A noun. A verb. A blog.
While looking to acquire some desired object – probably electronic – on Craigslist lately I came upon the wonderful item of clothing pictured above (names have been obscured to protect the innocent). What a revelation. I instantly realized I’ve been going about my sartorial choices all wrong. The ugly truth: How can I consider myself […]
Getting to know many bloggers in California has introduced me to the concept of lawn controversy: the fact that there is a strong and vocal movement against having lawns altogether. One of my first posts about lawns here got a heated comment from Twitter friend and California blogger Billy Goodnick. He described it as unleashing […]
I was born in England, but my home is Canada. On this Canada Day, here are five reasons that, as a gardener, I’m glad to be Canadian: 1. The Maple Leaf, our emblem dear, the maple leaf forever. I love that our national symbol is something living and growing; I especially love that it has […]
Sarah lives on one side, I live on the other. And, in the middle, are our neighbours Z. and K. Last month, Z. came to see me, all excited. You should see my orchid! It has buds! What did you do to it? Nothing! Sure enough, there were the orchid buds. Z. looked very proud […]
With the garbage strike on, and no system in place to get rid of your green waste, unless you have a backyard composter, it’s a great time to worm your way back… to vermicomposting. I experimented with this in the early 90s, but the standard bin left too much room for escaping worms. I gave […]
I’ve always been frustrated with the little teeny packets of flower preserver that you get when you buy cut flowers. Seems you can never buy this mysterious stuff in bulk for use in home-grown bouquets. No idea what it even contains. So I’ve always wanted to find a home recipe for flower bouquet longevity. I’ve […]
Helen insists on saying, “Lo and bee-hold!” I however, would not stoop so low. Sarah here. I’ve been talking this morning to Damian Grounds of HelpSaveBees about how much we like seeing the bees diving into our funnel-shaped flowers. By coinky-dink, Helen was at that moment in the process of photographing bumblebums in a nearby […]
On a rainy afternoon at the end of June, we and our umbrellas (and cameras) toured twelve lovely gardens in the Upper Beach. This is my first time using a slideshow on the blog. Hope it doesn’t cause any technoglitches. If you have problems seeing the slideshow [ed: or if you want to view the […]
Twitter. Wow. Only through Twitter did I learn about a garden a short drive from home – from someone hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away in the United States. Here’s how it happened. Through Twitter links, I won a copy of the book The Green Gardener’s Guide by Joe Lamp’l. This great book has a […]
The snail population in my garden took a spike about fifteen years ago when our daughter adopted one and gave it a home on a punky log I’d been thinking was an ornament (add air quotes) in my front garden. It was, like all snails, of two-for-one gender. I think she named it Snaily. Many […]
I am not impressed with the Ontario Government’s public information efforts regarding the new sweeping pesticide ban that went into effect on Earth Day. Their website is a labyrinth of links, beaurocrat-ese, and PDF downloads. After spending over an hour on their and various other sites, I couldn’t find one easy-to-understand list of all the […]
Have you heard of the Spuria beardless iris, a cousin of the Siberian iris? I hadn’t. And I certainly hadn’t been prepared for the Wow-ow -ow! factor of seeing one of these five-foot-plus-tall giants in a garden. It happened yesterday, when Sarah and I took an interesting detour. While looking at a new community garden […]