August Grimsby Gardens

I live in a town of 25,000 in the heart of the Niagara Wine region.  Award-winning Tawse Winery is just 10 minutes away, as are a dozen great Niagara Wineries.  Grimsby started as a place of orchards - we're well known for our peaches, and our sports teams favour the name Peach Kings.

It makes sense that a town that was the site of the 1813 Battle of the Forty would have some lovely homes and gardens.  This first garden, with its park setting, is in fact located on Park Street - the road that travels up the escarpment.  Under the escarpment, with a full canopy of trees, this is a gracious and elegant garden with a stone bridge and natural waterfalls.

This next front garden, in town, demonstrates what August abundance is about - golden sunflowers and pink Echinaceas all crowded into a butterfly-attracting display.  The subtle fence makes a pretty boundary for the garden to overflow.

This grand house is on Main Street.  It is an example of using the garden to emphasize the distinctive elegance of the architecture.  White on white seems perfect here.

There are many more Grimsby gardens to come - and they span from the 1700's through to the present. A big boom in the 1950's and then again in the 1980's put the peach orchards on the outskirts.  Then the collapse of the peach canning with the last plant closing in 2008 resulted in more vineyards.  There are still lots of peach trees to see in the countryside.  There are great peaches at the market now - at the end of August.