5 Tips for Taking Garden Tours

"A garden never looks perfect; something is always dying, something about to bloom."

Nigel Nicolson (son of Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicholson) 1993

Anyone who has shown their garden on a garden tour has uttered these very same words. The garden is never quite perfect no matter how hard you try to make it so. The gardener just has to relax and let nature unfold as it will, and they know that other gardeners will understand when you relate how you have been fighting with the quirrels to keep the plants in the containers. Or how you find your radishes all over the backyard, yanked out of the veggie garden, tasted and then spit out so you can't even enjoy them. And then the days you had planned to spend getting the garden absolutely perfect are gone or rather rained out by a deluge of rain. Relax, nature has it's own plans. So now we are on the week count-down to garden tour day. We have the hosts tour on Thursday night.

Those who will be out touring our gardens are sure to find lots to inspire them. When touring gardens you should keep these 5 tips in mind:

1. Remember you are touring someone's private sanctuary, so be respectful and don't step in the garden beds to check out a new plant and don't take any cuttings when the home owner isn't watching. Instead ask the gardener if you can purchase a cutting or have a piece next time they are dividing their perennials. Gardeners are a generous group and usually happy to share plants.

2. If you are taking pictures, ask first. Most gardeners are pleased to show off their gardens an happy to have you take photos. And iof you are using a tripod, don't put it in the beds.

3. Use the gardens for inspiration - look for new plant and colour combinations or a nifty new garden art idea you can recreate at home. Like the Pot Person I photographed in a Montreal garden.

4. Ask questions, the gardener is always eager to share their knowledge and swap tips and ideas, whether it is about new plants you see or a new technique that may improve your landscape.

5. Remember to thank your host. Gardeners go to a lot of work to make their garden available to the public and volunteer a day of their time, so tell them you appreciate it.

And lastly, if the garden has a guest book, please sign it. This is our third time participating in the Bracebridge Garden Tour and we love to see where people have come from to go on the tour. Then go back home and add a new idea or two you picked up on the tour in your own garden.

Happy Touring!!!

The Beauty of Raindrops

I remember that old saying from my childhood "Rain, rain go away, come again another day."

Well this past week we've had rain everyday.

So much so that I haven't been able to get out in the garden to work and enjoy. My peonies are done, bent over to the ground, the petals soggy and brown under the week's rain. Yet rain isn't all that bad. For one thing I love the sound of rain as it falls to earth, there is something soothing about that pitter pat, the second thing is the beauty of raindrops on flowers, I simply love to photograph raindrops on roses and on foliage like this Lady's Mantle which captures the drops like shining diamonds. The final thing is that the plants love the moisture, spurning on growth.

Today the sun was shining and as I toured the garden I was amazed at the lushness of growth. My garden is almost a jungle. As my friend Barbara commented in her blog on the stage of her garden versus last year, I am sure that mine is well ahead of last year in actual growth. My Hostas are huge, the Nannyberry has seemed to sprout overnight, the Ninebark stems are arching out and over the Queen of the Prairie. In the veggie garden, the tomatoes are doing well, the potatoes have sprouted, the beans are well established and we've even had a few radishes already.

I've been continuing to weed and mulch, the garden tour is just three weeks away but I think we will be ready. Peter, my tools and project guy, has just started clearing the corner around our big pond to build a waterfall. He is using a stryofoam cooler as the water reservoir which will be hidden with rocks and I plan on planting some grasses among the rocks as this is a full sun location now. I hope it looks as good as I imagine it will and the best part will be the sound of the water as it cascades and tumbles over the rocks. I'll post a photo when it's finished.

But as I sit here this evening musing on the past week, the sky is clouding over again and my husband has just told me that rain is yet again in tomorrow's forecast. So much for garden work, I guess I'll just have to be content taking a break and enjoying the sound of raindrops and the beauty they bring.

The Contained Garden - 5 Tips for Great Containers

"Into your garden you can walk
And with each plalnt and flower talk;
View all their glories, from each one
Raise some rare mediation.
Recount their natures, tell which are
Vertuous like you, as well as fair"

John Rea, 'Flora, Ceres and Pomona', 1665

I've just spsent the afternoon in the garden weeding in preparation of the upcoming garden tour a month away. The garden look beautiful this morning. Yesterday it rained all day, that gentle soaking rain that the plants just love. This morning the garden looked as if sprinkled with diamond dust as the raindrops dripping off the plants shimmered in the newly rising sun - a simply beautiful sight. The purple spikes of the regal Lupines are now fading but in the past two days the bursting of the Poppies has taken center stage and now the Peonies are starting to unfurl. I love that the garden is an ever changing palette, when one perennial's life span is over there is another waiting in the wings to take its place.

