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Grand Simplification: Know thyself
Gardeners spend hours pouring over seed and nursery catalogues, looking at books, thinking about colours, bloom times, soil conditions. They might even consider plant succession through the seasons, foliage shapes and textures, winter interest. One thing they often don’t consider: the gardener. When I first stuck my spade into the soil in this garden, I […]
Grand Simplification: Taking stock of the mess
The unvarnished truth: My front garden, complete with hose and bald patches, doing its best to pose for its “before” picture at right. That headline almost said “Taking stock of the carnage.” After summer’s heat and drought, my garden – especially the front garden – usually does look like a battlefield by September. (To my […]
Quick garden fix: Rearrange the furniture
Between the busy-ness of summer holidays and back to school, September’s garden can be messy. That’s so in my back garden, where morning glories typically take over by September. This year, they are true to type. Because our front yard Grand Simplification project consumed us this summer, the Microgarden in the back is now channelling Aretha Franklin: N.E.G.L.E.C.T., just a […]
Our front yard makeover: Post mortem
Now that the hardscape portion of our Grand Simplification is complete, let’s step back and evaluate. And, to celebrate the first day of school, I’ve even given grades, using my very arbitrary rubric which is no rubric at all. You judge whether we’re being too easy – or too hard – on ourselves. Circulation: B+ […]
Our front yard makeover, Part 1
Just the planting yet to come in the finished project, from above. Sorry, I’ve been AWOL. One thing that waylaid me has been a major phase of our front yard transformation I’ve called our Grand Simplification. Rather than building to a climax in the retelling, I prefer to start at the end, showing you the […]
On my way from before to after
Grand simplification in progress, May 2012 A couple of years ago, I embarked on a garden project I called my Grand Simplification. My goal was to make my gardening life less complicated by rethinking the space. Simple is hard, as any designer will tell you. While the process is nowhere near finished, this is my […]
So You Think You Can Garden?
An insight can sneak in quietly. Such happened to me during a lull in this off-kilter holiday. With Daughter #1 visiting from university. Shopping. Cooking. Wrapping. Eating. Entertaining; being entertained. Eating more. Learning Twitter. Dealing with (“stepping around”) the attendant mess. My insight arrived during a marathon viewing of So You Think You Can Dance? […]
Daytrips: St. Jacob’s Farmers’ Market
On Sunday, while in Waterloo, we went a few clicks further north to visit St. Jacob’s. I was in dire need of fresh-picked apples, and hoped we’d have time to visit the farmers’ market. The huge market in St. Jacob’s is open on Thursdays and Saturdays all through the year. Sundays are much smaller, but […]
Anything worth doing is worth doing badly
Broken rose arbor: Before Our rose arbor suffered a collapse this summer due to old age and some of 2012’s big winds. (It’s one of the memories emerging as I sort through thousands of retrieved images after a major data loss.) What would we do? All our energies and budget were being sucked up by […]