When my brother and I were kids we spent several formative years enjoying a backyard that had no lawn, a veritable forest of unclimbable trees, vast swaths of mulch (known back then as ‘beauty bark’) and an enormous cement patio. We were forever suffering from scrapes, bruises and splinters from this decidedly child-unfriendly garden. But,…
We’ve all read about how nature does remarkable things to help care for and nurture its own. Research reveals new and exciting examples of this every year it seems. I love how we can learn from these findings and actually mimic some of Mother Nature’s neat tricks when caring for our own gardens. A little…
Of all the colours you can find in a garden, orange can be the trickiest, I think. As hues go, it can glow brighter than red or yellow all the while doing more clashing than complementing. It’s very much a shout out colour. But that’s what also makes it a great colour to have in…
Gardeners have double vision, I think. You’ve got one view towards what’s happening in the here and now. But you’ve also got a picture in your mind’s eye of what will be happening months from now and even into the next season. One way we play out this balancing act is when we plant now…
A friend of mine recently asked me whether I’d heard about this new method for growing seedlings. Evidently, the “seed snail” method was heating up Instragram. I had to find out more. And when I did, I wondered what you might think about it. A screenshot of the Instagram page introducing the Snail Method of…
I learned a new word the other day: hortifuturism. I also learned about a new colour: Cyber Lime. The Garden Media Group, a U.S.-based garden industry PR firm was championing both as hot, hot, hot for 2024 in their annual trends report. “What better color to symbolize the traits of hortifuturism?” the giddy copy gushed…
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.…
To me the garden in winter is fraught with deliciously poetic angst. That all-encompassing deep freeze, wiping out colour, lushness, life, really, brutally exposes the bald truth about one’s gardening ambitions which then need to be wrestled with through many a dark and unfruitful day. But, with the freedom of not being able to do…
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…
I want to share my thoughts with you about an app I’ve been using that I think has really exciting potential for gardeners. It’s called One Second Every Day (1SE) and, no, I’m not getting paid to tell you about it. But I think you might find it really handy. Or just loads of fun.…
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…
I’ve seen several living walls, also known as vertical gardens, over the years and I’ve absolutely loved every one of them. They are terrific at livening up a space, quite literally. But I realized this past fall (when I took the photos below) that every “living” wall I’d ever come across so far was an…
There are so many wonderful flowers that can light up an early autumn garden but I can’t think of one that brings so much to the party as Strawflowers, also known as Paper daisies. Gorgeous colours? Check. Easy to grow? Check. Some weird attribute that makes it a stand out? I think blooms that have…
Filling up a big spot in a garden bed can be pretty easy. But what if you want volume (height or width or both) without bulk–as in heavy, leafy, darkness-inducing shrubs? Look to the frothy fronds of fennel and asparagus offering the softest forms there are in the plant world. They offer a lot of…
In what I hope becomes a long-lived annual tradition, I visited friends for a few days this month in Gananoque, a small, utterly gorgeous town on the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Ontario. The timing is not inconsequential. Not only is “the Gan” practically vibrating in July with good times–outdoor concerts, boat…
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 