Glog
Perfect calm (December 6, 2011)
What a contrast – a year ago today, we were enduring 100km winds, the highest tide of the year and the biggest waves in living memory. Today, perfect calm, a gentle snow and the Gardens enveloped in a blanket of pure white.
The month of December for gardeners has a special poignancy. It is the moment when all work at the gardens is at a standstill and weighty and colourful seed catalogues begin to arrive to announce the work for the coming season. It is perhaps the one period of rest in the gardening year and the moment when this brief period of repose allows us to think freely of the possibilities for the coming season.
One of the ironies of running a garden is that people think that once the Gardens close (this year on October 2), the entire staff can store their tools and take a break for the winter. In fact, the gardeners work hard throughout October to ready the gardens for the winter, protecting the banks of Page’s Brook, staking and wrapping fragile plants, and overlaying the flower beds with spruce branches to protect them for the winter.
Where has the summer gone? is a refrain often heard at this time of the year. Summer residents, vacationers and tourists all sing the same song, regretting that summer is coming to a close so soon after it began. This summer is no exception, but many will be happy to see it behind us. Record rains in July and August have been wonderful for the plants, but not so great for those seeking to admire them. Those who ventured to the region and the gardens were rewarded with some exceptional bloom and luxurious foliage.
July is already upon us and we are catching our breath as the high season begins. This summer we have seen exceptional bloom, a combination of the slow spring, wet weather and occasional bursts of sunshine. The result is a floral spectacle that is quite marvelous, with lilacs, azaleas, blue poppies and peonies all in bloom at the same time. The extraordinary bloom of the Gilbert collection of peonies adjacent to the terrace of Estevan Lodge has only just ceded pride of place to the peonies on the Long Walk that are now bursting into bloom.
June heralds the beginning of our summer and the more than 100 events that populate the gardens with life and people over the next four months. This 2011 program has music, art, literature, fine cuisine and lots and lots of gardens. Sharing a garden is one of the many pleasures of managing a garden. A great deal of work goes on behind the scenes. Five weeks spent cleaning up after winter by our gardens and workers, months of planning by our office staff and almost a full year working fine tuning the program of activities and events.
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Brief moment of repose (December 1, 2011)
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Still at work... (October 27, 2011)
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Where has the summer gone? (September 6, 2011)
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A marvelous floral spectacle (July 19, 2011)
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Beginning of our summer at the Gardens (May 31, 2011)
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APRIL is the cruellest month (April 4, 2011)
« April is the cruellest month » wrote poet T.S. Eliot in his poem The Waste Land. Eliot was a poet who observed and loved gardens and his poems are full of images drawn from his close observation of the birth and regeneration of the gardens and forests of the English countryside.
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March Activities (February 24, 2011)
March brings the first signs of spring, with the ice in the St. Lawrence beginning its slow break-up and the longer days bring the first signs of life to the plants and trees. It is also the month that we launch our offensive to encourage our members to renew their season’s passes and to seduce visitors from across Canada to make Metis their garden destination for the summer of 2011.
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Our Greenhouses (December 14, 2010)
The arrival of December is the beginning of the new planning cycle for the gardens. Out with the old and in with the new. We begin by placing our orders for seeds and plants and get ready to begin the preparation of the plants early in the New Year.
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End of the season (October 12, 2010)
The Gardens closed on October 3 and autumn is upon us – the geese have returned to the bay of the Mitis River, the leaves are beginning to turn and the sounds of machinery can be heard as we rush to complete several construction projects before winter.
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