Toronto Gardens

Temporary Winterscaping

2012-01-21T15:03:00.000-05:00

Our temporary winterscape It's the pagan in me that keeps my Christmas tree up long past traditional tree-time. For me, the tree and lights represent the resilient human spirit through the darkest days of winter. Usually, my whim is satisfied by an artificial tree. This year, however, I had a yen for a real one; a balsam fir. I wanted the boughs to decorate our front door, and to bring in to

Making snowflake flowers (or flower snowflakes)

2011-12-13T14:03:00.001-05:00

A lily-flowered tulip was my first model for a snowflower If you need cheap, cheerful fun for a chilly day, there's nothing easier than making paper snowflakes. Few crafts are so inexpensive – or so sure of success. All you need is a sheet of paper, sharp scissors and your imagination – which can get added inspiration from the garden. When it comes to snowflakes, I am what our dad would have

Toronto Botanical Gardens Open House 2012

2011-12-07T14:15:00.000-05:00

Autumn at the Toronto Botanical Garden Joining the Toronto Botanical Garden was one of the best garden gifts I've given to myself – to preview how good it can be, check out tomorrow's TBG Open House (Dec. 8, 5:30 to 9:30 pm). The TBG gardens are beautiful in any season – ignore the parking lot reno for the moment. Yet, viewing the gardens is free, always. The best part of the gift is what's

Elf-sized gardens to charm your kids

2011-12-06T16:20:00.002-05:00

How cute is that!? Photo courtesy of Janit Calvo, the mini-garden guru, of Two Green Thumbs You don't have to be a kid to love little. Adults are as likely to be as passionate about dollhouses, for example, as children are. Just look at the Kensington Dollshouse Festival in London, England, which has been drawing mostly grown-up fans from all over the globe for 25 years. These days, little is

Christmas by candlelight at Allan Gardens

2011-12-04T13:56:00.001-05:00

Today is the grand opening of the Allan Gardens Christmas Show. From 10 am to 5 pm daily till January 8th, with candlelight viewing on Saturdays and Sundays from 5-7 pm, you can wander through the conservatory's winding walkways, wondering at the wuvwely... okay, I'll stop. The Christmas flower show is a family tradition with us, and late Friday, just before closing, Sarah and I caught them

Gifts for tree-huggers

2011-12-02T14:19:00.000-05:00

On first hearing about Seeing Trees: Discover the Extraordinary Secrets of Everyday Trees by Nancy Ross Hugo and photographer Robert Llewellyn (Timber Press) I positively salivated. For dendrophiles, the book's beautifully rendered cover image promises a new level of beauty and intimacy. First, though, a confession: I'm not just a dendrophile (tree lover), I'm a treek (tree geek). I photograph

Garden travel: Indianapolis Museum of Art

2011-11-30T22:54:00.003-05:00

For our 600th post on Toronto Gardens, and the final one for NaBloPoMo 2011, I wanted – well, I wanted to do everything. National Blog Posting Month, for those wondering, is the challenge of writing a blog post a day, without fail, for the entire month of November. It's a sister-act or copycat younger cousin to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). That my 30th post fell on the same day as

Everyday lessons from castle gardens

2011-11-29T23:34:00.000-05:00

Lesson one: Always have a good place to sit and enjoy the garden. When Sarah & I started our blog over five years ago (last month; we missed our blog's birthday!), we said we wanted to write about real gardens by real people. None of that garden porn stuff for us. Ha! Well, we've learned. And one thing experience has made clear is that you can learn from any garden, even castle gardens, and

Getting around the utility shed problem

2011-11-28T23:55:00.002-05:00

Most ordinary gardeners – those not lucky enough to have room in the garage, or a garage at all – have the same problem. Whether it's a tool shed or a pool shed, how do you disguise it, or integrate it with your garden. A beautifully designed shed can put a serious dent in your garden budget. In this amphitheatre-like garden on the Beach Garden Tour 2011, the shed is inevitably a focal point,

An old family friend in the toolkit

2011-11-27T23:24:00.000-05:00

Every garden toolkit needs one sharp knife, the ideal tool for tasks from cutting string to dividing plant roots. Garden tools are very much a personal thing, like selecting a wallet. You need to find what works for you. I wouldn't be without my aged Felco #2 hand pruners, for example. And the same goes for trowels or spades or loppers. My go-to cutting tool is one of our grandfather's

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

2011-11-26T21:48:00.000-05:00

Because it's Saturday night, and because I'm suffering from mild hippopotomontrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words), I thought I'd simply share one of the more unusual water features seen this year, from an Indianapolis garden.

