A noun. A verb. A blog.
This time last year, it was raining. There was snow on the ground… you remember what snow is, don’t you? Not just that baby powdering we got yesterday that almost melted by today. In December 2009 and January 2010, Toronto had roughly one-quarter of our usual snowfall. It looks like February is following the same […]
After inadvertently toasting my Hoya this week, two days of rain have both quenched and spurred the garden. Poppies are in tatters and the necks of my alliums are bent and in a few cases, sadly, broken. The perky stems of catmint are prostrate, and risk being trodden flat along the pathway. Morning glory seedlings […]
Okay, the picture exaggerates. But today we’ll get a taste of it, and tomorrow’s forecast is 30˚C and full sunshine. Sudden summer, indeed. Expect your new plants to go into mild to moderate shock till they acclimatize. Bye bye, last of the tulips. Oops, there go the apple blossoms. Many spring flowers will move into […]
Gardeners might not think twice about running out in their pyjamas (as I did last night) to protect their tender annuals from a possible frost. But would they take the same degree of precaution for their own safety – when it comes to sun exposure? I know I didn’t, until recently. This year, I noticed […]
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. […]
The weather guys at City-TV warn there might be frost tonight in the GTA — though the closer you are to the moderating effect of the lake, the lower the risk. (FYI, The Weather Network doesn’t put frost on the horizon.) Spring/fall frost dates are merely based on statistics, and freak weather does happen. Think […]
There’s a definite spike in Toronto precipitation during March and April 2009. We’ve been feeling it, literally and figuratively, over the past few days. Oh well, mustn’t grumble. It’s good for the garden. Instead, it gives us something to look forward to. Because, statistically, the rainiest months in downtown Toronto are August and September.
February 25th. That’s the earliest snowdrop this year amongst my usually fearless few. In other years, I’ve had snowdrops as early as January 1st. To have the first appear near the beginning of March is a sign of our unusually cold winter, 2008/9. This one appears particularly feeble. But let’s take what we can get.
It’s good to get out with a camera, even on a record-setting rainy day in February. Even under the raindrops, it’s a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. I think the covergirl picture is bridalwreath spirea (Spirea vanhouttii) making with the pearldrops. Definitely privet (Ligustrum) berries. People don’t think of privet as ornamental, but they can […]
Go away for three weeks in July, and what usually happens? A sudden onset of Gobi Desert. Go away for three weeks in July 2008, during which, the stats tell me, there was 171% more rainfall and 5% more sunshine than normal, and return to a world gone wild. The water-loving hydrangeas are weighted down […]
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.” […]
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, […]