The bus runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and includes a catered lunch at one of the residential stops.
Planning for these tours usually starts in early February, but it’s best to keep the tours in mind all year long.
On all tours, we provide snacks, water and
a knowledgeable host who shares interesting information about properties, like specific pond sizes and the year they were built.
My favorite tour is our evening water
garden tour, which is held on the last Saturday of September. This tour usually brings in 100 attendees.
Working with local restaurants and
caterers to donate food and drink items for the tour can save a lot of money.
With 300 or so ponds installed, we decided to start hosting pond tours. They started as most things do — small, with about 20 to 30 attendees.
So much effort goes into our tours, but the enthusiasm from the attendees and
the ability to give back to our community help encourage us to continue planning them year after year.
We are humbled by all the pond and garden owners who join us to give back to
the community.
To date, we have raised more than $122,000 for the Chester County Food Bank. But it didn’t happen overnight; it took a lot of hard work and outreach by the area’s pond and garden devotees.