Down the Garden Path: Part 2

Lost Horizons Nursery, Acton Ontario.

"May flowers always line your path and sunshine light your day. May songbirds serenade your every step along the way. May a rainbow run beside you in a sky that is always blue. And may happiness fill your heart each day your whole life through." Old Irish Blessing.

The plan of Larkwhistle Garden from the book The Art of Perennial Gardening by Patrick Lima, 

Photographs by John Scanlan, Published by Firefly Books in 2000. 

If you look at this drawing of Larkwhistle Garden or at the layout for David Tomlinson's garden called Merlin's Hollow, you will notice that the pathways make up the skeleton or framework for each garden. Pathways link each of these gardens into a cohesive whole.

Merlin's Hollow Garden Plan

With a pathway, a gardener channels visitors through a garden. How a garden is viewed is determined, to some degree, by the nature and even the shape of a path. 

Lost Horizons Nursery, Acton Ontario.

You are more likely to motor down a straight path...

Lost Horizons Nursery, Acton Ontario.

than one that twists and turns.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora Ontario.

How wide should a path be?  

I personally think that the spacing needs to feel comfortable, not claustrophobic. If a pathway is tight, a visitor has to pay too much heed to each footstep and this can distract from all the visual delights along a path's length.

Brain Folmer's Botanical Gardens near Walkerton, Ontario.

So, what about materials? 

Even an ordinary lawn can function as a pathway between plantings.

Pea gravel is a nice option that has a pleasant crunch underfoot.

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

This garden has a hard-packed combination of sand and very fine gravel.

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Flagstone is a classic choice. 

(Note here that the gardener here has continued the flagstone onto the lawn and around to the front of the house. In doing so, he saves wear and tear on the grass by directing visitors away from cutting across the lawn.)

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Stonework is more costly and requires a greater degree of skill to install, but is hard-wearing option 

and it looks incredible doesn't it?

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Mulch is yet another alternative and is softer underfoot. It also helps to create a nice woodland effect.

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Of course, you can always combine pathway materials. Here we have mulch combined with flagstone.

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Pea gravel and flagstone.

This is Heather Bradley's Garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Moss and flagstone.

(Deborah of Deb's Garden Blog has written a wonderful post on creating a moss pathway. She has a spectacular woodland garden that you should definitely check out.)

Edwards Gardens, Toronto.

Plantings along a path can be crisp and tidy.

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Brain Folmer's Botanical Gardens near Walkerton, Ontario.

Or they can be uneven and more natural.

Brain Folmer's Botanical Gardens near Walkerton, Ontario.

In the end, it comes down to the overall look and feeling you are after.

I hope you feel as inspired by these gardens as I do. Have a great weekend!

Down the Garden Path: Part 1

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

"I see my path, but don't know where it leads. Not knowing where I am going is what inspires me to travel it." Rosallia de Castro 

"Every path has its puddle." Old Proverb

Nothing gently suggests, "Walk this way" like a garden path. 

A pathway invites the visitor to enter into the garden, rather than just view it. 

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

An enticing destination at the journey's end can be suggested.

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

And a pleasant place to rest can be provided.

Brain Folmer's Botanical Gardens near Walkerton, Ontario.

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

Alternatively, a pathway's end can also be obscured and made mysterious.

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

A hidden and unexpected feature can thereby suddenly reveal itself.

Lost Horizons Nursery, Acton Ontario.

Pathways also offer one of life's more stress-free choices. Shall you go left or right?

Lost Horizons Nursery, Acton Ontario.

A gardener can keep the walk along a path interesting by varying the planting...

Heather Bradley's garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

and incorporating interesting objects.

Larkwhistle Garden, on the Bruce Peninsula.

A distance to be traveled can be made more intriguing when accented with an arbor passageway...

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario. 

or traversed with a bridge.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora Ontario.

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Finally, pathways have useful as well as aesthetic functions in the garden. Paths can provide ready access to backyard structures like a storage shed and can keep the trip to this type of high-traffic destination looking neat and tidy.

Merlin's Hollow, Aurora Ontario.

