A noun. A verb. A blog.
Gather round, kids. Now you too can amaze your friends with this simple garden sleight of hand: turn a flower into Dutchman’s breeches or Lady in the Bathtub. Just watch… Nothing up my sleeve. Lookee here: in this hand, one blossom of Dicentra spectabilis, or bleeding heart. Yes, kid, the white works just like the […]
The first of the year’s bazillion morning glory seedlings have just popped up in my garden. To celebrate my love-hate relationship with this weed in my garden, I’m posting my little ode to the odious. Enjoy. morning inglorious by Helen Battersby The gate-crashing has begun. They’re prying cloven-footed through the gaps, glad-handing all invited guests, […]
You probably know of What Not To Wear, where some poor schmuck has her (or his) wardrobe made over from scratch. I just realized that one of WNTW’s tenets applies to gardening. More on that in a sec. My revelation came about because Sarah and I recently joined Blotanical, a great online directory of garden […]
Two of the tulips I like best (besides two lips in the dark) are late-bloomers making a show right now. The Tulipa above is in the fringed group of tulips. I wish I knew its name. Squirrels and their guillotine tendencies aside, these were reliable performers in my garden for many years, increasing happily and […]
Among the Top 10 questions Toronto gardeners ask at Humber Nurseries is one about Canadian hardiness zones. In case you didn’t know: Canada is different from the U.S. Here’s why. Both countries map their landscape into zones to denote plant hardiness — where a plant will survive, especially over winter. Yet, Canada and the U.S. […]
The weather guys at City-TV warn there might be frost tonight in the GTA — though the closer you are to the moderating effect of the lake, the lower the risk. (FYI, The Weather Network doesn’t put frost on the horizon.) Spring/fall frost dates are merely based on statistics, and freak weather does happen. Think […]
No matter where we lived, our mum always managed to have a garden. Before our family emigrated to Canada, there was the Cotswold farmhouse with its massive vegetable plot and borders of old fashioned hollyhocks, wallflowers, poppies and snapdragons — which form some of my earliest memories. Cowslips and dandelions from surrounding fields were gathered […]
If you haven’t been to the Toronto Botanical Garden since it was transformed with new gardens and a new name (formerly the Civic Garden Centre), you have one more reason to do so on Saturday. It’s the final day for their spring plant sale. Nice specimens for containers, or garden beds in sun or shade, […]
Note: The big clover leaves are from seed sown last year. It’s been 3 weeks since I sowed my white clover seed on the (many) bare patches on my lawn, and it’s coming up like crazy. Clover seed is so tiny, and I sowed very thickly. At the moment what I can compare it to […]
Quick tip from the idea file: photograph your plant tags; both sides. It doesn’t have to be fancy. Use your cell phone, if it has a camera. The great thing is, it will be time- and date-stamped, so you’ll always know when you made your purchase. You could then create a photo file exclusively of […]
For down-to-earth, spring flowering rock garden basics, you don’t have to go much further than the letter A. Rock garden plants are often called by their own A name: alpines, because of their origins on mountainsides, thriving with sharp drainage and full sun. A well-drained, full-sun position is still is their favourite venue. This is […]
Poor cultural practices – the things you do when you garden – can be a hazard to your trees. People kill trees all the time, quite innocently, simply by saying: Honey, let’s put a cute little raised bed around the tree. All the active tissue in a tree trunk exists very near the surface under […]