The Garden at Lucas House

About the project

In December 2022 I completed a course with the University of Guelph on naturalizing and restoring landscapes. My final project was a proposal to create a natural native plant garden at Lucas House, in Haliburton, Ontario. Introduction Lucas House is a Century home in the centre of Haliburton, Ontario. It is co-owned by myself and…

Updates

Plants arrive

I ordered 1,200 plants for the garden at Lucas House from Grow Wild! native plant nursery in Omemee , Ontario. They came as plugs – so quite small. But they will grow quickly and within two years will densely cover the ground. Buying plugs is more cost-effective. They’re much cheaper than bigger plants, but soon…

Adding a mulch

I decided to use a wood-chip mulch. I don’t believe a mulch is strictly necessary, but I chose to do so for aesthetic reasons because the garden is in a prominent position. I only put 1-2 inches down, which is less than recommended for most garden projects. However, for a native plant garden, less mulch…

Removing the lawn

The first task was to remove the lawn. There was 1,200 sq ft of it around the south, east and west sides of the building. There are several ways to remove the lawn: solarizing (covering it in plastic so the grass bakes), layering (covering it in cardboard so the grass is starved of light), removing…