A noun. A verb. A blog.
Let’s focus here on just one of many reasons to love the garden of Lee and Jerry Shannon on the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling*: Alpine troughs made from recycled fish coolers. Yes, that’s right. Fish troughs. Even while photographing them, I had no idea they weren’t concrete, stone or hypertufa, but styrofoam. This row of troughs […]
In a tableau I might call “Pardon My Dust” (which you might not have noticed if I’d not pointed it out) I hope to show that even my most lowly terrarium creation in the brandy snifter can add something cool to a tabletop setting. A shocking months and months have passed since I received my […]
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 […]
This brass Y spigot with the ball-valve shut-offs is very easy to operate My heart broke last week when – as temperatures dropped – I had to empty three full rain barrels. It seemed sinful, somehow. A long section of hose on the spigot, backed up by a watering can, let me spot water the […]
For the past few months, this White Clover tool bag has been a decorative feature in my front hall. You could say that my loppers have never looked so good. Among the so-much! I’ve wanted to write about lately, my review for this White Clover tool bag (designed for those awkward shapes like loppers) is […]
A good veggie reference for those who don’t need books with pretty pictures When you nickname your garden The Microgarden, as I do, one thing is certain: Abundant space is not a feature. The first is Karen Newcomb’s The Postage Stamp Vegetable Garden that invites you to grow tons of organic vegetables in tiny spaces and containers. […]
Not all pollen is alike. Despite its abundance (or in this bee’s case perhaps “a-bum-dance”), Thomas Ogren tells us the pollen of Alcea or hollyhock is a low-allergenic pollen. He warns those sensitive not to sniff it, however. It gets right up your nose. And in your eyes. And down your wheezy throat. Pollen. At […]
‘Therapy’ – Joyce Johnson’s ribbon-winning design in her category at Canada Blooms 2015 – seems like a serendipitous way to begin a post on The Herb Lover’s Spa Book. Geez, it has been a cold, cold, cold, cold, cold few months. The snowy, snowy, snowy weather is finally receding, at least in Toronto. Still, we […]
A sea of Bromelliads in bloom at Valleyview Gardens I have a new love. Where have you been all my life, Valleyview Gardens? We at Toronto Gardens have been bemoaning the lack of a really good, full-service garden nursery in the east end of the city for years. Long ago we lost White Rose nurseries […]
A welcoming way to break in garden equipment – invite it to a party and put it to work This wasn’t why we bought the trough, but as a happy coincidence it arrived at our house just before a Big Birthday. Post-Prosecco we put it (and another just like it) to work in another way: […]
The “before” picture – a block of compressed coir Coir, which is the fibre from the husks of coconuts, is often recommended as a more environmentally friendly replacement for peat moss (whether it is or not is a topic for a different post). After yanking out some over-enthusiastic periwinkle, I had some bare soil that […]
Taming Wildflowers is Miriam Goldberger’s just-launched book from St. Lynn’s Press Between the front cover’s exuberant coneflowers and the back cover’s Piet Oudolf blurb, Miriam Goldberger’s work of passion Taming Wildflowers is the little book that could. Although it appears skinny, this is a highly concentrated primer on knowing, growing and using wildflowers. Toronto-area folk […]