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March into Gardening

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🌱 Preparing Your Ontario Garden for Spring

It’s almost time to put the snow shovels away! With March arriving, spring is just around the corner, and although Ontario weather can be tricky, there is plenty to do to get a head start on the growing season. The key to a successful Ontario garden is working with nature’s timetable, not against it.

The Gardens of Uxbridge Tour committee is already deep in garden planning mode. Host gardens for this year’s 2026 garden tour are being finalized and garden events are being dreamed up for an extra special tour experience. This will be the 30th edition of the Gardens of Uxbridge Tour!

Here is your March checklist to turn that “winter” yard into a spring paradise.

1. The “Wait and See” Cleanup

While it’s tempting to rake everything immediately, hold off until the ground is dry to avoid compacting the soil.

  • Wait for the Dry Soil: Once the ground isn’t muddy, gently rake the lawn to remove dead leaves and thatch.
  • Remove Protective Covers: Take off burlap or protective coverings from shrubs and evergreens.
  • Check for Frost Heave: The freeze-thaw cycle can push perennials up, exposing their roots. Press these back into the soil gently to prevent them from drying out.

2. Prune Wisely

March is prime time for pruning, but you must know what you are cutting.

  • Do It Now: Prune fruit trees (apple, cherry, pear) and summer-flowering shrubs like hydrangeas, roses, and burning bush.
  • Wait Until Later: Do NOT prune spring-blooming shrubs like Forsythia, Lilac, or Magnolias yet—you will cut off this year’s flowers.

3. Start Seeds Indoors (The March Head-Start)

With Ontario’s short season, starting seeds indoors is essential for a big harvest.

  • Early March: Start peppers and onions, which need a long, slow start.
  • Late March: Start tomatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and herbs like parsley and basil.

4. The “Crumble Test” & Soil Prep

As soon as the ground can be worked—meaning it doesn’t hold together in a muddy ball when you squeeze it—you can prep your beds.

  • Amend the Soil: Spread a 1–2 inch layer of compost or aged manure over your beds to replenish nutrients.
  • Direct Sow Outdoors: If the soil is workable, you can directly sow peas, spinach, radishes, and carrots in late March.

5. Clean & Sharpen Tools

Before the heavy work begins, get your gear ready. Clean your pruners, sharpen shovels, and check that your hoses haven’t cracked over the winter.

Pro Tip for Ontario: Keep a watchful eye on the forecast! We have all experienced a “snow-spring” in April. Be prepared to cover early sprouts if a late frost hits.

Happy Gardening!

Summary of March Tasks (Quick List)

  • Remove winter protections (burlap)
  • Prune fruit trees and summer-flowering shrubs
  • Start tomatoes, peppers, and herbs indoors
  • Direct sow peas and spinach (if ground is dry)
  • Add compost to garden beds
  • Clean tools
daffodils in bloom
A bit of spring inspiration from the UK in February from one of our gardeners…
Soon the crocuses will be here too!

Growing Native

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Growing native plants in your garden offers numerous benefits, including supporting local ecosystems, attracting pollinators, and reducing environmental impact. By understanding your garden’s conditions and selecting appropriate native species, you can create a thriving and sustainable garden.

There has been a lot of interest in growing native plants in recent year due to the fact that they are easy to care for, provide a habitat and food for wildlife, and help restore the ecosystem of your yard. Some believe that natives aren’t attractive, which is simply not the case. By including a variety of natives that bloom at different times and have multi-seasonal attributes, you can have a beautiful natural landscape year-round.

There are several wonderful examples of native plant species that have been purposefully planted in a few of the gardens on the 2025 Gardens of Uxbridge Tour. Those who experience the garden tour will also have an opportunity to speak to an authority on native plantings at one of the 8 featured gardens. In the Uxbridge area, we are also fortunate to have a garden centre dedicated to native plants – Native Plants in Claremont – as well as Richter’s Herbs who feature many interesting specimen plants.

To learn more about local native plants and the case for growing them in your garden, check out this CBC article.

Ahhh! Spring!

