Joanna’s Ontario Garden

Today Alina is sharing photos of her mother Joanna’s garden.

My mother has been working on her garden for over 20 years. When first purchased, her 1/3-acre property in Waterloo, Ontario, consisted of a house and a couple of trees scattered in a large expanse of lawn. I’m sure glad I wasn’t around to mow it!

Each summer, one bed at a time, she grew her garden. Today there is only a small stretch of grass left—just enough for my trampoline. Each part of the garden has a different name identifying the types of plants in the section; there’s the daisy garden, rock garden, woodland garden, and so on.

clump of red flowers next to foliage plantsA clump of primroses (looks like a red form of Primula veris, Zones 5–8) is covered with blooms in the front yard.

mass plantings of yellow and purple flowersClouds of flowers bloom in the front yard, with a magnificent clump of phlox (Phlox subulata, Zones 3–9) taking center stage.

stone path winding through the gardenA stone path winds through contrasting foliage in the front garden.

garden bed full of ferns and native plantsThe woodland garden includes big clumps of great white trillium (Trillium grandiflorum, Zones 3–8), which is Ontario’s provincial flower.

garden with white arbor and purple flowersThe beauty of the daisy garden is that there’s always something interesting happening anytime in the season. There’s a public path that goes along this side of the property. People often stop to admire my mother’s garden and complement it as they walk by. It’s so nice that Joanna’s art is able to be enjoyed by the entire neighborhood.

bright hot colored flowersRiot of summer color in the daisy garden

white archway covered in vine with flowersTrumpet vine (Campsis radicans, Zones 4–9) covers an archway with bright orange blooms.

garden path with dense plantings on either sideEvery inch of the garden is filled with beautiful plants, with things to discover around every bend in the path.

view of the house with wooden fence and dense gardenThe lower garden is a network of paths made of flagstone pavers filled in with moss. This path system was probably the biggest development in the garden. I vividly remember listening to my dad cursing in pain as he attempted to lift and move some of the larger stones in the garden while my mother supervised, directing him to where the rock was to go and making him shift it another inch, over and over, until it was in the right spot.

garden path winding through trees and shrubsThe stone paths are certainly in the right spot now, leading you past a bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora, Zones 4–8) backed up by a tall purple-leaved beech tree (Fagus sylvatica, Zones 4–7).

garden path leading to houseMore flagstone paths lead from the lower garden up toward the house.

shade garden full of light pink flowersWonderful color echoes with hydrangea (Hydrangea paniculata, Zones 4–8), ornamental grass (Miscanthus sinensis, Zones 5–9), and sedum (Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Zones 3–8) all showing flowers in a soft, dusty rose.

black cat in the gardenJoanna’s cat likes to follow her around the garden, supervising the various gardening tasks.

photo of the yard before garden and landscapingAnd this is how it all started—some trees and lawn, now turned into a marvelous garden.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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Published at Fri, 20 May 2022 03:00:08 -0400

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