A noun. A verb. A blog.
Sometimes, planning is overrated. If it weren’t for happy accidents, there’d be no Post-Its or penicillin. Strangers sat down randomly at conference lunch table, sowing the magic beans for Savvy Gardening. A young guy in university residence spotted a girl drying her hair by their common-room radiator and offered his hair dryer. Reader, I married him. And, thanks to friendship, my sister and I became […]
How have you been holding it together? For me, it’s being outdoors. Often. Back in June, I wrote about walking around the nabe in a love letter to my neighbours. But it’s not only out in my yard or on city streets. Toronto and the Golden Horseshoe, that wide band sweeping around Lake Ontario’s western tip, both offer many other ways […]
Sometimes I think we’re bonkers. Four years ago, we inherited an annual garden journal that was already a hit, and yet we keep on trying to make it better. Three years ago, we introduced an interactive digital version of the immense gardener’s source directory. Last year, we laminated the print book’s covers to stand up to soiled […]
I’ll be frank. The whole “COVID Thing” has had me tongue-tied, blogwise. It has been a lot easier to post regularly on my Instagram feed than to write blog posts this year. The result is bite-sized eyecandy, easy to share, and easy to digest. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll get an almost daily eyeful […]
This year was unusual for our family, full of exciting, challenging, time-consuming, positive-but-discombobulating changes. Frankly, it kept us from blogging as often as we’d like. But one change was easy: deciding to rename the garden tool that, three years ago, my sister, Sarah, and I adopted from its creator, Margaret Bennet-Alder. No longer is it the Toronto Gardener’s Journal. For […]
After 70 years of delighting Toronto gardeners with their superb selection of nursery items Humber Nurseries is closing down. With a place this size though, you don’t close down all at once. Every time I’ve gone to Humber nurseries of late I’ve noticed them paring down. This spring and summer, at the front of the […]
After February 2019’s unreasonable insistence on winter weather, today’s evidence above, I’m all too eager for spring. To have it happen three weeks earlier than the Vernal Equinox – around March 21st – would be psychologically uplifting, right? Guess what? March 1st is the first day of meteorological spring. Yip-yip-yippee! Spring starts today! Perhaps you knew […]
Thank you to the academy for this recognition. What can I say? I’m one of the best at putting things off, neglecting, and just plain forgetting things. Thank you also to my plants that died, or threatened to almost die. I couldn’t have done it without them. I had an “Augh, I’ve killed it!!” moment […]
As we begin our 13th year as bloggers, we send out a heartfelt welcome to our new subscribers and fond thanks to our loyal readers! 2018 was a hectic year for the Toronto Gardens family – especially as it drew to a close, which meant we posted less often than we’d like. Alas. Many of you will relate to the challenge of […]
Making a garden is important to me, so my garden can (occasionally) look okay – or okay enough that someone compliments me on it. Honey, I think at the time, all I see are the flaws. Look at the picture above. Aren’t the tulips lovely? Are you like me, distracted by the stump of the Japanese maple, slowly […]
Sarah and I are thrilled to bits to be able to present the digital/ebook version of the Toronto Gardener’s Journal source book. Don’t worry that we’re becoming overly commercial on Toronto Gardens, but this has been such an all-consuming project for us that we really must talk about it. The Source Ebook is us “being the […]
Despite our best efforts, as gardeners and as just plain folks, we never know for sure what can happen in a season. There I was, walking west on Lake Shore in mid-October and a flutter among the hawthorns caught my eye. Could it be? Yes, it was! The little fella above, left behind by the […]