Recycle an old hose into a bee hotel

2011-11-25T23:10:00.000-05:00

A great idea for a DIY bee hotel, from St Fagans National History Museum in Wales Remember that hose the car ran over – and sprang a leak? It could have new life as a home for solitary bees. Look at the example above from St Fagans, the National History Museum in South Wales. St Fagans is an interesting visit: part Welsh pioneer village with heritage buildings and gardens; part teaching garden

A private garden in Wales

2011-11-24T22:45:00.000-05:00

Imagine waking to this view I've been inspired to take a backward look by Barry Parker's posts, sharing his trip to many wonderful Welsh gardens this past September. These include, by coincidence, the Cowbridge Physic Garden and the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Barry reminded me of our UK trip in 2008, including a visit to Bodnant Gardens (a few photos here; I'll try to add more). Then I

Garden travel: Harold & Frances Holt Physic Garden

2011-11-23T23:20:00.001-05:00

Harold & Frances Holt Physic Garden at UBC Botanical Garden Of all the great gardens in Toronto, one thing that seems to be missing is a physic garden – a garden devoted to medicinal plants. These have been around since humans graduated from folk remedies to the science of medicine. Except that the infancy of that science was a little suspect. Certain plants, it was believed, had been touched

A "West Coast" Toronto garden

2011-11-22T22:02:00.000-05:00

You might be forgiven for thinking this is a West Coast rainforest garden... but it's an urban garden in Toronto's east end Toronto is a city of ravines and lost rivers; Glen Davis Crescent is home to both. Its lost river, Tomlin's Creek, still runs through a culvert underneath the road in the vee of Glen Davis Ravine. Homes built beside ravines in Toronto typically look down into them. Not

Close encounters of the hummingbird kind

2011-11-21T21:31:00.004-05:00

A pre-dawn hummer goes for the nectar at the Indianapolis Museum of Art Long, thoughtful posts, full of depth and perspective, aren't always possible at the best of times. They're even harder when you're trying to post every day for thirty days as a sort of shadow NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month – a poor cousin of NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month). Which, in case you hadn't

Lust List: River Birch

2011-11-20T23:06:00.000-05:00

A multi-stemmed river birch (Betula nigra) You can't always get what you want. Although you can try sometimes (gardeners call this "zone denial"). But when what you want is a tree called "river birch," what you want (this tree with the amazing, exfoliating bark, especially as a youngster) might be ruled out by what this plant needs (rivery – or at least moist soil). River birch (Betula nigra)

Rocks to riches: Story of a garden

2011-11-19T16:25:00.001-05:00

Talk about a rocky start! Dave and Heidi Rita (sorry, Rita!) Fleury got more than a "rock garden" when they purchased their Beach area home about four years ago – they got edge-to-edge beach stone, punctuated by some accent rocks and elderly evergreens. The previous owners had taken the drastic measure of installing stone to keep dogs from peeing (et cetera) on their property. Well. I hope it

TTC Garden Tour, Part 2: Dupont Station

2011-11-18T20:19:00.000-05:00

Designed by elusive artist James Sutherland, the TTC's Dupont Station murals were unveiled in 1978 I hadn't intended to continue our TTC Garden Tour so quickly. But there I was at Spadina Station with my camera. It was just a long tunnel trek and a one-stop hop over to Dupont. And no TTC Garden Tour would be complete without a visit to the city's most spectacular subway station. The murals

Miscanthus moments

2011-11-17T21:23:00.001-05:00

Just stop with me for a moment. The wind is blowing my neighbour's grasses. Miscanthus or maiden grass. Sometimes we need to hurry to appointments. Sometimes, we need to stand and watch the wind toss the maidens' tresses. I think Robert Frost wrote a poem like that. About birches, weighed down by ice: So low for long, they never right themselves: You may see their trunks arching in the

Goodbye corkscrew hazel; Hello fothergilla

2011-11-16T22:37:00.001-05:00

My corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') in happier times I'm just awaiting the paperwork. Eastern Filbert Blight has again reared its ugly – uckily ugly – head, as predicted and feared when I wrote about it back in March. Now I'm waiting for an envelope from Rutgers University containing the import permit that will let me ship samples to the university for their genetic database.

