Colonial Garden

The first European settlers to come to Canada were, of course, colonizers. They did not come as tourists to look at the indigenous Indians and go home. They came to stay and to make their homes. The first houses were primitive log cabins, and the gardens were planted to provide food. In a generation or two, however, the settlers were secure and advanced enough to be able to put priorities on the "finer things in life". In the late 18th and early 19th centuries there was a rise of the middle class along with their aspirations to have some of the elegance that had formerly been limited to the aristocracy.

This was the time when Canada received a large influx of some of the more educated and refined Americans who preferred to remain under the Crown of England than to stay with the uncertainties of the new republic. In "Colonial Garden" I have tried to show the classic elegance and civilized restraint which the late 18th and 19th centuries brought to a more rustic Canada.