The kitchen garden is coming to life as the beans, potatoes, varieties of lettuce and radish are pushing through the soil. The tomatoes are flowering giving promise of the heirloom varieties we will soon be enjoying (I can hardly wait). We have already been enjoying the delicious herbs adding culinary freshness to salads and other dishes.

And this year I've been trying my hand more at the contained garden. With limited space in my raised beds, I've been planting crops in pots and so far with good success. The pepper plants already have tiny peppers being formed. My tomato surrounded at the base with herbs is thriving but my other tomato with lettuce surrounding it has suffered at the paws of the squirrels and chippies but I'll try sowing the lettuce seeds. In the greenhouse I've got pots of tomatoes, potatoes and Swiss Chard. As well I have numerous pots and hanginig baskets bursting with colourful blooms like the container in the photo above which I took at Terra Nova Nursery in Oregon. Here are a few tips to help you with your contained gardens:

1. Think outside the pot - let your creative juices flow in terms of plant material and colours.

2. Consider the container - it can also bring colour to the garden and be a real focal point.

3. Don't be afraid of using perennials in your containers. If you live in cold climate like I do, simply heel in your plants in the garden in the fall and then you can reuse them next spring.

4. Group together those containers that have the same watering requirements, it will make your watering work easier.

5. Add embellishments to your containers, hidden gems that draw people into your arrangements. Canadian garden designer Thomas Hobbs is a genius at this by including glass balls, shells, and unique items in his containers. Check out his books 'The Jewel Box Garden' and 'Shocking Beauty'.

The Start of the Summer Garden Tours

"A garden is preeminently a place to indulge individual taste ... let me say that the best general rule that I can devise for garden-making is: Put all the beauty and delight-someness you can into your garden, get all the beauty and delight you can out of your garden, ..."

John Sedding, English garden writer of last century

It's hard to believe that its aleady June and the start of the summer garden tours. Yesterday we had the pleasure of a sneak peek of the upcoming "Through the Garden Gate, Beyond the Bridle Path" garden tour taking place on June 20-21, 2009 from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in Toronto. This is the Toronto Botanical Gardens 22nd garden tour. It was a lovely day as we toured four of the fourteen gardens selected ranging from a Japanese garden, sleek modern gardens, a sculpture garden showcasing a stunning Chihuly glass sculpture among many others. The garden tour is a fundraiser for the Toronto Botanical Gardens and is made possible through the efforts of over 100 volunteers. We toured an interesting sculpture garden that covered three town lots with a fabulous Chihuly glass sculpture; a modern garden complete with lap pool and fantastic outdoor kitchen and entertaining area; a large formal garden complete with stunning outdoor gazebo with fireplace, tennis courts and large pool and looked so established we could hardly believe it was only two years old; and finally a smaller more intimate garden with a beautiful pool and dining area, tennis court and a more informal garden area. All in all a great day and just think, on Father's Day weekend we can go back and see the other ten gardens. Why not purchase a couple of tickets ($40.00 per person for the public and $35.00 for TBG members) - a great Father's Day gift for your resident gardener!

Tips When Going on a Garden Tour

1. Be respectful, you are visiting someone's home and garden. Don't pick the flowers and don't walk in the flower beds. It is also polite to ask if photos are permitted.

2. Gardens come in many different sizes and styles. You might not always like one style but remember that this is someone's private sanctuary and appreciate it for what it is.

3. You might be overwhelmed by the grandeur of some gardens but remember to look carefully at the different elements that make up each garden space, be it a sculptural element or an interesting plant combination - it's these small things you can take back to your own garden.

4. And don't hesitate to ask questions, most gardeners and designers love to speak about their gardens.

5. Finally, remember to stop and smell the roses. Enjoy the day and as Paul Zammitt says "Don't forget to stop and get some ice cream!"

To purchase tickets online for this fabulous garden tour go to www.torontobotanicalgarden.ca

A large container at one of the gardens on yesterday's tour.

And now I'd better get busy tidying my own beds as our garden is one of nine featured on the Bracebridge garden tour on July 25th.

Happy Touring

Soft Showers bring Beautiful Flowers

"It was the sixth of May,

And May had painted with her soft showers

A garden full of leaves and flowers.

And man's hand had arrayed it with such craft

There never was a garden of such price

But if it were the very Paradise."

