I didn’t know “up close landscaping” was a thing until I discovered a page about a ruffled Pansy on the Proven Winners website. The plant was described on the site as “a frilly flower that looks great in containers and ‘close-up’ landscapes.” (More on those pansies below.) What is all this about Close Up Landscaping?…
A week ago, one little bright red maple leaf fluttered to the ground just outside the back door of our cottage on the Bruce Peninsula in southwestern Ontario. Me and my guy were horrified. The turning leaves in autumn in Ontario (as well as most of eastern Canada and parts of northeastern United States) is…
Foodscaping has been a hot gardening trend for years now. What goes around comes around. In a past blog post, I explored how a lot of “new” foodscaping ideas are actually pretty old. Gardening with edibles is simply a terrific idea. A real win-win. But, I have to admit, there are times when I’ve grown…
Sure you can plonk an interestingly shaped weeping conifer in the centre of a garden bed or off on its own in the middle of the lawn and call it a day. There’s no doubt your specimen plant will be an eye-catcher. But there’s so much more these surprisingly versatile trees can do. Here are…
With news headlines getting ever weirder and more worrisome, I recommend daisies. There’s nothing quite so charmingly uncomplicated as a daisy and there are so many ways you can make the world a better place with them. Give someone a daisy bouquet. Wear a pair of $800+ daisy and gold glitter heels. Plant them in…
I never thought I’d have a canna in my garden. I thought they were hard to grow, that you needed a special container for them, that planting them in said container was complicated and that you had to put them in a special protected area or they’d die almost immediately. But then last year (2016),…
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…
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…
It goes by the unglamorous common name of Tickseed. The botanical Coreopsis sounds much more appealing but, in fact, just glosses over a hard reality. This fancier name comes from the Greek koris, for bug, and opsis, for ‘like’, meaning the seeds of this plant look like bugs or ticks. Resemblances to insects aside, these starry flowers are…
The first time I saw cosmos in a blindingly sunny garden, orderliness was not the word that came to mind. No, barely contained chaos was more like it. The impenetrable thatch of tall stems thrust up cartoon-like flowers, in brilliant shades of pink, nodding in every direction. But the story goes that Spanish priests loved the…
Want a gift that really spreads the love? Plant an oak tree. I know this isn’t the sexiest idea but hear me out. I’ve got 5 great reasons why oak trees are the lovingest of all the plants you can grow. REASON #1: Oaks are the ultimate sharers. Sitting under an oak tree in late fall,…
“Every garden has a desert and a swamp,” he declared. OK. He had our attention. Finding the right plants for those unlovely spots—that’s the challenge. So when someone comes along and offers a tried and true list of plants recommended for your personal garden hell, well, hello! At the recent Landscape Ontario Congress, a huge trade…
Slow growing. Too big for a shrub and too small for a tree. Straggly. Did I say really slow growing? Smoketrees can get a lot of heat from picky gardeners. But when the setting sun lights up their panicles in a shimmering nimbus how can you think otherwise than your garden is all the more miraculous…
I don’t normally plant annuals in my flower beds. I’d rather invest in perennials that are going to come back year after year. And I splurge on ephemeral annuals for my pots where I can spotlight them in all their delicate and exotic glory. If a plant can’t survive our Southern Ontario winters then it’s…
I’ve always thought irises were otherworldly. So it didn’t come as a surprise when I learned that, in Greek mythology, Iris is the goddess of the rainbow. With this in mind, planting some of these flowers in your garden might be a good idea on several levels. What was more surprising to me was that…
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 