A noun. A verb. A blog.
Way back in winter 2019/20, I decided to turn some of my bigger planters from vegetables to flowers. Yes, I made a cutting garden in the Microgarden. With no regrets. Not one. When the Plague of 2020 had everyone else scrambling to buy up veggie seeds, I already had my seeds – for Zinnia, Calendula, Cosmos, and other long-blooming flowers […]
In every season, you’ll find many pretty things to see, hear, and even touch in the garden. But after a long, hard winter, the forgotten sense that comes back to life in spring is the sense of smell. My nose reminded me as I passed a planter outside a client’s office. Suddenly, I was whisked back […]
Are you inexorably drawn to the gardening department of a big box store when you go in to buy light bulbs? I am. Admit it, you are too. Especially after the winter we’ve had. Back in early March, I needed to get an injection of growing things. And, while Home Depot’s garden section doesn’t always represent fine […]
Have you ever eaten a begonia? I hadn’t even thought about eating one until a tour with the National Garden Bureau introduced me to a Pink Lady garnished with one, courtesy of plant breeder Benary. It was the flower of one of their BIG series (Begonia x benariensis) and its lemony flavour was a complement to […]
To be honest, most knotweeds are at least a little naughty. They can spreaaaaaaad. That might be a good trait in a ground cover. But some, notably the invasive and hard to eradicate Japanese knotweed (Reynoutria japonica, syn. Fallopia japonica, syn. Polygonum cuspidatum), are very, very naughty indeed. This PDF from the Ontario Invasive Plant Council explains. Others, like our covergirl, Persicaria amplexicaulis […]
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. […]
Like this mixed-up sunflower, my November 2016 NaBloPoMo has developed a hiccup in its middle. An extra-busy weekend, a tech update for the blog that took longer than expected, and a day escorting my beloved mother-in-law to cataract surgery have meant that I missed yesterday, and have almost missed today. Well, nevertheless, I’ll continue to try to post […]
On Remembrance Day, we remember all who served and sacrificed – and who survived – with the symbol of the red corn poppies that bloomed on the fields of Flanders after the First World War. None of these are corn poppies. Some are Oriental poppies, some are Iceland or opium poppies. Some are perennial, some, […]
Late summer and early fall often belong to the enormous daisy or aster family (Asteraceae or Compositae, for those looking for plant surnames). But one perhaps underused group of plants can be pretty Wow! at this time of year. They’re in the same family as buttercups or clematis (with another mouthful of a family name, […]
A bouquet of tulips from my garden, in light from my window Call this post: I’m going to show you pictures of these tulips until you beg me to stop. Tulips are amazing in a vase. They continue to grow and change for days. One day, the morning light caught the bouquet I’d picked last […]
Tables set amongst the vegetable rows at Muir Ranch School Farm “A day of thanks for the blessing of the harvest” – that’s what Thanksgiving is about. And if we did it earlier in the year (even earlier than we [ahem!] sensible Canadians do), I imagine Thanksgiving dinner might feel something like the farm-to-table dinner […]
Isn’t it splendid? This November display of scarlet pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) is massive As long as the hummingbirds are wearing their woollies – or are indoors in my dining room – there’s pineapple sage aplenty for their nectar-sipping needs. This Salvia elegans really only got going just before the weather threatened frost. I worried […]