WALKING THROUGH A LOVELY GARDEN affects most people in a visceral way. They react to the array of scents, textures and colours. They become lost in sensory delight. While she can appreciate this artistic response, Sheila Sim sees her garden more from the standpoint of a technician. For her, gardens, like businesses, need specific boundaries, a firm hand, attention to detail and careful nurturing to bloom and grow properly. After attaining a Master's degree in adult education from the University of Guelph, Sim worked 20 years running seminars for various colleges on academic and program planning. Her specialty is organization. While in her late 30s, she bought her first home in Caledonia, Ontario. It sat on a 3/4-acre property that was sadly neglected. It was mostly scrub and mud, and included an old chicken coop. "It looked like Little House on the Prairie," Sim admits with a laugh. She turned to landscaping books for inspiration. "That's where my garden journal started. It wasn't so much a journal to keep track of what I was doing as a way to organize in my own mind how to do things in an orderly manner, a reference book. "I had a very good friend who would come over and we would spend hours on the back porch just looking at the yard. We'd take brooms and shovels and plant them in various places, then sit back and say, OK, if that broom was a spruce tree and that shovel was a euonymus bush, what would it look like?" After analyzing the soil and identifying sunny and shady spots, Sim began to assemble her garden, consulting her journal and getting professional advice as needed. As she learned what worked and what didn't, her gardens began to resemble her vision. Applying her business philosophy to gardening, Sim subscribes to what she calls the "three-legged stool" approach. The legs represent research, planning and evaluation, and she tracks progress in her garden journal. In 1999, Sim married Marty Humphrey, a retired business teacher turned artist. Because she runs her consulting business from home, they wanted a peaceful spot in the country, and she sold the Caledonia house. She offered her detailed garden journal to the purchaser, a young man. His obvious delight with it gave her an idea, but she was busy and had to put it on the back burner. That same year, the couple found their home in the lush, rolling countryside near Westport, about 1 1/2 hours southwest of Ottawa. The 2,000-square-foot, two-storey house, which they call Four Seasons Cottage, is of native limestone. It was constructed around the time the Rideau Canal was built. In typical Ontario-cottage style, the living spaces are primarily at the front. One of the three upstairs bedrooms serves as Sim's office. The major renovations, completed before they bought the place, converted the summer kitchen and woodshed at the back to a large living/dining room with a fireplace. French doors overlook the gardens. Previous owners also added a sunroom, now used as a seasonal dining and sitting area. According to township records, they are the seventh occupants. The original owner, circa 1847, was the builder of the house, Henry Bateman. Judicious renovations have maintained the home's 19th-century charm. It is the perfect setting for their belongings, including Sim's Upper Canadian quilts and other antiques, and Humphrey's American Amish-influenced furnishings. The landscaping is renowned in the area. The acre of land has been tended by a succession of gardening enthusiasts, and the soil in the gardens, covering about two-thirds of the property, was perfectly prepped and well-drained. This Zone 5 property is totally different from the one in Caledonia, so Sim started a new garden journal, on a much larger scale. Following her inclination for order and discipline, she began applying her "three-legged stool" business formula to the gardens. She wanted the garden design to reflect and complement the interior design of the house. "We researched the makeup of the soil, drew a sketch of the property, the kinds and locations of existing plants, which spots were sunny and shady, where the rain fell, when to fertilize, when to prune," she says. They carefully planned changes, and every year evaluated hits and misses. "This was a running record, but it was also a reminder, and every season we checked off each job as we did it." Sim favours ground covers and perennials, and has a tip for new gardeners: "One thing you have to remember about perennials is that the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap. I read that somewhere, and it's really true. You have to give them time to develop." While the soil is rich, the property has a slope, allowing nutrients and topsoil to drain off along with excess water. Every year, the couple tops the gardens with a three-in-one mix, a combination of topsoil, peat moss and some kind of manure. There are several raised beds around the perimeter of the acreage, most bordered by stacked rock walls using limestone gathered in adjacent fields. Humphrey has built a model railroad in a corner of the property, homage to a rail line he knew in his childhood. The couple has also developed a system to control weeds. "We don't use large amounts of mulch to keep the weeds down in summer," Sim says. "Mulching sounds good, it looks good in the books, but we found that with the nuggets, the weeds managed to squeeze through the spaces, and the black landscaping cloth leaves mould and fungus underneath. Unlike city gardens, we're surrounded by farmers' fields, and every seed just blows into the mulch and germinates very happily. "Instead of mulching everywhere, I prefer to take my favourite tool in the world, a three-pronged, long-handled cultivator that belonged to my grandfather, and dig around the plants, disturbing the weed seeds. We try to have one good week in the spring, working every day, to get everything in shape." Four Seasons Cottage has been featured on several Eastern Ontario garden and studio tours. Many visitors come to see Humphrey's unique wooden artwork. Inspired by quilt patterns and landscape paintings, he reproduces imagery in beautifully crafted wood wallhangings. Most visitors stay to enjoy the relaxing ambience of the surrounding gardens. This month, the property will be a featured stop in the Westports of the World tour, which attracts residents of towns and cities named Westport from as far away as the United States, England and Europe. Whether seeding, pruning, mulching, dividing or wielding her heirloom cultivator, Sim is engaging in an activity about which she is passionate. Recently, remembering the man who was so pleased with her Caledonia gardening journal, she began a new consulting business. Calling herself The Garden Coach, she offers her services to people who want help managing their new and/or existing gardens. Drawing from her experience over several decades, she visits a property, helps the owners create a plan, and shows them how to start and maintain a garden journal. Sitting on one of their cosy, private patios, sipping wine on a late-summer evening, the couple epitomizes a working partnership. Both have contributed to the colourful, meticulously groomed gardens, which seem to extend like extra rooms from the house. Sim is the methodical garden technician, while Humphrey's intuitive artistry and prowess with a shovel have brought their long-term plans to fruition. Certainly, Four Seasons Cottage is a far cry from Little House on the Prairie. CREATE A GARDEN JOURNAL You can make your own garden journal from a blank "memory book" available at any craft store. Choose the size that works best for you, and divide it into the sections you need to organize information. Include a sketch of your garden layout, noting sun, shade, prevailing winds, rainfall. This helps you understand your garden, and it is a good reference point. Use sections for the different seasons or months, noting when various tasks should be done. Record what happens, and what you learn from your garden each year. A section devoted to garden tips is a great place for little gems of information gleaned from gardening books and magazines and friends. It should reflect your garden. If slugs plague your hostas, note the different solutions. If you have mostly shade and clay soil, list the plants that would work well in your location. Detail all your plants in another section: describe what specimens you have, when they're at their peak, how to care for them, and anything else you learn along the way.