OHS & THE OTTAWA 200 BLOCK PARTY 2026
Recap & Results: Block Party Participation and Miniature Garden Contest Results
The Ottawa Horticultural Society was proud to participate in the September 26th, 20026 Ottawa 200 Block Party, the City of Ottawa’s flagship celebration marking the city’s 200th anniversary. Held at Marion Dewar Plaza, the event brought together families, community groups, performers, and civic organizations for a full day of cultural programming, workshops, music, food vendors, and hands‑on activities.
As part of our 134‑year history in Ottawa’s civic community, the OHS showcased a range of gardening‑related activities and educational displays. Our booth welcomed visitors of all ages with:
- Children’s activities — seed gueesing games, fruit and veggies games and colouring sheets
- Community Impact initiatives Map - viewing of all the initatives OHS supports years after year.
- Ask‑a‑Gardener — Master Gardeners of Ottawa‑Carleton answering gardening questions
- Miniature Garden Contest Display and Scavenger Hunt — all 12 entries presented for public viewing along with the hunt for tiny treasures hidden throughout the gardens.
- Ottawa Wildflower Seed Library — representatives offering free native seeds
- Rideau Valley Conservation Authority — information on local conservation initiatives
- Membership information — welcoming new members and sharing what we have to offer.
- Historical Timeline — highlighting 134 years of OHS growth, from traditional flower shows and beautification to today’s community‑focused work addressing issues like food insecurity.
Miniature Garden Contest
This year’s contest invited OHS members and families to design a themed miniature garden to be displayed at our booth during the Block Party. Each garden was created in a large bonsai pot provided by the OHS and included at least one living plant.
The results were wonderfully imaginative, from fairy worlds and dinosaur landscapes to creative nods to Ottawa’s waterways, including gardens inspired by the Rideau Canal, and others celebrating farm life in the country.
We extend our warm thanks to all the member contestants who participated and shared their creativity with the community, and congratulations to all the winners. Full details, photos, and garden descriptions can be found below.
Visitors enjoyed seeing all 12 miniature gardens, and many stopped to admire the creativity and charm of these tiny worlds.
Miniature Garden Contest Winners
OHS Judge's Choice
🥇First Prize:
Nonna's Fairies Barn Adventures by Claude Tremblay Brun del Re and Carina Brun del Re Decoeur
🥈Second Prize:
Imaginary Prehistoric Land by Claire Leduc
🥉Third Prize:
The Faeries' Fairy Garden by Lynn Armstrong
People's Choice Category 1
Catching the Spirit of the Imagination
🥇First Prize:
Nonna's Fairies Barn Adventures by Claude Tremblay Brun del Re and Carina Brun del Re Decoeur
🥈Second Prize:
Winter on the Rideau Canal by Land by
Julianne Labrehe
🥉Third Prize:
Imaginary Prehistoric Land by Claire Leduc
People's Choice Category 2
Most Nature-Friendly
🥇First Prize:
Alien Invasion - With Cake! by Tuula Talvila
🥈Second Prize:
March to Canal by
Sarah Berglas
🥉Third Prize:
Fall Celebration by
Jane Lund
People's Choice Category 3
Most Decorative and Delightful
🥇First Prize:
Nonna's Fairies Barn Adventures by Claude Tremblay Brun del Re and Carina Brun
del Re Decoeur
🥈Second Prize:
Winter on the Rideau Canal by Julianne Labreche
🥉Third Prize (Tie):
Fall Celebration by
Jane Lund AND
The Faeries' Fairy Garden by Lynn Armstrong
Miniature Garden Contest Entrants & Descriptions
Canoeing the Ottawa River
Garden Description: Situated at the confluence of three rivers, the City of Ottawa has a long heritage as a gathering point for diverse groups. In pre-colonial times, travel via canoe made the Ottawa River a major highway. Voyageurs used the Ottawa, Gatineau and Rideau Rivers to explore deeper into the North American continent.
Garden Creators: Rebecca Last-Guenette has been a resident of Ottawa since 1969, a member of the Ottawa Horticultural Society since 2003 and a volunteer with Master Gardeners of Ottawa-Carleton since 2005. Her small suburban garden is certified as wildlife habitat by the Canadian Wildlife Federation.
