A noun. A verb. A blog.
Fellow Toronto Fling organizers Veronica Sliva and Lorraine Flanigan on our scouting mission to Parkwood Estate With Mr. TG reading Roch Carrier’s Montcalm and Wolfe, I’m reminded how little Canadians know (or care) about the history of their own country. That goes for local history, too. How many Torontonians give a second thought to the […]
A shady entrance to the garden of plantswoman Marion Jarvie Marion Jarvie’s seasonal open gardens are a bit of an event among Toronto-area garden aficionados. But, although I’d seen pictures and even taken a class from Marion at the Toronto Botanical Garden, I’d never actually visited until we took the Toronto Fling bloggers there, the […]
The formal herb garden at Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens (with Savvy Gardening gals Amy and Tara) The act of garden making is an attempt to impose a human’s sense of order on the natural world. Even a native garden or, the latest trend, the messy, bedhead garden (a trend that I’ve been following for years), actively assembles […]
We didn’t know what to expect behind the gate of The Green Room Once I stepped across the threshold, one word jumped into my brain: Texture! Say it slowly, say it often: Texture, texture, texture. When your garden is (mostly) green-on-green, contrasting textures, like all these delicious whorls, fringes and planes, can can be as […]
Walking in the ravine today I noticed quite a few acorns and picked up about six or seven. I’d recently listened to an interview with wildlife and biodiversity expert and entymologist Doug Tallamy where he talked about growing an oak tree from an acorn and thought, yes, I would like to get on that bandwagon. Trees […]
Miriam Goldberger and Paul Jenkins (with the lovely Penny) at Wildflower Farm As if three 13-hour days of the Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling weren’t excitement enough, and an optional fourth day in Niagara didn’t do us in, on the fifth day Sarah organized an outing to native seed producer Wildflower Farm. We confess that while […]
A cottage garden feel in the colours of the Canadian flag (with sunshiny touches of yellow). And a matching red door. Just in time for Canada Day, a Leslieville garden full of ephemeral red poppies and what look like common ox-eye daisies. This stopped me in my tracks as I passed. Happy, happy Canada Day! […]
Mulch is a must to keep soil cool and moist. [EDITED July 1ST 2015: Sadly, the company we wrote about below only takes orders from U.S. Addresses, even though their website clearly asks for “postal codes”. We’ve written them to ask about extending their reach to Canada and will update when we hear anything. In […]
An arch of curly willow and a spectrum of flowers It was Pride weekend in Toronto, and I was walking on Queen Street. Whatever the designer’s intention, I chose to see this sweet combination as a rainbow. What do you think?
No, it isn’t snow. It’s the fluffy seeds of the eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides). A row of mostly cottonwoods sits on the horizon at Tommy Thompson Park on the Leslie Street Spit. Walking on the Spit last Saturday, my friend Sharon asked, “What is that white fluff, Helen?” I was so glad she did. Because […]
For the past few months, this White Clover tool bag has been a decorative feature in my front hall. You could say that my loppers have never looked so good. Among the so-much! I’ve wanted to write about lately, my review for this White Clover tool bag (designed for those awkward shapes like loppers) is […]
This Ward’s Island garden whispers to me (loudly): a garden can never have too many alliums. When you invite 70 garden bloggers to Toronto in early June 2015 (after a bitter winter and a long, cool spring), you’d better hope the gardeners have planted alliums – the ornamental onion – to fill the potentially gaping […]