18th Annual Clairemont Garden Tour May 17th, Tickets on Sale Now

Here in beautiful Clairemont, the signs of spring are everywhere and that means it’s time for one of the community’s best-loved events: the Clairemont Town Council’s Garden Tour. On Saturday May 17th from 10am until 4pm homeowners all over Clairemont, Bay Ho and Bay Park will welcome the community into their private gardens, to benefit the CTC’s community grant fund.  Tickets are on sale now, see below for details.

The self-guided tour will include a dozen private gardens, each with a unique feature or theme. Water features, drought tolerant plantings, edible gardens and even a vineyard garden will captivate attendees throughout the day as they get to know some of the loveliest places in the neighborhood.

There are many wonderful garden tours in San Diego, such as those in Mission Hills, Point Loma and La Jolla. Almost all of the gardens on these tours are landscaped by the professionals whose signs are displayed. The Clairemont Garden Tour, on the other hand, is different: the majority of the gardens on the tour have been designed and maintained by the owners themselves!

The gardens are nominated by the owners or neighbors and the CTC Garden Tour committee, this year led by Ingrid Terpening, visits each one before making their selections and issuing invitations to the garden owners to participate.  It can be a tough job to choose because there are so many avid gardeners in the area.

This year the Tour will also incorporate the Garden Tour Expo, from 10:30am until 3:30pm, at the SDG&E Energy Innovation Center (EIC) located at 4760 Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, San Diego, CA 92117.  The Expo, a popular recent addition to the day’s events, will include booths from Garden Tour sponsors and will feature a cooking demonstration by Chef Palma sponsored by the Clairemont Produce Cooperative.

Attendees can participate in workshops in the EIC's specially equipped kitchen, or learn about ways to save energy in the model smart home. There will be information on California friendly landscaping and on rain water catchment/grey water recycling.  At 3pm, there will be a reception and awards for the best garden and visitor favorite will be presented.

The Garden Tour is the CTC’s big fundraiser each year. The monies raised go right back into the community in the form of community grants. Schools, Eagle Scouts and music teachers are just some of the people whose ideas for a better Clairemont were funded in part by Garden Tour sponsorship and ticket sales.
Tickets are on sale now. Adult Garden Tour tickets can be purchased for $12 in advance online at ClairemontOnline.com; Senior (55+) tickets are $10 online. Children 12 and under are free. 

We also have a VIP tour which is set to leave Holmes Elementary at 9:30am on the 17th. It will include touring the 12 homes on the tour and stopping for lunch at the garden tour expo at the Energy Innovation Center for a cooking demonstration from 12 to 12:45, then resuming the tour after the lunch break. Only 12 VIP tickets at $35 are available!

You may also buy Adult or Senior tickets in person for $15 on May 16th & May 17th at Postal Connections, located at the corner of Clairemont Drive and Balboa Ave (3895 Clairemont Dr #101, San Diego, CA 92117) or at The UPS Store, located in the Clairemont Square shopping center (3952 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Suite D, San Diego, CA 92117).

These locations will be selling tickets and distributing garden tour programs on Friday, May 16th from 12pm until 7pm and on Saturday, May 17th from 10am until 12pm. 

Save the date and get your tickets now, you won’t want to miss Clairemont’s 18th Annual Town Council Garden Tour!