Of all the trends that pundits are hailing as hot, hot, hot for 2024, none intrigues me more than stumperies. Elegant and always on point Garden Design magazine declared that, along with other rising trends such as installing a rain garden and accommodating for climate change, building a stumpery will be a really big thing.…
A week into 2024 and so far, so good. I’m very lucky to be looking ahead and figuring life is pretty good. The world is getting more complicated, for sure. But I have so many wonderful reasons to feel grateful and you are one of them. Thank you so much for your interest, for following…
Longwood Gardens in southeast Pennsylvania, U.S.A., has been on my bucket list for years and I finally got the chance to visit this outstanding place last week. Entry tickets are timed during the summer so my friend and I had no choice but to explore the gardens during a downpour. Were we disappointed? Not at…
The Canadian Garden Council’s promotion ‘Live The Garden Life‘ for this year includes a collaboration with Communities in Bloom and is inspiring everyone to “plant purple, the colour theme of the year in 2023“. According to the council, purple was chosen for the variety of effects the hue has on mind and body including: Now,…
When I started writing this post I had every intention of waxing poetic about the virtues of Snake plants. I realize that, as houseplants go, they’re about as run-of-the-mill as you can get and yet I found myself looking at them in a new light. My guy and I had offered to temporarily take care…
More And Less lists are replacing New Year’s resolutions and this makes sense to me. Compiling a list of what you’d like to do/see/manifest more of as well as what you’d like less of in your life seems, well, just easier–less intimidating, more approachable and (getting down to brass tacks) more achievable. I’ve never been…
Working with the colour red in a planting scheme is the most challenging to me. In a line-up of eye-catching plants, I find the reds are doing more than catching the eye. They’re doing a full-on fandango. Don’t get me wrong. There are a lot of red plants sporting flowers, stems and/or leaves that I…
I first laid eyes on Red when he was on his last legs. Stunted, hunched and neglected, Red was clearly in need of love and care. But I snatched him up, not because I felt a need to do the right thing but because I was desperate for a sketch model and he was the…
Hello, there. It’s been awhile, I know. What prompted me to dive back into blogging’s depthless waters was a long wait at the post office. On the wall was a poster displaying Canada Post’s recent issue of its annual flower stamps. The lush colours were as seductive to my snow-weary eyes as an oasis to a…
You know when you’ve chosen a combination of plants (promising an explosion of fiery reds) and picked out the absolutely most perfect container (glossy blue) to showcase your selection and then you stick all the plants in the pot and they start to grow and fill out and the whole thing turns into something completely…
I love to combine annuals with the goal of creating ultimate sensual overload. Proof: check out my eyeball-searing circus of a container planting, with super bright flowers that appear to swing through the air on upside down trapezes. But I realize one can’t continually decorate one’s patio or pathway with planters that can also be used…
It’s a given that daisies are the happiest of plants so when you fill out a container planting of them with equally cheerful flowers like petunias and calibrachoa in bright shades of pink, yellow, and red, it’s so easy for the whole thing to take a sharp turn into crazy clown town. So how do you…
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),…
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…
Reflections On A Life in Exile
Saint Andrew’s 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
Gardening in Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada
The life and loves of a plantsman
if your garden is bigger than a courtyard, but smaller than an acre
Exploring the Depths of Curiosity
A blog about nature, home, community, books, writing, the environment, food, and rural life.
Ministry of the fence 