The garden beds which line the clubhouse circle at King Valley Golf course came alive this year with a stunning mixture of perennials, shrubs and annuals. In this photograph you can see how the eye is drawn to the bed and the viewer is compelled to walk down the pathway to take a closer look.

In the picture below, a native cactus, swamp milkweed, cardinal flower, carnation and creeping geranium form an interesting mix among the greenery. The annuals celosia and heliotrope are in their early stages of development and become increasingly showy as the season processes.

In another part of the clubhouse circle (below), Cleome, love-lies-bleeding, and lemon gem marigolds make a stunning show.

This garden was created by removing 12 tonnes of cumbersome retaining wall block, replacing it was an attractive natural stone, increasing the size of the bed and introducing a large variety of new plants.

Below is what it looked like when we began. These steps were removed since they had become a hazard and the pathway in was re-routed.

A garden was created in this area consisting of deciduous shrubs and grasses and colourful perennials suitable for birds and butterflies. This residence has been converted into offices and the view from each window is important. Attracting birds and having an attractive garden to look at were part of the requirements for this job.

I worked a lot with stone this past year starting with this landscape project near Kitchener- Waterloo. A cedar deck and outdoor hot tub enclosed was built along the back of the house, leading on to a stone patio. The stone work and decking were done by Ground Effects from Arthur, Ontario. The gardens consisted of colourful, medium height perennials which framed the view to the pond and property.

A steep slope down to a pond was altered by placing large landscape stone to form a ridge. On the bank between the large stones, I planted a rockery on the steepest side and a native Ontario meadow mix on the gentler slope. With this meadow mix, the forbes were planted as bare root plants and the grasses were seeded. The picture you see here shows the garden along the edge of the outdoor hot tub. Tall perennials and grasses were planted just outside the structure to be looked through. This garden has many angles and approaches and pathways leading in many directions.

The client did not want eaves troughs along the roof of the house, so the beds had to be structured to accommodate this. We placed a band of landscape fabric, covered with granite river stone to handle the rainfall runoff. We planted on both sides of the stone stream so that it will eventually be masked by foliage and flowers. This picture was taken before seeding and sodding.