Composting is a great way to recycle nutrients back into the soil but for a breathtakingly efficient rotation from plant to soil and back to plants again, use wood ash. Since the ash is what’s left of burned plant material, it naturally contains many of the essential nutrients that were first provided by the soil. Burning wood loses nitrogen…
Cornelia Konrads freezes fantastical moments. I’ve never seen one of her works in real life but even photos of them inspire the suspension of disbelief. She’s created site specific installations and objects for public and private spaces all over the world, including her native Germany, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, the U.S.A., Taiwan, South…
“Spring travels north at about thirteen miles a day.” So wrote Diane Ackerman in her provocative book, “Cultivating Delight“. She figures this equates to 47.6 feet per minute or about 1.23 inches per second. When I read this, my first thought was at that rate, you could actually keep pace with Spring–meet up with it…
Genius idea or disaster in the making? Ever since Thomas Heatherwick got the green light to span the River Thames with a pedestrian bridge lined with trees, flowers and meandering walkways, the project has been accumulating naysayers. Called the “most expensive footbridge in the world”, it’s also received plenty of negative feedback for its location and potential policy for limiting the size of…
Each time I’ve visited deserts in New Mexico and Arizona, I got the eerie sense that I was walking along the sea floor. Desert plants, and succulents in particular, can bring an otherworldly aspect to a garden. So I was happy to find “How to create a sea-creature succulent garden”, an online article on the…
Winter lays bare the bones of a garden. Some would say this is a terrific opportunity to appreciate its structural framework. With no distracting leaves or flowers or calls for another round of Sangria, what better time to appreciate good landscaping and the clever juxtaposition of trees and flower beds? Since I’m writing this from…
Back in the day, people used to sneak out for a smoke in the garden. One of the more intriguing predictions from the Garden Media Group, a home and garden marketing and PR firm based in Pennsylvania, is a growing trend in smoking your garden–as in lighting up some home-grown. [ATTENTION CANADIANS: The idea of playing…
One of my favourite blogs, champagnewhiskey has once again helped my adjust my perspective. This post features a video of a flight through the Andromeda Galaxy which, I’m reminded, would actually take 40,000 years to accomplish at the speed of light. To up the humbling factor, I suggest you watch the video, then walk outside…
What’s going to be hot in the coming months is a hot topic every January. My favourite trend predictions so far come from the fashion world, convinced that 70’s throwback styles will rule this spring and, on the home front, from Pantone colour officials who are sure that, very soon, we’re all going to fall under the spell…
Craving sun and warmth. No time (or dinero) to head south. So I’m dipping into my photo albums for a little digital vacay. Here are some pix taken in Sanibel, Florida, in November. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. (Keep scrolling down this page to see them all.) I love…
A gorgeous musician playing on what looks like a skeletonized cello. A bagpiper. A nun on a bike. Pretty maids all in a row–on a chateau balcony, no less. Singers belting it out on a tramcar. Gardens, ponds and sweeping vistas. My goodness, there are even cupcakes. Croatian cellist Ana Rucner‘s video (see below), featuring…
I don’t usually include gardening and Vogue magazine in the same sentence. But as I was thumbing through the December issue, past the ruinously expensive dresses and eye-popping jewelry, while making note of what I could be doing if I cared to be a woman of means and unlimited chicness, I stumbled upon a feature…
Today is labelled the shortest day of the year. But wouldn’t it be way more fun spending these few, fleeting hours of sappy sunlight savouring the anticipation of the longest night of the year? After all, back in the day (I’m talking a couple thousand years ago), the winter solstice was celebrated as the turning…
Dear Santa, All I really want for Christmas won’t fit in a box or under a tree. And, I’ll warn you, they’re not easy to wrap up with a ribbon and top with a bow. Yes, I am demanding. But I thought I’d give you the benefit of the doubt. So here’s my list of 15…
Time flies when you’re having fun. That might explain why December 5th whooshed past me without my realizing that day was the first official United Nations World Soil Day. Not that I would’ve been able to do much about it had I known. I mean, what does one do on a World Soil Day? Round up some…
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 