Designing a Garden in Ontario

 

What a great feeling to be able to help someone to see the potential in their garden and to enjoy it more. Every year I have the opportunity to visit Ontario, Canada and my host has agreed for me to help with the garden - although sometimes I feel that she was indulging my gardening and plant madness! 😇

I saw a lot of potential in her garden, which was mostly a blank canvas ...until now!

Last year. in August 2023, we focused on the front yard and gave the house a lot more kerb appeal by planting Hydrangea Paniculata, Hosta, Achillea "Cerise Queen" and Salvia Sylvestris. She had a huge bunch of an established Hosta and another huge bunch at the back that was dug out -to make space for a deck- and left above ground. So I divided them and planted a drift of Hosta with an intricate pattern of lush green and variegated foliage. I completed the theme with a few specimens of Hydrangea Paniculata. Achillea and Salvia. The effect is a delicate and calming sweep of white and off-green planting dotted with the purple of the salvias and the cherry red of the yarrow.

It was August, which is not ideal when you are looking to purchase plants, because the huge choice that you get in Spring was gone. We wanted to get some Hydrangea Arborescens "Annabelle" but they had ran out so we ordered some for Spring 2024. That pretty much completed the works on the front yard.

Here are a few pictures of the planting in the front yard. It's a soothing pattern of soft greens.

 

Came Early Spring 2024, the plant nursery called and my host went to pick up the "Annabelle" Hydrangea, she also bought more mophead hydrangea of her own. It was exciting because I could feel she was enjoying it. She picked beautiful light pink and mauve ones. We arrived a few weeks later from Florida and decided to work on the backyard. 

I have a diploma in Garden Design at the Inchbald School of Design in London but I didn't expect to be able to follow every step of the whole Design Process in just a few days that I was there, but I did!

The brief was to design something that didn't require a lot of maintenance, that brings joy, with splashes of red -her mother's favorite color- and a dog friendly space.

Luckily my host is a problem solver. For every problem that would present itself, she seemed to have a solution. We googled the plot to get the arial view and took a screenshot of it. We printed it out and I used the printed arial view to imagine the future garden. I drew a version with straight lines and a version with lovely flowing curves. It seemed a natural choice to go with the curves.

Because we were only visiting for 10 days, we decided to focus on the herbaceous bed near the house and the decked area. We will gradually tackle the other areas of the garden during our following visits. 

We went to a nursery and bought some red Lilium Orientale, some red Crocosmia, a few roses to stay in the pink theme of the Hydrangea and some Salvia nemorosa "Caradonna", I love this one! Pictures are below.

Shop around: as much as I recommend buying from specialist nurseries for your shrubs and trees, when it comes to perennial plants, you can buy them small and because they are so full of energy, they will get big in no time. With time you will be able to tell which plant is a good deal and which is not.

I must say I was very pleasantly surprised by the array of plants that can grow in Ontario. With winters being so cold, I didn't expect Ontario to have such a choice of plants but they do!

My host had a can of spray paint so we set out the flower bed by spraying the paint on the lawn and decided on the final, most appealing, lines. We laid out the plants to decide on their placement. We went for a classic planting design of taller plants at the back and the lower plants at the front. Near the deck there is a more reddish section that her mother can enjoy with red lillies, red crocosmia, red yarrow, and a cherry colored rose complemented with variegated Hosta and white Hydrangrea Annabelle. Next to the reddish section there is a section with soft pinks, mauves, blues complemented with the white Hosta.

My host ordered some soil and mulch, hired a rotavator to help us dig the heavy clay, and we were ready to roll. The heavy clay was a real set back, I had never dealt with clay before, but now I know what it means! With a loamy soil, I would usually be able to plant the whole border by myself in two to three days. Because of the heavy clay, it took the three of us two days to finish the planting on this particular bed and an extra day to spread some compost in the flower bed and mulch. I divided the cherry red yarrow at the front yard planted the year before and it gave me quite a few plants for the herbaceous border at the back. The Hosta I had divided the year before for the front yard had become large enough to be divided again. So I split some of them and used them for the back. Hopefully we can divide plants even more next year which will save money.

 

Above is the border after planting. It doesn't look like much yet but give it some time.

Above is the border after mulching and defining the bed. We will improve on the shape next year. You can see the lovely burgundy Lilium Orientale which flower early in Spring.

 

Here are some pictures of the planting for the flower bed near the deck:

Hydrangea Macrophylla

 

Hydrangea Arborescens Annabelle

 

Lovely fushia pink rose.

Achillea, or yarrow, Cerise Queen

Salvia Nemorosa Caradonna and Hydrangea Macrophylla.

Because we ordered enough compost and mulch we were able to start on the bed for next year, Spring 2025. We did the set out with the paint spray. We laid out some cardboard on the grass, which will naturally die, get composted, and enrich the soil. Because we had ordered enough, we added a layer of compost and mulch on top of the cardboard. This will also enrich the soil and make the flower bed ready for next Spring's planting. If you also have heavy clay in your garden, I advise you often put a layer of organic matter: mulch or compost or both. It will naturally decompose and our lovely worms will slowly work into the soil. After a few years of doing this your clay will transform into a beautiful loamy soil.

Here is me working on the second flower bed "The Island" for the coming Spring of 2025:

 

Here is "The Island" after the preparations for a Spring 2025 planting were completed. The yellow flowers are actually a type of edible wild rocket. They smelled divine. I loved them, they also looked stunning against the Salvia Nemorosa Caradonna.

 

A garden can bring so much into your life: either through physical activity -if you enjoy gardening- or a moment of inner peace simply by contemplating your plants.

I find it hard to meditate more than a few minutes, but spending half an hour in the garden observing my plants and the lovely bees 🐝 buzzing, that I could do without hesitation! My garden is my zen place.

If you want to have a beautiful garden you can follow the process I have described above, but start as soon as possible! It takes a good three years for a garden to start coming into its own, for things to start maturing, for shrubs to reach a decent size. If you plant trees, it can take a good five years for them to really start "looking" like a tree.

To come back to the Ontario Garden, we have joked with my host that in a few years from now we would all dress in our Bridgerton inspired gowns and we would promenade through the garden... You will definitely see some pictures if we do that!

From the bottom of my heart, a huge thank you to my host who was so generous in letting my imagination and creativity flow freely. It is very dear to me to be able to create gardens. I went as far as training to become a Garden Designer and it means a lot to be able to help others make the most of their garden.

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