GOODBYE CRAYOLA CUTIES If your shady bed of hot-coloured Impatiens suddenly collapsed last spring, you probably encountered a case of Impatiens Downy Mildew, a pathogen that can attack the plant very quickly and leave an entire bed looking devastated. The disease has now struck Ontario, Quebec and parts of B.C. and may affect gardens in the future…
Lilies are the glamazons of the flower world. But have you ever got up-close and personal with a gorgeous lily, taken a good whiff of that heady scent and then backed away only to have a friend say you look like you just gorfed down a ballpark dog and got mustard all over your face…
While working on a video production in gorgeous Hilton Head, South Carolina, a few years ago, I happened upon this sign. It was posted between the gardens of two very nice homes in a greener-than-green suburb laced with creeks, lagoons and velvety golf fairways. What made me think of this photo was anticipating spring’s return…
One of my old gardening books, circa 1978, had this withering comment about catnip–”favourite of cats, not very ornamental and best grown in inconspicuous corner”. But catnip is going on my plant shopping list despite the fact that my kitty died a couple of years ago (at the ripe old age of 23). This spring,…
Spring may be dragging its heels in our garden but it’s arrived in stores. Pots and planters are practically spilling off the shelves. I bring this up because last year at about this time I was too late to score a dark brown faux-wicker, moulded-plastic planter I had my eye on. I thought it tres…
With all the news about how much our wild birds have suffered through this winter, the duck photos and report in Garden Walk Garden Talk blogger Donna Brok’s posting are touching.
There’s more than just broken branches and used Timmy cups surfacing as the snow melts. The gnomes are back. I’m looking at them with mixed feelings. Here’s why: On this day last year, a garden gnome was used to demonstrate 3D modelling and digital fabrication technology thanks to MakerBot and Autodesk. He was photographed at various…
The first day of spring has officially arrived here in the Land of Ice and Snow, formerly known as Southern Ontario, and we’re expecting lows diving past minus 10 degrees Celsius next week. (Sigh.) So some bright, fun colour guaranteed to bring on smiles is in order. I figure the upside down Flower Tower trees…
A professional artist once told me “Never forget the purple.” He was looking at a portrait I was painting–which lacked, among other things, any sense of depth–and encouraging me to try underpainting. Many great masters of the art world used this technique to give their works luminosity by, you guessed it, painting in layers starting…
The “Wild Atlantic Way” at this week’s Canada Blooms garden festival brought a bit of green and lovely Ireland to frozen Toronto. Like the country itself, the bright pop-up garden sprouted a variety of hefty stones representing the monumental, the practical and the hysterical. A mini dolmen or portal tomb (a low arch created by two…
At Toronto’s Canada Blooms, the country’s largest flower and garden festival, the trend in growing vertically has grown up–gorgeous, smart, sophisticated examples were everywhere. This should come as no surprise given the appeal: great for small urban spaces and for turning plants into art, literally. Here are some highlights.
Yesterday, The New York Times published a must-read article in their Home & Garden section online entitled: “Brown Is the New Green” Though the people quoted and the lawns and gardens featured are in California, the topics of water shortages and life without lawns are important. Up here in Southern Ontario, our grass is still…
Looking out the window and wondering how much of your garden will survive to see May Two-Fer? As Southern Ontario continues to be pummelled by a record-breaking winter, there’s cause for considering the fate of a garden that may have survived last December’s ice storm only to face drying winds, frost heaves, flooding and more. Even…
The 3,000 Mile Garden is one of those books about gardening that isn’t anything like gardening books. During a long wait for a late spring, dipping into this extraordinary exchange of letters between Leslie Land, who lived in the northeastern United States, and Roger Phillips, based in London, England, is like sitting at…
March Break is here. Have all your friends headed south for some de-stressing and re-warming? Same here. But, while everyone I know is about to hoist a margarita on a beach somewhere, I’ve got my own instant mood-alteration strategy. I’m going to take a cue from the Japanese and go on a shinrin-yoku–a forest bathing…
Horticulturist, Arborist and Garden Columnist
Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Garden of Flowers, Beads, and Yarns
ruminate vb. to chew (the cud)
Reflections On A Life in Exile
Saint Andrews Forest Farm Blog
a chat over the garden fence
There's always room for one more plant.
a little garden near Gawler
.....and nurturing my soul
Ministry of the fence 