Photos and story by Caleb Nickerson
Over the weekend, nine property owners throughout the Pontiac opened their homes to a multitude of guests for the fourth Gardens and Gifts tour. The self-guided trek featured nine gardens from Breckenridge to Greermount, with a focus on organic and sustainable techniques, native plants and wildlife friendly-designs. In addition, local artists and creators were invited to show their wares alongside the farm produce.
Founder Katherine Fletcher said that the tour was started to promote agritourism in the region and showcase the diversity of plants and cultivation techniques. Though there was no admission fee, the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) had promotional material on display and was accepting donations.
Mo Laidlaw had the southernmost garden on the tour, just outside of Aylmer in Breckenridge. In addtition to the knitted socks and crafts for sale in her garage, she had a walking path through her property, where she has been living for nine years. She pointed to the wide variety of native trees, like the Kentucky Coffeetree.
Further up the road on chemin Crégheur was Mountain View Farm. Owner Renée Savoie said that she and her family moved to the property from Aylmer a year and a half ago because they visited the area and fell in love with the scenery.
“We inherited the gardens from the previous owner,” she said, pointing to the many mature perennials. In front of the house, several local artisans had their wares for sale, and for those looking for refreshments, Savoie had iced tea on hand.
Not far away on chemin Steele, was Spiritwood Farm, owned by Fletcher and her husband Eric. Katherine explained that Eric had more of the green thumb, having constructed an impressive vegetable patch and flower gardens on the property. She added that their underground irrigation system is over a kilometre long.
Inside her studio, Katherine had a variety of her works on display, as well as a selection of Eric’s photography.
“It’s lovely to be recognized by locals,” she said, noting that there had been a steady stream of people throughout the weekend.
Down the line, just outside Quyon was the Domaine du Pontiac Village Winery and Automobile Museum, owned by Pavel Kohl and Maude-Emmanuelle Lambert. Though the garden aspect of their location was limited to the vines, inside the winery was a selection of streetcar paintings by local artist Phuong Pham.
Outside, NCC representative Milaine Saumur was on hand to talk about the organization and their mission. The group owns and manages over one million hectares of ecologically significant land across Canada, with over 3,500 hectares in the Ottawa Valley alone. Saumur also spoke about the carapace project that the group has spearheaded in order to document the local turtle populations through crowdsourcing.
More information is available at carapace.ca.
In Bristol, there was Beaux Arbres, a native plant nursery owned by Trish Murphy and Michael Peterson. Murphy said that she had encouraged Katherine to restart the tour last year after a brief hiatus. When she lived in Toronto, Murphy had been a coordinator of such tours for the Native Plant Society.
Peterson had his hand-woven baskets for sale as well, and had shrewdly posted up with plenty of water in the shade of a tent.
Down in Norway Bay on Edgewood Avenue, Dave Burroughs had a mix of native and commercially grown plants.
Murphy spoke highly of Burroughs’ abilities as well as the diversity of locations and species along the tour.
“Most people wouldn’t think you could grow in sand underneath pine trees,” said Murphy. “But his is really beautiful.”
The next portion of the tour was clustered up Rte. 303 in Thorne, starting with Santainaii, an Earth-based healing centre owned by Bermalva Porter and her family.
Porter explained that guests recover at the centre through a combination of eating well, connecting with nature and other techniques. The property boasts permaculture gardens as well as a stunning spiral herb planter.
Over on chemin Brouse, Norbert and Leila Senf had their forest garden. Leila explained that due to the lack of light and hungry critters in the woods, her choice of plants is limited, though garlic seems to be doing well. Norbert, a mason by trade, operates a stone oven and masonry heater business (heatkit.com).
Despite the muggy weather, he had the wood oven fired up and was cooking pizza for the guests that came through.
Over at La Fée des Bois Apothecary in Clarendon north, Mariane Desjardins-Roy grows herbs and medicinal plants that she transforms into various teas, creams, tinctures and oils. Her business space with the newly-constructed deck was packed with a constant stream of people over the weekend.
