A noun. A verb. A blog.
Today is the grand opening of the Allan Gardens Christmas Show. From 10 am to 5 pm daily till January 8th, with candlelight viewing on Saturdays and Sundays from 5-7 pm, you can wander through the conservatory’s winding walkways, wondering at the wuvwely… okay, I’ll stop. The Christmas flower show is a family tradition with […]
On first hearing about Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo and photographer Robert Llewellyn (Timber Press) I positively salivated. For dendrophiles, the book’s beautifully rendered cover image promises a new level of beauty and intimacy. First, though, a confession: I’m not just a dendrophile (tree lover), I’m a treek (tree geek). I […]
For our 600th post on Toronto Gardens, and the final one for NaBloPoMo 2011, I wanted – well, I wanted to do everything. National Blog Posting Month, for those wondering, is the challenge of writing a blog post a day, without fail, for the entire month of November. It’s a sister-act or copycat younger cousin […]
Lesson one: Always have a good place to sit and enjoy the garden. When Sarah & I started our blog over five years ago (last month; we missed our blog’s birthday!), we said we wanted to write about real gardens by real people. None of that garden porn stuff for us. Ha! Well, we’ve learned. […]
Most ordinary gardeners – those not lucky enough to have room in the garage, or a garage at all – have the same problem. Whether it’s a tool shed or a pool shed, how do you disguise it, or integrate it with your garden. A beautifully designed shed can put a serious dent in your […]
Every garden toolkit needs one sharp knife, the ideal tool for tasks from cutting string to dividing plant roots. Garden tools are very much a personal thing, like selecting a wallet. You need to find what works for you. I wouldn’t be without my aged Felco #2 hand pruners, for example. And the same goes […]
Because it’s Saturday night, and because I’m suffering from mild hippopotomontrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words), I thought I’d simply share one of the more unusual water features seen this year, from an Indianapolis garden.
A great idea for a DIY bee hotel, from St Fagans National History Museum in Wales Remember that hose the car ran over – and sprang a leak? It could have new life as a home for solitary bees. Look at the example above from St Fagans, the National History Museum in South Wales. St […]
Imagine waking to this view I’ve been inspired to take a backward look by Barry Parker’s posts, sharing his trip to many wonderful Welsh gardens this past September. These include, by coincidence, the Cowbridge Physic Garden and the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Barry reminded me of our UK trip in 2008, including a visit […]
Harold & Frances Holt Physic Garden at UBC Botanical Garden Of all the great gardens in Toronto, one thing that seems to be missing is a physic garden – a garden devoted to medicinal plants. These have been around since humans graduated from folk remedies to the science of medicine. Except that the infancy of […]
You might be forgiven for thinking this is a West Coast rainforest garden… but it’s an urban garden in Toronto’s east end Toronto is a city of ravines and lost rivers; Glen Davis Crescent is home to both. Its lost river, Tomlin’s Creek, still runs through a culvert underneath the road in the vee of […]
A pre-dawn hummer goes for the nectar at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Long, thoughtful posts, full of depth and perspective, aren’t always possible at the best of times. They’re even harder when you’re trying to post every day for thirty days as a sort of shadow NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month – a poor […]