THE GOVERNOR'S GARDEN, THEN AND NOW
Claude de Ramezay arrived in Montreal in 1705, as the new governor of the city. It urges the architect Pierre Couturier mason to build his residence on the small hill of Notre Dame. The field Ramezay then extends over 4200 m2 and includes an orchard, a vegetable garden, but a garden where data undoubtedly beautiful receptions because the house is in the heart of the social life of the city. At that time, the gardens are numerous in Montreal: there are 186 in 1731.
During the development of the city, the area of Ramezay is fragmented by new streets and new buildings. The Governor's Garden as it stands today, recreated in summer 2000, so that only extends over an area reduced to 750m2. Therefore, it is not an identical reconstruction but a testimony to the style and content of the gardens of the Montreal nobility of the eighteenth century.
Most plants used today are hybrids of species cultivated in New France. However, the species presented in the garden today are very similar to that used to grow plants in the true Garden of the Governor of the time. The garden is designed in a formal way (French style) and is divided into three sections of equal size: a vegetable garden, an orchard and a garden. The perimeter of the garden, along the walls, is composed of aromatic and medicinal herbs distributed informally. A goat's head fountain adorns the garden today, and recalls that the fountain or the well were central elements in the old gardens as they allowed to stock up easily with water.
