A noun. A verb. A blog.
On October 15 (that’s today), registration opens for the 2017 Garden Bloggers Fling in Washington, D.C. and the Capital Region. My sister Sarah and I are both gonna be there, and we hope to see you there, too. We’ve written before about why we Fling. So much of it is the people we’ve met, some are now friends for […]
Fellow Toronto Fling organizers Veronica Sliva and Lorraine Flanigan on our scouting mission to Parkwood Estate With Mr. TG reading Roch Carrier’s Montcalm and Wolfe, I’m reminded how little Canadians know (or care) about the history of their own country. That goes for local history, too. How many Torontonians give a second thought to the […]
A shady entrance to the garden of plantswoman Marion Jarvie Marion Jarvie’s seasonal open gardens are a bit of an event among Toronto-area garden aficionados. But, although I’d seen pictures and even taken a class from Marion at the Toronto Botanical Garden, I’d never actually visited until we took the Toronto Fling bloggers there, the […]
The formal herb garden at Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens (with Savvy Gardening gals Amy and Tara) The act of garden making is an attempt to impose a human’s sense of order on the natural world. Even a native garden or, the latest trend, the messy, bedhead garden (a trend that I’ve been following for years), actively assembles […]
This Ward’s Island garden whispers to me (loudly): a garden can never have too many alliums. When you invite 70 garden bloggers to Toronto in early June 2015 (after a bitter winter and a long, cool spring), you’d better hope the gardeners have planted alliums – the ornamental onion – to fill the potentially gaping […]
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 […]
The bold, blue leaves of sea kale (Crambe maritima) anchor a collection of planters – and sea kale is actually edible. Sea kale also produces clusters of white flowers. With less-attractive large leaves, its cousin colewort (Crambe cordifolia) outdoes sea kale with its billowing clouds of small, white flowers. Sometimes you need to sweat the […]
A rusty orb on stilts contrasts the spiky mullein; Dragonfly Farms, Bainbridge Island, Washington The colour of rust sits comfortably in the natural environment – like green’s complement red, blended with dabs of earth and bark. As with the orb above, even a smooth surface weathers into delicious textural variations. Rust hints of history and […]
Have a dead tree? Turn it into a garden feature. Christoper D.Mello‘s garden, Asheville NC You’ll be surprised how just a little paint can spruce things up and make your garden pop. That’s idea one – applied here in a variety of ways. This is the first of what I hope will be a weekly […]
Can social change grow alongside art in a garden? I’ve been mulling this question over since Sarah and I returned from the annual garden bloggers’ meet-up, known as the Fling. This year, the Fling was flung in the trendy Appalachian town of Asheville, North Carolina. The Battersby Girls (plus Sarah’s son J, a good sport) were the sole […]