That first season Marcusās friends helped her haul perennials from the St. Lawrence Farmersā Market in downtown Toronto. The garden looked bare in spite of carloads of delphinium, iris, lupins, shasta daisies and ferns plants meant to grow quickly, thrive and require little care.

I had every gardening book I could find, but I still bought with my heart, Marcus confesses. I planted flowers by color and height and put them wherever I liked.

But she didnāt want to be haphazard. The second season she found kindred spirit Karen Landman, a rural planner and landscape designer from Barryās Bay, Ontario. Marcus wanted a garden from which to create her bold, colorful paintings. Together they developed a perennial garden that provides color and textural interest throughout the season. We worked eight to ten hours a day and were almost eaten alive by blackflies because we fertilized with well-rotted local manure, Marcus recalls.