Happy Friday, GPODers!
Yesterday Laura Axel shared her mom’s gorgeous English garden that inspired her to get into gardening as an adult (Laura Shares Her Mom’s Mature English Garden), and today we’re continuing the theme of gardens that inspire with a submission from Gail Scala in Ontario, Canada. Just as Laura felt compelled to share her mom’s lively landscape, Gail wanted to show us the unique plantings of Jacob Kelly, a legend to those that encounter his adventurous plantings in Dunnville. Far from the expected cold-hardy plants that are usually found in Canadian gardens, Jacob’s landscape is full of cacti, succulents, and tropicals.
Nestled in the charming town of Dunnville, Ontario, on the northern shores of Lake Erie, is a Zone 6b garden that provides a stunning variety of unusual plants even to the most discerning gardener. From cactus gardens and lush tropicals to the fantasy of a sandy beach complete with a boardwalk, this extraordinary garden has it all.
Sixteen years years in the making, owner Jacob Kelly searches far and wide for unique and exotic plants to add to his creative vision. At the height of the growing season, his gardens are bursting with color, texture, and unexpected delight around every corner.
He constantly tests the limits of his Zone 6b growing climate and has an impressive heated greenhouse for the more tender and less hardy plants to stay in during the winter months. He has three cactus/succulent gardens that are rebuilt every spring. In September he begins the labor-intensive work of digging up and repotting the desert-loving plants before moving them all into the greenhouse along with an extensive variety of less cold-hardy plants. The greenhouse provides a verdant tropical-paradise retreat during the cold winter months.
You can also view more photos of Jacob’s gardens on the Garden Ontario Facebook page.
Incredibly, these curvy beds in Jacob’s front yard might be some of his most traditional. While tropical cannas can be seen dotted throughout, coneflowers, hostas, and a beautiful birch are among the classic garden plants that northern gardeners enjoy.
However, it’s not long before things get unusual. No, this isn’t a photo from a trip Jacob took to the Southwest United States—this is an Easter lily cactus (Lobivia ancistrophora, Zones 9–11) surrounded by a delightful array of other cacti and succulents in his Ontario garden.
Unlike other cold-climate gardeners who keep many, or all, of their tender plants in pots that they can easily move outdoors in spring and back indoors before frost, Jacob opts to plant and transplant his tender plants in the ground each year. While this is a bit more work for him, the results in his garden speak for themselves.
Jacob’s decor matches the out-of-the-box vibe of his desert garden. A faux skull looks right at home among purple heart (Tradescantia pallida, Zones 10–11) and ‘Angelina’ sedum (Sedum rupestre ‘Angelina’, Zones 5–9), and is even more fitting as we approach Halloween.
This photo really highlights the amount of work that goes into this garden. While some of these are cold-hardy plants that stay in-ground all year, most of these are not hardy to Zone 6b and will be making the move into Jacob’s greenhouse.
Moving from the desert to the tropics, Jacob’s job is not done when his cacti and succulents are dug up and transferred to pots for the winter. He also has an impressive array of tropical plants to overwinter, such as these two incredible elephant’s ears: ‘Redemption’ (Colocasia esculenta ‘Redemption’, Zones 7–10) on the left and ‘Mojito’ (Colocasia esculenta ‘Mojito’, Zones 7–10) on the right.
The benefit of tropical plants is that many grow in bulbs or corms that are a bit easier to overwinter and store than Jacob’s cacti and succulent collection. This is true for the elephant’s ears above as well as this vibrant tiger flower (Tigridia pavonia, Zones 8–10).
One last view of the tropical garden and the explosion of color Jacob is able to achieve through foliage alone: While I could never manage the workload myself, I completely understand why he invests the time he does into these marvelous plants.
Thank you so much for sharing Jacob’s amazing garden with us, Gail! We always appreciate someone who goes out of their way to share a garden they think deserves more attention, and Jacob’s designs are a prime example.
If you know of a gardener too shy to share their own garden but willing to have you send in photos on their behalf, we would love to see their landscape. Maybe a parent is overly humble about their designs, or a neighbor is too busy to share photos. If you’re planning on giving their garden a visit this weekend, consider mentioning Garden Photo of the Day to them. If you get their blessing to take some photos to share, then follow the directions below to submit photos via email, or send me a DM on Instagram: @agirlherdogandtheroad.
We want to see YOUR garden!
Have photos to share? We’d love to see your garden, a particular collection of plants you love, or a wonderful garden you had the chance to visit!
To submit, send 5–10 photos to [email protected] along with some information about the plants in the pictures and where you took the photos. We’d love to hear where you are located, how long you’ve been gardening, successes you are proud of, failures you learned from, hopes for the future, favorite plants, or funny stories from your garden.
Have a mobile phone? Tag your photos on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with #FineGardening!
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