Sunday 27, July 2025
10:00 am – 4:00 pm
The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is excited to bring you our Annual Garden Tour. The Garden Tour is a great way to spend the day with your friends and family! Marvel at the flora and foliage as you venture from one side of our city to another – exploring gardens lovingly grown by our community, and hand picked by our Master Gardeners.
Regular Tickets: $35
Member’s Tickets: $25
Tickets can be purchased online. Physical tickets will be available for purchase soon!
Each Garden will be hosting a $2 raffle draw so bring cash!
Get FREE admission to the Gallery with your ticket during the Garden Tour. Show your ticket to the front desk and get free access to our exhibitions.
Members Discount:
The Gardens
1. Thunder Bay Art Gallery
The Thunder Bay Art Gallery sits beside a Northern mixed wood forest, rich with birch, spruce, poplar, and fir. This natural setting allows for year-round wildlife sightings and enhances the Gallery’s outdoor art installations. A surrounding garden features native and ornamental plants, with lilies, hostas, and rhododendrons lining the walls. In shaded areas, ferns and lily of the valley add to the garden’s peaceful atmosphere.
2. Roots Community Center
Artist: Erin Szturm
The Roots CFC Volunteer Pool Farm is nestled in the Grandview neighbourhood of Port Arthur, right next door to the Volunteer Pool Community Centre. With just under 1/2 acre under production, this site hosts employment programs, an active apiary, a rabbitry, and grows many different types of fruits and vegetables. Food grown goes to market and restaurants, is donated to local food security agencies and is used in school programming and cafeterias.
3. Mary Anne and Rod Seabrook
Artists: Irene Warmenhoven & Kim Sutherland
MG: Sylvia Goodheart & Andrea Steinhaeusser
This garden is deceptively small, however a surprise awaits you. The space has been designed with a casual feel with an incredible mix of perennials and annuals. Cleverly repurposed items have become delightful garden art that provide highlights throughout. Pathways take you past islets of greenery, contrasted with bright hued annuals. Each has its own piece of intriguing statuary. The hardscape comes in many shapes and sizes providing visual interest among the mass plantings. A diverse variety of large and small trees provide shade and protection throughout.
4. John Glowatch and Lynda Tamblyn
MG: Lynda Bobinski
The well designed front yard is simple yet elegant. A low-key layered approach to evergreen plantings are punctuated by colourful masses of lilies, hydrangeas, and a stunning granite water feature. The rear yard is geared toward outdoor living featuring a pergola and gazebo that provide sitting areas and welcome shade. Live plantings are used as visual screens. Water elements give a tranquil feel and backdrop for masses of perennials and pollinator attracting plants. Make sure not to miss the homeowner collection of tropical plants he nurtures from year to year. The property is designed on a small scale but the overall effect is huge.
5. Kim Karioja
Musicians: Student Pianists
MG: Lynda Lahteenmaa & Laura Jones
This garden has grown over the years as grass has been torn up to make room for more perennials and vegetables. Corn and sunflowers grow along the driveway and pumpkins line the roadside curb. The house and fences feature sun ornaments. Hostas line a shady pathway leading to the backyard vegetable garden where you will find the garden shed and a small greenhouse next to a rain barrel. Colourful ceramic pots hold tomatoes, sweet peppers, eggplants, and lettuce, while planters feature yellow and red annuals. The vegetable garden is a creative grouping of plants rather than typical rows.
6. James and Katherine Smith
Artist: Michel Raby
MG: Theresa Love
This property is a striking example of a well designed formal garden. The front yard hardscape and well chosen plantings accentuate the home’s facade. As lawns have become less desirable ecologically the homeowner has replaced a portion of the grass with hardscape throughout the property. The gardens are visually pleasing as well as functional and practical. Raised bed gardens thrive in the micro climate of an enclosed back yard. Eye catching elements including water features and themed vignettes are found throughout. An abundance of pollinator friendly plantings provide food and habitat for the yard’s ecosystem.
7. Roots Community Center
Musician: Pintail
In a land partnership with the Lakehead School Board, Roots CFC cultivates a large growing space called the Lillie Street Urban Farm. It features large production spaces, perennial fruits, open pollinated varieties for seed saving, an active apiary, large 3 season greenhouse, and community garden spaces. It is home to community events, employment programs, and is a vibrant hub in the south end of Thunder Bay
8. Joanie Zacharias
Artist: Linda Dell
MG: Gordon Ward
This property has a quaint “cottage” feel. Curving pathways brimming with massive perennials lead the visitor from the front to rear yard where you find a kaleidoscope of colours and textures presented by bright annuals and verdant masses of hostas and ferns. One bed at a time the homeowner is replacing existing grass with garden beds containing pollinator friendly plants that provide food and habitats for wildlife. Large trees throughout act as carbon capture and provide alcoves for shade loving plants. The yard is small but the effect is mighty.
