A noun. A verb. A blog.
In Spring 2017, Toronto has rain on the brain. Our gardens may be beautifully lush, with twice our usual rainfall in May, but Lake Ontario is at its highest levels in a 100 years, shorelines have moved inland, and flooding has shut down the Islands till at least July 31. Who’ll stop the rain? Let’s have a little […]
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 […]
Before the rain began this morning, our walking group headed west for a change. The Distillery District would be our turnaround point, but I never made it that far. Corktown Common and a golden patch of flowering witch-hazel fixed me and my phone camera to the spot. Click the arrows above for the slideshow. What an excellent […]
Sometimes the things you find by accident are the best finds of all. Before the Minneapolis Fling began, my roommate Joanne Shaw (of Down2Earth) and I stumbled on this plaza when exploring the city while waiting for our room. Wow, I thought, that looks like something by Martha Schwartz. Well, guess what? It is something by Martha Schwartz. The […]
Beautiful Crothers Woods will now be an official environmentally significant area in Toronto. Our beautiful ravine systems are one of the best things about Toronto, counteracting the concrete and condos, right in the very heart of the city. We are fortunate to have so many stunning, wild areas in Toronto: places where nature does the […]
In High Park, June 2015 – a patch of spontaneously regenerated wild lupines (Lupinus perennis) I’ve seen wild lupines in Iceland and in Nova Scotia. But I had no idea that Ontario was also a habitat for this lovely legume (Lupinus perennis). Then we visited High Park this June with the Toronto Fling and learned […]
The fountain garden at Rosetta McClain is often our turnaround for an 18K walk. The pause that refreshes! Toronto is blessed with numerous public spaces, many of which are quite beautiful. You can bet I’m not the only one thankful for this. One of my favourites is Rosetta McClain Gardens in Scarborough, and it deserves […]
Toronto’s skyline from Tommy Thompson Park It’s November. For the past few years on Toronto Gardens, that’s meant #NaBloPoMo – the blogging twin of National Novel Writing Month. Except we write a blog post a day. Just one. While that’s far less than the 50,000-word novel NaNoWriMo writers aim for in 30 days, it can […]
It has become so common, you might pass invasive Phragmites without recognizing it as a problem With all the excitement over ornamental grasses, you might not even recognize this towering escapee growing in many of the city’s wet spaces as an invasive species. The picture above is of a huge stand of European common reed […]
LIke the big bad wolf, the wind huffed and puffed and blew the trees down. Big ones. Can you count the rings? Back in Fall 2012, a windstorm took down a swath of mature trees – about 14, if memory serves – in Monarch Park in our east-end neighbourhood. It was a surprise to see […]
Part of a voice print from June Callwood’s final interview Canada Blooms gets knocked these days for not pulling a magical rabbit out of its increasingly shrinking pecuniary hat. However, one bit of magic it does do is to fund garden projects around the city through the work of the Toronto Garden Club. Past […]
Any garden that’s a major tourist attraction can’t afford to sit on its aster. The Butchart Gardens is no exception. I first visited back in July. An impressive experience, even if you aren’t a gardener – the garden’s theatrical quality gives it a crossover appeal that is a reason why the Butchart Gardens is the […]