Life's a lark on Lemonville Road

It’s a rough and tumble life at this woodsy parcel of land in Burlington, about as cottagey as you can get, paces away from Highway 403

Rita Guérin meets me at her driveway, where the tour of her garden begins.

A phone, the land line kind, is clipped to her blouse.

“We have three of these now, just in case,” she says.

Last year they had but one, then none. Rita set it down in the wheelbarrow, forgot where it was, and it got burned to a crisp, along with a pile of leaves.

It’s a rough and tumble life at this woodsy parcel of land on the mysterious Lemonville Road in Burlington. The dead end road is about as cottagey as you can get, though it’s just paces away from Highway 403.

They have learned the magic plant for their garden is hosta, according to Rita.

“Years ago we noticed when we went on vacation, when we got back, most of the plants were dying but not the hostas.”

So now her records reveal there are about 250 hostas in the garden, with 40 types of cultivars planted in beds carved out of the stingy soil.

As we tour the garden, Rita rhymes off the hosta honour roll: Blue Angel, Guardian Angel, Blue Danube, Old Glory, Sum and Substance, Seven Power, Krossa Regal, Jimmy Crack Corn — and a big patch of unknown hosta that Rita named Mrs. Simpson, after one of her homesteading neighbours.

To look at all the beds and the meandering paths, one would think the garden finished. But no, just last week a new bed was designed with the hostas arranged between stones laid on a diagonal. The stone, Rita says, comes from the property or from their place up north. “We moved it by canoe.” Before planting, they amend the sandy soil with compost and triple mix, and mulch the finished beds with wood chips to retain moisture and suppress weeds.

It’s surprising Mike and Rita sit still long enough for an interview. They talk about things waiting to be done: limbing up trees, cleaning the deck, moving hostas, checking on plants under observation in their “nursery bed.”

“Our son flew a drone over the garden last week,” Rita says. “He’s editing the footage now; we can’t wait to see that.”

Life’s a lark on Lemonville Road.

The classic Krossa Regal hosta is strong, impervious to bugs and elegant with its vase shape. It’s a dependable performer in Rita and Mike Guérin’s garden in Burlington.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY KATHY RENWALD Rita and Mike Guérin moved to lovely Lemonville Road in Burlington in 1973. They rebuilt a worn cottage, and created gardens amid the forest.

This hammock likely doesn’t see much action. The owners are usually embroiled in moving or pruning plants, or designing new beds.