Winter lays bare the bones of a garden. Some would say this is a terrific opportunity to appreciate its structural framework. With no distracting leaves or flowers or calls for another round of Sangria, what better time to appreciate good landscaping and the clever juxtaposition of trees and flower beds? Since I’m writing this from…
Back in the day, people used to sneak out for a smoke in the garden. One of the more intriguing predictions from the Garden Media Group, a home and garden marketing and PR firm based in Pennsylvania, is a growing trend in smoking your garden–as in lighting up some home-grown. [ATTENTION CANADIANS: The idea of playing…
One of my favourite blogs, champagnewhiskey has once again helped my adjust my perspective. This post features a video of a flight through the Andromeda Galaxy which, I’m reminded, would actually take 40,000 years to accomplish at the speed of light. To up the humbling factor, I suggest you watch the video, then walk outside…
What’s going to be hot in the coming months is a hot topic every January. My favourite trend predictions so far come from the fashion world, convinced that 70’s throwback styles will rule this spring and, on the home front, from Pantone colour officials who are sure that, very soon, we’re all going to fall under the spell…
Craving sun and warmth. No time (or dinero) to head south. So I’m dipping into my photo albums for a little digital vacay. Here are some pix taken in Sanibel, Florida, in November. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did taking them. (Keep scrolling down this page to see them all.) I love…
A gorgeous musician playing on what looks like a skeletonized cello. A bagpiper. A nun on a bike. Pretty maids all in a row–on a chateau balcony, no less. Singers belting it out on a tramcar. Gardens, ponds and sweeping vistas. My goodness, there are even cupcakes. Croatian cellist Ana Rucner‘s video (see below), featuring…
I don’t usually include gardening and Vogue magazine in the same sentence. But as I was thumbing through the December issue, past the ruinously expensive dresses and eye-popping jewelry, while making note of what I could be doing if I cared to be a woman of means and unlimited chicness, I stumbled upon a feature…
Today is labelled the shortest day of the year. But wouldn’t it be way more fun spending these few, fleeting hours of sappy sunlight savouring the anticipation of the longest night of the year? After all, back in the day (I’m talking a couple thousand years ago), the winter solstice was celebrated as the turning…
Dear Santa, All I really want for Christmas won’t fit in a box or under a tree. And, I’ll warn you, they’re not easy to wrap up with a ribbon and top with a bow. Yes, I am demanding. But I thought I’d give you the benefit of the doubt. So here’s my list of 15…
Time flies when you’re having fun. That might explain why December 5th whooshed past me without my realizing that day was the first official United Nations World Soil Day. Not that I would’ve been able to do much about it had I known. I mean, what does one do on a World Soil Day? Round up some…
Forget celebrity train wrecks or political scandals. Real dirt, the kind under everyone’s feet, can be riveting. Before your eyes start rolling into the back of your head or you make a quick flick over to Facebook, watch Symphony Of The Soil. OK, maybe it’s not the most tantalizing of titles but this documentary is…
Fall’s loud and brassy flower show may have packed up and left but nobody bothered to tell the rhythm section. Seed heads of every shape and size are still shaking it up–none more rattlingly satisfying than Baptisia australis, a hardy perennial commonly called Blue false indigo or Blue wild indigo. A native of the Northeastern U.S., this robust…
Originally posted on gardeninacity:
Judy saw a coyote trotting down the street in front or our house a few days before Thanksgiving. Hurrah! Coyotes enjoy the suburban life. Photo from urbancoyoteresearch.com. I like to think that this means we now have our own neighborhood coyote, maybe even our own pack. We need some predators around here…
Originally posted on Canadian Museum of Nature Blog:
Have you ever wondered: Are Ewoks and Jawas related to each other? What kind of plants were Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru growing on their moisture farm? Do the crystals in a Jedi’s lightsaber come from granitic pegmatites? In the lead-up to the museum’s Star Wars Identities:…
The non-stop carols on the radio are already driving me crazy. I wish there was a switch I could flip. Before December 1st–no holiday anything. After December 1st–full-on Santa insanity. But I have one exception to my no-holiday-related-anything-before-December rule. That’s my adorable new Christmas fern (Polystichum acrostichoides). Set into the ground just a few weeks…
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 