A noun. A verb. A blog.
Blue Muscari in a cheerful pot on Sarah’s balcony Apparently, it’s Blue Monday, the saddest day of the year. Who knew? I’m not feeling particularly sad myself, but I am always ready to think about the colour blue. Here’s some cheeriness for a blue day. Blue flowers are notoriously hard to photograph, and usually look […]
A rusty orb on stilts contrasts the spiky mullein; Dragonfly Farms, Bainbridge Island, Washington The colour of rust sits comfortably in the natural environment – like green’s complement red, blended with dabs of earth and bark. As with the orb above, even a smooth surface weathers into delicious textural variations. Rust hints of history and […]
Hatley Castle, just west of Victoria, British Columbia It’s hard to know where to begin with Hatley Castle. Not only is it a lavish, historic mansion and gardens, one of Canada’s castles, it’s connected to stories that would make a great miniseries or few, as dramatic as Downton Abbey. Hatley was designed in 1908 by […]
Stained concrete, Lane garden, Seattle When a paving geek like me visits a garden, camera in hand, you can be sure that some shots will be about what’s underfoot. So this Friday’s Idea File focuses on the hardscaping under the snow. As you can see, you don’t have to settle for standard unit paver patterns […]
Broken rose arbor: Before Our rose arbor suffered a collapse this summer due to old age and some of 2012’s big winds. (It’s one of the memories emerging as I sort through thousands of retrieved images after a major data loss.) What would we do? All our energies and budget were being sucked up by […]
My Hoya carnosa or wax plant is pushing the Big 3-0 Like the Brave Little Tailor in the fairytale, I should wear a sash reading, Helen the Houseplant Killer. It’s my specialty, particularly in creative ways. Most houseplant killers do it with too much love – by over-watering. My poison, on t’other hand, is neglect. […]
Have a dead tree? Turn it into a garden feature. Christoper D.Mello‘s garden, Asheville NC You’ll be surprised how just a little paint can spruce things up and make your garden pop. That’s idea one – applied here in a variety of ways. This is the first of what I hope will be a weekly […]
The drawbridge entrance to a very special garden in Preston Hollow, Dallas TX Now that The Hobbit movie has arrived in theatres, have a peep at this hobbity garden we visited with the 2010 Garden Writers Symposium. I won’t give you much commentary, other than to say that the garden and buildings were designed from […]
The Rock Garden at Whistling Gardens What’s going on in your winter garden – anything? With Toronto’s long, dreary winters, you’d expect us to pay more attention to the winter months. Yet, bedazzled by leaves and flowers, winter is often the last thing we think about. In 2012, Whistling Gardens near Brantford opened to give […]
Who could resist the golden form of spike winterhazel (Corylopsis spicata) ‘Aurea’ also known as ‘Gold Spring’? Why do I always fall in love with the wrong guy? Look at those handsome leaves! All boldly goldy-chartreusy, with a blush on the newest. Then look below at the bright pink bud scales (that protect the leaf […]
Finally, Boxing Day 2012 had a late delivery of snow. Toronto gardeners got a late gift yesterday – a nice, deep blanket of snow! Whenever you’re shovelling it off your walks, don’t push it into the street. Pile it onto your garden! As long as it doesn’t contain salts, that snow contains just what your […]
Over the next few evenings this weekend, you can share a close-to-Dickens-y Christmas celebration at an historic site just around the corner in Hamilton. It’s at Dundurn Castle, a national historic site you might not even know about. I didn’t till recently. We Canadians tend to be wimps about our own history. Just as with […]