9. Christine and Chris Budzyk
Artist: Ellen Kruse
MG: Jack Van Gemeren
This delightful yard is an example of a doable garden. A manageable size and the use of sustainable practices such as seed saving, seed sharing, and seedling starting does not “break the bank” in order to be a successful gardener. Gardening this way can become very personal. Many current plants have long roots with families and friends remembered always as each new season comes around. The glorious flowers within these garden beds have a huge visual impact as many are mass planted pollinator plants and towering grass species that create wonderful architectural impact. The juxtaposition of blooms of many colours produces visual excitement. A bountiful veggie garden resides beside the farmshed. Whimsical vignettes peek out from garden beds. A life-sized warrior watches over all.
10. Debbie and Frank Bil
Musician: Bill Gillin
MG: Carole McCollum & Rosemary McNabb
This stunning property exhibits the grandeur and elegance of fine quality formal design. Every detail has been meticulously planned and thought out and carried by the homeowners themselves. Vibrant hued summer annuals provide focal points amid the lush greenery of massive collections of perennials. Unique water features and stunning statuary are artfully positioned throughout. The pool area and a covered patio provide cool sanctuary from the summer heat. A fairy garden, a healing place, invites relaxation and reflection. Give yourself time to stroll through this beautiful landscape.
11. Karly Huitsing – All in Bloom
Artist: Erika Niva
“All In Bloom is a small cut flower farm located in Slate River started in 2021. We provide quality cut flowers to our community and surrounding area. Together with my family we spend our time gardening and enjoying the beauty of each flower. Over the past years I have found my passion as a wedding florist and growing specialty flowers for these special events.”
– Karly Huitsing
The Artists
William “It’s Just Bill” Gillin
Bill has enjoyed playing guitar, banjo and telling stories for many years at local long term care homes … singing old favourites and easy-listening songs.
Ellen Kruse
“I began my watercolour journey five years ago, inspired by the rugged beauty of Northwestern Ontario. As an Associate Member of the CSPWC and a member of the Northern Lights Painting Group, I focus on capturing nature and “life moments.” My work Estonia Remembered was juried in both international and regional shows. Through colour and composition, I aim to evoke emotion and connect personal stories with shared human experience.”
Erika Niva
“I make functional and sculptural ceramic items and creatures using handbuilding and throwing clay. I got my HBFA at Lakehead University and have done multiple events and workshops where I demonstrate and educate about my work.”
Erin Szturm
Erin Szturm is an observer, collector, and researcher who earned her BFA at the University of Ottawa. Specializing in painting and drawing, the artist depicts narratives of solastalgia on ephemeral surfaces using frenetically applied oils. Sur-Realities emerge in their practice, alongside Feminist and Environmental explorations, which intersect with encroaching urban imagery.
Irene Warmenhoven
“My biggest floral landscape as an artist was designing my own English Country garden. I never forgot standing among tall delphiniums as a child playing hide and seek. Enchanted by the pinks and blues of flower petals I carried that fragrant memory into my art. I have maintained a working studio for over 20 years, taught children about nature’s beauty as Provincial Park guest Naturalist and Artist in Residence .” – Irene Warmenhoven , Past Horticultural Youth Leader, Board Member and Judge
Kim Sutherland
“I am a local artist working with a variety of media such as oil paints, watercolors, and textiles. I was exposed to art at an early age and still participate in the community through art classes and shows. I enjoy connecting with artists to exchange ideas and learn new techniques. Recently, I’ve been doing oil painting ‘en plein air’ and I look forward to the Art Gallery’s 2025 Garden tour.”
Michel Raby
Thunder Bay Artist, Michel Raby with 40 years of painting experience, brings the beauty of Northwestern Ontario landscapes to life through his stunning creations. Specializing in acrylic paintings of local area landscapes, Michel’s work captures the essence of each scene he observes, infusing his pieces with a sense of place and emotion. Form the mastic Sleeping Giant, to the serene beauty of farmlands, each painting is an original masterpiece inspired by Michel’s photographs and experience. Recently Michel has been experimenting with plain air (outdoor painting). This approach has given him a new perspective in how he approaches his subject.
Pat Towell
Thunder Bay vocalist who sings with several choirs and performs easy listening music.
Pintail
Pintail is a tight-knit four-piece bluegrass band from Thunder Bay, Ontario. Their sound is a blend of traditional bluegrass, infused with elements of jazz and classic country. Pintail’s goal is to honour the past bluegrass masters while pushing the boundaries of the genre. The band consists of Kyle Shushack (guitar and vocals), Ben Bohémier (mandolin and vocals), Dan Campbell (banjo and vocals) and Jennifer Swistun (bass and vocals). All of these musicians have performed for over a decade across Canada as well as in the United States.