A garden can be similar to the Tardis, as small as a phone booth to the casual observer but encompassing a boundless space with transportive properties. Parts of Keppel Croft Gardens have these qualities as well and it seems to me that the clever use of walls has something to do with it. So, for my…
In my previous post, I tried to describe Keppel Croft Gardens, the unique gardening experience created by Bill and Dawn Loney near Big Bay on the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario. If pictures really are worth a thousand words then, when it comes to Keppel Croft, I still needed a lot of photos to describe…
On the eastern shore of the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario, Bill and Dawn Loney’s very personal garden is equal parts labyrinth, zen oasis and trip down a variety of magic rabbit holes. Thank goodness they open it to the public during the summer. Though untrained in any formal sense, both gardeners have created a…
Sorry for the delay. I’d promised you this third and last post in the OMG Summer Tour series sooner but, well, life sort of happened. But I do apologize for any confusion. This post covers the last two gardens we visited during the extraordinary tour presented by the Toronto Botanical Gardens and hosted by the…
Introducing exotic plants into your garden can be tricky although do-able if you’re into high maintenance gardening or you keep them in containers and bring them inside just before the first frost. But that’s just it. Here in Southern Ontario, we often think of exotic plants as being fragile beauties from tropical paradises much farther…
As the day grew hotter, so did the colours in the next couple of gardens we visited on our Toronto Botanical Gardens tour led by Frank Kershaw. Now we were pushing into Southern Ontario’s horse country, a verdant quilt of velvety green fields plumped on rolling hills fringed with forest. As much as the last…
There were plants everywhere–in the ground, dangling from trellises, stacked over other plants and lining the tops of fences. And yet, despite the sheer number of plants crammed into this garden, there was a distinct sense of calmness and elegance. This was an eye-opening garden. But discovering a place that leaves you gob-smacked is to…
With a shady garden, summer evenings (when you finally have time to sit back and relax) can be a mixed blessing. You’re not baking in the sun’s glare but lengthening shadows can fade bright flowers, shrubs, and lawns into a cool but disappointing dullness. Many a garden design guide will recommend white flowers and plants with…
WHISTLING GARDENS Botanical Gardens and Garden Centre, Wilsonville, Ontario RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ (This highly unscientific and thoroughly opinionated rating system is based on a range from lowest score of one ♥ to a highest score of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥. THE TIP-OFF: At not one but several different seminars I attended earlier this year at the Toronto Botanical Gardens,…
Roses are fabulous flowers to have in a garden and, I’m discovering, not nearly as finicky a plant as you might think. Just give them a nice, sunny bed with a little elbow room and a banana. I’ll back up. I read once that the head rose gardener for New York City’s Central Park swore…
I love when science legitimizes my tendency to play in the dirt. Research has proven that direct contact with soil is actually very beneficial for your health. Last month, a blog posting from the David Suzuki Foundation, reported on microbes, biodiversity and how getting dirty is actually good for you. Here’s a taste of that…
Succulents–those chubby, rubbery plants originally hailing from arid climes–are my go-to plants when I want to fill a space with texture, not have to worry about their maintenance and, I’ll admit it, add a bit of humour. Maybe it’s their otherworldly shapes and colours. When succulents are planted in unlikely places, their oddness stands out…
Crisscrossing paths lead, well, nowhere in particular. There isn’t a blade of grass. The home’s rain gutter flows into drain pipes that spill into a rock garden/work of art. And trees aren’t necessarily alive to be considered useful and a thing of beauty. This is a front yard that stops you in your tracks. There’s always…
As the gardening season reaches full swing, promoting awareness about our beleaguered bugs has ramped up as well. Everywhere I turn, I’m finding articles and opinion pieces on the need to add pollinator-friendly plants to our gardens. On a recent garden tour organized by the Toronto Botanical Gardens, I kept finding little plastic signs stuck into flower…
This terrific infographic from CottageCountry.com in support of the Davidi Suzuki Foundation is a great reminder about why it’s important for everyone to put away their cell phones and computers and get outside. We gardeners tend to do this on a regular basis but after reading this you may feel the urge to grab your…
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 