A noun. A verb. A blog.
The home, garden and studio of San Francisco sculptor Matt Gil and his wife Lesa Porche are tucked against a rocky slope beneath a highway overpass Unhappy with your garden? I’ll give you something to gripe about: A tiny footprint, most of it vertical. And rocky. Really rocky. The view? Highway pilons, albeit with a […]
Leaving your mind blank can give you space for other things. Like admiring this use of chives as an ornamental. I’ve been quiet for a few weeks on the blog and Twitter. You might call it Unsocial Media. Or, in garden terms, The Silence of the Lamb’s Ears. The quiet surface belies the currents beneath. […]
ERA Architects’ provocative Hoarding Suggestions outside at the Gladstone Friday’s opening night bash at the Gladstone was jam packed. Grow Op, Exploring Landscape and Place, is a different kind of garden show. Small-scale, creative and thought provoking, Grow Op installations range from quirky to quite beautiful, curated by landscape architect, Victoria Taylor. You might recall […]
Swordless swordfish takes a dive I’ve been dying to use this picture ever since some enchanted afternoon in 2011, when I saw this bright blue swordfish across a crowded room – garden room, that is, during the Gardens of the Beach garden tour. Now most people browsing a vintage shop would look at a swordfish […]
Who wouldn’t want to sit in this shady nook? But wait, there’s more. This Friday’s Idea File contains a single idea, but hopefully one that provokes thought. Sometimes we have our best ideas by turning something on its head. Go on, think of something. Now think of its opposite. Does it make you rethink your […]
Michelle Blais, in her do-it-herself garden, stands in front of her hand-made garden shed. What fun it is to peek into other people’s gardens, and at its best when you see garden solutions that you can actually use. Spying the garage in this garden, I thought “Wow, what a great reno of an old garage!” […]
Last summer, I was thrilled to visit the queen of all things handmade, Lorene Edwards Forkner, to see real-life versions of projects that would appear in her then-upcoming book, Handmade Garden Projects from Timber Press. Stick around to learn how you could win a copy in Toronto Gardens’ first-ever giveaway. If you’ve read my disaster with concrete […]
The VegeQuarium, one of the creative ideas at FoodShare’s Canada Blooms booth Imagine a self-sustaining seed starter that turns the fish poo-ey water from your aquarium into both hydration and nutrition. Not only is that just plain clever, it’s one of my favourite gems from this year’s Canada Blooms – but if you blink, you […]
A lily-flowered tulip was my first model for a snowflower If you need cheap, cheerful fun for a chilly day, there’s nothing easier than making paper snowflakes. Few crafts are so inexpensive – or so sure of success. All you need is a sheet of paper, sharp scissors and your imagination – which can get […]
Here’s the inspiration I promised when I wrote about concrete garden projects last week: works of imagination – all of them carefully crafted of concrete – by Victoria, B.C., sculptor, Birgit Piskor. And here’s the bonus. Not only is Piskor a gifted sculptor, she is also a gifted gardener. In July, I enjoyed a guided tour […]
Last March in the Dominican Republic, I watched a craftsman build a palapa or tiki hut from wood and palms. I recorded the process in pictures and have wanted to share it ever since. But how is the construction of a tropical palapa relevant to a Toronto audience? Especially a wintry Toronto audience. That was […]