I couldn’t believe the inventiveness of this fellow in Australia (that’s him in the video below) who, after discovering a frog living in his fence post, proceeds to fine tune a better home for the wee thing (whom he names Frod) after a series of night ops-style observations. With some fancy 3D printing and a…
Hallelujah! Spring has officially sprung. Ok, it’s tomorrow but my patience for the return of sunny skies and warmer temperatures has run thin. In celebration, I’d like to share some of my favourite spring plant stars. These 6 spring flowering plants are dear to my heart because of their lovely colours–shades from dusky to brilliant…
Judy Garland may have sweetly elevated rainbows to technicolour cliche, but they’ve always been happy, shiny wonders–ever since the sun’s rays met air-borne water droplets and there were sentient beings around to take notice. Now they figure in myths, superstitions, beliefs and symbolic declarations the world over. Marvelling at a rainbow’s beauty is a moment…
When I started writing this post I had every intention of waxing poetic about the virtues of Snake plants. I realize that, as houseplants go, they’re about as run-of-the-mill as you can get and yet I found myself looking at them in a new light. My guy and I had offered to temporarily take care…
If you’re a big fan of mushrooms, like me, you might have enjoyed that video on how mushrooms can save the world six different ways that I mentioned in my last post. If that’s the case, then you’ll be just as excited as me to learn that, in addition to mushrooms potentially cleaning polluted soil…
Who doesn’t love a new year trend report? A little crystal ball gazing can be wonderfully entertaining. Granted, most predictions shouldn’t be taken too seriously unless it’s your doctor or your accountant who’s doing the predicting. But a garden trend report can be practically life-giving when enjoyed in the middle of a long, cold winter.…
More And Less lists are replacing New Year’s resolutions and this makes sense to me. Compiling a list of what you’d like to do/see/manifest more of as well as what you’d like less of in your life seems, well, just easier–less intimidating, more approachable and (getting down to brass tacks) more achievable. I’ve never been…
I realized we were officially in the grip of pre-Halloween hysteria last week when I was fishing out my wallet to pay for some items in our local pharmacy. A woman swept past me, one hand gripped on a trailing child, the other pointing towards the back of the store. In a loud, theatrical whisper,…
Autumn is officially here and, just like the garden itself, gardening topics are dwindling as winter sets in–at least if you live north of the 49th parallel. From now til spring I’ll be posting a little less often but I promise to keep in touch as inspiration strikes. I find reaching out to my fellow…
A week ago, one little bright red maple leaf fluttered to the ground just outside the back door of our cottage on the Bruce Peninsula in southwestern Ontario. Me and my guy were horrified. The turning leaves in autumn in Ontario (as well as most of eastern Canada and parts of northeastern United States) is…
Foodscaping has been a hot gardening trend for years now. What goes around comes around. In a past blog post, I explored how a lot of “new” foodscaping ideas are actually pretty old. Gardening with edibles is simply a terrific idea. A real win-win. But, I have to admit, there are times when I’ve grown…
Whether your country is part of the Commonwealth as mine is (Canada) or not, you may have joined me in having some quiet thoughts about the remarkable woman everyone knew as Queen Elizabeth II. Even if you’re not into monarchies, you have to give her credit for her steadfastness and grace under pressure throughout a…
I so rarely see news headlines that speak directly to the deeply geekoid gardener in me that I had to share these two stories that recently popped up in my media feeds. And, really, who doesn’t love a good story about lichen or, um, martinis? 1. The mini-universes of inland British Columbia One of my…
True story: A couple of years ago, when my guy was applying for a permit to build a stand-alone garage near our cottage on the Bruce Peninsula, he had to jump through a lot of bureaucratic hoops, including an on-site inspection by the powers that be to ensure we would be inflicting the least amount…
Allow me to sing the praises of grit. Not the grit so indelibly captured by John Wayne–the stuff of perseverance and passion–but the stuff scattered on the floor of hen coops. I don’t know what chickens personally think about chicken grit but they certainly rely on it to help them digest food in their powerful…
In a post I published eight years ago entitled The Greying Garden And What To Do About It, I explored the viewpoint that gardening was pretty much an older person’s pursuit. I had just attended a gardening seminar where pretty much everyone was rocking grey hair. Now, with a big boost from the pandemic, gardening…
Earlier this month I published a post (highly opinionated, of course) about gardening shortcuts for getting that traditional English country garden style. Since then, I’ve been thinking. The British garden look is popular for good reason, as are other well-known garden looks such as the Japanese-style garden or the American Southwest style (think lots of…
You’ve heard that saying – Be careful what you wish for! I’ve been waiting for those classic hot-‘n’-muggy summer days to finally arrive here in Southwestern Ontario. In my mind, it ain’t summer until you and your can of cold beer are both sweating buckets. But with humid weather comes mosquitoes. And so the battle…
I read an article recently about some gardeners in North America (ok, the U.S.) who’d designed lust-worthy gardens evocative of an English country garden and it occurred to me that, despite the fact that the gardens did indeed have that distinctive English Country Garden vibe about them, there wasn’t any information about why exactly they…
Amazing garden design ideas popped up everywhere I turned while on a couple of garden tours held recently (July 9 – 10, 2022) in and around one of my favourite Canadian small towns–Gananoque, Ontario. This vibrant and very scenic town, situated where the Gananoque River meets the great St. Lawrence River with its Thousand Islands,…
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Life is an interesting journey. These are journals, stories, reflections of a traveller of this journey. (songoftheheartsite@gmail.com)
for OCA Visual Communications BA (hons)
Where observation and imagination meet nature in poetry.
A blog about life in Wellington, New Zealand
Plants, veg and chickens: a cottage garden on the edge of Brussels
This blog is about gardening in the north.
Discovering the joy of art
Do not go where the path may lead, instead go where there is no path, and leave a trail -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ministry of the fence 