A noun. A verb. A blog.
In 2017, we’ve had rain, we’ve had rain, we’ve had more rain. It’s raining now! My annuals are slow to bloom, probably due to lack of sunshine. But one thing for sure seems to be doing well around Toronto. Hydrangeas! The smooth hydrangea or Hydrangea arborescens ‘Annabelle’ in my dry-shade front garden (above) is mammoth! Lots of rain and […]
The heavy rains in Toronto have really done a number on Toronto’s shoreline beaches and parks. One of the dog parks that I walk in regularly has become a little bit like Venice, where we are literally walking on land surrounded by little temporary lakes. And it is the same throughout the entire coastline of Lake Ontario in Toronto. […]
Hasn’t 2106 been a mixed-up year in Toronto for precipitation? I was begging for rain when summer was at its hottest. Now, when I’m eager to be out planting bulbs, rain. And I’m complaining. Toronto had three months of drought in 2016. But look at California. According to the Pacific Institute, California might be beginning its sixth […]
This brass Y spigot with the ball-valve shut-offs is very easy to operate My heart broke last week when – as temperatures dropped – I had to empty three full rain barrels. It seemed sinful, somehow. A long section of hose on the spigot, backed up by a watering can, let me spot water the […]
This lush rain garden was on the 2014 Through the Garden Gate tour in Hogg’s Hollow Hogg’s Hollow is set in a (surprise!) hollow – a steep-sided ravine – in some places steeper than others. The lucky homeowners who live in this charming setting aren’t always so lucky during heavy rains. Water scoots down the […]
And by “cheap,” I mean “a really, really good bargain.” The Toronto Master Gardeners has teamed with the Toronto Botanical Garden to sell these rain barrels with a neat history. They’re former food product containers that once travelled the world holding things like olive oil. Now, thanks to a Canadian company, they’re fully rigged up with […]
Perhaps it’s our English or Welsh blood*, but I like the rain. Sometimes we might get too much of a good thing, but there it is: a good thing. With my hefty, 2,424-page Compact Oxford English Dictionary (New Edition) came a button-shaped reading glass to magnify the mouse type. I love the way rain does […]
After inadvertently toasting my Hoya this week, two days of rain have both quenched and spurred the garden. Poppies are in tatters and the necks of my alliums are bent and in a few cases, sadly, broken. The perky stems of catmint are prostrate, and risk being trodden flat along the pathway. Morning glory seedlings […]
There’s a definite spike in Toronto precipitation during March and April 2009. We’ve been feeling it, literally and figuratively, over the past few days. Oh well, mustn’t grumble. It’s good for the garden. Instead, it gives us something to look forward to. Because, statistically, the rainiest months in downtown Toronto are August and September.