This week we’re on the road with Cherry Ong again, looking back at some gardens she got to visit on a garden tour organized by the Toronto Botanical Garden. Today is another beautiful private home garden, full of great ideas worth stealing for your own garden.

At the heart of the back garden is a patio area with this large table and several chairs for lounging and relaxing. I need more of this in my garden at home! And I love the small, informal bouquet of flowers on the table.

The elegant fencing doubles as a support for this spire of perfect blue delphiniums (Delphinium elatum, Zones 4–8).

Catmint (Nepeta × faassenii, Zones 3–8) is a durable, easy-to-grow perennial that will rebloom if you cut it back when the first flush of flowers fade.

Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia, Zones 3–9) covers this building with lush green foliage, giving the space a wonderful, wild feel. This climbing vine is native to much of eastern and central North America and will happily climb up any wall or tree. The leaves feed the caterpillars of several species of beautiful moths, and birds love the blue berries it produces. It is beautiful all summer but really shines in the fall when the leaves turn brilliant shades of orange and red.

This is a garden for enjoying! Comfortable chairs, with an umbrella and a table for a drink or snack, help make that possible.

Hostas fill in the back of this border, with a line of lady’s mantle (Alchemilla mollis, Zones 3–8) in the front covered with lime-green flowers.

This border is in shades of purple from salvia (Salvia nemorosa, Zones 4–8), a bearded iris (Iris hybrid, Zones 3–8), and many other perennials.

Bearded irises come in basically every color imaginable except for red, but I think they do these dark, rich tones particularly well.

A simple combination of green fern and white impatiens (Impatiens hawkeri, Zones 9–11) is a perfect complement to this urn.

Have a garden you’d like to share?

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