Using colour in garden design and finding plants in your favourite shade.
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…
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…
The longest day of this year will officially begin on June 21, at 5:13 a.m. here in the Northern Hemisphere. This means, of course, that June 22 marks the inexorable decline of daylight into another long winter. So I figure celebrating heat and happiness right now are in order. Here are 10 not-so-conventional ideas for…
What could be more exquisitely transporting than an all-white garden, I used to ponder rhetorically. Back in the day, as a card-carrying Hopeless Romantic, I trusted my life views would shift in some remarkable way if only I could visit Vita Sackville West’s legendary White Garden. Late in the summer of 1996, I managed to get there…
Sure, you could go traditional and plant a maple tree on July 1st in celebration of Canada’s big 150. Or you could flaunt your patriotism a tad more quietly with a Canadian-bred, new for 2017, velvety red rose. But if what you really want is to go all-out, in-your-face “Hooray For Canada!!!” then bright red and…
Oh, Canada! Here’s the first in a series of posts on very special but easy to grow plants for your garden in honour of Canada’s birthday. First up on my Celebrate Canada Plants List is a gorgeous new variety of rose. Celebrate Canada with The Canadian Shield™ Rose Grown exclusively in celebration of the 150th anniversary…
There’s nothing like appalling winter weather to make you think about upholstering every square inch of your home in softness. Nesting writ large. If you go that far–giant pillows scattered everywhere and you sunk up to your chin in layers of loopy afghans–consider that cozying up your garden next spring can be done much the same way.…
What grows brilliantly in southern Ontario? What fails miserably? And what catches the eyes of pro landscapers? I found out last week when I was invited to view the newly expanded University of Guelph/Landscape Ontario trial gardens at the LO office on the outskirts of Milton. There’s nothing glamorous about these gardens. Bordered by the…
Color, texture, form, movement as well as interaction with light, deer, rabbits and overall health – all are assessed when trialing plants Between testing plants for growers and having the opportunity to grow new introductions in my landscape or containers for photo shoots I consider myself incredibly fortunate. The sense of anticipation never gets old;… via…
In my continuing quest to create container plantings with maximum flower power for minimum effort, I was really pleased with this vibrant purple and green combo I put together last summer. I’m a sucker for the ombré petals and steely centres of African daisies and, with their leaves adding lots of lush green texture, they…
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…
If you love to stop people in their tracks, try stuffing a garden bed with flaming red Caladiums. They’ll only last until frost but if you plant them in late spring, what a show they’ll put on all summer. They’re really handy if you’ve got: • a shady spot–part to full shade • lots of…
Sick of all those happy, shiny bright blooms out there? Reaching for your shades rather than endure another moment of glowing greenness? Same here. Come mid-July, I’m over the smiley-face-yellow flowers, the cherub-bum-pink rosebuds and the so-cheery-my-face-hurts flowerpots. It’s time for some black. Actually, I think a little black is great for the garden any…
Sometimes I can go into a garden centre and feel like my head’s going to explode. There’s so much choice. Which is a good thing, of course. The more types of plants, the better you’ll find just the right ones for your personal paradise. But an abundance of options can also make for, well, exploding…
Who’d transform a huge garden by planting all kinds of annuals and perennials to match a wedding’s colour theme? That’s exactly what Trish Symons did. At the Peterborough Garden Show last weekend, she explained how her daughter’s blue-themed wedding inspired her garden makeover. Me? In the same circumstance, I’d probably buy paint and super-saturate the…
Love to Garden? Learn Some Helpful Tips And Tricks To Help You Get That Green Thumb
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 