A noun. A verb. A blog.
No, we don’t want you to take a tumble. However, the view of the Don Valley from the Leaside Bridge is one of my favourite places in the city to enjoy the fall colours. As it’s impossible to stop on the bridge, the best way to get there is by bike, or park your hybrid […]
This Thanksgiving Weekend is a time to give thanks for all our blessings – like the wonderful family weekend Sarah’s family and mine spent together two years ago at her little house in the country near Marmora. Here are some outdoorsy images of that autumnal time.
The unvarnished truth: My front garden, complete with hose and bald patches, doing its best to pose for its “before” picture at right. That headline almost said “Taking stock of the carnage.” After summer’s heat and drought, my garden – especially the front garden – usually does look like a battlefield by September. (To my […]
We’re in that in-between stage in our Toronto gardens: not quite winter; doesn’t feel like spring. If yours is like mine, the garden’s disheartening brown drabness feels like the morning after a big party. The fun part seems too long ago; all you can see is what needs tidying. But it’s the perfect time of […]
What great flowers for late summer and early fall the Rudbeckias are. They’re like sunshine on a stick! This lowly little Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta) is one of the earlier ones. Right now, the city is alight with constellations of Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ which, in 1999, was rightly chosen by the Perennial Plant Association as its […]
Last evening, I was down the street admiring “my” pink poppies. These are the poppies I killed by trying to transplant at the wrong time a few hot summers ago. Luckily, like most of the things in the Microgarden, I had given a few away. So there are some growing in the front garden of […]
Got all the plants inside, with the exceptions of a few casualties. Sad to see the succulents turn from a healthy turgid puffiness to one-step-away-from-putrefying liquid, but you can’t win ’em all. There were some pots on my sister’s back deck that I forgot about. I still haven’t even checked on them, but after the […]
It’s really time now, although I’ve been saying I’d better do it all month. The weather report says it got down to zero last night. Our neighborhood seems to have a bit of a microclimate, so I didn’t lose anything to frost, thank goodness. Now, I’ve got to figure out what to with with everything […]
I have tomatoes growing on two plants on my deck. Now. In October. They are actually growing leaves and forming tomatoes and flowers and it is October 21st. Both plants are the cherry variety. One of these plants, ‘Gardener’s Delight‘, I grew from seed, sown in April. The other plant was a rescued tomato plant. […]
Fall is the time potted annuals can start to look their absolute best. No longer are they getting fried in their pots during the day, and rescued just in time with the garden hose, the way they usually are in the heat of summer. If plants have managed to hang in there during a scorching […]
I’m looking out my back window now at the morning glories on the fence. These are the old fashioned kind (possibly a heritage variety: ‘Grandpa Ott’), mostly in deep blue but with the occasional pink and white, all barred or starred in a deeper shade with a bright white throat. How pretty, you say. And […]
When was the last time you went out to the Island? This weekend, I was there for the Terry Fox walk and found it such a spiritual holiday that I made a pact with a friend to do it again; at least once a season. The open-topped ride to Ward’s Island is the skooter version […]