A noun. A verb. A blog.
Okay. It isn’t a bloom. In fact, my Hoya has never bloomed. I inherited it from my mother more than 20 years ago (and I don’t think it ever bloomed for her, either). Considering my notorious neglect of houseplants, the fact that it still lives is an accomplishment. Yet, if you’ve read our blog you […]
This mosaic of botanical tiles caught my eye in a panel beside the elevator in the upstairs mezzanine of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. They look like fired clay, with the imprint of actual leaves and flowers. Please excuse the fuzziness of the images, taken in dim light with a hand-held camera. Hope […]
13 Clues Winter Has Started 1. You wake up with the tell tale sign of something solid pelting the window pane. The big snow has arrived. 2. You are grateful that you don’t have to go anywhere in the car today. No outside appointments! Yay! You snuggle under the covers. *feel smug* 3. You remember […]
Small gardens like mine offer scant room for tool storage. That’s why constantly look for tools that are compact, easy to store and hard-working in the garden. Here are two I’ve had good results with – both time-tested as well as bankrolled by yours truly. The first – and the rust says it’s been around […]
Today is opening day for the Christmas flower show at Allan Gardens – sorry for the late notice, but it is on till 5 pm (click the image for a larger view). Head on down to enjoy the carol singers, hot cider, carriage rides and other festal festivities. And, of course, see the floral displays […]
Some inspiration for front door décor from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. Their display of 100 decorated doors continues till December 10th. The RBG is only about an hour’s drive from Toronto, and if you haven’t visited in a while (I hadn’t till a Garden Writers’ Association conference took me there on Friday) you’ll […]
If you’ve travelled along Queen Street East, you’ve passed the white-picket fence enclosed Ashbridge Estate. This is the family homestead of one of the east end’s earliest settlers. The Ashbridges – from whom Ashbridge’s Bay gets its name – were Loyalists from Pennsylvania, granted 600 acres that stretched from the waterfront of Lake Ontario to Danforth […]
I was thrilled on waking this morning to learn that my hosta photo had won Gold, amid stiff competition, in the Gardening Gone Wild Picture This photo contest for November 2009! This, on top of Best Blog awards last week, conferred by Deborah of Kilbourne Grove/Green Theatre and The Violet Fern, for which we are […]
It’s squirrel feeder bird feeder time again. So (as Sarah has been at a seminar all day, and I have been tending to family things) we thought you might enjoy re-reading this post of Sarah’s from the spring. It’s called: A Bit of a Chat with a Squirrel at my Bird Feeder Me: Oh, […]
A quick post to show off my fall urn, in a rather crummy photo, shot between raindrops, with frosted edges to disguise my neighbour’s recycling bin. I hope you’ll believe me: this looks better in real life. The inspiration to get cracking and fill the negative space left by the retreating annuals came from fellow […]
My original plant. The offshoot came from a Keiki that grew on its old flower stalk. 2009 hasn’t been my most stellar gardening year. I’ve been distracted and neglectful of my garden, both indoors and out, especially since P-Day: August 30th – The Day Izi, The Puppy, Entered My Life. Garden wise, sad to say, […]
As someone who has grown bigroot geranium (Geranium macrorhizzum) for many years, I’ve long admired one of its daintier hybrid offspring. While similar in frilled leaf form, Geranium x cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ makes tidier mats of foliage, and its flowers poke up their heads without the long, scrawny necks of my bigrooted friend. Then yesterday as […]