Gardening in the Heart: John Tinkler - A Designer's Garden

Designer John created three very distinct gardens surrounding his home – each different: one wild, one sculptural and one lusciously decadent.
John, who designs home interiors, is owner of Design Manitoba. His garden is a well-established English garden on two and a half acres just outside Winnipeg. His gardens reflect his skill as an interior designer. Each section is like a grand room from an old-world mansion. The pool room features a lap pool surrounded by raised beds dripping with colour from a variety of perennial and annual plantings designed to make a splash.
There are three main gardens. The front yard has a Cottage Garden with flag stone paths and loose plantings of traditional cottage plants like hollyhocks, delphiniums, and peonies. There is a formal enclosed Courtyard Garden paved in reclaimed brick with traditional fountains, pond, and borders of flowering shrubs. The Contemporary Garden surrounds a lap pool with large modern planters and sculptural plantings of globe cedars with a border of catmint. Also on the property are a rustic fenced Cutting Garden for cut flowers and vegetables and a naturalized pond. The main room with its red brick floor feels like an old world dining room complete with a massive tablet surrounded by plantings, some in beds and some in pots. Huge ceramic containers are potted with banana trees and are over wintered in a hot house. The effect is intoxicating! ‪@manitobamastergardenerassoc‬