Easy creative ideas for small gardens, shade gardens and rock gardens plus using colour in innovative ways.
Maybe it’s that we’re lucky to live in places where there are lots of big trees (read: gardens with lots of shade) or maybe it’s because we’re looking for plants that reliably show up every year, do a great job of quickly filling up an area with lushness and look quite elegant in the process.…
Officially, spring arrived a month ago. But in Southern Ontario, late April is when spring really begins. Around our house, that’s when the BBQ starts winning over the stovetop, we can finally sit out on the patio (OK, so we’re still wearing our parkas) for the cocktail hour, and we make a quick weekend trip…
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…
There are lots of amazing new plants being introduced in Southern Ontario this spring. I’ll keep you posted on the best over the next few weeks. Here’s one of my faves: a basil topiary. Tiny, tender basil leaves crown a woody (yep!) stem. Harvest the leaves all summer for salads and pasta dishes. Then bring…
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…
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…
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.
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 