Garden Gate Rabbit Park is home sweet home to many rare and fancy breeds of rabbits. The Glenn Hayward family raises several rabbit breeds ranging in size from small Netherland Dwarf, Jersey Wooly, and Mini Rex to medium size breeds of Dutch, Holland Lop and Satin as well as the larger breeds including Beveren, Silver Fox, English Lop, and Flemish Giants. A simple love of a few rabbits became a fascinating family business for the Haywards.  Their “Rabbit Park” includes generations of over 130 pedigreed award winning rabbits that travel to ARBA shows and a variety of family events. Garden Gate rabbits are often the special guests in educational programs presented at schools and libraries. Their celebrity bunnies featured in their children’s books and on TV appearances are great “company” at theme parties and celebrations. People remark how much they enjoy the rabbits - whether they have pets at home or not. Loretta Hayward, an experienced elementary teacher, presented stories and slideshows for the Children’s Summer Reading Programs at the Pickens County Libraries this year which also included time for everyone to visit with their rabbits. Family members also had a part in the programs sharing their stories, funny experiences, and letting a few rabbits loose for everyone’s enjoyment!

The new Garden Gate® Rabbit Park Calendar  for 2011presents many extraordinary rabbits including their Jersey Wooly, “Miss Polly Pearl” the “Best in Show” winner of  the North Carolina State Rabbit Convention held in Greensboro! This new collection of Garden Gate’s bunny photographs by Loretta Hayward is informative and delightful. Their blue-eyed white Beverens are one of the rare rabbit breeds in this calendar.  Loretta explains  that the task of taking pictures of rabbits is quite impossible at times. Patience and perseverance are actually required to work with bunnies and to make good photographs. Our greatest challenges are reaching people with our amazing story and unique work of preserving rare and pure breeds at “Garden Gate Rabbit Park.” Many do not realize we are working with real live rabbits, in real gardens of beautiful flowers with custom-made miniatures, tailored bonnets and bunny clothes! People accustomed to computer generated images and artificial substitutes often miss the beauty of what has been accomplished. The production of Garden Gate calendars, cards, and books is an arduous labor of love that hopefully will capture the hearts of people to care about our heritage breeds, promote our work and truly appreciate the quality we achieve.

The children’s book series “On the Banks of Durbin Creek” by Loretta Hayward captivates readers of all ages with stories and poetry while endearing their  rabbits to our hearts through fascinating color photo illustrations. Educational details are also included through vocabulary development, captions, footnotes and a helpful Glossary. “New Discoveries-On the Banks of Durbin Creek” is the title of the next exciting book to be released. It has taken the author two years of labor and taking photographs of remarkable discoveries along Durbin Creek to write this book. Children and adults will thrill at the detailed observation of creation.  All of Garden Gate’s®  inspirational note cards, books and calendars are made in the USA to ensure quality, support local businesses, and maintain loyal dependable relationships.

The Garden Gate Rabbit Park Calendar for 2011 is $10 and available at Vaughn’s Feed Store in Simpsonville, The Children’s Books  on Hammet Store Rd. in Greer or by calling 864-876-3914.  Inquiries for wholesale or retail can also be made.

For more information call 864-876-3914 or visit us online www.gardengatecards.us.