The Good Garden Guide: Ontario's Outstanding Gardens

Pleasance Crawford is a Canadian landscape and garden-history researcher
and writer, and the co-author of Garden Voices: Two Centuries of
Canadian Garden Writing.

Although garden visiting is an old pastime, it is a new passion. In
Southern Ontario, the tours that are sponsored by the Toronto Civic
Garden Centre are among the best, and for several years Patricia Singer
has helped organize them. With the publication of this guidebook to
Ontario gardens, lovers of plants and other garden elements can now
arrange their own tours.

Organized by region, the book lists and describes more than 200 gardens
of five types: private gardens, public gardens, historical gardens, and
nursery-connected gardens, plus “other notable gardens” to see while
nearby. Practical information (addresses, phone numbers, etc.) is
provided for the public and the nursery-connected gardens and for all
but one of the 18 historical gardens. For the private gardens, the open
days are listed; but the rest of the information must be obtained in one
of two specified ways.

Enhanced by 21 gorgeous color photos, this informative book shows
clearly that Ontario gardeners work with a wide range of soil
conditions, plant types, and design approaches, and that they like to
share the fruits of their labors.