A noun. A verb. A blog.
Surprise! This dried-up, former grocery store potted Easter Lily (Lilium longiflorum) has borne unexpected fruit. Or flower. It was rescued from its way to the green bin in the front hall of ma belle-mère (mother-in-law) this summer and plopped into a spare corner of the back garden. Just in case. Ta da! It is now […]
On Sunday, while in Waterloo, we went a few clicks further north to visit St. Jacob’s. I was in dire need of fresh-picked apples, and hoped we’d have time to visit the farmers’ market. The huge market in St. Jacob’s is open on Thursdays and Saturdays all through the year. Sundays are much smaller, but […]
Last weekend, I had one of those What the heck is that?!? must-stop photographic urges as my husband and I drove along King Street in Kitchener, Ontario on our way to its conjoined city Waterloo. I ran over, furiously snapping, as is my wont, and accosted two passersby, who told me that this is the […]
Today’s oblique musical reference is about Euphorbia marginata, also known by evocative common names such as snow-on-the-mountain, smoke-on-the-prairie, ghost weed, or summer icicle. All refer to the frosty-edged bracts of this Poinsettia cousin, in “bloom” right now in sunny Toronto gardens. The “fire” in this icicle relates to the toxic milky sap, common to all […]
As our mum would have said, Sarah and I are frilled, just frilled to be among the five garden blog finalists for the Blotanical Awards 2009 in the Best Canadian Blog category. Thank you for your votes in phase one of the process! As relative new kids on the garden block, we’re honoured to be […]
And my heart fell at your feet. I can’t help it if I’m still in love with Q (for Quirky). Hank Williams may be rolling in his grave as I steal his words, but my High-QQ (Quirk Quotient) kicks in whenever I pass this little house with its Dr.-Seussian topiaries. Garden snobs may sniff, but […]
Disclaimer: The images in this post are not pictures of my garden. They are gardens of simple inspiration from around the city. A new season: Time to take stock of the garden. Starting back where it began, twenty-two autumns ago in November, when we took possession of two rectangles of sparse lawn, with a house […]
Right next to our community garden is a field of white asters. Wow, I thought, the bees must be having a field day. Then I noticed. They were! This one makes me think of a bee angel. Hard at work, busy doing all the things that bees do. Hanging around, packing in the nectar and […]
One, one, one li’l ‘Sungold’. Two, two, two ‘Bloody Butcher.’ Three, three, three li’l tomatoes. Well, you get the idea. Considering that this is how they looked when first planted two months ago and then this is how the Sungolds looked in mid-August, that’s worth singing about. And with the unprecedented dry spell of August-September […]
By September, I’m usually the Girl from Ipomoea, with a garden totally, er, beribboned and festooned (aka choked) with morning glories. Mine are not the ones pictured here. They’re the pretty but common Ipomoea tricolour, likely old-fashioned Grandpa Ott, the first seeds of which were probably sown about the time the foundations of our house […]
The Judge’s Choice in the Community category, East York Blooming Contest. This shot would be better if the road beside it weren’t being chewed up by large earth movers. How do you winnow 135 nominees to a select few gardens for the official judge of the East York Blooming Contest? Send out ten teams of […]
Hope you like nasturtiums; hope you like orange; and really hope you like orange nasturtiums. Because you’d see an armload of them in my garden this September of 2009. The three packages of Tropaeolum majus ‘Paintbox’ planted last May would be appropriately named. If… if… most of the little squares in your paintbox were filled […]