The Gardens Of Kingsbrae
Kingsbrae Garden includes some of the great traditions in gardening, including the White, Rose, Knot, Perennial and Cottage gardens. Kingsbrae Garden is a place where traditional and modern gardening styles and plant materials are employed to enrich, preserve, and promote gardening. These include the Rhododendron, Heath & Heather, Ornamental Shrub, Dwarf Container, Bird & Butterfly, Herb, Hydrangea, Scents & Sensitivity, Knot, Rose, Perennial and Gravel gardens.
The Container Garden is an example of the extensive varieties of vegetables, herbs, and flowers which can be grown in containers of all kinds on patios, terraces, rooftops, and decks.
Our Orchard contains several heirloom varieties of apple trees.
The adjacent Edible Garden showcases edible plants, fruits, and berries, both native and exotic.
The Therapy and Scents & Sensitivity gardens are specially designed for those with special needs.
The Children’s Garden and Fantasy Garden provide outdoor environments for fun and learning.
Even a stroll in the woods can be a learning adventure in our Acadian forest.
Interpretive panels can be found along the paths, and a brochure is available in the Visitor Centre.
Frequent rest and lookout sites are provided here and throughout the Garden.
Kingbrae Garden Map
Entry Garden
The wow factor presents itself as soon as you enter the parking lot and see the over-scale mobile of Canada geese. The planting features trees, grasses and hundreds of daylilies. You would never know you were in a parking lot.
As you approach the Entry Garden, you are greeted by a pair of flamboyant begonia umbrella trees underplanted with a panoply of more begonias, giving consistent colour all season and adjoining the Premier’s Arboretum, featuring the trees of each of Canada’s ten provinces and three territories.
White Garden
Past the entrance sign lies our highly acclaimed White Garden. This stunning site has impressed many people who have compared it with the famous Sissinghurst Castle’s white garden in Kent, England. The mirrored obelisk provides an interesting visual effect in the garden. Also note, on the other side of the pathway, the “cedar bench” and the porthole view to the Knot Garden.
Cottage Garden
This fine example of an English cottage garden is enclosed by a white brick wall, remaining from the original house.
You’ll see a vibrant assortment of colourful annuals and perennials as you enter the Visitors Centre.
Rill
This beautiful water feature can be seen just as you leave the Visitor Centre to start your tour of the Garden. By definition, a rill is a woman/man-made garden canal that creates garden ambiance through the pleasant sound of moving water.
The earliest style of rill was found in ancient Persian gardens, but perhaps the most famous are in the Moorish Alhambra Gardens in Granada, Spain. The rill was a popular water feature of Edwardian garden design and was often used by Gertrude Jeckyll, one of England’s most famous garden designers.
Knot Garden
The Knot Garden is the most formal area of Kingsbrae Garden – each of the four beds is laid out symmetrically with a different Celtic knot.
Two strongly contrasting colours of foliage enclosed by boxwood create the effect. Everything is carefully trimmed to a consistent height. Knot gardens (parterres) were popular in Italy and France in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and fashionable in Britain from Tudor times.
Rose Garden
This garden sits on the site of the original rose garden from the original estate. Its beauty has been recreated with geometric central planning of Rosa Grandiflora and Carpet Roses, surrounded on the banks by newer varieties of “bush roses”, such as Floral Carpet and Explorer and wild rugosas, underplanted with creeping thyme.
As you can imagine, this garden is a favourite for weddings.
Perennial Garden
Two acres, enclosed by cedar hedges which create a warmer microclimate, are divided into 26 beds, each planted with different combinations of perennials. As you stroll along each path, you are presented with a different view at every turn. Benches offer welcoming spots to sit and enjoy this garden's heady beauty, as perennials' varying bloom times present an ever-changing show throughout the season.
The sweep of the day lily bed in full bloom is unforgettable. Hummingbirds abound, especially when the bee balm (monarda) is in bloom in July and August. You might see one of our Garden cats basking in the sun.
Throughout the seasons, from May through October, the Perennial Garden is full of colour; gems of spring-like fritillaria, hyacinths and daffodils, followed by exquisite fern leaf peonies, many types of lilies and hundreds of perennials throughout the summer, giving way to coneflowers (echinacea), false sunflowers (heliopsis helianthoides), sea holly (eryngium maritimum) and much more in the fall. The many varieties of Japanese maples are magnificent, blazing against the dark green hedges throughout the garden.
Children's Fantasy Garden
Here you will find five brightly-coloured playhouses, including an exciting castle to climb, curious weeping shrubs and trees, a living fence and a willow arbour.
The bright and red rabbit condominium, home to three brothers, can be found in the shade of the garden entrance. The Mad Hatter’s Teapot Trees add an eccentric splash of colour, the pots planted with annuals. The trunks were saved from one of our century-old cedar hedges that need to be replaced. One of the playhouses has a living roof – an ecological experiment which works superbly. More people could use this technique to insulate their roofs.
Gravel Garden
Gravel or xeriscape gardens are defined as “quality landscaping that conserves water and protects the environment”. They are drought-resistant, beautiful in all seasons, and very low maintenance as there is no visible soil to support weeds.
Many different types of gravel can be used, and large boulders are a natural addition to the serene beauty of the gravel garden. The stones actually keep the soil cool and moist, which is kind to the roots of the plants, enhancing growth and viability. Less evaporation means less watering, which is great for the ecosystem.
The Windmill And Pond
The windmill, “Darlingke”, was a gift to Kingsbrae Garden from John & Lucinda Flemer, to honour Mr. Flemer’s Dutch heritage. It’s a one-third-scale, functioning windmill, built in Holland and then dismantled and erected at the Garden by the Dutch Firm of Vaags in 1998.
We use it to help circulate the water from the lower to the upper pond in order to keep the ponds from stagnating. The vanes of the windmill are turned to face the direction of the wind. When the large vanes are turning, you can watch the water coming up through a screw onto a wooden sluice, through a rocky creek bed and into the upper pond.
Both ponds were lined with marine clay. Our in-ground irrigation system draws from the ponds, thereby lessening our draw on the Town’s water system.
Scents and Sensitivity Garden
Built in cooperation with the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, this waist-high raised bed, designed for the enjoyment of the visually impaired, features plants alternating between scent and texture. All plant labels are engraved in Braille, as well as in English and Latin.
There are wind chimes in the tall trees nearby, which also offer cooling shade from the sun, often a problem for those whose eyes are very sensitive to bright light. Flowering dogwood and wild rugosa roses on the perimeter add their perfume to the Scents & Sensitivity Garden. There are benches nearby to rest amidst this calming oasis.
This Garden was featured in Amazing Race Canada Season 4 – Episode 10 as a challenging roadblock for competitors.
Secret Garden and Peace Garden
The Peace Garden has been created to welcome veterans of the military and first responders. A tranquil pond and shady umbrellas create a stress-free environment. This area is used following the annual Afghanistan Memorial Ceremony and is appreciated by all.
This garden also is home to a significant oak tree that is connected genetically from the acorns Leslie Miller collected on the battlefield at Vimy in 1917.
Sculpture Garden
When an exhibition of metal sculptures by Don Pell was placed throughout the existing garden and proved a major success, we used what was originally a “blank canvas” (an otherwise unused field) to create a dedicated sculpture garden.
This garden shows off superbly how crafted art and crafted nature can be joined for a beautiful and harmonious spectacle.
