In my previous post, I tried to describe Keppel Croft Gardens, the unique gardening experience created by Bill and Dawn Loney near Big Bay on the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario. If pictures really are worth a thousand words then, when it comes to Keppel Croft, I still needed a lot of photos to describe this garden because it is so different. This post focuses a little more on ways the Loneys have made their garden utterly personal. And then there’s the henge, the analemmatic sundial and a huge ceramic tile mosaic that traces the sun’s elliptical progress across the sky during the course of a year. (I told you Keppel Croft Gardens was different.)

Plant identification tags, messages, sayings, memorials and signs are sprinkled throughout the gardens. Each is handmade and so charming. Even the conventional “keep out” sign is lighthearted in the hands of the Loneys. I love the plant tags with added bits of information, all hand written, to bring context to what you’re seeing. Small memorials to personal events and lost friends quietly bring a strong sense of family and community.

(Click on any photo to see a larger image, get more details and start the slideshow.)

A little saying brings a chuckle on a walk through a woodsy part of the gardens.

Plants are identified with details for better understanding what you’re seeing.

The conventional keep out sign is turned into a gentle request to detour.

Dedication placques and memorials, all handmade, bring a love of family and friends into this marvellous garden.

The Loneys have taken recycling to a whole new level in their gardens, rethinking everything from garden seating to planting containers to artwork to mulch.

Recycled furnishings for impromptu picnics or just to sit and take in the view are everywhere–though not all spots have chandeliers.

Placed with care on a small wall in the Thyme and Lavender garden, this jawbone looks strikingly sculptural.

A trough becomes a waist-height alpine garden.

At Keppel Croft Gardens, planting requires digging a hole through rocks. But they’re put to good use as mulch.

Though Keppel Croft Gardens in its entirety is quite big, large proportions don’t seem to be the point. Some of the spaces are surprisingly small, like this tiny zen garden. But even though it’s small, it still compels you to stop and take it all in. And knowing that Bill Loney got the idea for the garden when he discovered the concrete floor of an old pig barn under the topsoil kind of makes it extra special.

The diminutive zen garden feels just right.

Garden sculptures and art installations seem to be around every corner of these gardens and each can be appreciated whether you’re a culture connoisseur or a kid. Even the public facilities, an outhouse, has been transformed into a work of art.

These totemic poles are all the more beautiful for their coat of rust.

Here’s one of the poles up close.

This is one of several art installations that feature fantastic rock gardens in frames that resemble the frames of paintings.

This group of ladies look like farmers’ wives, positioned in front of a view to an old barn.

These moulded birds’ nests blend into the weathered wood.

Even the outhouse is a work of art.

The gardens’ decor has themes within themes but spheres, in particular, stand out.

A row of spheres seem to march into the distance at Keppel Croft Gardens.

This sculpture stands close to the entrance to the gardens.

In this celestial-themed art installation, small spheres sub in for conventional rocks in a stylized rock garden.

This sculpture almost looks like a fountain.

This is a close-up shot of one sphere in an art installation featuring feathered critters in spheres.

The Keppel Henge, made from local limestone and granite, and the Analemmatic Sundial are the real deal. The henge accurately tracks the solstices. The sundial really does tell the time by the shadow cast by your own body. (I tested the sundial.) Please follow the henge and sundial links to the Keppel Croft Gardens website pages showing more photos and explaining how these remarkable works of art and engineering were created by Bill Loney and friends. How they figured out and made all of this is astounding and a fun lesson in astronomy.

The sundial sits within a grassy field. You can see some of the henge in the distance.

From a distance the 45-foot diameter henge with limestone megaliths looks like it’s been there since the Stone Age.

The slim 11 foot tall Pointer Stone is made of granite.

You can clearly see the central mound in this shot.

The Analemma Project includes a ceramic mosaic on the ground that traces the elliptical path of the sun for an entire year.

Special markers indicate the solstices.

Do you want to create a backdrop for a flower bed or more intimacy in a larger garden? My next and final post about Keppel Croft Gardens is devoted to how the Loneys use walls to make the most amazing spaces within spaces in their magical gardens.