A noun. A verb. A blog.
Other than a little huddle of snowdrops bowing under a March rain, there isn’t much Awakening yet in my garden. So to find a subject for a March entry for the Gardening Gone Wild Picture This Contest, I raided the archives. This little Pulsatilla vulgaris or Pasque flower – photographed in my sister’s garden at […]
A week ago, Sarah and Helen joined a packed crowd at the Toronto Botanical Garden to see English garden guru Matthew Wilson (aka the Heathcliff of the Hedgerows*). His RHS book New Gardening: How to garden in a changing climate was on sale at the event. [Update: At first, I couldn’t find it online in […]
When the weather outside is frightening… we prescribe Allan Gardens for an injection of the tropics. Sarah and I recently dropped by an hour before closing for quick, medicinal treatment from their Christmas display. That jumble of colour at the bottom right above doesn’t make a great photo, but it does represent the joyous profusion […]
Okay. It isn’t a bloom. In fact, my Hoya has never bloomed. I inherited it from my mother more than 20 years ago (and I don’t think it ever bloomed for her, either). Considering my notorious neglect of houseplants, the fact that it still lives is an accomplishment. Yet, if you’ve read our blog you […]
Today is opening day for the Christmas flower show at Allan Gardens – sorry for the late notice, but it is on till 5 pm (click the image for a larger view). Head on down to enjoy the carol singers, hot cider, carriage rides and other festal festivities. And, of course, see the floral displays […]
Some inspiration for front door décor from the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. Their display of 100 decorated doors continues till December 10th. The RBG is only about an hour’s drive from Toronto, and if you haven’t visited in a while (I hadn’t till a Garden Writers’ Association conference took me there on Friday) you’ll […]
This marks the last monthly Picture This photo contest at garden blog Gardening Gone Wild [at least, the last for 2009]. I’ve been admiring the work of the winners over the past months, but thought this time: you can’t win if you don’t enter. So, here’s my entry. This month’s theme is “End of the […]
Starting last night, me, my battered notebook and a classroom of other garden keeners join Toronto horticulture-guru Marion Jarvie for three sessions at the Toronto Botanical Garden‘s George and Kathy Dembroski Centre for Horticulture. She’ll be talking small, shady, city gardens. That’s how I got the scoop on some dates you’ll want to add to […]
Why would anyone commit to writing a blog post a day for the whole month of November, as I’ve just done for NaBloPoMo, the blogging equivalent of NaNoWriMo AKA National Novel Writing Month. A garden blog post. In November? November! When nothing of note is happening in any garden in the northern Northern Hemisphere. A […]
The rose window of the Toronto Heliconian Club, for women in arts and letters. A colleague of my husband’s invited us to hear her perform a Bach concert at the Heliconian Club on Sunday. The club, celebrating its 100th year in 2009, is a place I passed daily when (long ago) I lived in the […]
The about-to-be-felled-by-frost ‘Paintbox’ nasturtiums (Tropaeolum majus), still oh-so-orange and still going strong. Almost missed it with all the fuss and bother lately ’round these hyar parts. And it’s a suddenly wintery October 15, 2009. Tomorrow might be a whole n’other post-brrrrrrrr story. So here’s what has been dodging frosty bullets chez nous mid-month. Corydalis lutea […]
We don’t usually show people pix, but this one tells a story. From left to right, Barry Parker, Sarah, You Grow Girl Gayla Trail, Helen. Through crosshatched lines on our mum’s side, Welsh blood flows in our veins. So we were doubly delighted to be invited to visit the Parkdale garden of Welsh-born Torontonian Barry […]