Garden
Fairies WIN First Place in the 2004 Dunedin 
This was not your average garden tour, it was an experience.
And when we say experience, this was one you could write a book about! The first picture is a mural being painted in Ruth's patio, the day before Hurricane Jeanne hit. Just as we were putting the finishing touches on the mural, the wind whipped up. After a quick pickup (chasing our painting supplies all over the yard) Shannon and Siobhan raced back to their homes to batten down the hatches.... for yet another hurricane! Yikes, what a summer to pick to get ready for our first garden tour!
You may be thinking, this is not a very nice garden tour picture. Indeed it is Siobhan's yard, "rearranged" by Francis, and Jeanne is still to come!
Imagine getting ready to show your garden and having to worry about how to get rid of a five foot tall debris mountain, the length of your property. Compounded, by the fact that once one mountain of dead flora was taken away, another storm would hit! We all found we had a common fear- that our garbage man would become overwhelmed by never ending storms and quit! But where there is a will, there is a way... tips, treats and offering to help load your garbage man's truck all work.
Miraculously.... By the time the tour happened, after working day and night our gardens looked like we were never trounced a string of hurricanes.
No magic wands here. Just an incredible group of middle aged people ignoring lots of aches and pains, who are on a beautification mission.
When we heard nothing but raves about the tour... which has helped us almost totally forgot about our pre-tour hurricane harassed summer. The morning of tour brought sun and lots of fun. What a joy it was to see so many smiling and interested people (many asking for our recipes and wondering about what kind of glues do we use!)
There were a couple of garden tour/ house groupies on the tour who said it was, without a doubt the best tour they have ever been on.... wowed by the combination of demos, art in the garden, flowers, food and the fabulous Garden Fairies.
- We had about 50 volunteers work on the tour and made around $8000. We sold
125 tickets that filled three donated buses. An additional 25 tickets could
have been sold if we had the room.
- Special thanks to the hostess and hosts who opened their gardens:Betsy & Jeff, Siobhan & Bruce, Andrea & Bob, Noel, Ruthie, Ruth, Rike & Michael and Barbara & Ira.
- And also to The Bayou Babes... oh yes and the men (Garden Wizards, Garden Kahunas and Garden Weasel) who are SOOOO glad we are now officially on ATT Time (After The Tour).
Big kisses go out to our support teams: Rose & Nick
Nicholas, Linda Langer, Richard Warneke- food n' beverage
- Lin Carte & Auggie Anderson, Lynne Eichar, Barbara Burhans- raffle
and silent auction
- Jesus & Niki Rodriquez- corporate donations and logistics
- Nancy Dively- Goodie bags and iced tea
- Linda & Pete Langer- runners
- Gene McCarren, Doug Bebensee and Max Richardson - deliveries and returns
- Bruce Snyder, Jerry Smartz, Danny King, Nick Nicholas and Heather Richardson-
registration and tour organization
- Rick & Carol Lehman, Barbara & Ira Burhans- ticket sales
- Noel Bell- finances
To all the wonderful gals who showed up on a
Tuesday evening to making the stepping stones we auctioned off:
Kathleen Bromley who donated the glass and brought a team from The Stained
Glass Studio of Clearwater.
- Lois Snyder donated her workshop space.
- The Garden Fairies team was lead by Heather Richardson who also donated glass
and materials. Fairy Team: Kiarlalinda, Annie Mickel, Siobhan Nehin, Lynn Eichar,
Jan Gravino, Debbie Kowal, Nancy Dively, Chris Hase and Lorraine LaHiff.
Tour Directors who took such good care of
our tourers
- Rose Nicholas
- Anne Currely
- Kathy Hallett
- Nancy Dively
- Pam Trass
- Linda Langer
- Nancy Armitage
Stationed at various homes, our demo artists
who were divine: 
- Barbara and Ira Burhans
- Shannon O'Leary Beck
- Robin Popp
- Kiaralinda and Todd
- Jean Rogers
- Patti Spence
- Bill and Linda Renc
- Vicky Zalatoris
- Kathy and Ron Lax
- Paula and Duane Johansen
- Susan Gehring
- Christopher Still
- Cheryl and Sam Sharnick
- Joyce Curvin
- Jack Roseman
- Vicky and Rick Wyrick
- Heather Moore
- Ruth Hooker
- Porter Paint
- Helen Ellis Hospital
- Salon Sugar
- Mainframe Studios
- Earthscapes Garden Room
- Stained Glass Studio of Clearwater
Restaurants who donated food
- Lime and the Coconut
- The Ballyhoo
- JJ Gandy Pies
Thank you(s) and congratulations have poured in from the tour!
WOW - WUNderful, Siobhan! I really enjoyed being at RIke's and the attention
people gave just to two stepping stones was amazing. Lots of questions about
paint and LOTS of comments on how terrific the whole tour was. Not one complaint
except that they really hated to see it end and what is the next venture.
Again, congratulations on a job well done! - Jean
Just wanted to tell you how fun it was to work with
the fairies and wizards on Sunday. I was a tour guide with Nancy Dively.
The tour was great, I can say that all the people on bus #2 were very happy
and enjoyed themselves. You all did a phenominal job! I was thrilled to
be a part of a great group. Also, can you share Nikki's e-mail with me.
Turns out we stayed at the home of the same family only a year apart, in
San Miguel, Mexico.I would like to make contact with the family and she
has the address but neither of us had a pen on Sunday. That town is magical
and I could definately see it as a place for the fairies to visit. - Anne
See you soon,
- Pat Great stuff about the Garden Tour!!! -Bea
- I'm so happy to hear that your tour was a smashing success - even though we didn't get there. We missed a wonderful show. Congratulations to you all for making it happen. - Roseanne
- Thank you for a wonderful Garden Tour event.
- Heather
Thanks for the major ride! I really enjoy this kind of movement!! - Jesus "Zus
