Vivian Reiss's Artful Garden

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 no number on the house, but I guessed it was the right place by the exuberance of the boulevard plantings —mostly edibles—and also by a peek through the window at a glittering, oversized disco ball on a pedestal. Completely charming, especially to a magpie like me!

Artist Vivian Reiss is a painter, designer, traveller, and passionate gardener—one who gardens with not only art in mind, but also with history: the tradition of growing useful plants, as well as the history of her own family who once worked in textiles.Vivian has an appreciation for the beautiful—her house is exquisitely furnished—designed with a designer and collector's eye but also with unique whimsy.

Who else would have antique beds as couches in the living room? She also appreciates the beauty in the mundane. A large tree that was cut down offered a chance to create rolling stools out of the severed trunk pieces.



Her backyard is full of wittily conceptual sculptural pieces. There's her oversized "scissors" chair, and a sculpture of knitting made from knotted garden hose. A wool ball of dried twines is lodged high in the crook of a tree, along with giant knitting needles.



Her lawn is designed to look like a flattened bolt of paisley fabric, with cut out garden beds serving as paisley shapes dotted throughout.
Inside the beds are hot coloured annuals, the colours of India, where paisley patterns originated, as well as blue flax, in keeping with the textile theme.


Eyestoppers are her fabulous sculptural pieces brought home from world travels, like the massive wheeled elephant and the cheeky leopard tucked next to the fence.

Everywhere else, in beds or containers are simple tomatoes and beans growing up bamboo poles; but also artichokes, taro and even banana plants. Vivian pointed out her massive patch of horseradish ruefully, saying, "Never plant horseradish! It's worse than mint." She has been hacking away at it for several years, trying to get it under control. It is a handsome, sculptural plant, though, and makes a great statement by her front gate.



The front boulevard is the site of her collections and experiments with edible and useful plants: everything is either one or the other. She has three kinds of edible amaranth, eggplant, broom corn, and now is even experimenting with growing cotton—from seed! In fact, most of her front garden is started from seed, often direct sown. I asked her if she had some kind of seed starting area, like a grow light. She laughs, "No, I'm very low tech, I just use the windowsill."



Vivian's sense of humour is evident when she points out her "front chard", a section of boulevard planted in a grid of, what else, swiss chard. The day I was there, tourists from Tennesse were intrigued by the unusual street display, and Vivian mentions that passers by often ask about the different plants in her garden, or tell her "We grew that plant in our country back home." She enjoys talking to them, happy to share the garden magic.
Vivian Reiss's garden is at once beautiful, practical, and exotic, but overall fun, and bursting with life.



However, Vivian's primary passion is her art, and her painting studio is where her inspiration from her garden takes flight.

Another post —coming soon— will talk about Vivian's amazing office roof garden—all edibles, thriving amongst Toronto towers, including fruit trees—a new project that she is very excited about.

OOTS: An industrial-strength garden

Look what I found at the industrial park! The contradiction in that phrase always strikes me as quaintly hopeful. It's industrial. Yet it's a park. Builders in the 50s and 60s must have been inspired by the great promise of industry – the same impulse that turned warehouses and pumping stations into cathedrals in the 1800s.

Today, as you can detect across the street through the foliage, not much of that promise remains in the east end's Bermondsey industrial park. The lawns surrounding the low-rise buildings – when the lawns haven't been replaced by sad-looking concrete parking pads – are more likely to sport day-glo-lettered sandwich boards than flowers.

The A1 Label office on Cranfield Road in East York not only made me crane my neck to look at it as I drove past, it made me come back the next day with a camera.

Great swathes of contrasting foliage colour and texture in golds, blues, reds and purples make an immense impact. And the masses of yellow daylilies, with probably more than a touch of 'Hyperion' blood, must make this one of the peak blooming periods.

A peep over the hedge reveals interesting artwork in the sunken courtyard. Wouldn't you love to work here?

Okay, so it isn't exactly "real gardens by real people." This archived article from a 2007 Interior Design magazine talks about the building interior, designed by luxe design firm Yabu Pushelberg and lists multi-award-winning-landscape-architect-so-great-he-doesn't-need-a-website Ronald Holbrook & Associates as landscaping consultant.

What can we regular Joes learn from gardens like this, though. One, we can learn that we need more of them around the city. Two, we can learn to steal delicious and masterfully paired foliage colours and textures wherever we see them. Three, we can learn that whether in an industrial park or in a depressed residential area (as we saw in Buffalo) great gardens can make spaces more welcoming, more livable, and way more photogenic.

