A noun. A verb. A blog.
We have been lucky enough to gain the use of two unclaimed 4×10′ allotment plots in a local community garden. My husband and I haven’t planted veggies on any scale since we foolishly gave up our Leslie Street Allotment plot when we bought our first house 25 years ago. I don’t count an occasional cherry […]
On Sunday, the Bluffs Garden Tour organized by the Scarborough Horticultural and Garden Club allowed us to see five very different gardens. Of course, the Bluffs being the bluffs, in a couple of them the star performer, as above, was the view. Seeing how the turf shelfs out along the coast, like something from a […]
As in life, so am I when it comes to garden ornamentation: a relativist. (Even in my relativism, I’m with my pal Petronius, who said: All things in moderation, including moderation.) Purists have it in for tchotchke, knickknacks or bric-a-brac in the garden. Let’s say, they have a low QQ (Quirk Quotient). As a relativist […]
“Better lit than Neva” is the punchline of a long, involved story about Rasputin. I won’t go into that here. I’ll just say that holidays and Harry Potter had something to do with my being a day late for July’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. July is the time when my climbing rose Rosa ‘New Dawn’ […]
A lustworthy Toronto garden I’ve seen twice on the Riverdale garden tour – and still dream about – is the cover story on the Summer 2009 issue of Canadian Gardening magazine. If Sarah were here, I’d get her to Tweet about it. Wish I had pictures to post, but I do suggest you have a […]
Returning to Toronto after a road trip can awaken you to the constrained view of the sky from our little patches of urban heaven. This is especially so in the older parts of Toronto, such as our street, with their heavy canopies of green. (Though they’re a good thing, cooling our homes and gardens.) Office […]
This is the blog equivalent of a re-tweet: The Withrow Park Farmers’ Market and Toronto Balconies Bloom introduce their first collaborative Edible Container Garden Show, on Saturday Aug. 8, 2009, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., rain or shine, at the Withrow Park Farmers’ Market. Participation is open to all urban gardeners, from 3 to 103. […]
Poppies, Siberian Iris, Chives and Peony putting up the good fight against Big Bluestem grass There’s a saying that a garden doesn’t outlive the gardener who plants and tends it. Sadly, that’s mostly true. I’ve learned this the hard way. But, happily, there are a few exceptions, if you plant the right plants. My country […]
I’ll own to being lazy. It’s mostly on account of my curmudgeonly front yard. I say “English cottage garden” and it snarls back with sieve-like feet upon feet of inert yellow sand. (Thank you, Lake Iroquois.) I think “peonies” – it hands me a thirsty webwork of impenetrable Norway maple roots. And shade. Lots of […]
Edit: The pink peony we found on site is probably Cora Stubbs, an old variety, highly scented. A while back, we wrote about discovering the recently installed Scarborough Community Garden on Kingston Road. The space provided for the garden came from the grounds of the historic Cornell Campbell Farm next door. William Cornell settled here […]
Holiday garden sightings from the sublime to le ridicule. Seen on the road on the way to Ottawa, at a rest stop somewhere in the Haliburton Highlands, Ontario. Seen on the road on the way to Quebec City, at a McDonald’s somewhere near Berthierville, Québec. Monsieur Ronald and chums in a fauxpiary tableau. Crazy, but […]
To all our neighbours south of the longest friendly border in the world, I wish you a happy Independence Day. Here to celebrate with me is Rosa ‘Fourth of July’, complete with broad stripes and bright stars. All you need to complete the picture is a blue sky. And, as it’s a climber, that might not […]