Rosedale garden offers ‘best of all worlds’ below Hamilton’s escarpment

John Zimmerman and wife Rosanne (Ro to everyone but her mother) garden hard up against the base of the escarpment in the Rosedale neighbourhood of east Hamilton. Here is a gardener who pays attention to detail: a weed-free lawn makes his day, mulch gets re-topped when it starts to fade in the sun, and there's not one side of his house that he hasn't made into a lovely garden area. They bought their house when a thick layer of snow hid the gardens, but when the snows melted, they moved quickly to make them their own. In a phone conversation, John talks about the gardens he and Ro have made.

Your garden is beautiful. You've really done a ton of work there.

I'm very pleased but my wife is ecstatic because she spends actually more time enjoying it than I do.

How long have you been on the property?

Twenty-three years. We did some house-searching in January, came across this property. It was just covered in snow, so I didn't know really what to expect out of it. She fell in love with the place and I fell in love with the land. So we purchased this and then the next spring when everything kind of melted, we found out what we had. The back part, against the escarpment is really beautiful. But there were basically no gardens from where the ground (levels out). And in the front of the house ... were some junipers and things like that. That was it. So the very next year we pulled out the front and started working our way from the front to the back.

How would you describe your garden?

Well, it's eclectic because we have a little bit of everything and there are four different garden areas. There's the front of the house and then I have another style going up the side. And then of course, there's the backyard and then we have a dead" side of the house, usually all in shade. It was originally all grass and then I created a garden in that area.

You've obviously made a real effort to garden the sides of your house.

It's 10 feet from the house to the property line on both sides. So there's ample room and the easiest way to get to the backyard is up the one side because there's a gate. So I wanted to make a garden there because I do love gardening and I also enjoy hearing people say nice things about it. The other side is predominantly a hosta garden because of the shade.

That big back bed backs up against the escarpment. It gives you a sense of Hamilton's geography, I think.

Oh, you know what? I have the best of all worlds to be honest with you. My wife has often said she's seen deer walking along the back. We've seen all sorts of coyotes, raccoons, skunks ... our first groundhog. It's truly a wonderland.

Do you consider your garden more of a foliage garden or a flower garden?

Foliage, definitely. The hostas, the ferns. Generally, it's more of greens on green. Ro likes Japanese maples. And that (part of the garden) needed something with colour to go against the green. So we ended up putting a Japanese maple there.

Do you have a favourite flower or favourite plant?

We always have some red geraniums because of the pops of colour throughout the season. And the phlox. When it blooms the colour is unbelievable because there's pinks and reds and purple. It just makes a beautiful colour and it's no work. And my wife loves the irises. We have a nice white one in the front that just really stands out.

You obviously maintain a very lovely lawn. Do you have much of a routine with the grass?

One of the things I think the most of in my garden is my grass. I don't have any weeds. I do it the old style with a knife and I just walk my lawn and I'll pull any weeds I see. I fertilize it quite a bit in the spring and once in the fall. Each year we'd have a summer barbecue with people from work and I had one (colleague) who would look over my lawn and always say to me, I cannot find a weed anywhere.' It would make me feel so proud even though it sounds so piddly. But my grass is the thing I feel best about.

Do you use chemicals on your grass?

Just fertilizer.

What advice would you give to somebody who's starting off a home garden or wants to turn their own garden into something, you know, a step up.

Well, you know, this is the perfect time to ask me this because my son actually purchased a house and all they have is grass in the back. And the one thing I said to them is, You have to know how much time you want to dedicate ... if you're looking for a garden like mine, you better be willing to work hard to keep it going that way.' I would always say, look at your spot and know how much time you want to spend in it. I personally love puttering in the garden. But there's a lot of people that would like to look at it but would never want to pick up a shovel in their life. They have to make those decisions on their own as to how much time they want to spend doing it.

(This conversation has been shortened and edited for clarity and conciseness.)

Rob Howard lives and gardens in Hamilton and has been writing about gardening for more than 30 years. Find him on Facebook at Rob Howard: Garden writer or email him at gardenwriterRob@gmail.com