Happy birthday (of your orchid), Z.

Sarah lives on one side, I live on the other. And, in the middle, are our neighbours Z. and K. Last month, Z. came to see me, all excited.

You should see my orchid! It has buds!

What did you do to it?


Nothing!

Sure enough, there were the orchid buds. Z. looked very proud of herself. As she should.


Now, just in time for her birthday (and Canada Day), here are the flowers: Two lovely white Orchid phalaenopsis flowers, almost thriving on neglect.

(Did you know that the biggest threat to most houseplants is over-watering? Here's proof positive that benign neglect may be more helpful than over-watchful care.)

Congratulations, Z. Happy Birthday, and many happy returns of the flower.

No Better Time to Buy A Worm Composter

With the garbage strike on, and no system in place to get rid of your green waste, unless you have a backyard composter, it's a great time to worm your way back... to vermicomposting.

I experimented with this in the early 90s, but the standard bin left too much room for escaping worms. I gave up on the process.

A year ago last March, we posted about the new design of this great worm composter from All Things Organic. Order from them today (June 30th), and you get a free accessories kit: a thermometer, a hand rake and a scraper to clean compost out of your bin. I'll be ordering mine. (I'm not affiliated with the company at all, by the way.)

Worms and worm compost good. Stinky garbage bad.

Recipe to Keep Your Cut Flowers Fresh Longer

I've always been frustrated with the little teeny packets of flower preserver that you get when you buy cut flowers. Seems you can never buy this mysterious stuff in bulk for use in home-grown bouquets. No idea what it even contains.

So I've always wanted to find a home recipe for flower bouquet longevity. I've heard of various things, like ASA tablets, and 7up, but never found a recipe with quantities… till now.
This one is from the Chicago Tribune Garden Q+A. (With thanks for the link to @growingyourown on Twitter):



What flowers need to stay fresher longer:
• carbohydrate for nutrition,
• an acidifier to improve water uptake
• a disinfectant to prevent bacteria from growing.

Easy Home Recipe:
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar and
• 1/2 teaspoon chlorine bleach

Mix all in 1 quart of water.

Also:
• Make clean stem cuts with sharp scissors or pruners.
• Always plunge fresh cut flowers immediately into a bucket with warm water. (Not an adorable wicker trug!) Bring bucket out to garden with you.
• Cut off any leaves that will go below water level.

Plus, if you want your bouquet to last, don't place the vase in direct sunshine.

Happy picking and arranging!

How Bees Go At It: A Closeup View

Helen insists on saying, "Lo and bee-hold!" I however, would not stoop so low.

Sarah here. I've been talking this morning to Damian Grounds of HelpSaveBees about how much we like seeing the bees diving into our funnel-shaped flowers. By coinky-dink, Helen was at that moment in the process of photographing bumblebums in a nearby hollyhock. Or as they say in England, (in some places) 'ollyocks.

Beach Garden Tour

On a rainy afternoon at the end of June, we and our umbrellas (and cameras) toured twelve lovely gardens in the Upper Beach. This is my first time using a slideshow on the blog. Hope it doesn't cause any technoglitches.

If you have problems seeing the slideshow [ed: or if you want to view the images larger or see the captions], then you can view the images on my Flickr site through this link.

Discovery: Scarborough Community Garden

Twitter. Wow. Only through Twitter did I learn about a garden a short drive from home – from someone hundreds, maybe thousands of miles away in the United States.

Here's how it happened. Through Twitter links, I won a copy of the book The Green Gardener's Guide by Joe Lamp'l. This great book has a focus on organics and permaculture. I commented on Twitter how much I was enjoying it, and Joe himself tweeted back his thanks. In fact, he said, he'd recently been in Toronto installing a community garden. Where? At 3620 Kingston Road, Scarborough. Less than half an hour from where I live!

The Scarborough Community Garden project was a partnership between the City of Toronto, Fiskars and Canadian Tire who (along with volunteers) converted a vacant lot into a thriving community garden overnight, through the Fiskars Project Orange Thumb program:

Fiskars, a leading supplier of garden tools, began its Project Orange Thumb program in 2003. The program gives grants to community groups all over the world, as well as doing garden make-overs and providing the garden with the tools they'll need for continued success. Fiskars selected Toronto as the first Canadian municipality to receive a garden make-over.

