A noun. A verb. A blog.
Have you noticed fewer butterflies in your garden in 2020? For me, the bees have been plentiful, including the native ones, but butterflies of any sort? Remarkably few. It’s probably not just in my garden, or just in Toronto. A garden friend in Washington, D.C., commented on the same thing. And another Facebook commenter noted that […]
In 2020, with garden trips and tours and meetings cancelled left and right due to you-know-what, Canada’s Garden Days, June 13 to 21, is all about GLU (Gardeners Like Us). It’s about how garden-variety GLUs find pleasure and activity and peace of mind, even with the usual garden frustrations, in the garden. I’ve learned a lot about gardening from […]
Some plants survive all odds – I include myself as one of those odds – and this small bulb is one. It has stuck steadfastly with me and my sandy, dry-shade garden since 2000. 2000! This only became clear after hunting through my old Lee Valley 10-year gardener’s journal to recall the name of one of my daffodils (which […]
In 2020, if a cherry blossom blooms in the city, and there’s no one to see – will it still look pretty? Yes. It will. But you won’t be there this year, will you? Even Sakura Watch is on pause to discourage folks from social the-opposite-of-distancing when the cherries bloom in High Park. So, while you’re home […]
Every year, though perhaps not in 2020, I see more gardens than I have time to share. That’s why our armchair garden tour brings us close to home with this small but standout garden in North Rosedale from Through the Garden Gate 2017. I got the impression that this lovely garden is a DIY. As the […]
While we’re in San Francisco on our visit to the Gardens of Alcatraz, let’s take a little sidetrip. We met up with Bay-area friend and travel blogger Alice Joyce to see some of the city’s small gems, including the World’s Crookedest Street. Little did we know, it was also a garden. You’ll get an idea of […]
Forget that COVID-19 has us housebound. Instead, let’s take off for a garden tour – in the safety and comfort of our favourite seats. Where better to begin our jailbreak than the gardens of Alcatraz! I’ve wanted an excuse to show you them since way back in 2013 after the San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling. To me, the name “Alcatraz” went with movies like “The Bird Man […]
As gardeners during two world wars knew, even during a major crisis you can do your bit to make things better. Victory gardens were designed to boost food productivity during the wars, one little garden plot after another. The benefits spread far beyond individual garden gates. And gardens need pollinators. Their work, done mostly by insects, is behind one […]
If I’d known that Canada Blooms 2020 would be cancelled, yesterday when I previewed the show as tour-guide, I’d’ve taken lots more pictures. But that news didn’t arrive till after I got home. And, really, had anyone known, I most likely wouldn’t have been there at all. Yesterday, was the day before the grand opening, so most of the exhibits […]
Not so long ago, I was inspecting the white-topped spears of snowdrops (Galanthus) poking through the bare earth. Now most of those snowdrops are back sleeping under a blanket of snow. But spring IS on its way. Meteorological Spring is even closer! Plus, this Saturday, Feb. 22nd, the Toronto Botanical Garden lets you think green thoughts at Get the Jump on Spring & Seedy Saturday. […]
This year was unusual for our family, full of exciting, challenging, time-consuming, positive-but-discombobulating changes. Frankly, it kept us from blogging as often as we’d like. But one change was easy: deciding to rename the garden tool that, three years ago, my sister, Sarah, and I adopted from its creator, Margaret Bennet-Alder. No longer is it the Toronto Gardener’s Journal. For […]
I’m never ruthless enough when taking cuttings of geranium (Pelargonium). For one thing, I can never bear to remove the flowers, the blooming of which distracts the cutting from root production. But when they look like this, who can blame me. The truth is, though, there’s no real mystery around the process of propagation for […]