Reprint of The Standard Port Perry article; written by Brian Case
A Maudern Garden Tour
“This evening I spent gardening. Our lawn is green and blossomy. The sunset was exquisite behind the big maple trees…. A peace …seemed to possess me. (Leaskdale, May 22, 1922). “I have rows upon rows of delightful possibilities-corn, cucumbers, poppies, gypsophila, peas, asters, gladioli, beans, sweet peas, parsnips, sweet sultans, radishes, balsams, zinnias, beets, carrots, pansies, egg plant, parsley, nasturtiums, watermelons, lettuce, onions, cabbages, cauliflowers and tomatoes. I prowl about weeding, watering, transplanting” (June 10, 1924). “I wish I could stay outdoors all summer” (July 6, 1933).
Lucy Maud Montgomery might have made those remarks at this year’s Uxbridge Garden Tour, having already created her own ‘tour’ over one hundred years ago, in Leaskdale!
For Maud, the benefits of gardening were many: visual- her ‘little starry jonquils’; sensorial- ‘the air was full of the perfume of my white narcissus’; and spiritual- ‘my flowers of quiet happiness’. She worked for many hours to restore the gardens around the Manse and, in late May, 1912’ she wrote “we have… a garden that is said to be the best in the village”. Her favourite season of the year was Spring, ‘with its promise of new growth’.
Maud was always happy to display her cut flowers in the Manse. White and pink trilliums, long stemmed blue violets or many-coloured gladioli filled her home with colour throughout the summer months. And marigolds! How she loved to combine them with lupins to brighten her parlour. She often worked to maintain her geraniums over the winter months too.
Many times in her diaries however, Maud expressed disappointment or annoyance when Mother Nature wouldn’t co-operate with her gardening dreams. “I have simply got out of patience with these Ontario thunderstorms”, she wrote when a river of mud had washed out her entire flowerbed (June 7, 1923). She lamented that all her hard work was ‘for naught’ after the month of July 1931 provided no rain. And she complained that the October frosts always took away all ‘the delight and comfort’ that her gardening had given her.
You can take your own ‘garden tour’ through many of L.M.Montgomery’s novels. ‘Anne’s House of Dreams’, ‘Rainbow Valley’, ‘Rilla of Ingleside’ and ‘Anne of Avonlea’ reflect many of her gardening interests and practices throughout her Leaskdale years! The new mother worked long hours to restore the neglected grounds around the Manse. Her gardens made her feel ‘besottedly happy’ (May, 1923). They surely would have been one visitor destination, had our current June Garden Tour been established then!
Gardens of Uxbridge Tour – Saturday, June 15th, 2024 10am-5pm. Tickets $25
Special ticket: $50 includes the full tour plus High Tea, native plant sale, gardening book author talk, signing, and book sale.