The City of Toronto had recently purchased the historic Cornell Campbell Farm and its 12-acre grounds, and the community garden is the first project on the property. Canadian Tire donated the plants and materials.

Combining sturdy raised beds and in-ground plantings in a sunny alcove off one of the busiest (and noisiest) streets in Toronto, the garden was designed by Joe Lamp'l who, besides being an author, is a master gardener, landscaper and TV host.

It was sort of an Extreme Makeover: Vacant Lot Edition.

Under a near constant stream of heavy rain a group of dedicated volunteers performed an extreme garden makeover, turning a vacant plot of land into a lush and vibrant community garden.The transformation of the property on Kingston Road next to the Cornell Campbell House was the result of a multi-team partnership and the hard work of 25 community members.

Dedicated volunteers is right! Here's what Joe said about the garden, installed May 26, 2009: "From blank slate to finished $90,000 garden in 7 hours! All in the pouring, and I mean POURING rain!"

All their hard (sopping wet) work has paid off in spades, as we saw on our end-of-June visit this week. Thriving edibles are planted in multiples which showcases their ornamental qualities. I wanted to take this bed of beautifully scalloped leaved 'Dusky' eggplants home!

In addition, there are squashes, potatoes, tomatoes, bok choy and caulifowers (looking like green-and-white posies), red onions, even a large bed of strawberries and several rows of raspberries to fill out the berry quotient. We saw a huge variety of herbs, also planted in profusion, ranging from Italian and curly parsley, sage, rosemary, and thyme to Thai basil already in decorative purple-and-white flower.

A focus on ornamentals that attract pollinators, including Compositae family members like gaillardia and asters, and shrubs such as butterfly bush (Buddleia), will make the garden an enchanting place to be, once the plants reach mature size.

We played a "what is THIS" vegetable guessing game many times while there. Happily many beds still had their nametags. Thank you, Joe! A showcase garden is always improved by good labelling, so a gardener can take the info and re-create favourite plantings elsewhere.

At one point I looked around and thought, the only thing missing are benches. Then I realized that the raised beds also make great places to sit. Possibly this was intentional, as they're just the right height, sturdily constructed from 6 X 6 inch, square, untreated wooden logs.

The garden is under the auspices of the Scarborough Village Community Garden Committee, a group of mostly local residents who will oversee and manage it. This we discovered only through later research, as there is no indication at the garden as to who put it there or who runs it. A large, central stone where you'd expect to find a plaque was empty. Perhaps it will come later?

Right next to the community garden, separated by a flank of mature trees, the Cornell Campbell Farm offers garden delights of its own. Driving along Kingston Road you might never notice it was there, so I'm glad I had the heads-up to go and visit this secluded gem. We spent a couple of hours poking around this historic garden, as well, which deserves a post of its own.

Masticator of all s/he surveys

The snail population in my garden took a spike about fifteen years ago when our daughter adopted one and gave it a home on a punky log I'd been thinking was an ornament (add air quotes) in my front garden. It was, like all snails, of two-for-one gender. I think she named it Snaily.

Many intervening years and much mulch have created sort of a holiday home for Snaily and his/her crew. The cool wet weather prior to this week of Sudden Summer must have made them particularly frisky. Likewise, their cousins the slugs. Both are currently chewing holes in the hostas and leaving irridescent slime trails on the paving.

I don't advocate the wholesale extinction of slugs and snails (which, after all, along with puppydog tails, are what little boys are made of... and where would we be without them?). Googling "slug benefits" just for fun surfaced this post for young naturalists, pointing out that these slimy guys play an important role in decomposition of... well, things that need decomposing.

However, I do unceremoniously remove those I find on my foliage. My approved method of molluscular control (don't bother looking up molluscular, of any of the other words I make up for my own convenience) is similar to my approved bug control technique. Instead of squishing, however, I flick and fling.

After one, brief, airborne moment, there's always the chance that Snaily will land on his/her foot (s/he only has one) and be back for more.

Ontario Pesticide Ban-For Dummies Version

I am not impressed with the Ontario Government's public information efforts regarding the new sweeping pesticide ban that went into effect on Earth Day. Their website is a labyrinth of links, beaurocrat-ese, and PDF downloads. After spending over an hour on their and various other sites, I couldn't find one easy-to-understand list of all the banned substances so that home gardens could try to decode this important new legislation.

