saturday or Sunday. This is just an idea and it would be asking a lot of the hosts in those outlying communities. But it would be fun for those that want to show their gardens to other crazy ponderers.
I want to THANK the Pond Tour committee members for doing a great job of putting together the largest pond tour ever in Iowa. Those members are Cheryl Saylor, Doug Rieck, Helene and Alan Magruder, Kristy Olesen, Janna Mozdzer and myself put in many hours - all volunteer. These people are top-notch ponderers that give of themselves for others to benefit. Thank you!
We had a large number of volunteers to help the host gardener and I want to thank all of you that took the time to help us out. I really enjoy doing this myself and I really meet a bunch of great people.
Jamie, The Big Toad