A noun. A verb. A blog.
If you’re a creative person (as gardeners often are) it’s easy to get hung up on perfection. Rather than appreciating the garden that is, you compare it with the garden that exists only in your mind – your dreams. And you grumble. I love your garden, people might tell you. While, grumbler that you are, you give them […]
We have spray-on tans and spray-on hair. Now, spray-on grass seed! That’s what you see when driving along Lake Shore Blvd. E. at Leslie (and perhaps further, I haven’t looked) this fall. That blue stuff (or green or teal) is a mix of grass seed, mulch (in this case, re-pulped paper), fertilizer and some kind […]
Hasn’t 2106 been a mixed-up year in Toronto for precipitation? I was begging for rain when summer was at its hottest. Now, when I’m eager to be out planting bulbs, rain. And I’m complaining. Toronto had three months of drought in 2016. But look at California. According to the Pacific Institute, California might be beginning its sixth […]
Gardening is a conversation. That’s what I’ve been ruminating on since spending an enjoyable hour last month talking to the Oshawa Garden Club about Gardening in Shade. What do I mean? Well, of course, a conversation is a sharing of thoughts, ideas and opinions with other people. After I spoke to the lovely folks in Oshawa about shade gardening, […]
Joe Fafard’s cows in the meadow of Toronto’s Financial District Last night’s double-digit minus temps and today’s snow make me feel like these gals look. Resigned.
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 […]
Our dad’s parents in the garden, captioned in our father’s lovely handwriting. Why do you garden? In our family, it’s something you just do – eventually, you become a gardener. For my sister Sarah and I, it’s now as ingrained as family jokes, traditions or recipes. We grew up with parents and grandparents who had […]
Thank you, garden, for not being perfect. Thank you for putting up with my sloth. Thanks …for managing to survive, despite my sloth. For reminding me to overcome it. Thank you for offering up continual surprises. Like roses in November. For those sweet doses of happiness, from spring to spring. For showing me what doesn’t […]
Toronto’s skyline from Tommy Thompson Park It’s November. For the past few years on Toronto Gardens, that’s meant #NaBloPoMo – the blogging twin of National Novel Writing Month. Except we write a blog post a day. Just one. While that’s far less than the 50,000-word novel NaNoWriMo writers aim for in 30 days, it can […]
In winter, I walked past this snowscape on Unwin Avenue (shown through the lens of the Waterlogue app) Spring and fall are the big work seasons for gardeners. They’re also when my other hobby messes up my gardening life. I’m a power-walker. Since 2003, I’ve averaged 3.27 half marathons a year, in spring and/or fall. […]
Glorious sweet peas – wish our blog had smell-o-vision. Some seeds, like sweet peas, must be nicked or scratched to help them germinate. That’s called scarification. Other seeds need to be subjected to long periods of cold; even frozen. Stratified, in horticultural terms. For others, fire is as necessary to the seed as food and […]
My photo library includes many pictures of Claire Jones looking decorative. Her blog: The Garden Diaries (Maryland) So, here’s the thing about Fling. You come for the gardens, but you find yourself returning again and again for the people. Who could imagine forging so many long-distance relationships, all bonded by love of gardens. Not me, but […]