There’s an acquaintance of mine who rolls her eyes every time I mention that I’m taking another online gardening course. I figure she just doesn’t know what she’s missing. I get that “gardening” and “online” may seem to go together like “fish” and “bicycle” but there are virtual classrooms out there offering amazing experiences that…
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…
Introducing exotic plants into your garden can be tricky although do-able if you’re into high maintenance gardening or you keep them in containers and bring them inside just before the first frost. But that’s just it. Here in Southern Ontario, we often think of exotic plants as being fragile beauties from tropical paradises much farther…
There were plants everywhere–in the ground, dangling from trellises, stacked over other plants and lining the tops of fences. And yet, despite the sheer number of plants crammed into this garden, there was a distinct sense of calmness and elegance. This was an eye-opening garden. But discovering a place that leaves you gob-smacked is to…
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 when science legitimizes my tendency to play in the dirt. Research has proven that direct contact with soil is actually very beneficial for your health. Last month, a blog posting from the David Suzuki Foundation, reported on microbes, biodiversity and how getting dirty is actually good for you. Here’s a taste of that…
As the gardening season reaches full swing, promoting awareness about our beleaguered bugs has ramped up as well. Everywhere I turn, I’m finding articles and opinion pieces on the need to add pollinator-friendly plants to our gardens. On a recent garden tour organized by the Toronto Botanical Gardens, I kept finding little plastic signs stuck into flower…
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…
Most everyone with a garden has a spot under some trees or along the side of the house where the sun hardly shines and the soil is often (as my endearingly direct guy will sometimes put it) as dry as a popcorn’s fart. These are the places that try a gardener’s soul. What can grow…
Is it just me or did all the dandelions in the universe just invade our gardens overnight? The battle is on but it doesn’t have to be horrific–especially if you take a different tactic than the usual OBLITERATE THEM ALL. Here are some timely reasons for putting down the pesticides and making dandelions our co-conspirators…
Can a bee-friendly garden actually kill bees rather than help them? An article published last June on wired.com reported that gardeners may be accidentally poisoning bees when they purchase what they think are bee-friendly flowers at big box stores in the U.S. and Canada. Several named store brands in the article were found to be selling…
I don’t usually include gardening and Vogue magazine in the same sentence. But as I was thumbing through the December issue, past the ruinously expensive dresses and eye-popping jewelry, while making note of what I could be doing if I cared to be a woman of means and unlimited chicness, I stumbled upon a feature…
Time flies when you’re having fun. That might explain why December 5th whooshed past me without my realizing that day was the first official United Nations World Soil Day. Not that I would’ve been able to do much about it had I known. I mean, what does one do on a World Soil Day? Round up some…
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 