A noun. A verb. A blog.
Because the trip took me through St. James Park beside the cathedral, I’m glad I decided to walk to the subway from my meeting yesterday, despite my inappropriate shoes. I won’t dwell on how I suffered. Instead, I’ll wax mildly poetic about Fritillaria imperialis, the crown imperial fritillaria. What an exotic bulb this is, with […]
Last Sunday, Sarah and Helen visited Barry Parker’s Open Garden Toronto and were once again blown away by this lovely Parkdale garden gem. Helen: The first thing that impresses me about Barry’s garden is its structure. Structure is one of the things that moves a garden from good to great. And Barry proves that you […]
Yesterday was opening day at East York Community Garden. When this picture was taken, the crowds had gone home for a well-deserved rest after many hours of digging, de-sodding, tidying and a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. In my Compost Queen role, I worked with volunteer Yves to construct a mountain of overturned sod – […]
This is my homework: historic Campbell House, an authentic Georgian piece of Old York (which was Toronto before Toronto) on a quarter-acre of land at Queen and University. And I, and my classmates, each get to redesign the garden. Well, design it in theory if not in actuality – although our designs will be juried by […]
…of mice and mums are certainly ganging agley this month. Remind me, if I try this again, not to take two university courses and attempt to work full-time – at the same time – again. In the pie of my life, blogging is getting a very narrow slice… more like crumbs. I have assignments every […]
Some tutu-like blooms to brighten this sunny but grey-brown subzero day in Toronto. Stumbling across the word choreograph in the textbook for the planting design course I’m taking, I had a little A-ha! moment. Choreography and the garden: of course! I’ve been in the habit of thinking of the selection and placement of plants in […]
Hello. My name is Helen, and I am a plantoholic. Most recreational gardeners are. Even the best of us, those who never set foot in a nursery without a shopping list, often start with a wish list. Of plants. We’re easily revved into a frenzy of plant lust by magazine, blog and catalog descriptions of […]
Urban gardens are usually small gardens. This little album of tricks contains ideas that help urban gardeners overcome some of our spatial limitations. The picture above has three to begin with: • Use the upward dimension. Be sure your small garden makes use of the infinite vertical plane with elements like arbours, trellises and wall […]
This mosaic of botanical tiles caught my eye in a panel beside the elevator in the upstairs mezzanine of the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington. They look like fired clay, with the imprint of actual leaves and flowers. Please excuse the fuzziness of the images, taken in dim light with a hand-held camera. Hope […]
If you’ve travelled along Queen Street East, you’ve passed the white-picket fence enclosed Ashbridge Estate. This is the family homestead of one of the east end’s earliest settlers. The Ashbridges – from whom Ashbridge’s Bay gets its name – were Loyalists from Pennsylvania, granted 600 acres that stretched from the waterfront of Lake Ontario to Danforth […]
A quick post to show off my fall urn, in a rather crummy photo, shot between raindrops, with frosted edges to disguise my neighbour’s recycling bin. I hope you’ll believe me: this looks better in real life. The inspiration to get cracking and fill the negative space left by the retreating annuals came from fellow […]
Aiming for a shot of the rose arbour for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, way back the summer, I realized that one place to appreciate the (at that time) bower of bloom was from inside the house. This got me thinking: is garden design all about experiencing the garden from within it? When designing: is in […]