After scrolling through the Province's Pesticides Act website, hoping to find the info there (that took awhile!) I finally found a download that is helpfully named: "class7pesticides.pdf", which if I understand correctly is the one that pertains to home gardens. The Province is defining "pesticides" broadly, including products used to control both insects and weeds.

Now most of the bad boys on the list I would never dream of using. However, there are a few items that appear in innocuous-sounding products made by Safer and Green Earth that are surprising. Things we used to think of as environmentally friendly, like pyrethrins (made from plants in the chrysanthemum family) are on the banned list for cosmetic use by home gardeners. The two most important terms in that italicized phrase are "cosmetic use" and "home gardeners." Commercial growers (farmers) or golf courses, for example, are exempt from the ban.


To further confuse us, acceptable products, such as insecticidal soaps, have been banned if they contain pyrethrins, but not if they don't. Yet, banned products may remain on store shelves because people can still use them inside their homes for insect control.

Nowhere that I can see has the Ontario Government made an effort to make all this new information people friendly and easy to understand. And what is the point of new legislation if people don't understand it? Or even know about it? From what I can see, there seems to be a sort of "honour system" in place where sellers are required to hand out a slip of paper, called the "Class 7 Handout" where you are informed that you have purchased a controlled substance, and it then directs you to the website. Where you will be further confused. Then you're on the honour system to use as directed – as well as to dispose of any banned products you might happen to already own.

According to the PDF, banned CLASS 7 pesticides include common big guns such as Malathion and Sevin. However, you can use some of the tougher bug sprays, for instance, to get rid of stinging insects – if wasps take up residence in your sun porch.

Insects that bug us are also often pollinators, so be careful with who you try to get rid of.

Herbicidal products such as Round-Up or Wipe-Out (glyphosate or glufosinate) are also banned for cosmetic use – that means, you can't use them to control dandelions in your lawn, but you can use it to get rid of poison ivy. The Cosmetic Pesticide Act defines cosmetic as “non-essential”or used to improve the appearance of lawns, gardens, trees. You have to promise that you'll only use it on the poison ivy: Honour system.

Poison Ivy - Poison I-i-i-i-ivy - You can look but you'd better not touch.

You also have to be careful with products containing Capsaicin, the ingredient that makes hot peppers hot.

We did find one fairly simple overview online, from the David Suzuki Foundation. Blogger won't let us attach a PDF, so here is the pertinent text of that document.

HIGHLIGHTS of THE DAVID SUZUKI FOUNDATION re: PESTICIDE BAN INFO
The cosmetic use of 82 pesticide active ingredients is prohibited, along with the sale of 295 products containing these chemicals.

BANNED HERBICIDES
• Weedout
• Killex
• Weed and Feed fertilizer-pesticide mix
• Roundup
• Wipeout
• Glyphosate and Glufosinate (found in Roundup and Wipeout)

• Beginning in April 2011, ninety-seven “dual use” products will have store display restrictions. Products containing banned chemicals may still be used for safety purposes under the health and safety exemption (*see below).

• Store owners must provide information handouts about the pesticide ban to customers.

• There are strong standards for classifying new pesticides. Substances that meet low-risk criteria and reduced-risk biopesticides will be allowed for cosmetic use.

• The Cosmetic Pesticide Act defines cosmetic as “non-essential.” i.e. to improve appearance of lawns, gardens, trees, and other aspects of landscaping.
Why anyone would want to use a herbicide like 2-4-D to get rid of beautiful clover in their lawn is beyond me.

• “Public health” exemption allows certain pesticides on plants poisonous to the touch (e.g. poison ivy). They can be sold but there are new restrictions on the store display of “dual use” products.

• Lawn care companies that use pesticides under the Public Health exemption will be required to post warning signs



• Pesticides to control insects that bite, sting, are venomous, or carry disease are also exempted from the ban, including insect repellents and wasp sprays.

• Golf courses are exempt from the ban, but must submit public annual reports of the amount pesticide used and plans to minimize pesticide use. (The reports are available to the public, presented at an annual public meeting, and posted online. )

• Golf courses must be certified in Integrated Pest Management.

• Specialty turf for lawn bowling, cricket, lawn tennis, or croquet is exempted from the ban, subject to Integrated Pest Management requirements. Operators must prepare annual reports on pesticide use and make them available to the public upon request.

