A noun. A verb. A blog.
This is where I talk about concrete. We were utter novices when we launched into building our set of 7-foot-wide concrete steps. And when I say “we” here, know that it was the unstoppable Mr. TG doing all the literal and figurative heavy lifting. One of the reasons we went with concrete is that it’s easier […]
Creating a site plan is one of the first steps in the process The first stage in planning our makeover was knowing what we wanted. Our wish list was small: We wanted to stop water, soil, mulch and, especially, people from sliding down the steep slope along the driveway. We needed to get people or groceries […]
Just the planting yet to come in the finished project, from above. Sorry, I’ve been AWOL. One thing that waylaid me has been a major phase of our front yard transformation I’ve called our Grand Simplification. Rather than building to a climax in the retelling, I prefer to start at the end, showing you the […]
Landscape artist Jean Paul Ganem and creative chef Michael Stadtlander having a laugh on the site of the Singhampton Project, earlier this year. World-renowned local chef, Michael Stadtlander, together with landscape installation artist Jean Paul Ganem spent this summer creating a special event—a gastronomic installation—at his farm north of Toronto this August : The Singhampton […]
Ricki Pierce, aka The Rock Pirate, a mason and a Mason, grins at the entrance to the home, garden and little Utopia on Wambold Street that he and his wife, artist Damaris Pierce, have created in West Asheville, NC. They call it Wamboldtopia. There are many, many doorways in this garden, and doors are symbols of hope, […]
Can social change grow alongside art in a garden? I’ve been mulling this question over since Sarah and I returned from the annual garden bloggers’ meet-up, known as the Fling. This year, the Fling was flung in the trendy Appalachian town of Asheville, North Carolina. The Battersby Girls (plus Sarah’s son J, a good sport) were the sole […]
Grand simplification in progress, May 2012 A couple of years ago, I embarked on a garden project I called my Grand Simplification. My goal was to make my gardening life less complicated by rethinking the space. Simple is hard, as any designer will tell you. While the process is nowhere near finished, this is my […]
In Queen Victoria Park, countless people stop for the ultimate portrait, surrounded by 500,000 daffodils Did you know that Niagara Falls, Ontario, is the Daffodil Capital of North America? I didn’t, till I found myself looking for things to do when heading there on business last week. And there it was – 500,000 reasons to […]
Titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum) on its way to flowering I came to Niagara Falls for the daffodils; 500,000 of them. More on that later. My surprise find was one of the world’s biggest, smelliest, most suggestive flowers in bud, the titan arum (Amorphophallus titanum). In the next couple of weeks or so, it will burst […]
Part of a voice print from June Callwood’s final interview Canada Blooms gets knocked these days for not pulling a magical rabbit out of its increasingly shrinking pecuniary hat. However, one bit of magic it does do is to fund garden projects around the city through the work of the Toronto Garden Club. Past […]
Parklane’s dry stone wall at Canada Blooms 2012 Robert Frost might not forgive my mangling his poem but, judging by the number of them at Canada Blooms 2012, something – or, more aptly, someone – does love a wall. Especially a dry stone wall. Dry stone walls are constructed without mortar to glue the stones together. […]
Getting A Lawn by Lynne McIlvride-Evans My headline is slightly misleading, because what I most want to tell you about it the annual Easter art show in the studio home of artist Lynne McIlvride-Evans. In 2012, it runs April 6 to 9 from 1 to 5 pm. I’ve been collecting her work in a modest […]