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The warmer weather is just around the corner and one of the most enchanting to-dos on my spring checklist is to save the date for the Gardens of Uxbridge garden tour. For more than 25 years it has remained one of my favourite events of the gardening season.

This garden tour has grown into one of the largest countryside garden tours near the greater Toronto area. Each June, eight private residential gardens are featured. The self-driving tour makes for a great day of touring the small heritage town of Uxbridge and the rolling countryside that is Uxbridge Township. Situated north of Pickering and east of York Region, it is an easy area to find and explore.

This year  marks the 29th year of the garden tour and it seems fitting that this year’s tour will have feature gardens with a wealth of history and stories to tell. The tour date is on Saturday, June 21 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A good garden tour can offer inspiration to home gardeners, and this one is full of interesting plants and unique properties. There are always good garden design lessons to be had. You might take note of how to make a beautiful environment on a tiny urban lot, how to create a native plant habitat, what plants to use in a shade garden or which ones to choose for all-season bloom.

There are a variety of gardens on the Uxbridge tour ranging from a foundation garden incorporating nesting, glass art, and a trough garden, to an orchestrated arboretum surrounding an idyllic country home.  There are woodland shade gardens, peony gardens, rose gardens, native plant gardens, bulb gardens, vegetable gardens and more. Garden decor ideas run the gamut from metal and fabric sculptures to exquisite stone ornamentation and woodworks.

Fabulous volunteers will be stationed in each garden to answer questions about the tour, the plants and design features. You can stroll around the 8 gardens at your own pace and set your own route for a customized day in the country.

Visit the Gardens of Uxbridge website Tickets page to purchase online tickets which go on sale May 1st ~ just in time for Mother’s Day!

The website has more information and is updated as the tour approaches.

Tickets are $25 per person (plus processing fee)
Children under 12 accompanied by an adult are free.

Happy Spring!

Garden Tour this Saturday!

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Only 5 more days to get your garden tour tickets for the 2024 edition of the Gardens of Uxbridge Tour.

Don’t miss this fun day’s drive around the countryside of Uxbridge Township. Located less than an hour northeast of the GTA, this garden tour gives you a look behind the garden gate of 8 private gardens. The tour happens for one day from 10am to 5pm on Saturday, June 15th.

Almost every garden also features a guest artist or artisan, who often specializes in garden art, as well as plein air painters who ‘live’ paint in the gardens throughout the day. Artwork is for sale.

The Leaskdale Church, part of the Lucy Maud Montgomery national historic site, will also be serving tea and scones until 3pm as refreshments for garden tour participants.

This year there are 3 ticket options to choose from:

~ Garden Tour ticket – access to 8 gardens $25 per person

~ Garden Tour + Native Plants Book Talk by guest author, including afternoon high tea at the historic Leaskdale Church, a native plant sale, and a discount off the book price. $50 per person

~ Native Plants Book Talk at 4pm by guest author, including afternoon high tea at the historic Leaskdale Church, a native plant sale, and a discount off the book price. $25 per person

Tickets are purchased online through the website at www.gardensofuxbridge.org. Visit our Tickets page to buy. Processing fees are additional.

The tour includes both town and countryside garden properties and will take approximately 3-4 hours of leisurely driving and strolling to complete. There is time to also visit the Church garden and to stop at a local restaurant, garden centre, or attraction along the way. See the suggestions in the tour passport.

Your ticket includes a wristband (for garden entry) and a Passport & Map complete with full descriptions of the gardens, artists, and points of interest. The Map provides a suggested route to follow and the roads are signed with garden tour directional signs should you choose to follow the suggested circle route from Uxbridge.

The wristband and Passport & Map are picked up at your first stop of the day – the Uxbridge Arena – where our Welcome Centre volunteers greet you at your car. This drive-thru check in means you don’t even need to leave your vehicle! We want you to have all the time you want to visit the gardens.

Saturday’s weather forecast is beautiful! So come on out to see the gardens and enjoy the early summer sunshine!

A Nod to Maud & her gardens

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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.

21 surprising facts about gardening

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1. There are more microorganisms in one teaspoon of soil than there are people on Earth.

