A noun. A verb. A blog.
Talk about time travel. Yesterday while walking around the city, I moved from April to May in a single day. In the morning, I was strolling along in mid-April at the edge of the Bluffs, and arrested by a blanket of blue coming up in one garden. Scilla siberica, bluebells, even the rather nasty-sounding “squills.” […]
Sarah launched our blog way back in Ought-Six with a wonderful rant about leaves. It remains true that not everyone has our passion for dead leaves. Every spring, Canadians… urban Canadians… continue to spend a great deal of time and energy raking up leaves and giving them away. Then they go to the garden centre […]
Yes, we have spring weather! In the middle of April. At least, we do temporarily, as it is threatening to transition right into summer, with 21˚C predicted this week. On the weekend, I gingerly scrumpled the leaves on top of the garden, and found some of my favorite spring things. Here is one: Lathyrus vernus, […]
The rain is pelting down on the crocuses in my neighbour G.’s garden; the crocuses that stopped me in my tracks the other day — before I’d realized spring had really sprung. A small patch of organic sunshine at the corner of the street, these little guys have boisterously multiplied in the two or three […]
It must be spring. The day before yesterday, Sarah and I had our first official Walk Around the Garden with a Cup of Tea. This puts the 2008 season at least two weeks behind schedule in Toronto. Usually, this first walk happens in mid-March. Typically, it involves gently prying apart the mat of maple leaves […]
The first snowdrop sighting on our street actually happened on Saturday. But this picture, snapped yesterday, really shows the tenacious nature of these little guys. Even snow doesn’t stop them. Unless there’s a mile of it sitting on top. Until neighbour M. transplanted a huge unwieldy shrub for me, I had one tiny patch of […]
One of the first of the big trees to bloom in spring around here, usually around March, is the native Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum). These nubbly buds, which will open to reveal some of the least showy of the maple flowers, were photographed in our neighbourhood less than a week ago, before Spring officially arrived. […]
Last year about this time, while driving with the whole family in my sister’s van, we had a conversation about why we find this time of year particularly ugly, and, dare I say it, depressing. Then, as now, we were dog-tired of snow and winter and greyness. We were fed up to the gills with […]
5. Flower Power Don’t forget that Canada Blooms is about blooms – and equal partners with Landscape Ontario in the show is the Garden Club of Toronto. This is a not-for-profit group of amateur (in the true “loving” sense of the word) and often insanely talented floral designers and horticulturists. They are the force that […]
4. Grand larceny You might be unable to afford all that limestone hardscaping or the wrought-iron fencing or the brilliant “exterior designers”. But there’s one thing every gardener can afford at Canada Blooms: free ideas to steal. Wantonly and with abandon. To wit: the watering can fountain in my own garden, pictured on the right; […]
Next in line in our Canada Blooms reasons why series: 3. Escape from winter The Ides of March are approaching. The snowdrops and bluebells are buried under the foot or more of snow on the ground in Toronto. And then there is Canada Blooms; Canada Blooms, where the hyacinths fly for the winter. We go […]
This continues our series about why, despite everything, we keep returning to Canada Blooms: 2. Rekindling the passion Within the spidery network of the Internet, I’ll probably regret using this term, but one thing you’re always sure to get at Canada Blooms is what I call “garden pornography.” We go to get all lathered up […]