I have a couple of Cup Plants growing in amongst wild grasses and Blue Flag Irises, down by the water’s edge of the small lake where we live in southern Ontario. A garden this is not. I added the irises and the Cups in an attempt to add a little colour to the one and…
Of all the colours you can find in a garden, orange can be the trickiest, I think. As hues go, it can glow brighter than red or yellow all the while doing more clashing than complementing. It’s very much a shout out colour. But that’s what also makes it a great colour to have in…
Gardeners have double vision, I think. You’ve got one view towards what’s happening in the here and now. But you’ve also got a picture in your mind’s eye of what will be happening months from now and even into the next season. One way we play out this balancing act is when we plant now…
There are so many wonderful flowers that can light up an early autumn garden but I can’t think of one that brings so much to the party as Strawflowers, also known as Paper daisies. Gorgeous colours? Check. Easy to grow? Check. Some weird attribute that makes it a stand out? I think blooms that have…
Filling up a big spot in a garden bed can be pretty easy. But what if you want volume (height or width or both) without bulk–as in heavy, leafy, darkness-inducing shrubs? Look to the frothy fronds of fennel and asparagus offering the softest forms there are in the plant world. They offer a lot of…
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…
Horticulturist, Arborist and Garden Columnist
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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 