2. The world’s oldest living rose is believed to be 1,000 years old and grows on the wall of the Cathedral of Hildesheim in Germany.

3. Plants really do respond to sound. Talking to plants or playing music can enhance their growth due to the vibration in the sound waves.

4. Tomatoes are the most commonly grown vegetable in home gardens in the United States.

5. Bamboo is the fastest-growing plant in the world. It can grow up to 35 inches in a single day.

6. The practice of bonsai tree cultivation originated in China over a thousand years ago before it was adopted by the Japanese.

7. NASA studies show that indoor plants can remove up to 87% of air toxins within 24 hours.

8. The largest pumpkin ever grown weighed 2,624 pounds, according to the Guinness World Records.

9. Sunflowers are not just one flower. Each sunflower’s head is made of hundreds of tiny flowers called florets.

10. Gardening can boost mental health and alleviate symptoms of depression and anxiety.

11. Coffee grounds can enrich soil with nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, making them a great addition to compost.

12. The practice of growing plants without soil is known as hydroponics. It was used by the ancient Babylonians in the Hanging Gardens and by the Aztecs.

13. Worms improve garden soil by aerating it as they move through it and enriching it with their castings.

14. One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving 26,000 miles.

15. Marigolds repel garden pests naturally, which is why many gardeners plant them around their vegetable beds.

16. The tallest tree in the world is a coast redwood named Hyperion; it stands at 379.7 feet tall.

17. Strawberries have more vitamin C than oranges.

18. Gardening is considered moderate exercise; regular gardening can burn as many calories as gym exercises.

19. Saffron, the world’s most expensive spice, comes from the stigmas of the crocus flower.

20. In the 17th century, tulip bulbs were more valuable than gold in Holland, a phenomenon known as “Tulip Mania.”

21. Blue is a rare color in garden plants, making blue flowers like delphiniums highly sought after for their unique hue.

3 Ticket Options for 2024!

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Every June, the Gardens of Uxbridge Tour let’s you peek beyond the garden gate into 8 private gardens of all shapes and sizes. Fantastic landscapes, beautiful flowers, unusual plants, and even local artisan work and live painting demonstrations greet you! All this is included in the regular garden tour ticket, along with the opportunity to purchase garden artwork from our talented local Uxbridge area artisans.

This June 15th brings a special opportunity to elevate your Gardens of Uxbridge tour experience!

We are delighted to host author Rick Gray and his hot new garden book, in collaboration with Blue Heron Books, one of Canada’s most cherished independent book stores. Rick’s spectacular new book, The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region is on The Globe & Mail bestsellers list. It is beautifully photographed and will give gardeners a primer on Native Plants found nearby and easily added to any garden for visual interest and the good of the planet. Rick’s talk promises to be educational and entertaining.

We are offering a special garden tour ticket that includes all the regular garden access on the tour and then ends a perfect touring day with a delicious afternoon high tea and the author talk with Rick Gray.

During the day, you can explore the 8 gardens on the garden tour, between 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. Then at the fabulous historic Leaskdale Church beginning at 4:00pm, with your special ticket, you will enjoy Rick Gray’s author talk, with the opportunity to ask plant questions, all while enjoying a delightful afternoon high tea in the historic church. Following the presentation, you can add Rick’s bestselling book to your collection and have it signed by the author. Your ticket even includes $10 off the purchase price!

The Leaskdale Church is part of the Lucy Maud Montgomery National Historic Site and Rick Gray will share some fun lore about native plants and Lucy Maud Montgomery during the event. There will even be a Native Plant Sale so you can take home some native plants to add to your garden right after the tour!

The High Tea includes a selection of sweets, tea sandwiches, traditional scones with jam & cream, and teas per person.

The number of tickets for the Tour & Author Talk are limited by church capacity so be sure to book early for this extra special Garden Tour experience!

Book your tickets through the www.gardensofuxbrige.org website today!

Happy Gardening!

Tickets now on sale!

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Online ticket purchases for the 2024 Gardens of Uxbridge Tour begin on April 22nd.