November Blooms Day in Toronto 2011

2011-11-15T21:59:00.000-05:00

This Blooms Day post will be a quickie. There's not much still happening in the Microgarden this November. When the flowers are past their prime, how grateful we are for bright-coloured foliage: Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' A nursery Chrysanthemum – almost as spherical as the pumpkin beside it. Don't be depressed if your mums never look this full. Growers are expert at manipulating through

Love/Hate: Lily of the Valley

2011-11-14T23:30:00.000-05:00

Oh, sure. They look cute, their nodding white flowers, crimped and curled at the edges, like fairies' cloche hats. In May, they shake those little bells, and perfume fills the air. Plus, they'll grow anywhere, in sun, shade, wet or dry, with minimal attention. What's not to like? Grrrrr. Lily of the valley. Convallaria. Muguet de bois. Don't be deceived by the gentle-sounding names. These are

TTC Garden Tour, Part 1: Victoria Park Station

2011-11-13T23:32:00.001-05:00

Along with the site improvements for Victoria Park Station, an art installation by Aniko Meszaros Garden stories are everywhere, even underground on The Better Way. Victoria Park Station is the first stop in an occasional series I'm calling the TTC Garden Tour. New artwork was part of the plan for the recently improved station infrastructure. Gone are the windy bus barns, and the station

Worth repeating: Black tar spot on maples

2011-11-12T19:25:00.000-05:00

We first posted this back in 2009, but 2011's long, wet spring seems to have been perfect – many of our street trees seem spottier than ever. Here's a repeat of our original post: Black tar spot of maples (Rhytisma acerinum) is one of the few excuses I can accept for sending your leaves off in the yard waste truck. Toronto gardeners have likely noticed this unsightly fungal disease over the past

Flowers for the fallen

2011-11-11T19:25:00.000-05:00

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them." ~ Laurence Binyon, For the Fallen This is an Oriental poppy, Papaver orientalis 'Beauty of Livermere', rather than the Remembrance Day corn poppy, Papaver rhoeas. However, this red is about as close as it comes to

Sweets for the nose in November

2011-11-10T19:29:00.000-05:00

The nose doesn't have much going for it in the month of November. That's why we treasure any little bit of sniff going our way. The smell of fallen leaves is always heady to me, especially sugar maple leaves (Acer saccharum). Then there's the lowly little annual (in my climate) edging plant aptly called sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima). A bank of these little fellas can perfume a whole garden

Battle of the bulb-planting tools

2011-11-09T10:27:00.000-05:00

When you have 350 bulbs to plant – and your soil wears bulletproof armour in the form of impenetrable Norway maple roots – you'll try anything to make your life easier. So when I noticed this inexpensive, ergonomic Y-Grip Trowel on the Botanus website, I wondered how it would stand up to my long-handled bulb planter. I added it to my shopping cart. Is it worthwhile having a specialized tool

Such diversity in two short city blocks

2011-11-08T21:30:00.001-05:00

Shaggy mane fungus, Coprinus comatus Keep your eyes open, and Toronto's diversity is all around you. All it took was a walk to the Toronto Public Library, just two blocks away. Three different species of fungi hailed me as I passed with my camera – and I'm sure that many more were camera shy. I'm not a mycologist, but two of these were fairly distinctive. Thanks to online sources, including

Be a friend to Anemones

2011-11-07T21:02:00.000-05:00

Anemone blanda 'White Splendor' Where would gardeners be without the gigantic Ranunculaceae or buttercup family? Well, we'd be without perennials such as Clematis, delphiniums and hellebores, without annuals such as columbines (Aquilegia) and love-in-a-mist (Nigella). And we'd be without anemones. And, without anemones, we'd miss out on one of the easiest early spring bloomers, Anemone blanda,

Darned good 'Bloodgood' Japanese maple

2011-11-06T23:29:00.000-05:00

Acer palmatum 'Bloodgood' This is when the Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) 'Bloodgood' really starts living up to its name. Today, the sun was lighting up maples like this all over the city. 'Bloodgood' is one of the tougher ones – which it has to be in my dry shade garden. This is its second year, and I'm hoping it'll stick around for many more. Coincidentally, I've just come across this

