Rosedale Garden Tour, Toronto

Today my friend Sheila and I went on the annual "Through the Garden Gate" tour put on by the Toronto Botanical Garden society. This year's homes were in the resplendent Rosedale area. The brochure describes the area: "…We've been to Rosedale four times and these have been our most popular tours. So it's fitting that we're back for this special anniversary year (their 25th). Everyone loves Rosedale's spectacular properties, the serpentine streets, the sense of neighbourhood, the old trees and many ravines, not to mention the downtown location..."
We had a fabulous day! I took waaaay too many pictures so I will trim them down and give you just the highlights.

We couldn't decide if this was an old house or a new house built to look old…?

Yellow rose

Globe allium with yellow roses

Allium bulgaricum (I thought it was a fritillaria!)

This one was worth standing in (10 minute) line for!

Interesting water feature with coloured rocks and crystal clear water

Quiet sitting area with water feature

Lap pool with covered seating

There were so many wonderful Japanese maples in the area

Formal white columns and stone entryway

Container with tree and scaviola

Wonderful white gate flanked by white birch

Everyone was speculating if this was from the top of a church

Gorgeous entryway with pineapple sculpture atop white columns and some globe topiary

Trompe l'oeil

Grand backyard with towering Japanese maple

I'm a sucker for yellow roses!

A beautiful side entrance way...

…with a great focal point at the end of it!

See how effective it is to make groupings of the same plant?

This was the fanciest garden - first a wall of climbing roses

Then the Guest house

then the Exercise House (I'm serious! It was full of gym equipment and machines!!)

Rose garden...

…and fountain. It was a very formal space and looked like a well manicured park.

A MOST fabulous arbour!

Climbing roses

Very appropriate garden ornament

Our last garden featured a wonderful relief fountain.

I LOVE garden tours!!!

Cabbagetown Garden Tour June 3, 2012

Cabbagetown, a section just east of the downtown Toronto core, boasts of having the largest continuous area of Victorian housing in North America. Cabbagetown's name is derived from the fact that when Irish immigrants moved to the neighbourhood beginning in the late 1840's, they were so poor that they grew cabbage in their front yards. After the war, the area became increasingly impoverished and became one of Toronto's largest slums. But in the 1970's, affluent professionals began to buy and restore the Victorian row houses. Now the area is filled with beautifully renovated homes and gardens.
My friend and I had a lovely day exploring the tiny but gorgeous yards of these old homes. Here is a pictorial tribute to our lovely afternoon.