ABOYNE – While the Wellington County Museum and Archives is currently closed to the public with only online programming offered at present, the grounds are open, and for garden-lovers, it’s worth a wander around.
As one might expect at a museum, the gardens have a historical tone and feature heritage plants.
The heritage barn, built in 1877, offers a glimpse of what life would have been like for farmers in the area more than a century ago.
There’s a small vegetable patch west of the frame barn that is normally packed with many of the fruits and vegetables that would have been grown on the site during the 1930s and ‘40s.
In normal times, gardener Liane Howell would pay more attention to the vegetable plot, which is used as a demonstration garden for summer camps and school groups.
“This year it’s just a regular garden,” she said in an interview.
There are more formal gardens on the west side of the museum with statues and plaques explaining the museum’s history as a poor house and later a home for the aged.
The farm was a working farm at one time and fed the residents.
On the west side of the building is a butterfly garden, a cottage garden, and a woodland garden.
Historic – Hollyhocks are taking centre stage in the butterfly garden.
Photo by Joanne Shuttleworth
A bench tucked among the trees of the woodland garden is welcome refuge from the glaring sun on these hot summer days.
And it affords views of the other gardens, which are bursting with colour right now.
The butterfly garden features plants that attract pollinators – hollyhocks, black-eyed Susans, daisies, and many more. It’s as much fun to watch the bees and butterflies at work as it is to admire the flowers.
Tucked in the butterfly garden is a pond with water lilies in bloom.
Follow around the building and you’ll find the Victorian garden, with a patio and pergola that can be rented for weddings and other events.
It is marked by an arbor and white picket fence and is brimming with perennials.
Howell said she started gardening for Wellington County in 2004 and has been executing a garden plan at the museum ever since.
With hours cut back due to the pandemic, the plan has been on hold for two summers now, and she’s mainly doing maintenance.
“It’s such a lovely place to work and people do come by to see the gardens,” she said.
“I consider it a privilege to work there.”
Jana Burns, administrator of Wellington Place which includes the museum and surrounding property, said it’s been frustrating that regular programs have been shut down due to the pandemic.
But the summer concert series, on Thursday evenings, is ramping up and rentals for weddings are back with restrictions.
Staff have also been renovating the chicken coop near the barn and next week Burns said they are expecting delivery of 30 heritage chickens and a few roosters.
“People need these spaces,” she said in an interview.
“There’s a different level of appreciation for gardens since the pandemic. People are attracted to the colours and the smells.”
She invited people to pack a picnic and explore.
“It’s restorative,” she said. “We haven’t been able to connect with people lately. But we can still connect with nature.”
