A noun. A verb. A blog.
A multi-stemmed river birch (Betula nigra) You can’t always get what you want. Although you can try sometimes (gardeners call this “zone denial”). But when what you want is a tree called “river birch,” what you want (this tree with the amazing, exfoliating bark, especially as a youngster) might be ruled out by what this […]
Talk about a rocky start! Dave and Heidi Rita (sorry, Rita!) Fleury got more than a “rock garden” when they purchased their Beach area home about four years ago – they got edge-to-edge beach stone, punctuated by some accent rocks and elderly evergreens. The previous owners had taken the drastic measure of installing stone to keep […]
Designed by elusive artist James Sutherland, the TTC’s Dupont Station murals were unveiled in 1978 I hadn’t intended to continue our TTC Garden Tour so quickly. But there I was at Spadina Station with my camera. It was just a long tunnel trek and a one-stop hop over to Dupont. And no TTC Garden Tour […]
Just stop with me for a moment. The wind is blowing my neighbour’s grasses. Miscanthus or maiden grass. Sometimes we need to hurry to appointments. Sometimes, we need to stand and watch the wind toss the maidens’ tresses. I think Robert Frost wrote a poem like that. About birches, weighed down by ice: So low […]
My corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’) in happier times I’m just awaiting the paperwork. Eastern Filbert Blight has again reared its ugly – uckily ugly – head, as predicted and feared when I wrote about it back in March. Now I’m waiting for an envelope from Rutgers University containing the import permit that will […]
This Blooms Day post will be a quickie. There’s not much still happening in the Microgarden this November. When the flowers are past their prime, how grateful we are for bright-coloured foliage: Acer palmatum ‘Bloodgood’ A nursery Chrysanthemum – almost as spherical as the pumpkin beside it. Don’t be depressed if your mums never look […]
Oh, sure. They look cute, their nodding white flowers, crimped and curled at the edges, like fairies’ cloche hats. In May, they shake those little bells, and perfume fills the air. Plus, they’ll grow anywhere, in sun, shade, wet or dry, with minimal attention. What’s not to like? Grrrrr. Lily of the valley. Convallaria. Muguet […]
Along with the site improvements for Victoria Park Station, an art installation by Aniko Meszaros Garden stories are everywhere, even underground on The Better Way. Victoria Park Station is the first stop in an occasional series I’m calling the TTC Garden Tour. New artwork was part of the plan for the recently improved station infrastructure. […]
We first posted this back in 2009, but 2011’s long, wet spring seems to have been perfect – many of our street trees seem spottier than ever. Here’s a repeat of our original post: Black tar spot of maples (Rhytisma acerinum) is one of the few excuses I can accept for sending your leaves off […]
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.” ~ Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen This is an Oriental poppy, Papaver orientalis ‘Beauty of Livermere’, rather than […]
The nose doesn’t have much going for it in the month of November. That’s why we treasure any little bit of sniff going our way. The smell of fallen leaves is always heady to me, especially sugar maple leaves (Acer saccharum). Then there’s the lowly little annual (in my climate) edging plant aptly called sweet […]
When you have 350 bulbs to plant – and your soil wears bulletproof armour in the form of impenetrable Norway maple roots – you’ll try anything to make your life easier. So when I noticed this inexpensive, ergonomic Y-Grip Trowel on the Botanus website, I wondered how it would stand up to my long-handled bulb planter. I added it to […]