A Daytrip to the Rideau Rural Ramble Garden Centre

When I recently saw on Facebook that the Rideau Woodland Ramble (LINK to the article) garden centre was "named Canadian Garden Centre Destination of the Year by The Canadian Garden Council," I put it on my list of things to do on our semi vacation.

From CP, the easiest route is to drive to Dwyer Hill Road and follow it through Burritts Rapids until you get to the garden centre on your right a few minutes later.

We happened through Burritts Rapids just as they were cranking the bridge to allow a boat to pass under. This seems to happen only about 5X a day according to the guy doing the cranking, so we lucked out. But we didn't completely luck out because when I tried to click the camera, I discovered that I was sans memory card. Blast!

I did have my old old Digital Rebel with its kit lens and tiny LCD screen (don't ask why) which I hauled out once we got to the garden centre. Although I used the camera, purchased in 2003, for 8 years and thought it was fine, after 4 years of using a newer camera with a good LCD screen, it was like using a toy. Ah well.

So anyway ... here is a photo I found on the web of the swing bridge. To swing it, a guy sticks a shaft in a crank and walks around in a circle. It's impressive how easy one person can open a big bridge. Good old fashioned engineering.




Once we arrived at the Rideau Rural Ramble, I was quite impressed and took some pictures with my toy camera.

The Entrance. No admission fee btw.

Pretty lady sitting outside hut with paintings inside

The grounds were imperssive with extensive gardens, including woodland paths,
which we avoided for the most part having no insect repellent.

In addition to the gardens and plant sales areas, there were plenty of sculptures and artwork placed about.

A lovely pond

Benches here and there

All in all, it was a lovely spot. The day was really heating up, more than we had thought when we set out, so we didn't linger too long, but it is a nice destination and not too far a trip. We had intended to have a nice lunch in Merrickville, but we decided to head to our cool home for the remainder of the day.

It's a daytrip that I would like to do again, with a sidetrip to Merrickville, on a cooler day.

The Rideau Rural Ramble website: http://www.rideauwoodlandramble.com/