Keppel Croft Gardens

Since 1977 we have been gardening on an ancient shingle beach which still makes a pick axe the tool of choice. Our four acre, Zone 5b garden features a variety of plantings. You can enjoy our rockeries and pebble beds, xeriscape borders and a zen garden, a circular thyme and lavender garden, peony and mixed perennial borders as well as a shade garden with hostas.

Check out our unheated Victorian designed pit greenhouse. We raise our seedlings here in the late spring and early summer. Olive trees, New Zealand flaxes, and other tender plants overwinter here. Our two fig trees flourish here year round.

Bill creates the garden sculptures you will encounter throughout the gardens. He has always envied those gardeners who have a barn ruin. We don’t have such a ruin so he has created his own. Our working barn houses an assortment of hens, ducks, and geese, a Halflinger horse called Cinnamon, and a summer flock of sheep.

Over the years, Bill has planted most of the tree on this site. The arboretum features native and non-native trees. Walk along the Nature Trail to the hardwood bush, up to Painter’s Point for a view of the waters of Big Bay. There are interpretive signs, picnic tables and benches along the Nature Trail. We have built a three sided bunkie between the trail and a stream for bird watching enthusiasts.

On the southern edge of the gardens you can explore Keppel Henge and other astronomical installations. Tell the time with our analemmatic sun dial. The two kilometres of Nature Trails take you to the Volunteers’ Vegetable Garden and to Painter’s Point for a view over Keppel Croft and Big Bay.
For two hours every Wednesday, our volunteers work with us in the gardens and then socialize over coffee. Together we maintain a large vegetable garden and share all the produce. Feel free to join us, even if it is for just one morning!
Special events at Keppel Croft include a celebration of the Summer Solstice, held at Keppel Henge (http://www.steve Irvine.com/henge.html) in mid June, and attended by several Tai Chi clubs and the Bruce County Astronomical Society. Throughout the summer we host weddings, annual family picnics and other celebrations. Bring your picnic and enjoy staying a little longer in this rural setting. See our website for workshops and other events.

Owners: Dawn and Bill Loney
Hours: 10-5 Wed-Sun, Holiday Mon, Closed Mon/Tues
Phone: (519) 534-1090
Email: keppelcroft@gmail.com
Website: http://www.keppelcroft.com
Address: 504156 Grey Road #1, Big Bay, Wiarton, Georgian Bluffs,
N0H 2T0
Suggested Donation: $5