Earlier this month I published a post (highly opinionated, of course) about gardening shortcuts for getting that traditional English country garden style. Since then, I’ve been thinking. The British garden look is popular for good reason, as are other well-known garden looks such as the Japanese-style garden or the American Southwest style (think lots of…
Bridges are amazing things. They are the very manifestation of a proposition. What’s a bridge if not the offer to be on the other side? But they don’t have to span a physical thing like a river or a highway. According to Cambridge Dictionary, a bridge can be “something that makes it easier to make…
Whenever I’m in a garden having a major Wow! moment it’s usually because I’ve stumbled onto a garden design or decor idea that’s both breathtakingly simple and wildly transformative. Here are five why-didn’t-I-think-of-that DIY garden ideas progressing from the simply elegant to the seriously eccentric (in a good way). Ideas 1 and 2: Maximizing a…
Maybe it’s our depressingly dark, wet, cool June here in southwestern Ontario that’s inspired me to look at dead things with renewed interest. While the plants I’ve recently installed in the ground and in containers are already looking exhausted from repeated deluges, perpetually damp stumps and fallen logs are springing to life as generous hosts…
Sorry for going dark these past couple of weeks. My guy and I have been crazy busy moving homes and, just to keep life really interesting, we topped everything off with another epic road trip across Canada. Now that things have settled down a bit, I thought I’d kick off my return to blogging with…
Are you tired of potted mums and asters? Can’t bear to look at another white pumpkin? Ornamental cabbages (Brassica oleracea) might reignite your flare for fall decor. Sure, these tasteful (if not tasty) plants have shown up in grocery stores and garden centres every fall since Martha Stewart first caused an outbreak of Obsessive Seasonal…
Despite a torrential rain last night, producing the briefest dip in temperature, we’re enjoying a ridiculously hot and humid summer here in southwestern Ontario. Our flower beds are parched and our lawns are going KFC–golden and crunchy. There’s only one thing to do: go sit somewhere in the garden with a chilled glass of wine…
My guy and I just got back from an epic road trip to Maine and I couldn’t wait to show you the mesmerizing moves of this dancing garden sculpture we discovered on a rainy day at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Powered only by the wind, its long, curving stems appear to dip and sway.…
What is it about coastal living that can bring out the zaniness in a homeowner? I thought I’d seen my share of mermaid garden sculptures and porches studded with seashells but I wasn’t prepared for the kind of no-holds-barred exuberance of Grimsby Beach, Ontario (one destination on a recent garden tour hosted by Frank Kershaw featuring gardening…
Secret hideaways with your choice of hovering rain umbrellas, pink flamingoes or a sparkling chandelier overhead. Old bed frames in new flower beds, a canoe filled with cannas and a loo with a view (made extra panoramic by the absence of a door). These were just some of the surprises awaiting us on a recent…
In its best show to date, Canada Blooms (March 11 – 20, 2016) is bigger, bolder and filled with more ideas than ever. This event, Canada’s largest flower and garden festival, has finally embraced the fact that it’s smack in the heart of a young, innovative, and very urban environment. Here are my votes (from…
Halloween may be over but there are still some zombies striking a pose out there. One is in my front garden. Our wind–tossed, sun–scorched Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ’Bloodgood’) finally gave up the ghost this past spring. There’s a smattering of leaves on two or three branches, flapping in the fall breezes, but they’re only serving…
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…
Supposedly a woman’s answer to man caves, “she sheds” seem to be trending big time on Facebook and I just had to share. Because they’re the hottest garden shed makeover trend since “shedquarters” (your office away from the office)? Or because the trend in Pub Sheds (a bar in your backyard) was just a little…
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 