Home & Garden: Red Door Cottage
Marilyn Badger describes her approach to gardening as ‘stimulus response.’
Her home and garden are peppered with little things that bring her joy. It is one of the reasons she adds a pop of red to most rooms. A favourite colour of her’s, it is the inspiration for the Red Door Cottage, a name she chose over a glass of wine with friends. The George Street house with the red door is also noteworthy for its circular path, hydrangea lined fence and little library.
Badger loves to entertain and describes the cottage as a very social home, with it’s large dining room table and multiple spots for outdoor socials.
A sunroom overlooks the backyard, where guests can gather for a barbecue or a bonfire in cozy spots nestled among the rock gardens filled with perennials and annuals, and a memorial to her beloved aunt. The room is heated by the sun in wintertime and shaded by a big black locust in summer, a perfect spot to watch the birds. At the back of the deep lot there’s a small barn, original to the 136-year-old house. She describes comically how she was gifted some ‘free’ lights and has recently invested in having strung on the barn, creating a nighttime glow and further extending the habitable spaces of the yard.
Badger says she is very glad that she decided to add the sunroom, increasing the main floor space, all part of a strategy to ensure she could stay in the home as long as possible.
Badger moved into the village in 2006 after the death of her husband Gordon while they were honeymooning in Ireland. They had been splitting their time between Badger Hill Farm near Creemore and Melbourne, Florida. Widowed, Badger returned briefly to her home in Toronto but she wanted to be back in Creemore.
“Within the month I was talking to Pat Prime about finding a place,” she said. There were only three houses on the market at that time and although in need of some fixing up – both cosmetically and structurally – she settled on George Street.
“The gardens were beautiful,” she said.
When she bought the house, the raised gardens were full of prize roses and there were a number of wild roses, some of which persist.
“I knew nothing about gardening,” said Badger. “I knew nothing about roses and how difficult they are. They require a lot of attention and they were not getting it.”
Her mother, a talented gardener, did not want her to buy the house. She had a feeling it would be a lot of work, and it was.
“I have learned a lot in 20 years,” said Badger. “You do learn a lot by trial and error.”
As a golfer, Badger says she has other priorities so she doesn’t spend all her time in the garden and she now hires someone to help her with the heavy lifting and more intense labour.
The Red Door Cottage gardens will be included on this year’s garden tour, organized by Paul and Charlotte Vorstermans (see details on page 13.)
When Badger participated in the tour two years ago, she recalls one gentleman sat in the shaded backyard throughout the afternoon while his party carried on to the other venues. Badger said seeing him so content and comfortable was a genuine compliment.
Creemore Garden Tour
This year’s Creemore Garden Tour is on July 18-19. Five or more gardens will be open both days from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Admission is free.
Gardens included on the tour are at 113 Mill St. (Paul and Charlotte Vorstermans); 3 Elizabeth St. W. (Bev Stableforth); 17 Elizabeth St. W. (Jaki Skillings); The Red Door Cottage at 4 George St. (Marilyn Badger); and Grandmother’s Garden, located between North America’s smallest jail and Creemore Log Cabin at 165 Library St.
Grandmother’s Garden is celebrating its 20th anniversary on June 6, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
