Shop By Category
Established in 2002 , The Avant-Garden Shop is located in downtown Peterborough in the heart of the wonderful Kawartha tourist region, along the Trent Severn Waterway.
Our store is filled with an alluring collection of functional and decorative items to enhance your outdoor living, backyard bird watching and gift giving experience. We are focused on bringing our customers beautiful hand-made items from Canadian artisans. We feel it is very important to support local and Canadian made and to promote artisans from across the country.
We offer online shopping for many of our products, but to fully appreciate our selection, a visit to the store is a must. Whether it’s a gift for a friend or a distinctive item for your home, you will find something unusual and interesting at The Avant-Garden Shop.
YouTube Channel
Since 2013 The Avant-Garden Shop has a feature on Peterborough’s CHEX TV. A segment called Garden Gate appears bi-weekly on Fridays at 7:50am during Global News morning. The following week it appears a number of times during various prime time shows such as Survivor and Amsterdam.
These 2-3 minute informational segments about bird feeding, gardening and fun products available in the shop can be found on our YouTube channel and also are previewed our blog.
Map & Directions
Award Winning!
2022 Brenda was awarded Business Woman of the Year by the Peterborough-Kawartha Chamber of Commerce. This award is sponsored by the Women’s Business Network, of which Brenda has been a member since 2017. Celebrating 23 years this year, Brenda very much appreciates the support of her wonderful customers, fabulous staff, many suppliers, her husband and friends. The first years were tough and the pandemic years challenging but we persevered and came out on top.
2021 Brenda and her team were awarded the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence award for Best Retail. In 2020/2021
2021 Brenda Ibey received the “Wild bird store of the year” award from Wild Bird Trading. This prestigious award is granted to wild bird specialty stores who have shown the highest level of excellence in the wild bird sector. The award celebrates the best in product knowledge, quality, selection and overall customer service.
2017 Brenda Ibey received the “Customer First” award from the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce at the Business Excellence awards. This award is given to a business which demonstrates putting the customer first and offering excellent customer service.
2017 Brenda Ibey received the “Hazel Wilson” award from District 4 of the Ontario Horticultural Association for 40 years of volunteering with the Lakefield Horticultural Society as well as for her work with Peterborough Garden Route, Peterborough Green-Up and the education she offers at The Avant-Garden Shop. Only one of these awards is given out within the district each year.
2014 Brenda Ibey, a long time member of The Lakefield Horticultural Society, received a Meritorious service award from the Ontario Horticultural Association for her many years of dedicated work to the society.
2013 Received a “Garden Tourism” award for “Best promotion of the Year” for a group which The Avant-Garden Shop helped to start called Garden Route.ca. See Brenda and Joe Cook from Blossom Hill Nursery accepting the award on the groups Facebook page.
2012 The Avant-Garden Shop won the BEST RETAIL BUSINESS (non-chain) at the Peterborough Chamber of Commerce Business Excellence Awards.
2012 The Greater Peterborough Area Economic Development Corp presented The Avant-Garden Shop with an EPIC Ventures Award – Entrepreneurs Proudly Investing in our Community.
Virtual Tour
Take a Virtual Tour of our shop!
Get the latest gardening & birding tips, in-store specials and more!