A Source of Inspiration

I’ve always gardened in small to medium sized suburban gardens, and there was always a goodly amount of lawn, well it always seemed that way when it came time to mow it.  Whenever I bought a new plant my mother asked 2 questions:  “Will it come back next year?” and “Where are you going to put it?”  The first questions was born of parsimony and the second …well, like most gardeners I couldn’t resist a bargain, or this year’s “must have” (ugh, I hate that expression, but it does apply in this case) even if there wasn't room to plant it.  So every year I was forced to dig up some more lawn and expand the beds.   I was always envious of those lucky gardeners who had gardens large enough to house 6 foot wide perennial borders.

Our property has some really interesting challenges and I soon learned that larger is not necessarily easier.  Unlike most regular gardens round a house, we had many different environments that we could garden in and we couldn’t really have a regular suburban garden with lawns and beds (ok, perhaps the septic tank would house the lawn, that's how it seems to work in the country).  Obviously it was time to get some inspiration.  Although we have many gardening books, especially those coffee table books that you can’t resist buying at a discount at your local independent book store, there’s nothing like visiting a garden in the flesh. After all, you cannot get the smell of a garden from a book, and that for me is a big part of the attraction.

So we began our visits to gardens to garner inspiration for our own creation.  We started close to home. Every year the Toronto Botanical Gardens (TBG) hosts “Through the Garden Gate” a weekend of visiting open gardens in different areas in Toronto. It’s not as large an event as that very famous week long open garden extravaganza in Buffalo, but it’s a really exhausting day, nonetheless.

One year we took advantage of some group tours to different areas to the east and the west of Toronto and we visited a host of gardens.   And every time we travel to a new region we try to see some gardens.  We've seen alot of gardens, from public to private, from tiny to enormous.  We've seen many spectacular gardens of all different kinds; some obviously designed and implemented by landscape architects, but others that were lovingly planted by their owners.  Here are a few of my favorites. 

What a beautiful placement of plants, and rocks in front of that white fence.
Love the way the window cut in the fence is echoed by the round stone at the foot of that pendulous spruce.
Gotta get me one of these.

This shot is so evocative. It could have been taken in Paris or on the West Coast.
It was taken in a private garden near Port Hope Ontario.

This is a tiny part of the most spectacular private Japanese style garden that I've seen outside of Japan. 
Multiply this by 1,000 and maybe you'll  have an idea of how incredible this garden is.

I couldn't resist. Here's another picture from the same garden.
The fence is really unusual and the contrast between the cool green Japanese Maple and the deep maroon Japanese Maple is gorgeous.

Not strictly speaking a garden but I included this as it is inspiring.
It looks so French, but it's right here in Toronto.

This taken at Folmer Gardens which is just west of Walkerton, Ontario. It is a private nursery and show garden on 36 acres. Quite spectacular even in early September.

The Montreal Botanical Gardens - Outside the Japanese Pavilion. You could be fooled into thinking that this little grouping of trees are full sized and those rock are mountains, but in reality the trees are about 4 feet high. The park bench gives you a clue as the scale. This is essence of Japanese gardening - to evoke entire landscapes in miniature. 

The Montreal Botanical Gardens has one of the best artificial Alpine gardens in the world. It is even featured in North American Rock Garden Society's - Rock Garden Design and Construction, which is the authority on ... well - rock garden design in North America. (I feel a bit stupid writing that, as it's pretty self evident!). That's me eating my lunch amidst the beauty of the rocks.

Here's a close up of the MBG crevice garden as the larger picture really doesn't show enough detail. I bet you all thought I was a nut, didn't you?  (Hmmm, you probably still do... beauty in rocks...where?)

Though not strictly speaking a garden, I just had to add this for it is truly inspiring, Taken at the Purdon Conservation Area, these beautiful Lady Slipper Orchids are native in some Ontario wetlands.  The plants do not bloom until they are 10 years old, and they have to have the perfect environment before they can do so. They are little miracles - actually not so little they stand about 1.5 to 2 feet high. They were a delightful surprise as I tend to think of orchids as dainty things. 

 Did we get inspired?  You bet we did! And we'll talk more about that later.