The Avant-Garden Shop: Your Garden & Bird Store

Garden Gate: Episode 206 – Feeding birds in the winter (Jan. 1st, 2021)

Hulled peanuts, hulled sunflower seeds, suet are the perfect food to offer at this time of year. Whether you spread a bit of suet on some tree bark or offer it in a feeder, there are all kinds of options! Check out this episode for more information. Thank you to Tanya Jones for the use … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 205 – McIntosh mugs (Dec. 18th, 2020)

We’ve carried this line of tea cups and coffee mugs for many years. They are very popular gifts that are beautifully packaged. Tall grande mugs are available singly, other tea cups in sets of two and also sets of four. Many designs include our Canadian artists from The Group of Seven. Tom Thomson, Lawren Harris, … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 204 – Christmas gift ideas (Dec. 4, 2020)

We have so many beautiful gifts in the shop it’s hard to narrow it down to 2 minutes! Beautiful hand made ornaments, tea cups and mugs. Aprons, oven mitts. Pewter from Nova Scotia. We carry a lot of Canadian made items and also support many Canadian and local artists. Always worth a trip to the … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 203-Puzzles, Puzzles and more Puzzles! (Nov. 20, 2020)

This crazy year had brought us all back to the basics. Including puzzles!  We’ve been challenged to find unique beautiful quality puzzles. And we think we have some very nice ones! Currently we have 4 lines of puzzles. Pomegranate, Galison, Algonquin and the most recent addition from Indigenous collection. Get through those long winter nights … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 202 – Compare the quality (Nov. 6th, 2020)

Customers often talk about the price of bird food when they should be considering the QUALITY! On this episode I dissect a bag of box store bird food. Even I was shocked at how poor the quality was. Birds don’t eat wheat or milo which is in high quantities in box store mixes. Even the … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 200 – Salt Box Shoppe rustic bird houses (Oct. 9th, 2020)

Every couple of years we head to the Lake Huron area to camp or visit and attempt to see some of our artists who live and work in the area.  This year we were able to visit two after camping for a few days at Pinery Provincial Park. First stop was to see April Gregory … Read more

Garden Gate: Episode 197-Dog Bite Steel (August 28th, 2020)

https://youtu.be/XHaGrlrJeG8 We always have a great time visiting with artists J.P Schoss and Brenda Tucker of Dog Bite Steel.  Our vehicle comes back packed with great pieces!  And they never last long in the shop. Made from recycled propane and oil tanks, these colourful pieces add some quirkiness to your home or garden and are … Read more

The Avant-Garden Shop