Want to put a little vavoom in your veg patch? Whether you’re planning on installing a whole new garden or simply wanting to renovate an existing one, these 11 ideas I’ve discovered while snooping in all kinds of public and private gardens will have you dreaming big. 1. Try a new angle The distinctively angled…
Evidently, large water features are now considered passé. According to certain gardening pundits, large water features once promised “luxury and tranquility” and were a “symbol of outdoor opulence”. This year, big splashy (sorry, not sorry) fountains and faux creeks should be considered energy guzzlers that leave an overly large carbon footprint. I’d like to wade…
Yes, it’s a little early to start talking about mowing the lawn. In parts of Ontario, upwards of 10 feet of snow will have to melt away first. But something exciting in the world of mowing has been reported and I just had to share. Really. A large swath of grass lawn at Chanticleer, Pennsylvania,…
Over the last few days our little town of Fernie in southeastern British Columbia has been buried under a thick blanket of snow. Driving is a horror show but, man, everything looks so pretty. The colours of our town, the woods and surrounding mountains have receded or vanished in the glare of a whiteness so…
Funny how sometimes the most taken-for-granted things can suddenly change the way you look at life. Take electricity, for example. Yes, it makes random stuff go like my computer, the dishwasher and my battery-powered wine bottle opener. But, up until recently, I wasn’t thinking of it in terms of powering anything living such as plants…
I’m truly pleased to have seen some really inspirational gardens over the last few summers. Combining different colours, highlighting dramatic textures and adding drama with a dry creek or water feature were just some of the I-could-do-that! ideas that jumped out at me. But two gardens stood out because they did something marvellous in the…
I love a good outdoor animal sculpture. Abstract art is fine but I’m a sucker for a giant critter gracing a fence or sproinging up from the shrubbery. They’re great for adding drama or whimsy, some sparkle or pattern, maybe even movement to a corner of the garden. And they can also give you a…
Of all the gardens I had the immense pleasure of visiting this summer, the astonishing oasis of colour and lush greenery set within an old barn’s stone foundations was one of my favourites. The private garden is part of a home and farm near Mallorytown, Ontario. A gravel path leads the eye through a metal…
I have a couple of Cup Plants growing in amongst wild grasses and Blue Flag Irises, down by the water’s edge of the small lake where we live in southern Ontario. A garden this is not. I added the irises and the Cups in an attempt to add a little colour to the one and…
The weather has been “hotter than the hubs of hell” (as my guy likes to say) but that hasn’t stopped us from partying merrily with friends from near and far. Our cottage was made for entertaining and hosting overnight guests and we take full advantage. Which means that as our guests are getting my enthusiastic…
I love squirrels. Don’t get me wrong. They can be pretty cute. We’ve got a whole new spring crop of them living their best young lives in and around our back deck and their antics can be pretty entertaining. Until they get into my container plantings. Then, the love is gone. I was perusing some…
Have you ever walked down a sidewalk and felt a real sense of community was happening there? Front yards can do that. It’s surprisingly easy to communicate either openness, inclusiveness and friendliness or just the opposite – various iterations of self-imposed isolation – by your front yard garden choices from fencing to flowers to adding…
March is slowly coming to an end but for gardeners in many parts of Canada actual gardening is still a good month or two away. So who among us, itching to get our hands on plants and dirt, have turned in desperation to our houseplants? There they sit, oblivious, while you come to the conclusion…
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…
Last month, The U.S. Department of Agriculture updated their plant hardiness zone map for the first time in over a decade. Unsurprisingly, the new “lowest likely winter temperature” in all 48 states south of the Canadian border is now 1.4C warmer. In an AP news article, Boston University plant ecologist Richard Primack, who was not…
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 