GARDEN PARTY
Annual event has magic touch
Every year, like clockwork, Ivan Dow and Joelle Crane host a garden party on a Saturday in June. Two things make the event stand out: They invite nearly everyone they know, so about 300 people drift through between noon and 6 p.m. or so — and the garden of their Dorval home is an absolutely magical place.
It’s a wooded area that reveals itself only gradually as you come upon clearings in which fanciful structures have been built: a small castle ruin hidden from the rest of the garden, an abbey, a church ruin.
Heavy wooden wardrobe doors, with old fur coats peeking out from inside the cabinet, bring to mind the wardrobe in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia books — a magic portal linking to the world of Narnia.
In another area, there are props inspired by the long-running British science-fiction television series Doctor Who.
Dow has dug three ponds, one with an arched wooden fence that looks straight out of a painting by Claude Monet, and built two zip lines. When you’re in any one section of this garden, you don’t see the others.
“We are in our own little world,” said Dow, who designed and built the various stations using material found at flea markets or garage sales, or salvaged from others’ trash.
The property is a popular destination for garden club tours, and at Halloween — after Dow has spent a month setting it up with props such as a giant dragon, tombstones, old cars and special lighting — about 1,000 people pass through it.
Dow owns a business that does lighting, sound and special effects for movies, television, bands and at other venues; for the garden party, he sets up a machine that sends out bubbles, a smoke machine, a snow machine and a foam machine.
A couple of electric toy trains buzz around — Dow collects model trains and, every September, organizes the Montreal Model Train Exposition, a fundraiser for the Sun Youth Organization — and there are more in the sprawling basement, along with pinball machines and a seemingly limitless supply of candy. If I were a kid, I’d never want to leave that basement.
He starts to invite guests by phone to the party as early as January.
“It gives you a chance to connect with people again,” he said. “A certain percentage you see, but others you don’t.” And the concern is that without this annual event, too much time could pass between visits and they might lose contact.”
“We know a lot of people,” said Crane, “and we couldn’t possibly have each group over because there aren’t enough weekends in the year.”
The party serves as a kind of social glue, then — and also as a family gathering, with Dow’s sister travelling from Calgary and other family members travelling from Ontario. Crane and Dow have three siblings each, and Dow has “oodles of cousins,” Crane said. Dow’s father is 92, and opportunities to gather to celebrate are precious as the shadows lengthen.
“Fifteen years ago, we had 25 to 30 aunts and uncles at the event — and now we are down to three or four,” said Dow, who is 61. “There is a changing of the guard going on right in front of our eyes; emotionally, it’s kind of shocking.”
Observed Crane: “Ivan’s dad and aunt are the only two left of that generation. We have lost many. You feel the urgency.”
Another thing about the annual June garden party: As with all rituals, there is comfort in the repetition, in the act of doing the same thing year after year.
In the weeks leading up to the event, for instance, they head to Costco and Maxi for 250 hotdogs, 250 hamburgers and 100 sausages, and clear out the freezers to make room for all that meat. Dow gets freezer pops for the kids. There are the buns to buy, and large containers of condiments.
Friend Roy Motton mans the barbecue every year — usually after feigning confusion about the date and saying he’s not available. But stalwart that he is, he’s always there. And as hosts, Crane and Dow are gracious to a fault.
“You’re not really doing the barbecue for yourself,” Dow said. “It’s for the people who come. To make your guests happy is the idea.” One friend, now 36, has been attending the party since he was 12.
If guests ask what they can contribute, “We tell them to bring something a lot of people will enjoy,” Dow said. This year, new neighbours contributed a huge platter of homemade maki sushi. Other guests took beer and crudités and cake.
When Dow bought the house, an old hunting lodge, for $28,000 in 1979, the garden had barely any trees or hedges. At first, he didn’t mind.
“But as you get older, you start wanting to play in the dirt. The green is soothing. I always wanted a forest in my backyard — and wanted it to have little ruins in it,” said Dow, who came here from his native England as a 10-year-old.
He planted the shrubs, trees and cedar hedge, and he dug the ponds, but attributes the placement of the greenery and the flowers to Crane’s sense of design. She’s a real gardener, he said.
Over the years, the weather has co-operated.
“We had one year when it rained,” Dow recalled, “but it was so hot that no one minded.”
Part of what motivates him to have the party year after year is to provide a fun experience for the many children who attend.
“I think it gives the young kids something they are never going to forget,” Dow said. “To be able to do something like that for them is a privilege.”
And another thing: “Having such a big event, it imposes a deadline to get things done in the garden and make things ready,” said Crane, a clinical neuropsychologist at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital.
In the days leading up to the event, she might grumble about all the work there is to do to prepare — and to hide the clutter that accumulates in any house.
“And then as people are leaving, we’re saying, ‘Don’t forget next year.’ It’s a bit like giving birth: You remember only the good,” she said.
The couple have been together for 26 years and skipped the party only one year: the year Crane gave birth to their daughter, now 13. They also have a 16-year-old son.
“The party didn’t start off with us inviting everyone we know,” Crane recalled. “It was family at first and close friends, and then it started getting bigger — and bigger.”
Her advice for would-be party hosts is to start small and, if you’re keen on a big event, to gradually work your way up.
“There are things you’ll learn along the way,” she said, “and they will help you.”