Published in Caledon Living, spring 2007:
     To say that Léna Valiquette knows the plants in her herb garden is an understatement. She knows the name of each plant and how to grow it well. She knows how each one smells, tastes and how it can be used, whether medicinally, for cooking, or both. But beyond this herbalist lore, Léna claims to know her plants even more deeply.
     Hanging from a tree at the forest edge of the garden is a wind chime. It seems to have been put there less to make garden chores more enjoyable, than to soothe the herbs. Curiously, the plants growing close to the chime seem to be lusher than ones further away.
     “Plants have feelings,” she says. “They like music.”
     Léna seems to relate to her herb garden as if it were a living, cherished person or pet. After talking about the habits and uses of individual plants for a while, she starts to talk about the garden as a whole, almost as an entity. She gives the garden the best care she can. She is particular about what she feeds it – no fertilizer, and only rain water.
     “It’s the best water for the garden,” she says. “It also has energy in it.”
     She’s even particular about what goes into her compost. She puts no meat in, only vegetable matter and clippings from the garden, but no weeds. She does allow the weeds to compost, but separately, and she doesn’t use this compost in the garden. Her garden compost has no paper, tea bags, coffee grinds or even bread in it. Fishbones and eggshells, however, are most welcome. She also believes in burying banana skins straight into the garden.
     She was just as particular about the site of her garden. She uses the challenging hillside bank instead of the broad expanse of flat lawn stretching behind her house, where the septic bed lies. Although some people choose to garden atop weeping tiles, Léna wouldn’t consider it.
     “We own 20 acres of bush, but actually have very little green space,” she remarks. “It was a hillside garden or the septic bed. We used the mountain as it was.”
     She and her life partner, Danny, “started from scratch in 2005,” she says, creating the garden by hand. All the existing earth was removed and replaced with dark black soil produced by Bob Moody of Glen Echo Nurseries in Caledon East.
     “He does not need publicity,” Léna explains. “He sells all that he can produce, but I had to tell you that the soil I use is the best there is.” Despite the slope of the garden, erosion is not a problem.
     “The garden is entirely watered by hand,” she says. “I use an oscillating sprinkler and direct the water where I want it. Plants have the best results if you only water at the base. A sprinkler alone waters from above instead of under the plants. I can’t have an irrigation system here because of the topography of the garden. I can water with the rainwater from my 500-gallon holding tank. If I didn’t water manually, a lot would get wasted and I would not last any droughts. Water is only on the beds except when it rains.”
     A rough stone wall holds back the wilderness at the top of the hillside. Danny built the big rustic arbors that punctuate the garden. A large clock hangs from a tall black pole in the centre of the garden, and its other side is a temperature gauge. A birdhouse is also held aloft by this pole. To one side of the garden is a wooden barrel supporting a birdbath, but other than these structures, the beds of plants are the focal points.    
     Léna grows many familiar herbs like basil, oregano, chives, rosemary, cilantro, thyme, chamomile and more, but she also has many unusual plants. Touring her garden is a sensory experience as she picks leaves and flowers for you to smell and taste. She grows pineapple and honeydew sages that are fragrant, stevia which is strongly sweet and even when dried, can be used as a no-calorie sugar substitute, lemon vervain, sweet Cecily, stinging nettle, sweetgrass, Edelweiss, milk thistle, and Egyptian oninon, which has the onion growing at the tip, to name a few.
     By the end of the tour you may actually feel dizzy from the various potent tastes and smells you’ve experienced. Léna understands. “You have to be a bit careful which herbs you eat,” she declares.
     Léna is the only one to work in the garden, which is remarkable given its size and condition. She believes in companion planting, and points out that she grows garlic with the roses to prevent bugs from getting the flowers, and puts basil in among the tomatoes because they “help each other.”
     Léna is learning to garden according to the theory of biodynamics, which is a technique that is beyond organic gardening, which she already practises. Biodynamics is related to the cycles of the moon, and involves the sun, water and all the natural elements. Planting is done according to the new moon, and harvesting is done according to the time of day.
     “It’s important to harvest when the essential elements are at their peak,” she explains. “The bees know when the nectar is good. I can be in the middle of the bees and I won’t get stung. I will pick roses with three bees in each one. That’s when you know it’s the right time.”
     Léna’s herb garden is not just a labour of love, or for its beauty. She uses all her herbs and flowers. She dries many of them, on racks in her outdoor sauna, for special products she sells. She makes a spice blend that adds salt-free flavour to dishes. Her dry confetti is a collection of dried herbs and edible flowers that can be sprinkled on cakes, salads and omelettes. She has an iced tea blend. And she has a staggering assortment of herbal teas.         
     “Tea is like wine,” she says. “There are thousands. A tea that comes from a first flush is not like a second flush. There are 200 or so green teas. You should drink one cup of green tea a day for your health.”
     Her products are available through her business called Hockley Valley Herb & Tea Ltd., with a Web site at hockleyvalleyherbntea.com.

By Gloria Hildebrandt