OOTS is Out on the Streets, a meme created by British garden blogger Veep at Veg Plotting, who asks us to uncover and share garden inspiration in public spaces in our own neighbourhoods. Pop on over for a look at other OOTSian posts.

Have you considered an edible hedge?

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 might have chosen to paint those danger-yellow recycled buckets. Yet, with some finishing details here and there, the overall skeleton for this trellis could be quite attractive.

Picture a pergola framework with beveled ends, and the whole picture takes on a different hue. I think this is a great idea, worth refining, if you have the space, the sun and a firm hand with a jigsaw.

Blooms Day, July 2010: Colour strategies for shade

Sarah and I garden two doors away from each other in the same dry shady conditions. But, when it comes to colour, we couldn't be further apart. Sarah's all about the hot colours, reds, oranges, yellows; I prefer mine muted, going for pinks, corals, creams and blues.

The red of this little 'Happy Thought' pelargonium – which has overtones of both orange and pink – is perhaps the perfect cross-over point. I grow it in one of my sunnier spots, because I like to have happy thoughts in the garden.

Why limit your colour palette in shade? Hot colours can really turn on the lights, as you can see by this collage from Sarah's garden. It features butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), a marmaladey Gaillardia, Sarah's signature orangey red impatiens paired with chartreuse 'Marguerite' sweet potato vine (Ipomeoa batatas), yellow Crocosmia, red daylilies (Hemerocallis), and a shot of brightness from remarkably shade-tolerant Shasta daisies (Leucanthemum x superbum). Not shown is Sarah's great collection of red and orange pelargoniums.

As hot colours visually advance (cool colours recede) in a garden, they're often avoided in small spaces, as they're thought to make a garden feel smaller. Shade, however, tones down this effect. And in gardens as small as ours, why not just go for the golds!

These flowers may all be a little less flowery in shady conditions – despite being under Norway maples, Sarah's shade is somewhat dappled – but they do add welcome warmth.

I, on the other hand, try to make the garden feel as expansive as possible using pastels, stronger in intensity here and there.

My collage includes a salmon pelargonium with ferns and Caladium in the front planter. Around the garden right now, there's Hemerocallis 'Gentle Shepherd', the double Saponaria aka soapwort or Bouncing Bet that came with the garden, the chartreuse flowers of lady's mantle (Alchemilla mollis), a purple butterfly bush (Buddleia davidii), a creamy Echinacea 'Sunrise', and the odd-looking flowers of a Phlox in the 'Feelings' series.

I'm particularly fond of the creams within this colour key, picked up by the foliage variegation in my hosta collection. You'll notice that chartreuse shows up in both palettes; it's a hot yellow-green that works in sun or shade.

There you go. Two colour strategies for shade. What works for you?

To look at colours in other gardens worldwide, head over to May Dreams Gardens, where on the 15th of each month blogger extraordinaire Carol invites us to share Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Disguises for plastic utility bins

For the garbage bins Toronto residents hate to love, or for those who say a rain barrel is too ugly, here's one of our favourite snippets from the Garden Walk Buffalo preview. Paint yourself a garden.

The gardener who painted these in Buffalo's Cottage District gave me the basic how-to. She simply used acrylic paint, like these available from Curry's, without even using primer.

The garbage can below was painted ten years ago, without touch-ups, and is picked up by the garbage truck machinery, just like ours in Toronto.

Even better, these painted gardens don't require weeding or watering.

Garden Daytrips: Garden Walk Buffalo

For Toronto garden lovers, the biggest open garden tour in North America is only a two-hour drive (and a wee wait at the border) away. In 2010, that means the chance to see more than 350 open gardens in one weekend. And admission is completely free!

It's Garden Walk Buffalo, always held on the last weekend in July – which, this year, falls on July 24-25, 2010. Garden Walk culminates a five-week long National Buffalo Garden Festival, with more open gardens and other garden events. Who knew that Buffalonians were so serious about gardening?

They're serious all right. The city's residents have seen that gardening can transform run-down, frayed urban neighbourhoods in to vibrant, desirable communities. It's catching, too. A single homeowner will create a garden and, before you know it, entire streets are getting into the gardening act opening their homes and gardens to the open garden tours. Property values go up. But, even more, than that; the sense of community and civic pride skyrockets. It's grassroots gardening as effective urban renewal. 

Judging by the gardens Sarah and I have seen during the Buffa10 Garden Bloggers preview, these truly are real gardens by real people. Really great gardens by really generous people. We've been blown away by Buffalo. We think you will, too. Have a look at these gardens in the Cottage District alone. And there's plenty more where these came from.

Have a fruit tree that needs harvesting?

