A noun. A verb. A blog.
After February 2019’s unreasonable insistence on winter weather, today’s evidence above, I’m all too eager for spring. To have it happen three weeks earlier than the Vernal Equinox – around March 21st – would be psychologically uplifting, right? Guess what? March 1st is the first day of meteorological spring. Yip-yip-yippee! Spring starts today! Perhaps you knew […]
The theme is A Family Affair at Canada Blooms 2019, a little more than a week away. Just for the event, I’ve written a brand new talk on Gardening with Children for the Toronto Master Gardeners’ presentation library – you can see it (and me) on the Harrowsmith Garden Solutions Stage at noon on Tuesday, March 12th. My talk is just one […]
Come meet up with Sarah and I this weekend when the Toronto Botanical Garden hosts its free Seedy Saturday and Get the Jump on Spring events. Break the spell of this very snowy, icy February – and think springy thoughts! Free talks, free inspiration, and free seeds. How can you lose? We’ll be there on Saturday, February 23, […]
Snowed in – psychologically, if not physically? Let me take you away from all this! Click any image for a slideshow getaway. After seeing the wonderful pool our neighbours S & B created in the back yard of a (relatively) small, east-end semi-detached home, I know that even snowbound Torontonians like us can benefit from ideas […]
It made me want to be a kid again to read Gardening with Emma: A kid-to-kid guide by Emma Biggs (with help from her dad, Steven Biggs). Who wouldn’t want to reconnect with the authentic, childlike wonder and excitement of discovery in the garden? The book arrived at the right time. As I’m now writing a […]
Thank you to the academy for this recognition. What can I say? I’m one of the best at putting things off, neglecting, and just plain forgetting things. Thank you also to my plants that died, or threatened to almost die. I couldn’t have done it without them. I had an “Augh, I’ve killed it!!” moment […]
As we begin our 13th year as bloggers, we send out a heartfelt welcome to our new subscribers and fond thanks to our loyal readers! 2018 was a hectic year for the Toronto Gardens family – especially as it drew to a close, which meant we posted less often than we’d like. Alas. Many of you will relate to the challenge of […]
Any beginning gardener would happy to find either – or both – these books under the giving tree. But you don’t have to be a beginner to appreciate them. In the spirit of “the more you know, the more you know you don’t know,” this experienced gardener filled many gaps in her knowledge in reading them. For […]
Making a garden is important to me, so my garden can (occasionally) look okay – or okay enough that someone compliments me on it. Honey, I think at the time, all I see are the flaws. Look at the picture above. Aren’t the tulips lovely? Are you like me, distracted by the stump of the Japanese maple, slowly […]
It was the worst of trees, it was the best of trees. And now my former 90-year-old neighbour is no tree at all. It’s just a stump. Yes, it’s an invasive alien that someone a few generations ago thought would make a great street tree. It did. But Norway maples (Acer platanoides) have also edged […]
Sarah and I are thrilled to bits to be able to present the digital/ebook version of the Toronto Gardener’s Journal source book. Don’t worry that we’re becoming overly commercial on Toronto Gardens, but this has been such an all-consuming project for us that we really must talk about it. The Source Ebook is us “being the […]
Despite our best efforts, as gardeners and as just plain folks, we never know for sure what can happen in a season. There I was, walking west on Lake Shore in mid-October and a flutter among the hawthorns caught my eye. Could it be? Yes, it was! The little fella above, left behind by the […]