Alaskan native trees with finger-like canpoy

Welcome to the goth garden

Goth gardens are a thing now, apparently. Garden Media Group (a public relations firm supporting the home and garden industries) points out in their annual Garden Trends Report that #Gothgarden(ing) is a natural progression of “our culture’s love affair with the occult”. This year, in fact, they predict we (Gen Z, in particular) will be…

Ghosts of the Victorian garden

Last Monday was Victoria Day here in Canada, a national holiday that was once the official day to celebrate Queen Victoria’s birthday and is now simply our unofficial kick-off to spring. This weekend also semi-reliably marks the moment when danger of overnight frost has passed–at least for most Canadians. Hence, gardening centres finally fling open…

6 easy shortcuts to a classic Canadian garden

Earlier this month I published a post (highly opinionated, of course) about gardening shortcuts for getting that traditional English country garden style. Since then, I’ve been thinking. The British garden look is popular for good reason, as are other well-known garden looks such as the Japanese-style garden or the American Southwest style (think lots of…

An entrance through a tall fence leads to a mossy zen garden

A garden unfolds into rooms with eye-popping views

A garden with room for a view is one thing but a gobsmacking garden with many rooms, each with completely different views, is something altogether different and a little tough to capture with still photos rather than 3D Sensoround. But I’ll try. On a recent (June 23, 2016) garden tour presented by the Toronto Botanical…

The movable garden

Commitment-phobic? Then gardening might be the ultimate turn-off. After all, growing plants entails sticking around in the same place to water, feed, prune and, yes, enjoy their beauty, year after year, doesn’t it? Not necessarily. Here are 5 ideas to have green and growing things with you wherever you roam. Click on any photo to read…