A noun. A verb. A blog.
Sarah and I were talking about blue foliage plants this afternoon. She’d been thinking of a blue hosta for a friend’s garden. Large blue leaves would be just the right counterpoint to her friend’s fine-textured gold spirea. Trouble is, that spot in the garden gets baking-hot sun. The glaucous waxy coating that makes blue hostas […]
Too much direct sun, especially along with unusually hot weather, can be a bad thing if you’re a ripening tomato. It’s one factor that can lead to the colour disorder shown above, which goes by names including yellow eye, yellow shoulder and green shoulder. Some tomatoes, particularly some heirlooms, grow naturally with a bit of […]
Before the end of July 2010, we’ve harvested radishes, many bouquets of frilly lettuce, a kilo or more of bush beans, and nearly that in tomatoes, with more to come. Not to mention the flowers. Aren’t they all pretty? The contrast between this year’s and last year’s tomato harvest alone from our community garden is […]
Taro plant with rescued and repurposed piece of decorative concrete. Vivian saves architectural pieces from demolition giving new life to old beautiful objects. As you approach Vivian Reiss’s Victorian house in Yorkville you know it’s no ordinary dwelling, but a house and garden space created by a gardener of unusual and vivid passions. There was […]
Because, really, the privacy screening a hedge provides often only makes a difference when you’re outdoors during the clement seasons. Why not use it to support your beans and cukes – which can be highly ornamental, as well as being practical and delicious. A more decorative frame might have more good-neighbour appeal, and I perhaps […]
Who in this metricized, largely urban world even knows what a peck is anymore? In grade six, when our family was living in a rural community, our class had to memorize all the Imperial agricultural measurements: 2 pints in a quart 4 quarts in a gallon 2 gallons in a peck 4 pecks in a […]
Our little 0.0018 acre looks a whole lot neater than it did last year. If you were reading Toronto Gardens then, you might recall our very late start in July 2009 as brand new plot owners at the East York Community Garden. Earlier this year, I described how Mr. TG created raised beds using cedar […]
Mother’s Day weekend is proving to be windy and cold. Hope you weren’t fooled by the recent Floridian weather into planting too soon. Tomatoes, peppers and eggplants are among those pre-started plants that must be protected, especially overnight, when temps dip to near zero, as they could tonight and tomorrow. Certain vegetable seeds, including beans, […]
When our youngest daughter was in 6th grade, she had to write a two-page short story. At page five, she was still writing, so I asked her why. “I can’t help it,” she exclaimed. “Things just keep happening!!” Things just keep happening on the garden calendar, too. Sunday, May 2nd is no exception, and one […]
Yesterday was opening day at East York Community Garden. When this picture was taken, the crowds had gone home for a well-deserved rest after many hours of digging, de-sodding, tidying and a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. In my Compost Queen role, I worked with volunteer Yves to construct a mountain of overturned sod – […]
A week ago, we put our baby (allotment) to bed. Our community garden project of Summer 2009 was a qualified success. It got us back into the vegetable gardening groove, something my husband and I hadn’t done since becoming parents, nearly 25 years ago. And it gave us modest returns on our investment and labours; […]
Frost hit my community garden plot over Thanksgiving weekend. And there is a frost warning in the city for tonight, about a week ahead of the statistical average for downtown Toronto – though right on target for the northern part of the city. Bring in those tender plants! With such a clearly demarcated end-of-season, it’s […]