On Dragon Hill: Gardens

Sunday, June 16, 2024

Gardens

My Dartmouth Garden

I have a lovely garden back in Nova Scotia that I built around plants I got from my mother from her gardens and I do miss watching the various plants come up again every spring and bloom in their own time. My gardens were mostly made up of perennials, that dependably came up every year, and required little serious work. I liked my gardens to be mostly trouble free and although I did work on organizing and maintaining it, I did not want to have to be constantly “gardening”; I wanted to enjoy the gardens with minimal work. I am hoping that my daughter is enjoying it while I am in Toronto.

Here in Toronto, I have discovered many lovely gardens during my walks exploring the various neighbourhoods, so I have been able to enjoy the gardens here without having to look after them. Some of the best gardens are in a neighbourhood called CabbageTown, and I have yet to see any actual cabbages growing in the gardens there, but walking down the streets of stately houses in the area, there are many really nice gardens between the houses and the street; in fact most of the houses have minimal front lawns and maximum front gardens. There is even an organized “Garden Tour” that you can take exploring some of the best CabbageTown gardens.

Edwards Garden Park

There is one neighbourhood here called “The Garden District”, where my son lives, but it actually has very few nice gardens that I have found. The district is named for the Allen Gardens Park, which houses a beautiful domed glass conservatory full of beautiful plants that we have visited a couple of times. It features a beautiful display of Poinsettias at Christmas and has a spectacular collection of succulents in one of the greenhouses.

Some beautiful gardens appear in unexpected places. On a walk to the downtown IKEA, we took a different route and found a street of townhouses with spectacular roses blooming out front in their gardens, and another walk from St. Lawrence Market took us past an amazing rose display bordering a busy downtown intersection.

Now Regis has turned “gardener” here in Toronto and is faithfully maintaining a little vegetable garden on our balcony, and is constantly jealous of the size of the tomato plants grown by the retired nun living under us, but she says it must be divine intervention at work rather than gardening skill.