Wallace and Tarun are both nine years old and are Rebecca’s 2026 garden helpers. Both live near Rebecca and enjoy gardening. Wallace is particularly fond of the wildlife aspects of gardening and has great skills in bird identification. He has a keen eye for detail and built the river in this miniature garden. Tarun enjoys learning about plants and designed the plantings in this miniature garden. Tarun gardens first thing in the morning because he is also taking Spanish and Hindi lessons this summer.
Canoeing the Ottawa River, Rebecca Last-Guenette, Wallace and Tarun
Winter on the Rideau Canal, Julianne Labreche
Winter on the Rideau Canal
Garden Description: Ottawa winters can be long, cold and sometimes magical. I love winter days skating on the Rideau Canal, sipping hot chocolate, eating Beavertails, warming my hands by a fire, twinkling lights and snowy walks with my dog. The Rideau Canal helps to keep me happy and healthy in wintertime.
Garden Creator: Julianne Labreche is a conservation gardener who welcomes fireflies, bumblebees, birds and native plants in her urban garden. She is past president of the Ottawa Horticultural Society, a Master Gardener, a Master Naturalist and Certified Pollinator Steward.
Gardening on the Rocks
Garden Description: This garden represents an alpine landscape in miniature, with rocks and small plants sending their roots down beside the rocks and in crevices where they find protection and moisture. The plants are not all true alpines, as they mostly bloom in spring.
Garden Creator: Josie Pazdzior has been active in the Ottawa gardening community, volunteering with several groups and also coaching and helping design private gardens. She particularly likes rock gardens and the tiny tough plants that grow there.
Gardening on the Rocks, Josie Pazdzior
Pop Pop's Farm, Emma Wallace, Terry Da Dilva and Conor and Cian Hanon
Pop Pop’s Farm
Garden Description: Pop Pop’s farm is a miniature representation of Conor and Cian’s Grandfather’s farm in County Limerick, Ireland. Conor and Cian were both born in Ireland and Pop Pop’s farm is one of their very favourite places to visit. Both boys love to watch the big machines at work on the farm, in particular Pop Pop’s big, green tractor.
Garden Creators: The creators of this garden are Emma Wallace, Terry Da Silva, and Conor and Cian Hannon. Conor and Cian are two brothers aged 20 months old and 3 years old. They were born in County Limerick, Ireland and relocated to Ottawa in July, 2026. Both boys love nature, building and creating. They also hold a strong connection to all of their family and first home in Limerick. Their great-grandmother (Terry) also helped to bring this design to life. She is an avid gardener and a loving presence in our lives. It has been so special to complete this project alongside her.
Discovering a Rainbow
Garden Description: Discovering a rainbow depicts a landscape with a forest, hills and a valley covered with wildflowers.
Garden Creators: Ignatius (Iggy) is five years old and loves cars, figurines to imagine stories with, colourful objects and not much interest in gardening. Nora is Iggy’s great-aunt. She has been gardening for many years, including thirty years at her present address. She wants to encourage gardening that benefits native insects, pollinators and other wildlife.
Discovering a Rainbow, Ignatius (Iggy) and Nora
Rogue's Gallery, Andrea Knight
Rogues’ Gallery
Garden Description: Watch out for these nasty invaders in your garden! Invasive species such as these are plants that come from outside North America, and do not have their natural predators and competitors to keep them in check. They will take over from native species, disrupting ecosystems, and removing food and habitat for wildlife.
Garden Creator: Andrea Knight is a Master Gardener of Ottawa Carleton who is working towards her Diploma in Horticulture from the University of Guelph. Andrea is passionate about establishing pollinator pathways, education, and trying new things in her garden.
Fall Celebrations
Garden Description: This garden contains a couple of unusual dwarf conifers purchased from Wrightman Alpines. Some of the other plants were little seedlings that had sprouted in between patio stones from nearby plants in my garden. The hostas were left over from a new hosta garden I planted last fall featuring small and dwarf hostas at the side of my driveway. Hostas are my favorite plants so I decided to put them where I would see them every time I went for a drive.
Garden Creator: Jane Lund has been gardening for many decades and has belonged to many clubs over the years, including the Ottawa Horticultural Society (OHS). She is also currently a co-president of the Ottawa Valley Rock Garden and Horticultural Society.