• Requirements for golf courses and specialty turf will be phased in between 2010 and 2012.

PROBLEMS AND LIMITATIONS OF THE ONTARIO PESTICIDE BAN

• The regulations make no requirement for golf courses or specialty turf to reduce or phase out pesticide use. Reporting requirements are unnecessarily delayed.

• The ban doesn't extend to house plants – only outdoor plants. This is an artificial distinction and also a loophole that allows the continued sale of indoor/outdoor pesticides. The ban on the outdoor use of these products will be difficult (*almost impossible -ed. by Sarah) to enforce.

• The exemption allowing Glyphosate and Glufosinate on poisonous plants is unconstrained. Enforcing the ban on these pesticides for other cosmetic purposes will be difficult (if not impossible -ed by Sarah).

•While Licensed lawn care companies must post warning signs where pesticides are used on poisonous plants, but notice doesn't apply to people using pesticides around their own home.

• Retail display restrictions on “dual use” products will not take effect for two years.

• The Ontario Cosmetic Pesticide Ban Act supersedes municipal pesticide bylaws. Municipalities will not be able to adopt tougher restrictions on pesticides or enforce their own pesticide bylaws.

CONCLUSION:
The Ontario government must focus on ensuring the effective implementation and enforcement of the ban. Other provinces, and federal regulators, can look to Ontario’s cosmetic pesticide ban as a model. (When enforced - ed. by Sarah)

* 1. Under the Act, pesticide use in commercial agriculture and forestry, to maintain golf courses, and to promote public health or safety is not considered “cosmetic”. These uses are therefore exempted from the ban. The regulations provide additional exemptions for pesticide use on sports fields hosting a national or international sporting events, on specialty turf (e.g. lawn bowling fields); to prevent significant structural damage to public works and other structures where public safety is concerned; to maintain the health of trees; and to protect or manage natural resources.

Discovery: Iris spuria

Have you heard of the Spuria beardless iris, a cousin of the Siberian iris? I hadn't. And I certainly hadn't been prepared for the Wow-ow -ow! factor of seeing one of these five-foot-plus-tall giants in a garden.

It happened yesterday, when Sarah and I took an interesting detour. While looking at a new community garden on Kingston Road east of Markham Road in Scarborough, we discovered the historic Cornell/Campbell Farm next door. We've since learned that there are some great plans being considered for this 12-acre historic site, recently acquired by the City's Parks department. However, I'll let Sarah tell you about both those gardens in a couple of different posts.

My quest is simply to show you perhaps something new.

My A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants has this to say about Iris spuria: Most Spurias require a dry summer dormancy, alkaline soil, and high levels of fertility.

The Spuria Iris Society web page notes: Modern hybrids are respected for their ease of growth and enormous size. Their exquisite flowers are highly sought by both florists and arrangers. The Society has tons of cultural info on them here, and you can also link to their online gallery through the same link. Apparently, spurias are particularly attractive to bees.

They were just coming into bloom in the garden yesterday, putting them perhaps a little later than the Siberians. I've never seen an iris quite like it.

UPDATE: I had forgotten to mention, as Sarah notes in the comments, that Iris spuria is available from Ontario iris grower and hybridizer, Chapman Iris. He sells all his irises online, and would ship out spurias in September, the best time for planting. Have a look at his site, too, for his open house dates, when you can catch him in the garden for Q&As. Sarah & I have been meaning to go to one of those.

Garden knows best

If I had actually wanted the Clematis 'Summer Snow' to clamber along my north wall to mingle amongst the columbines, of course, it would have never happened.

What a lucky accident that it never occurred to me to try. That way, there it is, looking bright and sparkly, like a well composed garden picture. And I can take all the credit. Shhh. This is just between us.

Spiderlings. It sounds so cute.

Look who's hanging out at my place! Spiderlings! Isn't that a great word?

On the weekend, I found this little cluster of what appeared to be eggs. Then I noticed the eggs had legs. A (gentle) poke with a twig sent the whole bunch scurrying into square dance mode. They're very pretty; yellow, with a black triangualar patch.

Kept trying to lure the family and neighbours over to admire them. Oddly, no one seemed to share my enthusiasm. They gave me that why-on-earth-would-I-want-to-look-at-a-big-bunch-of-baby-spiders-are-you-crazy-geez look. It was sometimes accompanied by an Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew!

