A noun. A verb. A blog.
Days after I was moaning about seeing no butterflies in my garden, a big rain came – and soon afterwards came three butterflies. One was an Eastern Black Swallowtail, and I watched her lay eggs in a small pot of parsley. My first thought was: I’m gonna need a bigger parsley! Because, last year, I got […]
Have you noticed fewer butterflies in your garden in 2020? For me, the bees have been plentiful, including the native ones, but butterflies of any sort? Remarkably few. It’s probably not just in my garden, or just in Toronto. A garden friend in Washington, D.C., commented on the same thing. And another Facebook commenter noted that […]
When I sprinkled the seeds of this lovely ‘Dukat Leafy Dill’ from Renee’s Garden, I was hoping this would happen. ‘Dukat’ is said to be leafy, delicious and a little slower to bolt. I had room for them to fluff up between the Gladiolus corms in my second trough, which this year is more of a […]
Flutter down to Woodbine Beach in Toronto’s east end to visit the 2019 Winter Stations and surround yourself with The Forest of Butterflies (PDF). You have till April 1 to see the half-dozen temporary installations in this annual design competition, this year with the theme of Migration. Did you know it takes four generations of Monarch butterflies to […]
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 […]
You were the best of times, you were the worst of times, 2017. I’m sorry to see you go, but will be happy to see a new year begin, with all its possibilities. Let’s focus on the good stuff. Other wonderful things happened this year. To name a few: we won awards, were interviewed on […]
Yarrow or Achillea millefolium is a reliable but kinda plain-Jane flower that’s easy to take for granted. That is, until you notice it used skillfully – as I did in the garden of U.S. landscape designer Barbara Katz on the 2017 Garden Bloggers Fling. Wow, I thought, looking at the vignette above, Great colour echo between the Echinacea and coleus. And, oh. […]
Odd events can lead us to new passions. A car detour in Pennsylvania to visit the memorial site for the Flight 93 plane in the countryside, was the start of author and gardener Kylee Baumle’s obsession with Monarch butterflies. She and her mother discovered a dead monarch butterfly lying on the ground. Not only did the butterfly […]
A wee bit of excitement here, as we both spotted a Monarch butterfly on the butterfly milkweed (Asclepias tuberosa) that Sarah has been nurturing along over in the guerrilla garden. It’s a male (you can tell by the two black dots on the lower wings), but we hope he finds a girlfriend and they start raising […]
Coming to a neighbourhood near you this garden season are a whole new crop of volunteer garden and wildlife enthusiasts who have been recruited by the David Suzuki organization to take on garden projects to revitalize nature and wildlife in the city of Toronto. I’m excited to say that I am one of the new […]
[Update: Thrilled to announce that this post won Gold for Best Digital Writing at the 2018 GWA Media Awards from the Association for Garden Communicators. It was an unexpected honour, especially since the competition was very worthy.] I’d wanted to tell you a cool thing about ants and aphids. These are Norway maple aphids (Periphyllus lyropictus), one of 4,000+ aphid species. (Who […]
These colourful bugs have long been replaced by huge mural on the railway underpass on the south end of Monarch Park in Toronto’s east end. As much as I’m in love with the replacement (and do intend to write about it one day), I’m also glad I preserved these smiling faces for a day like today. It’s election night 2016 in the […]