This spring is unusual (understatement!). There’s a good chance you are A) needing to follow a very tight budget because your retirement savings are tanking and/or B) recently recovering from freaky storms that crushed your garden and/or C) up to your eyebrows in existential stress and just can’t get your head wrapped around a spring…
I think I have a memory of first seeing fireflies when I was a child wandering through a slightly wild garden on a hot summer’s evening somewhere in Ontario. I have to admit, though, that said ‘memory’ may be more of what psychologists call waking dream wish fulfillment. I’ve always really, really wanted to see…
Spring is in the air and each day more birds are showing up, singing their hearts out and partying on. But there’s a problem. By all reports, everyone’s doing fine in the making babies, erm, eggs department but hatching and caring for the demanding little rascals has become more of a challenge due to an…
It’s getting to the point when the briefest glimpse of blue sky is cause for wonder. I’m talking a quick break in the clouds. Nothing else. Sunlight–as in warm, golden rays streaming earthwards that create actual shadows–is a distant memory. This may be the reason why I’ve been obsessively scrolling last summer’s photos most of…
Yes, it’s a little early to start talking about mowing the lawn. In parts of Ontario, upwards of 10 feet of snow will have to melt away first. But something exciting in the world of mowing has been reported and I just had to share. Really. A large swath of grass lawn at Chanticleer, Pennsylvania,…
Over the last few days our little town of Fernie in southeastern British Columbia has been buried under a thick blanket of snow. Driving is a horror show but, man, everything looks so pretty. The colours of our town, the woods and surrounding mountains have receded or vanished in the glare of a whiteness so…
Anyone familiar with my blog knows that I love a short-cut. I also think it’s important to introduce as many native plants into my garden as possible. And if I can combine a task that’s easy and/or fast with more beneficial plants as a result, well, I’m all in. Which is why planting wildflowers by…
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…
With April showers come May flowers and lots of bees (hopefully) to lap up nectar and do their pollinator thing. I always thought that whatever was served up in a flower was good enough for the average bee but it turns out that pollen and nectar aren’t great sources of moisture. Bees need sources of…
Is this the year you’re going to rip up your turf? Are you looking for an alternative ground cover that’s low maintenance, drought resistant and yet still delivers an eye-soothing swath of green where you once had a lawn? (Yes, I realize I’m sounding like a bad TV infomercial. I’ll stop now.) I’m really excited…
If you happen to be driving along a backroad on the Bruce Peninsula in early spring, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the dandelions have come early. Those bright yellow flowers sprinkled along a roadside ditch or covering a knoll beside a pasture in early March sure look like them. This hillside is covered with…
There’s a lot of talk about nativars–cultivars of native plants (read: cultivars of plants native to your region.) Ultimately, are these plants a good thing or a bad thing? Unfortunately, nativars can be more colourful, larger, taller, sturdier, hardier, etc., etc., but at the cost of being sterile, blooming in colours that insects don’t recognize…
Planning on adding some native plants to your garden this spring? Good for you! All the bees and birds will thank you. Keep your eyes open because there are plenty of choices out there these days. But if you’re trying to figure out what to buy based on the information on a plant’s label, you…
We’re already in the middle of April and I’ve just found out that butterfly season is already well underway. These bedazzled bugs start making their appearance in Canada as early as March in balmy British Columbia. It won’t be long before Ontario is in peak butterfly mode. What’s the panic, you may ask? It’s surprising…
I couldn’t believe the inventiveness of this fellow in Australia (that’s him in the video below) who, after discovering a frog living in his fence post, proceeds to fine tune a better home for the wee thing (whom he names Frod) after a series of night ops-style observations. With some fancy 3D printing and a…
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 