Today was the annual garden tour for the Madawaska Valley Horticultural Society in Barry's Bay. Five gardens were featured, one in Wilno, three in the Killaloe area, and one in Eganville in central Ontario.
The first garden I and my granddaughter Hannah visited belonged to an older couple who have been gardening for about 20 years in this location. The property was on a slope with a wonderful view of the neighbouring hills. What struck me most about this were the areas left to just grow, this was done to reduce the amount of grass-cutting required, but it had made the place look so natural and un-manicured. It was very tastefully done. I asked the owner how she watered her gardens and she told me she did it by hand with watering cans as their well cannot provide enough water to pump and sprinkle the beds generously. Given how dry Ontario summers are, this was of great importance to me. I am determined to tackle this problem of watering in an area that borders on summer droughts. Water here is extremely expensive because we are on town water and putting in irrigation is just beyond our budget. I am all ears when it comes to people's various solutions for their watering problems.
This property also made use of some wonderful trees. Above is a Russian olive tree, the leaves are lovely and lacy, providing light shade.
The garlic bed appears dry, but the garlic seem to be doing fine.
A type of campanula, I think it might be campanula salastro.
The second garden had some lovely features to highlight certain flowers. Above were three containers in an old wooden wheel barrow.
This garden in Killaloe actually had a watering system set up. The owner told me that she used to water for 3 hours every evening just to keep up. So her husband got a system of hoses put in that make use of the water in a pond on the property. Each bed has a sprinkler attached to a buried hose and, with the use of a timer, she can water each bed without having to go around with a hose to all the beds.
She had some lovely rocks on the property and had plants growing over and around them, very charming. There was a lot of yellow in this garden.
The next garden was a piece of property reclaimed from the previous owners who ran a grow-op in the house. The house was full of mould from the humidity and a ton of garbage. The land was completely overrun with weeds and it is amazing how much this couple has done in just three years. The property faces the old mill in old Killaloe and it is absolutely charming. This is owned by the president of our garden club and this is a tiny woman with a bundle of energy. She and her husband are going to have a hedge of roses on the slope facing the stream. And his mother also moved in with them, a woman of 92, who brought her collection of hostas with her when she moved from southern Ontario.
This is a hedge of dappled willow that Ritsuko and her husband planted three years ago. She told me that I can just take a branch from a willow and shove it into moist ground and it will root. Since I have only one dappled willow, I may just take her advice and get more of these pretty shrubs.
The last garden we visited was one we almost missed. Getting short on time, and since Hannah and I are both directionally-challenged, we were going to skip this garden. Thank goodness, we didn't.
The owners are in their mid-seventies, they have lived here for 45 years, but only began the garden 20 years ago. Again, I asked them how they water all their plants, and Alice told me that they don't. Well, her husband will selectively water some plants from a 45 gallon barrel that he has filled from the pond with a pump, but the other plants have to survive on what water nature provides. So they have quit planting any annuals, as they just take too much time. And all the perennials are chosen by their ability to grow and flourish in these conditions. Their soil is heavy clay which does hold onto moisture (whereas I live in predominantly sandy soil I am told).
While there is still a lot of work to be done planting and cutting down plants in the fall (Alice uses a breadknife to cut them all down, she goes through 3 knives), they have found that weeding and watering are greatly reduced. This leaves them with time to just enjoy the beautiful surroundings.
The front of the house is in complete shadow provided by a giant basswood tree that Jim planted some 45 years ago. He dug it up out of the woods and put it about 20 feet away from the house. This was planted to replace a giant elm on the other side of the house that was diseased. When the elm was cut down, it measured 18 feet in circumference.
a tree surrounded with Solomon's Seal
Sweet clematis vine that blossoms in June. Alice had several of these around her garden and they clamber over trellises, railings, arbors and are just lovely to look at. Delicate white flowers abound. I am hoping that the autumn clematis that I planted will look like this one day
Roses galore climb up all sorts of wooden arbors dotted around the gardens. Alice told me that she only plants roses of the Explorer variety as they are the hardiest ones for this harsh climate.
an arbor covered with some climber I can't identify
delphiniums in several areas of pure sunshine
electric blue delphiniums
Hannah sitting on a swing suspended beneath grapevines
peonies and perennial geraniums
lots of split rail fencing to enclose the gardens
We had a marvellous three hours visiting these four gardens. It was even more wonderful to find out that the last owners were the parents of Hannah's godfather. Such a vibrant couple. Their place is called Tanglewood Honey because they actually are beekeepers and sell honey. Highway 41 north off Highway 60 a few miles west of Eganville.
I will be visiting them again to view the gardens and just to enjoy this wonderful vibrant couple.
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