A noun. A verb. A blog.
Reykjavik’s soaring Lutheran Hallgrimskirkja, tallest building in Iceland Icelanders build cathedrals out of concrete. Striking, creative and – most crucially in that seismically excitable area – resilient ones. That’s why you shouldn’t turn your nose up at this adaptable, inexpensive material when it comes to the garden. I’ve been itching to make some garden art […]
The bright red foliage lesions and bumpy fruiting bodies of Pear Trellis Rust My sister-in-law was showing me the garden of their new home, including a number of fruit trees. Unfortunately, the foliage of the two pear trees are covered in red lesions, and the underside shows the clear signs that something is seriously amiss. […]
Peanuts were in the news this morning*. This interested me, as I recently met peanuts in their growing state for the first time. The situation was an urban garden within spitting distance of downtown Indianapolis, which I’ll write about later. Of course most people know that peanuts are not nuts, but legumes, making them cousins […]
If you cross-pollinated the computing and home canning worlds, you might not expect the result to be so delicious. Yet, this is what makes Yes, You Can!, Daniel Gasteiger’s modern guide to food preservation, such a useful addition to the kitchen bookshelf. We were impressed with our review copy as soon as it arrived. Gasteiger is […]
This Lust List item isn’t a plant (which, for me, is usually a tree) – it’s a book. About trees. I’ve lusted for it ever since seeing the teasers. Last weekend at the Garden Writers Symposium in Indianapolis I held it briefly in my hot little hands, and let me tell you: Seeing Trees from Timber […]
Any garden that’s a major tourist attraction can’t afford to sit on its aster. The Butchart Gardens is no exception. I first visited back in July. An impressive experience, even if you aren’t a gardener – the garden’s theatrical quality gives it a crossover appeal that is a reason why the Butchart Gardens is the […]
A tapestry of pastels. Arrestingly beautiful. Can a garden work without blooms? Of all the things I could say about Seattle’s Dunn Gardens, this question floated to the top as I reviewed my many photographs. What happens after the flowers fade? But, first, the Dunn Gardens deserve an introduction. Originally, they were an early 20th-century […]
Seattle gardeners, Jim and Suzette Birrell (with grand-sprout) The great thing about the private gardens we visited during the 2011 Garden Bloggers’ Fling in Seattle, Washington, was that they were all designed and maintained by the homeowners, themselves. It’s inspiring to see the work of professional garden designers (which some of the homeowners were), but […]
Still life, with rain barrel It isn’t often that we’d direct you from Toronto Gardens to our Facebook page. In fact, we’ve never done it before, and might never again. But for this Blooms Day, when nothing very much is happening in the garden, I wanted to have a bit of photographic fun with the […]
At the end of July, I joined about 70 garden bloggers from North America and the UK in Seattle, Washington, for the annual garden blogging extravaganza called the Fling. Over four days, we saw many, many wonderful gardens, which I’ll try to share with you over the next while. The day before it began, local […]
The grapelike fruit of the hardy kiwi Actinidia arguta ‘Ananasnaya’ at UBC Botanical Garden, Vancouver If you aren’t a fan of the fuzzy skin on kiwifruit, you’re in luck. Not only are there smooth-skinned species, but they’re hardy in our climate. The one above was photographed in B.C. However, Actinidia arguta is available from at least […]
The Black Garden at VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver, B.C. Black plants are trendy at the moment. So I thought the Black Garden might be a good entry point into a post on an amazingly diverse botanical garden such as Vancouver’s VanDusen garden. Actually, it’s a bit misleading to call this a black garden. First, there are […]