In its best show to date, Canada Blooms (March 11 – 20, 2016) is bigger, bolder and filled with more ideas than ever. This event, Canada’s largest flower and garden festival, has finally embraced the fact that it’s smack in the heart of a young, innovative, and very urban environment. Here are my votes (from…
With this inaugural posting from my new and improved blog (formerly RhymesWithLinnaeus.com), I want to state for the record that Ministry Of The Fence may be adding greener perspectives on gardens and gardening but there will continue to be a strong appreciation for both the sublime and, yes, the unserious. So what better way to kick…
What do 2,200 varieties of plants, all in containers exposed to a merciless Southern Ontario summer, look like? Awesome. The Sawaya Container Trials, one of North America’s largest, threw open their doors (so to speak) in late July for growers, retailers and members of the Garden Writers Association to check out what’s doing best, what…
A garden can be similar to the Tardis, as small as a phone booth to the casual observer but encompassing a boundless space with transportive properties. Parts of Keppel Croft Gardens have these qualities as well and it seems to me that the clever use of walls has something to do with it. So, for my…
In my previous post, I tried to describe Keppel Croft Gardens, the unique gardening experience created by Bill and Dawn Loney near Big Bay on the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario. If pictures really are worth a thousand words then, when it comes to Keppel Croft, I still needed a lot of photos to describe…
On the eastern shore of the Bruce Peninsula in Southern Ontario, Bill and Dawn Loney’s very personal garden is equal parts labyrinth, zen oasis and trip down a variety of magic rabbit holes. Thank goodness they open it to the public during the summer. Though untrained in any formal sense, both gardeners have created a…
WHISTLING GARDENS Botanical Gardens and Garden Centre, Wilsonville, Ontario RATING: ♥ ♥ ♥ (This highly unscientific and thoroughly opinionated rating system is based on a range from lowest score of one ♥ to a highest score of 5 ♥♥♥♥♥. THE TIP-OFF: At not one but several different seminars I attended earlier this year at the Toronto Botanical Gardens,…
I love crashing strangers’ backyards and having a good, long snoop around. There’s so much to see and, when you’re with a like-minded chum, so much fun to be had pointing out what strikes your eye and sharing your opinion. Lots of opinions. Ah, yes. It’s garden tour time. Garden tours are like all-you-can-eat buffets…
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…
This is the first in a series of postings for a new blog category I’m calling Garden Nurseries Worth The Drive. Here in Southern Ontario, we’re lucky to have so many independent, creative, specialized and personal garden nurseries and–bonus–they’re often in a funky part of town or off-the-beaten track in the countryside. I’m looking forward…
I can stand, staring at one spot in a garden bed, for a long time. Too long, really. You’d think that, after some years of designing gardens and nurturing plants, deciding on what to stick in a bare spot wouldn’t be that much of a challenge. But sometimes, for all the pondering, coming up with…
Warning: this post is a fluff piece. And it’s strictly for the birds. Fluff is important for building a nice, cosy nest. All soon-to-be Bird Moms know this. But pollution, weed killers and our innate desire to clean up our gardens has resulted in a dearth of plant-based fluff. But there are ways you can…
What happens when you ask someone at the top of their game to distill everything they know into a single, easy-to-understand presentation? Standing in front of chalkboard and slide projector, Frank Kershaw admitted that he wasn’t sure he could do it. As an award-winning horticulturalist and teacher at Toronto-based George Brown College, he usually conducts…
Going fabulously fake. Super-sizing. Turning the practical into art. There are plenty of I-can-do-that garden ideas designed for maximum wow at Toronto’s Canada Blooms, the annual festival of all things horticultural in full swing all this week. Here are my top five ‘likes’. Click on any photo to start each slideshow for more details. 1. Try un-natural:…
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…
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 