Denise Motard's Garden

This garden is in perpetual motion.  As her plants grow and reseed, Denise moves them to new spots, sometimes more than once, as her vision of perfection changes.  This garden was started six years ago with a clean slate, when Denise moved  to her house in Stratford.  Since then, she has worked to amend the clay soil with lots of organic matter, and has designed beds and arbours for countless varieties of trees, shrubs, vegetables, annuals, and perennials.
The garden has a wide row of trees behind it, and is open to a view of the Northumberland Strait.  The prevailing winds blow hard across the garden and towards the sea, making it tough for many of the trees and plants that dare grow too high.  Without the support of stakes and arbours and fences, the plants wouldn't hold up to the wind.

She has installed fiberglass bands all along the base of the fence in the garden to mitigate the cold winds in the late fall, winter, and early spring, and to allow the snow to stay where it falls. She says that especially around the junipers and cedars, when the snow falls the wind usually digs a deep circle around those 'obstacles' down to the bare ground, and the roots have no snow protection.
Many of the plants are grown for culinary or medicinal uses.  Lemon balm and peppermint are grown for tea.  Chickory root is a coffee replacement, and the young roots can be cooked like carrots.  Jerusalem artichoke replaces potatoes.  Boneset,  licorice, butterfly weed, painted daisies - the list of plants is truly endless.

milk thistle

The front of the house has a wide bed filled with Dreamcatcher beautybush, creeping thyme, and creeping jenny, all intended to spare Denise the chore of mowing the ditch.

By the front door, the dark leaves of bugbane contrast with the chartreuse flowers of lady's mantle.

Pasque flower (Anenome pulsatilla) produces fuzzy purple flowers in spring, and then these fluffy seed heads.

In every beautiful garden, there is always a beast.  In this case, one of the worst invasive "weeds" in this garden is the ground nut, a member of the pea family that Denise planted for its edible tubers.  Now it has spread almost out of control, and is constantly popping up where it isn't wanted.

Denise's pride and joy - three edelweiss, an alpine plant.  The soil has been amended with pebbles, sand and lime to make the plant feel at home, which is in the Swiss Alps.