A noun. A verb. A blog.
We are excited to announce that the long-time publisher of the Toronto Gardener’s Journal & Source Book, Margaret Bennet-Alder, has handed the publishing reins to us. This extremely useful journal has always been a favourite with us, and it’s been on the Toronto garden scene for over 25 years. 2018 will mark birthday number 26. Not only […]
It isn’t unusual to see Toronto playing other cities on film or TV. Toronto pretends to be New York in shows like Suits, for instance. But I went Hey! with delight seeing our city cast as a place on a different planet in a recent episode of Star Trek: Discovery. Welcome to a celebration on Vulcan! That accounts […]
The trouble with digital cameras is that they can do everything for you except point and shoot. It’s almost too easy. But, hey, it’s never too late to climb out of that comfort zone. That’s why my friend E convinced me to join her at an advanced photography course offered by Parks and Rec. Our first challenge: going fully […]
I think this garden represents the best part of Canada, as it is a blended front-yard garden. Why does it represent Canada? Because so many cultures, starting with our two original ones, French and English, blend together so well. [Ed: We are correctly reminded that the French and English, along with other Europeans, were relative newcomers […]
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 […]
There’s never a good time for a bad cold. But when it’s Canada Blooms, and you have a whole bunch of volunteer stuff to do, garden writer events to attend, plus pictures to take and thoughtful* posts to write? Well, ah-chooey! For better or, more likely, worse, here’s my viral or virusy view of this year. (*Doing […]
By many measures, 2016 was one of the most deplorable of annus horribilis-es. The Grim Reaper was unusually busy, and some things did not turn out as hoped. But let’s try to bright-side it. A look back: January One thing to like, every year, is Toronto’s skirt hem along the great freshwater sea that is Lake Ontario. A […]
We’d spent 20+ years clambering over Nature’s crevice gardens, had we only known it. The natural rock formations below near our former summer home on Ile d’Orléans in the St. Lawrence River near Québec City held exactly the eroded vertical spaces that crevice gardens try to mimic. As they were also naturally photogenic, I have pictures to show you, […]
Welcome to the Beach Garden Society garden tour, June 19, 2016, from 1 to 5 pm Usually, when we write up the Gardens of the Beach garden tour it’s after the event. This year, in fact last night, we had a sneak preview. So I’m glad to tell you there’s still time to go see […]
Go Through the Garden Gate in The Kingsway with the Toronto Botanical Garden in 2016 When The Kingsway was first developed, around the time of the first world war, the developer Robert Home Smith had a vision of creating “A bit of England, far from England.” As the Etobicoke Historical Society explains, by contract, he […]
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 […]
The city also had a record-breaking February 2015 – the first time since record-keeping began in 1840 that temperatures stayed below zero for the entire month. January, when this shot was taken, Toronto had almost half its usual precipitation. How do I know these bits of weather arcana? Because, today, something great arrived in my […]