Reserve early and ticket purchasers will be automatically entered for the early bird prize basket! Draw will be held on June 1st. All orders processed by May 31 will be eligible.

Tickets must be purchased online in advance of the tour. Children under 12 are admitted for free. Each ticket provides a one-time admission to each of the gardens on the tour.  

NEW! This year 2 ticket options are available:

  • Standard Garden Tour Tickets are $25 per person (plus processing fees).
  • Upgrade your garden tour experience with our Tour + Event ticket
    • Includes the full garden tour plus High Tea & a special guest author event at the historic Leaskdale Church.
    • This special tour ticket is $50 (plus processing fees) and must be purchased online in advance of the event.
    • The author talk begins at 4PM on June 15 and is followed by High Tea, a special book signing & sale, and a native plant sale.
    • Limited capacity of 50 tickets.
  • Guest Author Talk: Learn what a native plant is and why it’s more important than ever to grow them in our gardens from Rick Gray, co-author of the new Globe & Mail bestselling book The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region. Discover how an eco-friendly garden of native plants can benefit us all, from food and the environment to birds and pollinators. 

To Purchase Tickets: 

Purchase your tickets using the link  here  beginning  on April 22, 2024.  Tickets will be on sale while quantities last and garden capacity permits.

About the Tour

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Spring is on its way and plans for the 28th Annual Gardens of Uxbridge Tour are underway!

Each summer up to 8 local private resident gardens are opened to the public in support of community projects led by the Lucy Maud Montgomery Society of Ontario. Uxbridge Township is home to the Lucy Maud Montgomery National Historic Site.

The Gardens of Uxbridge Tour provides a brilliant showcase of the wonderful gardens of local residences in and around Uxbridge Township and offers a beautiful day of touring the countryside surrounding the spectacular Oak Ridges Moraine.  The self-guided tour (with driving maps provided) takes visitors through hill and dale along the country roads surrounding the quaint town of Uxbridge and also features a number of in-town gardens in the town of Uxbridge.

Garden guests are invited to walk around the gardens outside of each home on the Tour between 10:00 am and 5:00 pm, rain or shine. Volunteers greet you at each home and provide an overview of what you’ll find beyond the garden gate. There are typically 8 gardens on the tour each year, to allow ample time for touring the back roads and enjoying a delicious lunch in the heritage town of Uxbridge.

Gather some friends for a day of touring and dining! Purchase tickets as a Mother’s Day or Father’s Day gift, or simply gather great gardening ideas from those you meet along the way. The Gardens of Uxbridge Tour is a popular way to spend a summer’s day in the countryside north of Toronto.

Tour Date is Saturday, June 15, 2024. Ticket sales begin online via this web site in April with a limited number available.

Tribute to a fantastic garden

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Long time Garden Tour volunteer Barb Pratt reminisces about one of the GTA’s greatest gardens.

“I was sorry to see that Marjorie Harris, gardening guru, author and columnist, is selling her house — and garden — in midtown Toronto. I have followed Marjorie’s writings and broadcasts over the years. I particularly enjoyed the stories of how she designed and developed her own exquisite garden.

A few years ago I needed a copy of her Botanica North America, but it was out of print. It’s a huge, comprehensive work, subtitled “An iIlustrated Guide to Our Native Plants, Their Botany, History, and the Way They Have shaped Our World”. I was so disappointed that it was unavailable, and another printing wasn’t planned, that I contacted Marjorie Harris to complain and sympathize. As it turned out, she had a few remaining copies in her possession, and would sell me one.

Down to Toronto I went, knocked on her door, and spent a delightful hour chatting with this  charming, voluble woman, and even touring the garden that was familiar to me from her books and photos. I’m so glad I saw the garden for real. Now I treasure the memory of my visit, and the inscription in my copy of Botanica North America:

“To Barbara — for the plants. Marjorie Harris”.

Create your own garden memories on the 28th annual Gardens of Uxbridge Tour. The countryside surrounding the heritage town of Uxbridge, Ontario offers up many hidden garden gems just like Marjorie Harris’ urban oasis.