Turns out these are the spiderlings of the Cross Orb Weaver Spider (Araneus diadematus).

Last year, I captured these shots of Mum, or perhaps Aunty Spidey or even Grand'maman, also hanging in the garden. You can see why they call them the Cross Orb Weaver -- see the lovely cross-shaped markings on her abdomen.

I believe we need to love our spider pals and learn to appreciate their beauty. They do good work in the garden.

And now I have a billion babies.

Urban Hikes with Toronto Bruce Trail Club

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 a green pedestrian and biking corridor.

Get the full list of urban hikes from this link on the Toronto Bruce Trail Club site. The next hike is tomorrow, June 25th, focussing on Toronto Islands. A Belt Line hike follows on Monday, June 29th. But there are more than two dozen dates/locations to choose from between now and the end of November, including weekend hikes.

Faves: Oh my darlin' Columbine

If you have been religious about deadheading your columbines (Aquilegia), you might still be enjoying the benefits of these generous producers.

If not, and they've gone to seed, be sure to let them ripen and to sprinkle them where the tiny seeds will be exposed to light for germination.

Or, better yet, shop around for seeds for next year. There are lots to choose from. Columbine isn't just a pretty face, it's a whole array of pretty faces.

At the top of the column is the blue form of Aquilegia alpina, one of my favourites and almost as pretty in white. Below, captured in a neighbour's garden, is a long-spurred form that might be one of the 'McKana Giants'. I had a similar yellow one in our previous garden.

Maybe because the movie was on recently, but I find this picture of the opening bloom makes it look a bit like the monster in Alien. Thought I'd share that passing fancy. That's okay. It's one monster I wouldn't mind sharing space with.

At left is what I refer to as a "granny's bonnet" form. It's Aquilegia 'Petticoats'.

On its own, I find this pink a bit insipid. (And, likely because I think that way, it has graciously self-seeded itself all over my garden.) However, complemented by the blue alpinas to add punch, it makes a fine display. The individual florets are winningly complex.

And here is a slightly blurry image of the multi-petalled 'Nora Barlow'. It comes in a range of colours, from white to so-called "black" (really, deep purple) through pinks and blues, some single coloured and some, as here, tipped with light. Come to think of it, I haven't seen a yellow version of Nora. Anyone?

Last on my by no means exhaustive list of the many faces of columbines is Aquilegia 'Origami', with its more upward-facing blooms. This range of columbines is typically two-tone. I like the single-toned creamy white here.

Like most prolific-flowering perennials, columbines can be short-lived. However, the great thing is that, unlike my darlin' Clementine, they are rarely "lost and gone forever." I leave the last seed pods of the season to ripen, and find these plants grow best where they plant themselves.

You can even sow seeds now for next year. As I mentioned, germination requires light exposure on the seeds, so sprinkle them after mulching or wait till they germinate before you mulch. Then sit back and enjoy these easy-care darlings.

A rare species (of guy)

The father of my three children isn't a gardener. Or rather, he's more a veggie guy than a flower guy – or would be, if we still had our allotment (a long, doleful tale; don't get me started). However, he's a really great guy to have about the garden.

This is the fella who built our deck, site of many happy times. Then, before we added on the Queen Elizabeth Wing for (surprise!) Child Number 3, he's the one who took the deck apart again.

He also built the cedar shed our carpenter bees love, laying the roof shingle by artistically arranged cedar shingle. When our kids clamoured for a tree house, he's the guy who engineered and constructed the shed's second story, home to many seasons of neighbourhood games.

When the kids vacated the playhouse and the raccoons moved in, claiming the shed roof for their local latrine, he applied his considerable ingenuity to foiling them. Or trying to foil them.

Later, when it was clear that the raccoons were winning, he's the guy with the reciprocating saw who dismantled the playhouse, donned haz-mat attire to de-poopify the roof, disposed of the toxic waste, and replaced it all with "wipe clean with a damp sponge" galvanized roofing.

When it comes to heavy lifting, Mr. Willingandable is there to move shrubs or chop roots. If not with musclepower, then with horsepower. He once removed a mock orange for me by tying it to the bumper of our car. Hey, it worked a treat!

