Gardens Off The Beaten Path

There is an absolutely amazing garden to be found hiding in the woods just off the road between Wiarton and Oliphant at the base of the Bruce Peninsula. It’s called Rural Roots. I’d visited several years ago, and couldn’t resist the urge to pop back in to see what was new.

The rugged terrain of the Bruce Peninsula (rocks, rocks and more rocks) doesn’t make for easy gardening and soil to plant in is pretty much non-existent. It’s for this reason that the beds at Rural Roots are created in containers - old tires for the most part. It might sound tacky, but the results are anything but! This is container gardening in its finest form. The gardens are so beautiful and natural looking that the tires virtually disappear.

Scattered throughout the gardens you can find many unusual and unique features and characters. The two key characters at Rural Roots are the owners, gardeners and resident hosts, Tom and Dee Ashman. On the day I stopped in, I had the pleasure of chatting with Tom while he was watering in the garden. The gardens were glorious, just as I remembered, and Tom proved to be a wealth of information. While he tended to the watering I picked his brain on multiple topics and snapped a few photos.

Some of the topics we discussed were:

• Leaf miners and how they destroy the leaves on columbines.
• Preventing mildew on phlox.
• How to trim Spiderwort so it keeps blooming throughout the summer.

I had lots more areas of curiosity and questions I could have asked, but didn’t want to completely bombard him - thought I’d save some for my next visit! Sooner than later - I have no intention of waiting for several years to pass between this visit and the next! I’ll get into the specifics of our discussions in a later post where I can give them the attention I think they deserve.

If you’re ever in the area, I highly recommend that you stop in for a garden tour. Admittance and parking are free, however, they do accept donations. I didn’t have any cash with me the day I was there, so I’ll be doubling up my donation amount on the next trip - it’s so worth it!

Rural Roots can be found here.