Four square beds behind the Château Ramezay museum are filled with elements that the region's first settlers would have relied on to survive

"The smell of manure, of sun on foliage, of evaporating water, rose to my head; two steps farther, and I could look down into the vegetable garden enclosed within its tall pale of reeds - rich chocolate earth studded emerald green, frothed with the white of cauliflowers, jewelled with the purple globes of eggplant and the scarlet wealth of tomatoes."

- Doris Lessing

Tucked behind the 18th-century Château de Ramezay in Old Montreal, a garden grows that combines the necessities of an ancient city with an utterly contemporary movement.

On a piece of land the size of a basketball court, square beds bordered by blooming chives hold the produce of a thriving kitchen garden, with tepees for runner beans surrounded by masses of mint, oregano and borage, lettuces in various stages of growth and the red-veined leaves of beets. Nearby, gooseberry and raspberry bushes soak up the rain and sun while apple trees, their espaliered branches pinned against a warm stone wall, cradle young apples.

"These were the elements of a garden of the 18th century," said Marie-Hélène Vendette, director of communications at this showpiece of early Montreal life. "You will not have potatoes in the garden because they didn't exist then."

The garden also has medicinal uses, said Vendette, with lavender, camomile and other plants used to treat maladies. Divisions within this garden, created in 2000 by City of Montreal landscape architect Robert Desjardins, allow for four elements: kitchen garden, herb and medicinal garden, pleasure garden and orchard.

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