What's more, he's the guy with patience. For gardening detours and travails (and perhaps the occasional expenditure).

He also plays a pretty mean guitar.

So this is to my honey: not only a good guy to have in the garden, but the only guy I can imagine in my life.

Thanks for the kids, by the way. That was fun. Happy Father's Day.

Front-Yard Veggies: More views

This is for islandgardener, who wanted a close-up of the tomato stakes in the front-yard vegetable patch I wrote about earlier. These are sturdy stakes, tied together in a network at the top and anchored to the edging around the raised bed. I don't know anything about knots, but I have a feeling this gardener does.

The owner, a very pleasant Italian lady of fine vintage, told us that her son looks after the garden. Before him, it had been her husband's garden for at least twenty years.

As Sarah wrote in a reply to some of the comments, this is a real recycler's dream. All kinds of materials were re-used to shore up this raised bed: sheets of plexiglass and metal, old signs, office floor protectors. The soil looks rich as dark chocolate.

It's a great use of space, too. Lots of good stuff growing: tomatoes, peppers, squash, onions, lettuce, dandelion greens, rapini. Eggplant is interplanted with basil, and those coloured wires you can see across the top of the second picture are a framework for pole beans – they'll form a pergola as they grow, and the beans will hang downward, ready for picking or drying.

Like I said, I'll be back to report on its progress. Especially as we're now acquainted with the keeper of the greens.

Baby raccoon season in Toronto

They're out of the nest with Mum and starting to explore. Hang on to your everything movable. They'd be evil if they weren't so darned cute. Be very, very... um, what would be a good word?

Beauty Bush: It's called that for a reason

A tale of two beauty bushes (Kolkwitzia amabilis). This one is growing in full sun, spilling over the top of a fence along Broadway Avenue in Leaside. The other one was too pathetic, ungainly and flowerless to photograph, growing in shade in my neighbourhood today.

Sunshine is the secret to such a splendiferous display of beauty-bushiness. Tree guru Michael Dirr isn't fond of this shrub for its lacklustre performance in other seasons. But, I gotta tell ya. When grown well, it's enough to make you pull over the car on a busy street and take a picture.

Incidentally, the name: Its genus Kolkwitzia is named for Mr. Kolkwitz, a botanist. Its specific epithet amabilis, appropriately, means lovely.

Front-Yard Veggies: A garden

Please don't think I'm all about the flowers. Walking through the neighbourhood today, I was impressed with this front-yard veggie plot. Unsure if you can see it in the smaller photo format, but this little river of vegetables goes aaaaaaaaall the way back.

To me, this looks like the work of an experienced and confident vegetable gardener. I might have said that the curcubits looked a little too close together, but when was the last time I grew anything in the squash family. However, that framework for the tomatoes means serious business.

Now this is one awesome raised bed, supported on the sides by knee-high metal sheeting. Untold yards of soil went into filling this baby up.

The overlaps in the sheets are sure to leak somewhat at watering time. However, the ridges and valleys in this planting should slow down any quick run-off.

I'll be passing by from time to time this summer to report on its progress.

Fire and rain: I've seen 'em

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 are unclasping in great numbers, kicking their cloven feet into the sunlight. You can almost hear them talking about the garden, like the seagulls in the movie Finding Nemo: Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. (Not so fast, little fellas. You have me to contend with.)

With the long cool lead-up to Summer 2009, now cusping in warm weather, plus a couple of days of rain with lightning to zap nitrogen out of the air, the garden is saying (as our older daughter used to say): Everybody look at me, everybody! It's big. It's bold. It's lush.

Our Rosa 'New Dawn' has never been in such a frenzy of bud, some now showing the edge of their pink knickers. The incipient popcorn explosion that is the hulking great Clematis fargesoides 'Summer Snow' is starting to pop. Everything, everything has been inspired to new growth. Let's enjoy it while it lasts.

By the way, I was going to shake out the catmint, but reconsidered. After all that fuss, I thought the bees might prefer to drink the dew.

Hoya vey: Don't try this at home

I have barbecued my mother's 25-year-old Hoya. I mean it. Literally barbecued. It looks decidedly miffed.

Having brought this otherwise indestructible plant out for its usual summer vacation, I had thought perhaps it needed a shaded transition spot. And there was the ledge beneath our rickety gas BBQ. Oooh, thinks me, looks nice there.