Pathways also function to provide key access to planting beds for routine maintenance.  

I have other inspiration for you, but fear that this post has already become a visual marathon. I will put up a Part 2 that will touch on design ideas and materials in the next few days.

Making a Grand Entrance

"You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

 Unknown quote

The cold, snow filled days of early winter are a perfect time for gathering ideas, looking through seed catalogues, and planning next year's garden. What wasn't working and needs to be moved? What new plants should be added? What needs to be updated and changed?

I am unhappy with the entrance to the garden at the very back of our property and that has got me thinking about garden entrances in general. 

Why fuss over the entrance to a garden? 

Well, for one thing, it is the first thing you see. It makes a statement right up front and can set the tone for the rest of the garden.

A garden entrance is also a perfect place for a gardener to express their unique personality and design aesthetic. 

The possibilities are simply endless. An entrance can be everything from rustic to sophisticated and formal, spare to romantic and vine covered.

Trumpet Vine, Campsis radicans, with its bright orange flowers, covers the arbor entrance way in this Niagara-on-the-lake garden. While the vine is attractive and a magnet for hummingbirds, gardeners should plant Trumpet Vine with some caution because, it can be invasive.

Incorporating a structure like an arbor at the front of your garden can impart a sense of order to the natural chaos that is a cottage style flower garden. 

Covering that arbor with a flowering vine makes it all the more dramatic. The visitor passing through the arbor is enveloped by greenery on all three sides. 

I knew from the get-go that this garden in Niagara-on-the-lake was going to take my breath away.

Artist and interior designer Eleonora Roberts designed this arbor to echo the peaked shaped of the roof of her Streetsville, Ontario home. I will be showing you more of her lovely garden in the coming weeks.

Arbors can come in all shapes and sizes. They can also be opened or gated.

Private garden, Waterdown, Ontario. A Climbing Hydrangea covers the lower part of the wall on the right side on the garden gate.

A gate is a perfect place to display accessories like a bell, a welcome sign or a decorative wreath. The hinges, latch and handle are adornments that can dress-up even the most basic garden gate.

Building materials offer a wide range of design alternatives. If wood seems too rustic for your tastes, wrought iron is another classic option.

Gate at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton, Ontario.

Garden gate at Canada Blooms 2011.

Private garden, Mississauga, Ontario.

Wood and metal can also be combined beautifully.

Private garden, Brampton, Ontario. A climbing hydrangea is on the left hand side of the gate and a Cotton Easter is on the right.

An unknown variety of Honeysuckle covers the arbor. Pink Bee Balm is in front of the arbor just to the left, Ligularia is the large leaf in front of the Bee Balm, and Gooseneck Loosestrife(caution invasive!) 

is the white flower in the right foreground.

Of course, not every entrance is at the front of a garden. A garden can be divided into "garden rooms" and can have an entrance or passageway that stands at the doorway to each of the rooms.

Private garden in Burlington, Ontario. The white flower with the greyish-green foliage that 

can be seen in the background is self-seeding Lychnis coronaria 'Alba'. 

A more rustic approach to an arbor at the We're in the Hayfield Now Nursery.

Here a hedge forms the walls of the "room" and the rustic arbor is the doorway.

This is one of the gates that David Tomlinson has used in his garden called Merlin's Hollow. An arbor stands at the entrance to each of the four garden "rooms" at Merlin's Hollow.

The same gate from the other direction. The perspective created by the arbor's geometry adds a greater sense of depth and distance from one room to another.

A closer look at one of the passageways at Merlin's Hollow. Pink columbine has self-seeded itself in the middle foreground and a pink Beauty Bush blooms in the background.

An unknown variety of Wisteria covers the arbor.

In this Mississauga, Ontario garden, an arbor marks a doorway leading to a patio area.

Plant materials can be as varied as the entrance way itself. This gardener in Georgetown, Ontario has used annual Morning Glories.

This Brampton, Ontario gardener has used roses to great effect.

There are so many options for creating a garden entrance that the hardest part is trying to decide among them!

What should I do to re-vamp my back gate? It is time to get dreaming...