Linda Walsh is sharing photos with us today. We’ve visited this beautiful garden before, which started as nothing but a few old pine trees and some poison ivy (Linda Terry’s Garden in Ontario and Linda Terry’s Garden in Ontario, Revisited). It is wonderful to see this great garden again.

We live in Simcoe, Ontario, just north of Lake Erie. Our Hardiness Zone is 6a, but because of our forested property we have a bit of a microclimate and are able to grow some plants that would not do well in this area otherwise. We have been gardening here for almost 40 years and have been featured in many Canadian magazines. We have two koi ponds; building the last one was a huge undertaking, as many rocks had to be brought in. The pond features two skimmers, a bog with an undergravel blowout system, and a large waterfall. We have VERY large koi, and they eat a lot. We also have peacocks, Pete and Pat, and have enjoyed seeing them raise their many offspring.

We have over 175 rhododendrons, over 100 hydrangeas, and many unique plants. Many of the plants have been propagated on the property from seed, layering, or cuttings.

Recently we have experimented with growing cucumber and umbrella magnolia (Magnolia acuminata and Magnolia tripetala, Zones 4–8) from seed and are anxiously awaiting our first blooms. We have over 25 maples, but the most stunning is the ‘Suminagashi’ Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Suminagashi’, Zone 5-9), with a brilliant fall color.

Linda wasn’t kidding about the size of those fish!

View of the garden from the windows of the house

Peacock pen with azaleas (Rhododendron hybrids, Zones 5–9)

Mariessi viburnum (Viburnum plicatum f. tomentosum ‘Mariesii’, Zones 5–8)

Front hillside garden looking up toward the house

Koi pond surrounded by beautiful stonework

Saxatile alyssum (Aurinia saxatilis, Zones 3–7) greets spring with clouds of yellow flowers.

A rhododendron in the PJM hybrid group (Rhododendron ‘Olga Mezitt’, Zones 4–8). The PJM hybrids are some of the easiest and most adaptable rhododendrons to grow, and they always flower heavily.

A rhododendron gets ready to burst into bloom.

Northern Lights azaleas (Rhododendron hybrids, Zones 3–7) were bred to be able to withstand extreme winter cold and still flower heavily each spring. As you can see, the colors are pretty wonderful too.

Many of our castor bean plants (Ricinus communis, Zones 9–11 or as an annual) have produced enormous leaves, and we have taken to making concrete decorative leaves from them!

A painted concrete castor bean leaf

We’ll be back with more photos from this beautiful garden tomorrow.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!

To submit, send 5-10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.

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