Bellevue House National Historic Site of Canada

A Guide to the Gardens

Layout of the gardens

There are three parts to the Bellevue House gardens: ornamental, orc hard, and vegetable.

The ornamental gardens, the larger part, consist mainly of tall hardwood trees in the grassy lawns, with decorative features such as the formally planted circle bed and the gazebo.

The Ornamental Gardens
©Parks Canada / Brian Morin

Close-up of flowers found at Bellevue House
©Parks Canada / Brian Morin

The orchard contains a number of old apple varieties, including Northern Spy, Russet, Tolman Sweet, and Baldwin.

The Apple Orchard
©Parks Canada / Brian Morin

The vegetable garden is a half-acre of intensively cultivated land. There was a root cellar at Bellevue House, built as part of the carriage house, and a large storage area in the cellar of the house. It can be assumed that Isabella Macdonald, to whom Macdonald referred as "a capital housekeeper", ensured the proper storage of produce.

Four different views of the vegetable garden
©Parks Canada / Brian Morin