“and I just had to have them. They light up at night!” In daytime, they strike a gay note in placements of two or three or four, in yellow, red and blue. In the center of the garden, command-
ing notice from all sides, are two large stands of Miscanthus sinensis that have grown from a single root shared by Wendy Mackie when she was in charge of the gardens at Assiniboine Park. Each year, Wendy would hold a plant sale to raise money for the Conservato- ry, selling off seeds and divisions. June’s magnificent miscanthus is a memento of those open and friendly days at the English Gardens and the Park. June’s beautiful whippet dog comes for a visit, well behaved and an
out
ornament to the garden. “I’ve invited everyone to come back
Above left: close up of the coloured, glass balls that dot the garden.
Above: a bee happily visits a flower.
in August when the grasses are in full bloom,” says June. At that time, too, the lights will really show up because darkness falls much earlier. “Everyone” in this case refers to the visitors who shared her lovely garden during the
The rabbit on the right, with poppies catching the morning sunlight. The miscanthus is in the background.
rabbit squatter and ahead of that is
what could be and once was, a large vegetable garden. June doesn’t current- ly have the time or the inclination to grow a big crop of vegetables, but she loves her Egyptian walking onions and she has given them plenty of room to walk in this luxury of soil. Bowing to their needs, she has artfully laid out trails of red mulch that scream for attention against the black soil around the onions’ walking room where noth- ing is currently planted. It works! (Walking onions are called this
www.localgardener.net
Above: Looking through the pergola toward the deck. The gauzy hangings lend a romantic air to this shady spot.
because they spread by bending their heavy heads over and setting new shoots where the top-heavy heads touch the ground.) The left hand path curves around the
pond and the deck. It ends in a shady, but magical arbour by the garage, hung with lovely, gauzy stuff that captures the morning sunlight. Everywhere there are small coloured balls on sticks in place of the flowers that are taking a rest in mid-July, although there is still plenty in bloom. “I saw them at Costco,” says June of the glass balls,
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra tour in June, 2012. June’s garden was one of the highlights of the tour, according the WSO committee that organized it. All throughout the garden, there
is evidence of June’s creative hand. Her sensibility blends beautifully with the feeling of
lives lived well in the
100-year-old space. The house, too, reflects this sense of permanence, of continuity and of June and her larger- than-life self. Like her garden, June is full of surprises, all of them delightful. V
WINTER 2013 11
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