More of the Same - 2021 in the Garden

We spent a lot of the winter in lockdown, looking optimistically towards spring and the end of the pandemic. The Tower remained locked all winter but there were signs of animals and people in the garden, getting fresh air and exercise in a safe environment.

The Tower was closed all winter, but that didn’t stop people from checking.

It’s never very spring-like at the beginning of spring, but the snow was gone and there was evidence that winter was actually over.

Warm weather in April brought the first blooms of spring and we were anxious to get started with the spring cleanup.

But we had to wait. There were people in the Garden, just not the Tower Hill Gardeners.

The Town’s Parks & Rec staff were there, though. They had the picnic tables and Muskoka Chairs out earlier than ever, the leaves all picked up and the grass raked to stimulate spring growth.

So visitors were able to enjoy the blooms of the magnolia and daffodils,

But we had to wait until May 25th to get started; once again restricted to groups of five gardeners. We scheduled three sessions a week and got to work.

We felt quite “behind the 8-ball” with growth (plants and weeds!) and blooming already so advanced. The petals of the crabapples had already fallen and the lilacs were in full bloom on our first workday.

Before long we had everything under control and were anxious to resume work on our newest endeavour, The Children’s Garden. We had made significant progress clearing trails in Periwinkle Woods late in the fall and the fallen oak tree had already been discovered by exploring children.

It is something we have been planning for a few years and so armed with some extra funding from the Town, we were able to get started. The boardwalk we built to cross over the wet area as you enter the woods from the main gathering place behind the Time Capsule is a real eye-catcher that invites exploration.

Children are delighted by butterflies, so the gathering/storytelling place will be a butterfly garden. One of the Gardeners is a retired school teacher and she secured funding from their provincial organization (later augmented by the local chapter) to fill the beds with flowers and purchase a pair of custom made butterfly benches. We are looking forward to having those installed this spring.

Our vision is starting to come to life. The Children’s Garden is tucked away where most visitors don’t usually venture and will be a place for children to explore, play and connect with nature.

We got lucky! One of the Gardeners came across a posting on the local Buy & Sell page offering log furniture. The seller, Tallman Tree Service, not only donated the lot but delivered them to an opening in the woods, directly behind the Tower.

Our intrepid Gardeners wrestled them into position … and voila!

Checkers or chess, anyone?

And included in the price … a bench.

Another lucky find … “Buckie” … to keep a watch over the rest of the woodland creatures … real and imaginary.

Focusing on the new didn’t mean neglecting the old. The rest of the Garden never looked better. Plenty of sunshine AND plenty of rain gave us an abundance of flowers and green grass too.

Flower colour seems to intensify as summer transitions to fall,

And fall can be absolutely glorious in Parry Sound.

We decided to wrap up the gardening season in mid-October, but couldn’t resist a couple more sessions. All season we had been walking past a line of large squared stones that must have been a retaining wall for the cedar “hedge”. We imagined it would be a perfect place to gather children if the area was tidied and the stones were straightened.

We levelled them, maneuvered them into a bit of a semicircle and in the process uncovered a unique one, shaped by eons of wave action out somewhere on the Bay.

We nestled it at the base of the tree opposite and christened it The Storyteller’s Rock. It’s perfect and seem to have magical powers!

The loosening of Covid restrictions over the summer brought the reopening of the Tower to the delight of all out of town visitors and local exercise fanatics and also meant that we were permitted to decorate for the holiday season.

We got together one last time before the first snowfall to put up lights and coloured balls and to install Santa in the woods with Buckie/Rudolph.

Before long there was snow and as the year drew to a close we were besieged by our biggest wave of the pandemic to date. Our holiday gatherings were restricted, but the Garden was as it always is … a peaceful and beautiful place.

Now we rest, wait patiently for winter’s end and make plans for 2022: Canada’s Year of the Garden.