And then we grilled some chicken. And the hoya. It seems that BBQs get, well, hot. Even underneath. Oop.

Dear Hoya, please, please come back from Singed City. I promise I'll make it up to you. A new pot? Fresh soil? Anything you want.

But, please, in return, promise me one thing: if you do end up in heaven, don't tell my mother.

Secret Garden: Maple Cottage

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 write The Maple Leaf Forever in Canada's Confederation year 1867.

Like may of Toronto's historic landmarks, tree and cottage were almost swept away by development, until rescued by the City in 1992. Since then, an army of volunteers worked to save it, transforming it into a public space in 2005.

The most important part of the transformation has been the gardens, planted in the Victorian style to match the vintage of the charming worker's cottage.


The tree itself is so old that its soaring framework of branches is stabilized with wires. Also planted on the site as a hedge against the inevitable are the original tree's seed-grown progeny.

Step through the pergola arch and follow the walkway from Laing through to the sunny Maple Leaf Forever Park behind the cottage. This is the ideal, green playground for Leslieville kids to kick around a soccer ball or take shady shelter in the lilacs planted at the edge.

All a surprising find, just a stone's throw from the salvage yards on Eastern.

Lust List: Beauty of Livermere Poppy

The deep red poppies belonging to my neighbour M. are making their brief but miraculous appearance in his garden. Therefore, I must bow down and worship, oh ye amazing Papaver orientalis 'Beauty of Livermere'.

It's hard to decide which way to photograph them: as here, backdropped by the purple smokebush (Cotinus coggyria 'Royal Purple'), or in the other direction, where the gold variegated dogwood (Cornus alba 'Gouchaultii') holds them against a curtain of chartreuse.

Lust-inducing either way. And that's all I have to say on the subject.

Blooms Day: Mid-June in Toronto

Full disclosure: On this Blooms Day in the Microgarden, it's mostly green.

However, you can see my opening statement of columbines; some blue Aquilegia alpina and an unnamed pink of the granny's bonnet form. Both prefer the cracks in my paving stones, where their feet stay cool and moist. All efforts to get the alpinas to freely self-sow (as I was blown away by in Patrick Lima's Larkwhistle garden) have largely failed. We live in hope.

Now think what you might have thought, had I given you only this image. Sometimes, the best view of a garden is from right in the middle. Here are my very happy Allium christophii flowering onion, perfectly [and I should note, accidentally] matched in colour with the self-seeded biennial dame's rocket (Hesperis matronalis). One year, the dame will give an avalanche, another a snowball. This year, she is very meek and mild, seen here from her best angle.

Both pair nicely with a collection of hostas, the yellow leaves of 'June' and 'Janet' and the blue 'Fragrant Bouquet' (not seen). I'm often surprised when people don't like yellow in a garden. In my part-shade situation, they punctuate what might otherwise be undifferentiated green foliage.

And the yellows are just the complement for blues. Here's how the Penstemon barbatus look in their new home. Wasn't I justified in that impulse buy? Just say yes. Please.

This is another cheat. Yes, I did plant this Clematis 'The President'. No, it isn't technically blooming in my garden. It was doing what it always does; growing up our shared fence... and blooming on my neighbour's sunnier side. So I flipped the few at the top of the fence over to face me. Look closely to see the bee snuggling up to the lower one.

At the neighbour's on my other side, my Corydalis lutea is doing a fine job of softening the edge of our shared driveway. Again, the cool, moist feet provided at the join of the brick and asphalt seem to be what they want. It my back garden, it has politely self-sown amongst the blue catmint, (Nepeta mussenii). I've tried to encourage the same behaviour in the dry front garden to no avail. The lesson from this: plants tell you where they want to grow.

All these pix are from the more photogenic back garden.

Blooming in the dry shade in front are the mock orange (Philadelphus) and the tail end of the fragrant lemon lilies (Hemerocallis flava). Magenta Geranium sanguineum 'Alpenglow' and more petite 'Max Frei' -- both enthusiastic performers -- are softened by pink rock soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides). Note to self: move over some of the chartreuse lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis) to complement these. A white Potentilla, which I think might be 'Abbotswood', is just coming into flower.

To see what's blooming in mid-June in gardens around the world, visit May Dreams Gardens, where on the 15th of every month, Carol invites garden bloggers to share their experience.