Edwards Gardens & the Toronto Botanical Garden

It’s already August! Summer is half way over and I haven’t been out enjoying nature. I’ve been missing the special beauty of a garden so today I visited Edwards Gardens and the Toronto Botanical Garden.

Can you see the butterfly atop the Echinacea flower in the lead photo? Below, I’ve cropped the pic for a closer look. There was a prettier butterfly on a nearby plant but it flew away before I could focus my lens for a closeup.It’s in the next photo but difficult to see.

I love Echinacea plants! The lush colours and the late morning light further enhanced the plant’s ability to fill me with of joy. This alone was worth the three-bus ride, athough, I did spend a few hours meandering around the grounds and then taking in a late lunch at the onsite cafe. The rest of this post is dedicated to photos.

Groundhog

Rhododendron

Selfie

Food garden

 

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Guelph Enabling Garden: An awesome visual symphony

“Mommy, it’s a plant paradise!” That’s the comment Wendy, the volunteer coordinator, overheard a young boy make on Saturday morning. And, well, it is true. The Enabling Garden at Riverside Park is an intriguing and special place for young and old.

For me, the garden is a way to indulge in an artistic appreciation of beauty and design.  It satisfies my passion for movement and the outdoors. And there’s more – it stimulates my curiosity by providing a venue for getting up close to nature and observing its lifecycle changes.

The garden is a visual symphony. Plants grow, flower, entice bees to pollinate, whither, go to seed and become dormant while other specimens come into bloom amid the fruit- and nut-bearing trees and shrubs and the butterflies flitter and rest. By nature and design the garden is in constant flux.

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