A noun. A verb. A blog.
Hello, little snowdrop! This is our earliest-ever official Toronto Gardens snowdrop sighting – I noticed my usual earlybird snowdrop was up yesterday, February 3, 2016, but it had likely awoken a few days before. Our neighbours S and B have a nice little patch blooming in their front yard, too. Prior to this, the earliest […]
No heavy snow to weigh down the grasses along Lake Shore East, January 2016 Perhaps we dreamed of a White Christmas in December 2015, but a dream was all it was. And the snow has just kept on not coming. Toronto often has little snow on the ground in January, but this year has been […]
At the My Luscious Backyard, workshop magic began with this foraged wreath kit – a great package of scavenged materials On December 5th, 2015, Mr TG dropped me off at Propellor Coffee in the west end – and lucky for me he did, as I found on my way home with my delicate foraged wreath […]
The Toronto Botanical Garden’s entry garden in January 2013 Today, we’ll put November to bed, and tomorrow we’ll wake up to December – which some feel means the end of colour in the garden. Well, all the leaves may be brown, and the sky is grey… but when we go for that walk on a […]
Do a little “Where’s Waldo-ing” on this photo, and you can see masses of happy snowdrops, finally welcoming spring. Yes, Toronto, there are snowdrops! This year, Sarah won the local snowdrops sweepstakes, with a handful blooming by her drive. Mine are mostly hibernating. But look, look, look at these in a Riverdale garden on Saturday! […]
An eye-catching swathe of red haws (hawthorn fruit) on Lake Shore just east of Leslie (taken Dec. 6, 2013) This stretch of hawthorns I often walk past keeps the ruby-red fruits well into winter. Have you noticed them? They’re well placed for show against the dark brown SolarWall on the City garage next to Loblaws. […]
More blow than snow on this first snowfall of Winter 2014 (well, technically Fall). An almost-wordless Wednesday tribute.
The race is on, to beat the frost. It’s always a last ditch rescue mission for me, this late in November, when I’m madly trying to bring in every last plant from the cold. Most of my container plants have been hauled indoors, but I still have a few things growing in actual soil that […]
In a sheltered position, close to the house, one tiny snowdrop defies Winter 2013-4 A little bit of spring has finally emerged from the Polar Voldemortex that was Winter 2013-4 – in the shape of this tiny snowdrop. This is a full ten days later than the latest snowdrop sighting we recorded back in 2008, […]
Cascades of dried grasses at the Toronto Botanical Garden. Admit it: they look even better against all the snow. Some people live in the past. But as this Polar Voldemortex-blighted winter drags on and on, many of us long to live in the future. Spring! Spring! Please, be sprung already! Tell me, why do we […]
A bright dogwood hedge (likely Cornus sanguinea ‘Midwinter Fire’) on Lakeshore Avenue East* [See Ed: below] You know that it would be untrue. You know that I would be a liar. If I was to say to you, this is my ‘Midwinter Fire.’ No, it probably belongs to Loblaws, whose parking lot it borders along […]
At $26 a bunch, the coral-coloured winterberry (Ilex) was my most expensive buy. Worth every berry. Today, I began to assemble our winter containers – or winter container, singular. Have you noticed that it’s cold out there? The soil in my two smaller containers was frozen rock solid, making the fall stuff impossible to extract, […]