The Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake has proclaimed 2022 the Year of the Garden.

“The Year of the Garden 2022 will highlight and celebrate the important contribution of gardeners, our local gardening organizations, horticultural professionals and local horticultural businesses,” Lord Mayor Betty Disero said in a news release. 

Actually, the Year of the Garden is being declared all over the country in honour of the centennial of the Eastern Canada Nurserymen’s Association, the precursor of the Canadian Nursery Landscape Association, a non-profit federation of nine provincial landscape and horticultural associations.

The association recommends Canadians nominate someone in their community who “inspires and leads volunteers in planting a love of gardens and gardening” to be declared Canadian Garden Hero.

Gardens have only grown more important over the last two years as they “have helped us face the challenges of the COVID pandemic,” Disero said. 

She also proclaimed the Saturday before Father’s Day as Garden Day in NOTL, as a legacy of the Year of the Garden. It will fall on June 18 this year.