On September 15th I headed to Spadina House in case any volunteers showed up to help harvest. But a few factors told me that I really should have stayed in bed all day, drinking echinacea tea and resting. Nobody else showed up (maybe afflicted with the same fall ills?) but since I was already at the garden I took the opportunity to explore the grounds using photography.

There are beautiful window boxes by the front entrance. Like all the plants on the Spadina House grounds, they recreate what the gardens looked like under the original ownership of the house. But how do we know, today, what was growing a hundred years ago or more? Wendy, the heritage horticulturalist who has been working at Spadina House since it opened, sifts through any and all archives, trying to find images or descriptions of the gardens at the time. If a meal is described, for example, it’s likely the ingredients were sourced on-site so that can help her determine what was growing in the garden. Not long ago it was discovered that window boxes existed for a time, and so here they are today.

There is a beautiful three-bin composter on site, hidden behind the servants’ house. But it hasn’t gotten much use as of late (see the tomatoes growing in one of the bins, below?) because Spadina House got an enormous donation of compost from the City (as a City of Toronto property, the connection seems sensible). As a result, they haven’t needed to pay much attention to their own bins. (Note: Farrah wasn’t actually there on the 15th, this is an older photo. She called me up saying she was going to come, then I told her we should both sleep. She agreed. Zzzz…)

Spadina House is connected with other historic homes and properties around the City of Toronto. For a while now they’ve had their own greenhouse where they grow plant material for the network of historic homes. Isn’t it a lovely construction? The City has a number of greenhouses hidden in parks around Toronto.

Netting has been used to protect some of the lettuces, carrots, and radishes from rabbits. It was a smart move a month or two ago but now the lettuce is past its harvest stage and nobody has eaten it. Without any formal channels for the food to get eaten, some goes to waste. Hopefully, not far from the tree will help remedy this.

The red delicious apples are looking amazing, but they’re not quite ready to pick. Apple-picking is a test of my patience…

This balcony overlooks the city. The original owners of the house watched the Confederation fireworks at the waterfront from here in 1867. It slopes down to Davenport, the ancient shore of Lake Iroquois and a First Nations runners’ route. It is the only undeveloped piece of the Davenport hill that remains.

There are a number of mature trees on the grounds, something that only many richer properties can afford in a city of duplexes. This grouping of three reminds me of a delightful piece of public art in Ottawa, “Nature Girls” by Laura Ford.

And as those mature trees age, it looks like there are some efforts to plant new ones:

Spadina House also has nuts… perhaps a new venture for not far from the tree? Originally, I was actually thinking of a wild nut and fruit harvesting project. Dreaming big is always the best part of any community arts project, so we’ll see where this goes…

To finish off our tour, a view of Spadina House from the southeast: