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 […]
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 […]
This is not a picture of a spring garden. No, it’s a stand-off between the Hatfields and McCoys, with Prokofiev’s ominous Dance of the Knights as the sound-track. To the left, the Hatfields, wearing purple. To the right, green-clad McCoys. Each creeps towards a battle in the middle – and takeover of my garden. What is an invasive plant? […]
Whether you’re a bona fide homegrown vegetable gardener or, like me, simply grow veggies on a small scale, right now you’re probably taking stock of what worked this year and what didn’t. You probably roughly know your yields. Perhaps, like Margaret at Homegrown, you’re fairly rigorous about it. But have you calculated your return on investment (ROI) […]
Houseplants and vegetables are the “gateway drugs” to gardening. They certainly were for me, and I think they are again today. I was a university student with a windowsill full of houseplants when first bitten hard by the gardening bug. Later, Mr TG and I had our first apartment and an allotment garden at the Leslie Street Spit. One […]
Planted itself! And kept producing. Who wouldn’t love that? Yes, there are cilantro haters, in a biiiiig way. And there are cilantro lovers. Put me proudly in Group 2. I got that lovin’ feeling for cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) – not only in my food, but in my garden. Because this pungent annual herb in the […]
‘Therapy’ – Joyce Johnson’s ribbon-winning design in her category at Canada Blooms 2015 – seems like a serendipitous way to begin a post on The Herb Lover’s Spa Book. Geez, it has been a cold, cold, cold, cold, cold few months. The snowy, snowy, snowy weather is finally receding, at least in Toronto. Still, we […]
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 […]
Dried oregano from my community garden You don’t need fancy equipment to dry herbs. All you need is a clean paper bag. Harvest your herbs, pop them inside. Roll the bag’s top closed to keep the dust out. And wait. Then do as I do. Move the bag back and forth on the kitchen countertop […]
After discovering Richter’s Herbs yesterday I did some web searching and found a wealth of material on-line from Conrad Richter, president of Richter’s Herbs. His article, The Many-Splendored Scents of Herbs (say that 3 times real fast if you dare) discusses the scientific aspects of the many highly scented herbs that Richter’s grows. He really […]
Sarah & I often do things as a team. Like this lovely rosemary here. I bought it. Sarah rescued it by transplanting to a larger pot. I ignored it. Sarah made sure it got a bit of water over the summer. I left it outside in the fall. Sarah brought it in before the frost […]