I was in Niagara-on-the-Lake yesterday, along with quite a few thousand people. The main street, Queen Street, was really clogged with strolling visitors.
And likely there were around 1,000 like-minded people on the Shaw Festival Garden tour. This was the first time we lined up on the street to go into gardens. You meet people from all over the place - lots of visitors this past weekend. One couple with American accents told me they were from Niagara-on-the-Lake. When I told them my parents' history with the town, they reformed their origins and said they have lived on Gate Street for 5 years and were from the southern U.S.
That's very much Niagara-on-the-Lake today - many people from all places attracted to this wonderful town where walking and bicycles are the norm. I am a member of the horticultural society as there is a tremendous enthusiasm for gardening in the town.
Since the 2000s, Niagara-on-the-Lake has been transitioning/transforming into new build homes made to look historical and heritage. Or they take heritage homes and add to them to create a grand vacation home. They are very attractive, and the gardens are generally good to excellent, too.
There's a mix on garden tours. There's the appeal of the expansive patio, pool and kitchen area outside. So some on the tour have a lot of hardscape materials and big pools. One even had the artificial grass, known as Serenity grass, in between the natural stone pavers. It was attractive, too.
There are a few with great perennial gardens. One house and garden stood out - it was an original town house maybe from the 1930s when it was a summer cottage vacation town. It is right on the Lake - a bungalow with a traditional perennial garden walk at the front, and the great expanse of Lake Ontario at the back looking over to Fort Niagara. That's the first picture. The second two are examples of the traditional style of new builds and transformations of the old architecture. They are enjoyable, too. That's what Niagara-on-the-Lake is about.
Old Town Niagara-on-the-Lake has about 10,000 residents. Could there be as many as 1,000 great gardens in the town? I think there easily could be that many.
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