A living willow fence

2011-11-05T20:20:00.000-04:00

Living willow fence on Laird Drive by The Living Wall There are hedges and there are fences. When the twain meets, it's a living fence, like this one spied on Laird Drive at Commercial Road last spring. A closer look showed the material used as willow wands. Straight, flexible and determined to grow – anywhere – willow is the ideal material for a project like this. The fence secludes a bank

Two less-known bulbs for dry shade

2011-11-04T17:01:00.000-04:00

A carpet of Pushkinia and Chionodoxa at Rosetta McClain Gardens In his chapter on bulbs in Planting the Dry Shade Garden (a review of that will follow), Graham Rice mentions two that for me are tried and true, one that is on my wish list, and one big surprise. The charmer brightening the path above, however, is missing from the list. This post focuses on two of the less-known spring bulbs:

Daisies in November?

2011-11-03T13:55:00.000-04:00

Nipponanthemum nipponicum in mid-October At first I thought this generous mound abloom in a neighbour's garden was a shasta daisy. But, wait. Shasta daisies in October… and, now, November? And what's with that distinctive foliage? The whorled form sort of reminded me of Pacific chrysanthemum. Could it be a mum? Well, I relish an ID challenge. My search revealed these late-season lovelies to

Plant profile: Patrinia scabiosifolia

2011-11-02T10:33:00.000-04:00

Patrinia scabiosifolia in the formal garden of Oldfields, Lilly House, on the grounds of Indianapolis Museum of Art There I was, wandering lonely as a cloud, floating on high o'er vales and hills (on the grounds of the Indy Museum of Art), when all at once, with apologies to Mr. Wordsworth, I saw a crowd of golden... something amazing. And, as I drew closer, said to myself: Ooooooh. That must

Concrete art for the rest of us

2011-11-01T10:29:00.000-04:00

My son's hand at age 12 still waves to me in my garden My first "concrete" art-making experience involved 250 kids, a stack of take-out trays, latex gloves, and a cement truck. My idea was to have each kid make a stepping stone with their hand print and name. We'd use the stones to repave the school's front walk. Brilliant, right? We practiced with my son's Grade 8 class, our assistants for

The Toronto Gardener's Journal, 20th Edition

2011-10-31T17:42:00.000-04:00

A confession: until the 2012 Toronto Gardener's Journal arrived today, I hadn't known the story behind its beautiful cover girl – an iris; each year a different view. Perhaps I've been asleep. Ssomehow I missed both the detail – and its significance. Just as the daffodil has come to represent cancer groups around the world, the iris has for years been the floral symbol for those with

Birgit Piskor, gardener and sculptor

2011-10-28T21:01:00.000-04:00

Victoria sculptor Birgit Piskor Here's the inspiration I promised when I wrote about concrete garden projects last week: works of imagination – all of them carefully crafted of concrete – by Victoria, B.C., sculptor, Birgit Piskor. And here's the bonus. Not only is Piskor a gifted sculptor, she is also a gifted gardener. In July, I enjoyed a guided tour of Birgit's garden through Joan Looy's (

Too busy to garden? Take a lesson from lawns

2011-10-25T20:10:00.000-04:00

The Microgarden, in all its Fall Frowsiness If you have a busy life, you can't afford a busy garden. Take it from M.I.A.-me. My garden this fall is payback for a neglectful summer. The beds that looked charmingly cottage-y back in June could now be used in a dictionary to illustrate the word frowsy. I'm taking a lesson from lawns There's a reason for the lawn's longevity as a garden design

Another rainy day, another century

2011-10-24T09:19:00.002-04:00

Coal wagon stalled on muddy Ashdale Avenue, a photo by Toronto History on Flickr.When you consider this photo, taken just over a century ago, you realize that Toronto isn't much beyond its infancy. This is on Ashdale Avenue, just a few blocks from where my home would be built -- a couple of decades after this shot was taken. The photo can be found on the Flickr Toronto History page, among

Contest alert: Concrete Garden Projects

2011-10-20T17:14:00.000-04:00

Reykjavik's soaring Lutheran Hallgrimskirkja, tallest building in Iceland Icelanders build cathedrals out of concrete. Striking, creative and – most crucially in that seismically excitable area – resilient ones. That's why you shouldn't turn your nose up at this adaptable, inexpensive material when it comes to the garden. I've been itching to make some garden art out of concrete since