Fall Celebrations, Jane Lund
Marsh to Canal, Sarah Berglas
Marsh to Canal
Garden Description: Marsh to Canal is a nod to the wetlands, including Dow’s Great Swamp, that were flooded to build the Rideau Canal in 1826 to 1832. This bog garden has a carnivorous pitcher plant (Sarracenia) and two different carnivorous sundews (Drosera). The sticky hairs on their leaves and inside the pitchers trap tiny insects. Moss is also an important part of a bog, with moss growing just above the water as ‘hummocks’. Young Liatris mimics reeds next to the stone canal walls under construction.
Garden Creator: In winter, spring, summer and fall, Sarah Berglas loves walking at Mer Bleue Bog near Orleans, at Mud Lake in Britannia, and at Stony Swamp in Nepean. She also loves exploring wetlands and shorelines seated in a canoe, paddle in hand. Sarah finds it fascinating to observe and learn how plants adapt to changing, and challenging, environments.
Nonna's Fairies Barn Adventures, Claude Tremblay Brun del Re and Carina Brun del Re Décoeur
Nonna’s Fairies Barn Adventures
Garden Description: Every summer, each of my six grandkids have a fairy tale garden in my backyard. They move everything, and during the night, the ‘elves’ put all aright (that is me). However, as they are getting older, the sleepovers are less frequent. They now prefer to do their chores at the farm where they live: they like repairing tractors, taking care of their animals, etc. This is why I decided to honour them here with my miniature garden. I call it Nonna’s Fairies Barn Adventures, where the barn, cows, pigs, horses, cats, dogs, fish, and fishing net, as well as rocks, fossils, water cans, represent the things we love to do together and take care of during the summer.
Garden Creators: Claude Tremblay Brun del Re is a retired geography teacher who likes to take care of her flower garden, her pond, and her vegetables. With her husband, she loves to have all her grandkids over to play in the garden and have new adventures in it.
Carina Brun del Re Décoeur is a mom who works on their farm with her family. She has a B.A. in Geography and Environment. She organizes all kinds of events in her rural community and is the president of her kid’s school council.
The Faeries Fairy Garden
Garden Description: Lynn thought the Faeries would enjoy having the chance to create their own miniature fairy garden. Why should we humans have all the fairy garden fun?
One part of the garden contains the three faeries in their own garden and across a small bridge over a small stream is the miniature fairy garden and miniature village they have created.
The faeries, Flora, Fleur and Fauna are admiring the Fairy garden they have created from the relaxing space in their own garden. (Essentially a miniature fairy garden within a miniature Faery garden.)
Garden Creators: Lynn Armstrong, the curator of the Fairy garden in the raised bed gardens next to the Horticulture building at Lansdowne Park has recruited the assistance of three of the resident faeries: Fauna, the animal and nature loving Faery, Flora, (Latin name for flower) who has power over nature and beauty, and Fleur, (French for Flower), who symbolizes elegance and grace, to design their own miniature fairy garden. In designing the garden they consulted with Pixie, a small mischievous Fairy, who is playful and energetic and has also made it into the garden disguised as a rabbit.
Lynn did the heavy lifting and placement of the materials in the garden under the supervision of Fauna, Flora and Fleur.
The Faeries Fairy Garden, Lynn Armstrong
Alien Invasion - With Cake!, Tuula Talvila
Alien Invasion – With Cake!
Garden Description: It’s Grumpy’s first day on Earth and he wants to make a good impression. He has landed his ship and laid out a picnic near a group of Earth’s inhabitants. He hopes his offering of cake and other goodies (he has done his research on Earth cuisine!) will draw in the shy Earthlings. So far, they have all remained still, standing silently around the picnic blanket, but Grumpy is optimistic that they will soon be lured in by the sweets and they can become friends.
Garden Creator: Tuula Talvila has been an OHS member for about 17 years and has held many volunteer roles in the Society. She has been growing plants most of her life and also very much likes buying plants, sharing plants, reading about plants, writing about plants, eating plants, photographing plants, and looking at plants. She also enjoys fun creative projects, being outdoors, and observing nature.
Imaginary Prehistoric Land
Garden Description: Adult and juvenile dinosaurs on a land made of rocks, grasses and “living stones” (Lithops) surrounding a small pond.
Garden Creator: Claire Leduc is a member of the Master Gardeners of Ottawa-Carleton and the Ottawa Horticultural Society. She loves gardening and getting into the imaginary world of her two grandchildren who are three and one year old.
Photo Credits: Maria Nicoll, OHS