A noun. A verb. A blog.
Beautiful ‘Prinses Irene’ tulips have me wanting more, more, more! Every spring finds me wishing I could turn back the clock to fall – to plant more bulbs. But, in a small garden, how do you deal with the necessary (and unsightly) evil of ripening foliage afterwards? The leaves busily making food for next year’s […]
It’s another heat wave. So we thought it worthwhile to repeat these tips for water-wise gardening from May 2009 – still useful, even as we enter July: Okay, the picture exaggerates. But today we’ll get a taste of it, and tomorrow’s forecast is 30˚C and full sunshine. On hot days like tomorrow, it’s smart to […]
When you have 350 bulbs to plant – and your soil wears bulletproof armour in the form of impenetrable Norway maple roots – you’ll try anything to make your life easier. So when I noticed this inexpensive, ergonomic Y-Grip Trowel on the Botanus website, I wondered how it would stand up to my long-handled bulb planter. I added it to […]
Anemone blanda ‘White Splendor’ Where would gardeners be without the gigantic Ranunculaceae or buttercup family? Well, we’d be without perennials such as Clematis, delphiniums and hellebores, without annuals such as columbines (Aquilegia) and love-in-a-mist (Nigella). And we’d be without anemones. And, without anemones, we’d miss out on one of the easiest early spring bloomers, Anemone […]
A tomato plant is indeed a beautiful thing. Don’t throw out that coffee cup! Don’t even toss it in the blue bin! They make great seed starting pots. Poke a hole in the bottom, fill with soil, and plant a few tomato seeds, or anything you want to start from seed. At planting time I […]
Some early downiness from the downy serviceberry (Amelanchier) branches I’m forcing As winter has thrown an I don’t wanna go to bed! tantrum in Toronto, I’m extra glad I decided to trim off a couple of wayward branches from my serviceberry last weekend – and pop them in a vase for early spring bloom. In […]
The view is clear when you can see a tree silhouetted in its underwear. Let’s let go of our moaning. Snow in January is a good friend to the Toronto gardener. First, it’s precipitation; a long, cool drink for the garden. It’s an insulating blanket of snow for our tender plants, especially when the temps […]
Who doesn’t want a garden that’s low maintenance? Of course, the mantra is: Low maintenance does not mean no maintenance. Even if you’re laying down concrete grass and planting plastic flowers, some maintenance will be required. However, selecting well will help you keep plant maintenance to a minimum. If you don’t want to spend your […]
Your forsythia shrub now is probably a fountain of gold. Or maybe it isn’t. Blooming season is when a less-than-forthcoming forsythia makes itself very plain. Wonder why? Forsythias always make this year’s flower buds last year. And most of the time when they don’t bloom it’s for two reasons related to pruning. Yours might not […]
My Rosa ‘New Dawn’ is not only beautiful, she’s a tough customer. I’ve written about her before. Not many climbing roses put on a show with about a half day of sun. She does. But every couple of years at this time, when the buds show signs of life, she does need to be wrassled […]
Oh, what a tangled web we weave… when we don’t know how to prune a weeping mulberry (Morus alba ‘Pendula’). You can see this popular weeping standard tree all over the city – and when not wearing its cloak of green, the tangled, haystack-headed results of improper pruning are only too evident. Therefore, when I […]
In my other life as a designer I’m involved in a project involving Alchemy as a symbol. This got me thinking as I was looking at the little – er, increasingly massive – pile of eggshells and tea bags I’d set aside to add to my worm composter. (The city isn’t getting this good stuff, […]