A noun. A verb. A blog.
Another garden gem in the Bruce Peninsula, at the northern tip of Dyers Bay, is Virginia’s Garden. It’s nestled in a slightly sloping pocket between the road and the towering limestone cliffs behind – a unparalleled backdrop of rock cliffs and towering trees. Gravel paths guide you through the garden, Virginia Dolliver’s labour of love […]
This morning eight years ago, I remember where I was. My daughter was home sick with the TV on; she called me urgently from my office to the living room. We couldn’t stop watching. Today, the anniversary was spent differently. First, it was with a large group of friends. Second, it was spent in an […]
Is there such a thing as too many pictures of Cosmos? Perhaps not if they come on the tail of a post about mass plantings. This long fenceful planted end to end with the hardy annual Cosmos bipinnatus makes me happy every time I walk past. Has 2009 been a particularly good year for cosmos? […]
British garden blogger VP of Veg Plotting invites other GBs to get OOTS: Out on the streets to report on gardens close to home. Her inspiration, I think, is to look for ideas in public gardens. However, there are great ideas to be stolen, I mean had, from commercial gardens, too. At top and left […]
Or should I say, Tahitian Wabbit and fwend? Hope (or should I say: hop) the traditional end of summer finds you in a celebratory mood (or: mode). Go on, put that flower behind your ear and enjoy the sunshine.
This summer of 2009, my Rosa ‘New Dawn’ has put out a bumper crop of new shoots. Typically, in August, this climbing rose has three or four long stems of new growth. This year, at least a dozen have shot their wands to the sky. Lucky me. Really. This means my arbour is gifted with […]
Am I the only one who sees faces in everything? This sunflower seen near the lake end of Warden Avenue looks a bit like it’s wearing sunglasses – or is giving passersby a wink. Is it just me, Doctor?
I’ve been suffering a major case of butterfly envy. My neighbour M. has been luring the Monarch butterflies (Danaus plexippus) over to his mature purple butterfly bush (Buddleia) for some time. This year, they seem more plentiful than ever. Hooray! But they’ve been giving my new Buddleias a wide berth. Then came this plucky little […]
It never ceases to amaze me what evil can be done to a tree, simply with a tie and a stake. These homeowners probably thought they were doing a kind thing to their young tree, propping it up with a stake. However, this poor puppy should have been let off its leash long ago, before […]
Many bloggers protect themselves from spam with some kind of Word Verification gate. With Blogger, the letters come up randomly, requiring a “real person” to key them in, thereby deterring attack by automated spam bots. Yet sometimes the scrambled letters look like they might actually be a word. We thought we’d share some of the […]
My favourite story about goldenrod (Solidago), the ubiquitous, aptly named native plant, surrounds the tone of surprised delight from one of our visiting, hort-mad Welsh aunts: Solid-aah-go, she trilled, grows wiiiild here! Well, yes. It does. It does grow wild, in every sense. In fact, if there’s a stranger in your Toronto garden with serrated, […]
Yesterday, the scent of the basil I’d picked for our daughter to take back to Halifax lingered on my fingers for a long time. She also took with her some sage (advice), rosemary (for remembrance) and a golden zucchini from her aunt Sarah’s allotment – all the better to help her celebrate her last week […]