More Gardens to view

In my last posting, I mentioned viewing 9 gardens in a week. The remaining gardens are shown here.

Master Gardeners of Brantford held its annual garden tour, in conjunction with a plant sale, last Sunday. All members are assigned to a location for half a day or the whole day. There were 3 gardens just around the corner from me so it was quite handy that I was assigned to one of them.
This garden, as it happens, belongs to one of the Brantford Garden Club members. It has a water feature, a custom designed "log cabin chalet" shed. It has several mature spruce trees at the upper level. When a tree dies, the owners cut it down leaving an 8 or 10ft stump and have someone do a carving!

Do click on all the pictures to maximize. There are details that you would not want to miss!




This garden is a regular sized "subdivision lot". In 30 years, the owners had converted it into a sanctuary with a water feature featuring ornamental grasses and pond ornaments. What is not shown is the gardener's Hosta collection which occupies the adjacent side of the lot.

It looks like there's a face on top of that water fountain, doesn't it?





This home garden featured several themes, one of them being this bench made of cedar branches. Note the placement of ornaments, rocks and plants. Its zen quality makes this corner of the garden one of my favorites.










A young couple banished their steep graded backyard lawn with a "water fall"that hugs the contour of the land. This was one of the 3 homes around the corner from me in this year's garden tour. The man of the house happens to be the gardener as well. He hauled every single one of those stones/concrete slabs up the hill because the space between the homes was too narrow for any 4 wheeled machine!

There were 3 more home gardens listed but I have no adequate photos to justify their unique features.

There is always something that I "take away" every time I view a beautifully created garden. It is the perfect exercise for anyone wanting to learn about gardening.

Not all gardens are created equal. A garden's personality is developed by its gardener. And like the gardener, it always evolves. My garden will be evolving for a long time.

Garden Tours and more

How many gardens can a person take in a week? This past week, I counted 9 gardens for me!

Monday, June 22nd, was the RBG's first bus tour which took a full load of gardeners to the Shelburne/Orangeville area where country gardens are usually very expansive.



















The Taylors are perennial plant collectors. They banished their lawn in favor of plants show casing flowers, foliage or both throughout the year.



















The Knowles are both avid gardeners who turned their 2 acre property into a show piece. Every corner finds one into another garden "room". This one is one of the smaller strip of a garden.

















This is the Morning Glory B&B: gardens in a rolling 2 acre property by a lake. Every window from the house has a beautiful view.




















This garden setting is atop the Niagara escarpment with the Hockley Valley View. The host is a Hostas collector.

Having to set my alarm for 5:45 AM in order to catch the tour bus at the RBG Center in Burlington at 7:30 AM was all worth it. The long ride meant getting to know a fellow gardener (my seat mate), a delicious lunch at the Grey Stones Inn and a nap during the ride home.

What about the 5 other gardens? That's another posting, of course.

Discovering Meme's Cafe

I just have to share this amazing discovery! Yesterday, my trip to the big city (of Kitchener) included a visit to my ole ER buddy, Glenda. She took me for a wonderful culinary experience in New Hamburg's Meme's Cafe: a warm and inviting place with an eclectic menu and decor.

As soon as I stepped inside the door, the sight of freshly baked pastries distracted me but only for a minute or so. The daily menu was written on a blackboard, featuring local and/or organic ingredients. Oh, I just salivate thinking about it. Glenda had a huge bowl of asparagus soup with one of those whole grain home made bread. I was particularly hungry by that time so I went for an entree-Vegetarian Mediterranean stew on a bed of basmati rice. It was as colorful as it was delicious.

So, my Ontario friends, if you ever pass New Hamburg on Hwy. 7&8, this is a place you must visit. But you don't have to go on my recommendation alone. Click on the link above to see what other people have to say about it. You only have a few minutes? Try the fair trade coffee. Well, you might as well have that mango coconut muffin to go with it.

Challenging myself

On the Ottawa River pathway.

Bob & I took our first bicycle trip to Ottawa on the first weekend of June, missing the World Naked Bike Ride by a week. Whew! Ottawa has over 170 kilometers of pathways: a paved network linking parks, gardens, museums etc. throughout the city for walkers, cyclers, roller bladers and even mobility scooters.

Michael just arrived back from Spain on June 1st and was already missing his cycling. So, he came along for the ride after replacing a few bicycle parts on his bike.

We met some of our friends from the Roaming Riders our cycling group from Brantford. Saturday, June 6th, was travel day and a bit of scouting the pathways close to the hotel where we stayed.

On Sunday, June 7th, our group followed the pathway to the Experimental Farm, a national historic site right in the heart of Ottawa! Naturally, I had to visit the gardens where the columbines, irises, peonies (just to name a few) were in bloom. Some of the photos taken are posted on the Facebook.

Monday was left open to "do whatever you want" day. There were a lot of directions to choose from. Michael wanted to go to the Gatineau Park. Originally, I thought I'd take it easy but the opportunity to challenge myself presented itself, so, to Gatineau we went!

At the Champlain lookout

The challenge was twofold: cycling up & down the winding hills and staying alive as this is a two lane parkway for motorists. The latter was not too bad to overcome as it was on a Monday and so not too many drivers on the road. Each sustained ascent, even on the lowest gear, was truly a test on my endurance. I think I utilized every tip people had told me every time I'm cycling up a hill: concentrate what's in front of you........right, left, right, left........keep pedaling, keep pedaling......you can do it, you can do it.........,etc. I tried to distract myself by looking for the wild flowers in bloom at the roadside. Michael kept coming back to see how I was getting on several times. On the other hand, the bug smashing, breath taking, goosebumps-producing descent after each ascent was as euphoric as bungy jumping (although I've never tried that one). Perhaps, that was what kept me pedaling about 66 kms. (linear).

Bob going back to cheer me on to the top of one of the ascent

With perfect cycling weather, good company, lots of exercise, fresh air and a bit of "touristing", it was a memorable trip and because I challenged myself, it was also rewarding.