A noun. A verb. A blog.
The patio in the garden of sculptor Birgit Piskor was actually used to play checkers when this was her childhood home. I love how she kept it when she returned home and made her garden. When the rain and sleet and snow come tomorrow, this is where I’ll be sitting in my mind. Join me?
Convertible, moving-wall greenhouse, with back wall open for summer. In Buffalo this summer, while Helen and I toured the city’s must-see Garden Walk, I became deliriously envious (I mean, inspired) of a design solution for convertible greenhouse. Buffalo gardeners Arlan and Dom had transformed their greenhouse into four-season use. A greenhouse that doesn’t turn into the fiery […]
Yvonne Cunnington’s simplified Four Square Garden It took many years and tons of tender devotion aka slog work for Yvonne Cunnington and her husband John to transform their large country property near Ancaster into a horticultural work of art. Now, to simplify life, they’ve left it all behind for a small, rental property – for […]
Get started on your beautiful garden. Local plant societies are beginning their plant sales for 2012. Toronto Gardeners in the east end won’t want to miss the upcoming 2012 Beach Garden Society plant sale. The sale is tailor-made for city gardens, with personally chosen Beach Babies (see below), hand-selected Connoisseur Collection plants and great bargains on […]
For our 600th post on Toronto Gardens, and the final one for NaBloPoMo 2011, I wanted – well, I wanted to do everything. National Blog Posting Month, for those wondering, is the challenge of writing a blog post a day, without fail, for the entire month of November. It’s a sister-act or copycat younger cousin […]
Talk about a rocky start! Dave and Heidi Rita (sorry, Rita!) Fleury got more than a “rock garden” when they purchased their Beach area home about four years ago – they got edge-to-edge beach stone, punctuated by some accent rocks and elderly evergreens. The previous owners had taken the drastic measure of installing stone to keep […]
Here’s the inspiration I promised when I wrote about concrete garden projects last week: works of imagination – all of them carefully crafted of concrete – by Victoria, B.C., sculptor, Birgit Piskor. And here’s the bonus. Not only is Piskor a gifted sculptor, she is also a gifted gardener. In July, I enjoyed a guided tour […]
Seattle gardeners, Jim and Suzette Birrell (with grand-sprout) The great thing about the private gardens we visited during the 2011 Garden Bloggers’ Fling in Seattle, Washington, was that they were all designed and maintained by the homeowners, themselves. It’s inspiring to see the work of professional garden designers (which some of the homeowners were), but […]
You are about to come with me on vacation for the next few posts. I hope you’re up for a little travel. We’re going to the West Coast – to Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., and to Seattle, Washington. And we’ll be visiting a lot of gardens. Ready? Our first stop is the Nitobe Memorial Garden […]
A full blast of spring from the Home Depot Backyard Oasis. Orange, naturally. Despite the full-on colour above, this year’s Canada Blooms 2011 is not a Big Wow Year. However, it is a year of many Quiet Little Wows, the kind that have you thoughtfully nodding your head. Really, the kind real gardeners like you […]
Well grown vegetables can be highly ornamental As Sonia Day writes in the Toronto Star, a Toronto family has been ordered by the City to replace their front yard vegetable garden… with sod. Yep, sod. It’s a bit of a shock, with all this talk of food security. The garden clashes with a transportation by-law, […]
Where do you go when you’ve used all the space in your garden and in front of your house? You take it to the office and up the elevator. Gardener and artist Vivian Reiss has transformed two spaces in her office building on Merton Street into garden paradises in the middle of the urban jungle. […]