Not Far From the Tree (NFFTT) is expanding in the east end of Toronto. If you know someone with a fruit (or nut) tree but with no time or energy to harvest it, you can spread the wealth through this network of volunteers, plus avoid that litter of fermenting, fallen fruit.

NFFTT operates in west-end neighbourhoods, too. So far in 2010, they've picked over 700 pounds of residential fruit across Toronto. In 2009, they almost tripled the amount picked in 2008, and expanded into nut-gathering and even began tapping maple trees for syrup.

Here's info from the local coordinator Chris Sharp about a new Riverdale hub looking to develop a fruitful partnership with tree owners.

Not Far From The Tree is a non-profit organization that finds people with fruit trees in their yards and coordinates volunteers to pick them. The fruit is divided between the tree owner, the volunteer pickers, and a local agency such as a food bank or shelter.

We have an active Beaches/East York hub and have just started a Riverdale hub, of which I am the coordinator. I am currently engaged in efforts to find and contact fruit tree owners in the Riverdale area. It would be great if you could give us a mention.

For more information you can see our website www.notfarfromthetree.org or contact Chris directly by email (chris [at] notfarfromthetree [dot] org) or at 416-466-8056.

Sure thing, Chris. I wish we had a couple of fruit or nut trees to share, too. My guess is that NFFTT would also be interested in hearing from potential volunteers. It's yard-sharing meets urban farming.

A water feature for small gardens

Here's a fountain any garden would have space for: A perpetually refilling watering can.

One like this captured my imagination at Canada Blooms one year, so I immediately asked the ever-ingenious Mr. TG to figure out how to make one for me. It's just the kind of challenge he relishes.

With a few rocks in the bottom, it now contributes a gentle splashing sound to filter out some of the city noises.

Unfortunately, the neighbourhood raccoons see this as their own personal refreshment area. They've knocked it over (and burned out the pump) more than once. But that becomes another project for Mr. TG's ingenuity. Between times, we enjoy the water music.

[UPDATE: SOME ROUGH INSTRUCTIONS]

A view of the back of the watering can fountain. Copper pipe was used as the conduit to add verisimilitude. That's a fun word to write. An old brass spigot adds to the authentic flavour.

The kink in the pipe at the bottom made it possible to secure the pipe by soldering it to a U-bracket.

Inside, the pump is a regular garden fountain pump.

A closeup of the base... a little corroded by the years, but still in working order.

A hole was drilled for the wire, which is secured using outdoor electrical conduit coupling. The seal was waterproofed using Goop. Seems strange, but that's the name of the product.

Rocks inside the can add ballast (making it a little harder for the raccoons to topple it) and modify the sound, turning it from the gurgle of a can filling to the splash of water falling on stones.

A stone under the pump also raises it a little so that raccoon-generated sediment is less likely to clog the pump filter. However, you do have to take the pump apart from time to time to clean the filter.

When Fine Gardening comes to town

When you get an email on Wednesday evening from a Fine Gardening Magazine* editor saying she'll be in town and she likes your blog and would love to meet you and see your gardens, what do you do? Do you rub your hands together as you survey your perfect borders?

Or do you do what we did. Look at each other in shock. Wail, Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Then walk around your gardens together in a daze saying, Oh my god, oh my god! Thinking of all the things you need to fix, and fix now, because an editor from Fine Gardening Magazine wants to see your gardens.

And, unfortunately, Sunday doesn't work for her and Friday is better and Friday is the day after tomorrow. Oh my god! Oh. My. God.

Do you then spend all of the Canada Day holiday planting and transplanting and weeding and deadheading and propping and mulching and generally fluffing, because an editor from Fine Gardening Magazine wants to see your gardens. Then do you, with all available hands on deck, continue the next morning, plus of course you have to clean the inside of the house, because the editor from Fine Gardening Magazine who wants to see your gardens might also need to use the bathroom.

Then you wait. With some wine chilling, and plans to feed the editor when she drops by to, well, you know. After a while waiting, you decide that the wine might as well be enjoyed while you're waiting.

So when, after a glass or two, you get the call from the very nice but very overburdened editor saying that she's had such a long day, what with travelling and visiting the Toronto Botanical Garden and Toronto Music Garden... that she just doesn't think she could face the idea of leaving her hotel room now – Would you mind very much if she didn't come? – you are able to say, with a benevolent glow: We understand completely.

And have another glass. Because, really, your gardens have never looked better. And, after all, you have an editor from Fine Gardening Magazine to thank for that!

*Note that one of this month's cover stories is: Don't be a slave to garden chores.