A noun. A verb. A blog.
Today’s headline is the punchline to the joke: Why will Toronto gardeners never go hungry? The gas-main excavations in many Toronto neighbourhoods have been revealing. What they’ve revealed on our east-end, upper-upper-upper-upper-upper Beach street is sand, lots of deep, inert, yellow sand. This was the beach of prehistoric Lake Iroquois, making our street, which runs […]
Thanks to the blog Don Watcher for this tip: Get to know Toronto’s urban green spaces through one or all of this series of inexpensive hikes. They’re like mini-staycations. You’ll discover sides of the city you might not have known about, like Toronto’s Belt Line Trail – a forgotten bit of Toronto history, revived as […]
Hidden away on quiet Laing Street that runs between Queen Street East and Eastern Avenue is a little piece of Canadiana that most Torontonians might be unaware of: Maple Cottage. Standing at the corner of Memory Lane, Maple Cottage is named for the tall silver maple (Acer saccharinum) said to have inspired Alexandar Muir to […]
The Evergreen Foundation partnered with many others, including Toronto and Region Conservation, and the City of Toronto, to revitalize and publicize this green space, which has been mostly hidden in the middle of the city for many years. Working together they have made this historic site and wildlife refuge the lovely natural destination it has […]
Among the Top 10 questions Toronto gardeners ask at Humber Nurseries is one about Canadian hardiness zones. In case you didn’t know: Canada is different from the U.S. Here’s why. Both countries map their landscape into zones to denote plant hardiness — where a plant will survive, especially over winter. Yet, Canada and the U.S. […]
If you haven’t been to the Toronto Botanical Garden since it was transformed with new gardens and a new name (formerly the Civic Garden Centre), you have one more reason to do so on Saturday. It’s the final day for their spring plant sale. Nice specimens for containers, or garden beds in sun or shade, […]
***UPDATE**** June 4, 2009 First 9 trees are in the ground at Ben Nobleman Park, site of TO’s first community orchard: pears, plums, and cherries. Hooray! ************** I just learned about wonderful proposal to plant a community orchard not far from the Eglinton West Subway station in Ben Nobleman park. This initiative is spearheaded by […]
Spotted along the bike trail on the north side of the white picnic shelter near the Leuty Lifeguard Station. Unsure how this piece of living artwork came about, or what effect it has on the life of the tree. My guess is that the bark formation came first and the artist tweaked it to help […]
Seen on the road today: the field of bluebells, Siberian squills or Scilla siberica that blankets the corner of Rosedale Valley Road and Park Road every spring. Did someone plant them here? Or, more likely, did they tumble down the slope from the houses above, wantonly self-seeding into this amazing early spring display. (Always carry […]
The wintertime is all about dreaming and planning, and a good deal of this is done on the web, since we can’t get to our gardens under all that snow. Tons of snow!! Sections of my neighborhhood look faintly ridiculous at the moment, with trees looking like lollipops stuck into pointy piles of mashed potatoes. […]
A trip to the island is always a joy when you are enduring a summer in the city. As soon as I get on the ferry all I can think is, “Why don’t I do this more often?” It is so beautiful and green there, and it’s so close for us inner-city types. A quick […]
It was quite a crowd last Sunday when arborist Todd Irvine and LEAF organizer Susan Gulley got us together to fall in love with trees. I learned plenty about the East Danforth treescape. And now I’m trying to see how it all fits in with my own garden. My own garden, if you’ve read one […]