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400) from The Canterbury Tales

Today was one of those special spring days - overcast but with a light gentle rain that persisted throughout the day nourishing the earth. I love these kinds of days, the rain falls softly, not a hard pounding rain that bounces off the ground and runs quickly away but rather soft and gentle soaking into the turf and gardens. You can almost see the plants absorbing the moisture, standing taller, looking stronger.

Even though the sky is darker, the colours of the plants are more luminous. The many shades of the emerging leaves become brighter, more saturated in colour. One is amazed at how many different shades of green there really are in the colour palette. One of my favourite things to do after a rain, is to grab my camera and head outside to photograph raindrops still clinging to the blooms. Lady's Mantle is a great plant for it collects rain and dewdrops in the centre of the leaf. And any flower that drips with raindrops catches my eye for they are like jewels adorning the blooms.

And not to mention the fresh, clean smell that lingers in the air, the earth refreshed, nourished and ready to shine in the next day's sunshine. It's a good thing I was able to plant my veggie seeds yesterday in anticipation of today's rain. I look forward with anticipation to the fresh produce soon to come and be enjoyed in my culinary creations. So embrace the rain and the renewed life force it brings.

The Mistress of Mulch

"Here remember, that you never take in hand or begin the weeding of your beds, before the earth be made soft, through the store of rain, falling a day or two before."

Thomad Hyll, ("The Gardener's Labyrinth 1590)

My husband fondly refers to me in his articles as "the resident gardener" but this week I've renamed myself "The Mistress of Mulch". It's a pretty descriptive name and I think you get the picture. After two years of being away for most of the summer touring other people's gardens and judging for Communities in Bloom my gardens have suffered from neglect and the proliferation of goutweed is the telling tale.

So with an upcoming 90th birthday party for my mother-in-law and her sisters this month and then the invitation to be included in the garden tour in July, I've been out in the garden every sunny day, busily weeding, weeding and doing more weeding. At first I felt overwhelmed but I began to tackle one small bed or area after another and the goutweed is slowly disappearing (only temporarily I fear) and as I complete each little area, I cover the freshly weeded soil with a layer of natural cedar mulch. There is something very satisfying about seeing the hostas surrounded by a skirt of mulch.

But with so many garden beds, I have only just begun and already I've gone through 9 bags of mulch. But I just keeping reminding myself how nice it will all look once I'm finished and my spirits are already lifting when I look out from the bedroom window to see the completed beds. It has just started to rain and they predict more tomorrow, so I will get a day's rest to recharge for more weeding. So this summer I shall happily wear the crown "The Mistress of Mulch".

But I'll go now and put my morning glory and peas seeds to soak so I can pot them up tomorrow. A gardener's work is never done!

Spring Showers bring May Flowers

"On Early Morning
Peach blossom after rain
Is deeper red;
The willow fresher green;
Twittering overhead;
And fallen petals lie wind-blown
Unswept upon the courtyard stone."

Translated from the Chinese by Helen Waddell

This Chinese poem resonated with me yesterday as it rained constantly the entire day. Not that I was unhappy as I love the sound of the rain as it falls upon the earth. I also love, as the poem states, the willow fresher green, for all the world seems greener after a spring shower and there is a certain clean aroma to the earth following a rain. You can almost see the flowers perk up with the added moisture.

Yesterday I also heard a cardinal sing and when I looked up there it was, red and regal in our cedar tree. I felt even more joyful when the female cardinal swooped in to meet its mate. I really hope they set up house in one of the nearby trees for we don't get many cardinals in our neck of the woods, lots of blue jays but cardinals are a rare sighting. I was also surprised to walk out of the garden gate and see a bird's nest in a maple sapling. I haven't seen any birds actually building the nest but it wasn't there a couple of days ago. I'll just have to keep my eyes open.

But not all is rosy at Rosewood (the name we call our house) for Friday our daughter Martha exclaimed that a weird creature had taken up residence under our front porch. We kept watching and yesterday afternoon out popped a groundhog, an unusual critter for a town garden. As much as I love wildlife in the garden, this creature will need to find a new home. He's already dug a few holes in our lawn, so tomorrow Peter will make a trip to the rental store to see if he can get a live trap so we can catch the critter and relocate him to a new home in the country. I really don't want to have him munching on all the tasty delights my garden might offer. The chippies and squirrels are wildlife enough.

I love spring - the tulips and daffodils are in bloom, the hellebores are in flower along with the pulmonaria and the trees and shrubs are beginning to bud and leaf out. As the new tree leaves are forming the sky seems to be bright with lime green colour and the returning birds are twittering overhead. Everything seems alive.

So I leave you with this thought by Margaret Cropper

"Far beyond hope the Spring is kind again,
Lovely beyond the longing of my eyes."