Pear Trellis Rust isn't pretty

2011-09-19T14:01:00.000-04:00

The bright red foliage lesions and bumpy fruiting bodies of Pear Trellis Rust My sister-in-law was showing me the garden of their new home, including a number of fruit trees. Unfortunately, the foliage of the two pear trees are covered in red lesions, and the underside shows the clear signs that something is seriously amiss. The problem is Pear Trellis Rust – with info from OMAFRA, and this

Plant profile: Meet the peanut

2011-09-12T09:24:00.000-04:00

Peanuts were in the news this morning*. This interested me, as I recently met peanuts in their growing state for the first time. The situation was an urban garden within spitting distance of downtown Indianapolis, which I'll write about later. Of course most people know that peanuts are not nuts, but legumes, making them cousins of peas and beans. The first photo shows the characteristic

Book Review: Yes, You Can by Daniel Gasteiger

2011-09-08T16:47:00.000-04:00

If you cross-pollinated the computing and home canning worlds, you might not expect the result to be so delicious. Yet, this is what makes Yes, You Can!, Daniel Gasteiger's modern guide to food

Lust List: Seeing Trees (Contest, too)

2011-09-03T14:02:00.000-04:00

This Lust List item isn't a plant (which, for me, is usually a tree) – it's a book. About trees. I've lusted for it ever since seeing the teasers. Last weekend at the Garden Writers Symposium in Indianapolis I held it briefly in my hot little hands, and let me tell you: Seeing Trees from Timber Press is beautiful from cover to cover. The close-up photos by Robert Llewellyn are magical, even in

Guest post: Rick Los, The Butchart Gardens

2011-09-02T23:06:00.000-04:00

Any garden that's a major tourist attraction can't afford to sit on its aster. The Butchart Gardens is no exception. I first visited back in July. An impressive experience, even if you aren't a gardener – the garden's theatrical quality gives it a crossover appeal that is a reason why the Butchart Gardens is the top tourist destination in Victoria, B.C. If you are a gardener, you look at all

After the flowers fade: at the Dunn Gardens, Seattle

2011-08-23T14:07:00.001-04:00

A tapestry of pastels. Arrestingly beautiful. Can a garden work without blooms? Of all the things I could say about Seattle's Dunn Gardens, this question floated to the top as I reviewed my many photographs. What happens after the flowers fade? But, first, the Dunn Gardens deserve an introduction. Originally, they were an early 20th-century family estate with gardens designed by the

Duelling gardens, Seattle, Washington

2011-08-17T11:55:00.001-04:00

Seattle gardeners, Jim and Suzette Birrell (with grand-sprout) The great thing about the private gardens we visited during the 2011 Garden Bloggers' Fling in Seattle, Washington, was that they were all designed and maintained by the homeowners, themselves. It's inspiring to see the work of professional garden designers (which some of the homeowners were), but it's also fascinating to see

Blooms Day in Toronto, August 2011

2011-08-15T13:26:00.000-04:00

Still life, with rain barrel It isn't often that we'd direct you from Toronto Gardens to our Facebook page. In fact, we've never done it before, and might never again. But for this Blooms Day, when nothing very much is happening in the garden, I wanted to have a bit of photographic fun with the iPhone app, Paper Camera. And it's faster to upload photos to Facebook than to create a slideshow

Five things to look for in a garden centre

2011-08-11T10:35:00.001-04:00

At the end of July, I joined about 70 garden bloggers from North America and the UK in Seattle, Washington, for the annual garden blogging extravaganza called the Fling. Over four days, we saw many, many wonderful gardens, which I'll try to share with you over the next while. The day before it began, local blogger Alison Conliffe invited some earlybirds on a sidetrip to Seattle's favourite (I

Grow kiwifruit; yes, even in Toronto

2011-08-07T21:30:00.000-04:00

The grapelike fruit of the hardy kiwi Actinidia arguta 'Ananasnaya' at UBC Botanical Garden, Vancouver If you aren't a fan of the fuzzy skin on kiwifruit, you're in luck. Not only are there smooth-skinned species, but they're hardy in our climate. The one above was photographed in B.C. However, Actinidia arguta is available from at least two Ontario nurseries, and is showing up more frequently

The Black Garden, VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver

2011-08-06T14:42:00.003-04:00

The Black Garden at VanDusen Botanical Garden, Vancouver, B.C. Black plants are trendy at the moment. So I thought the Black Garden might be a good entry point into a post on an amazingly diverse botanical garden such as Vancouver's VanDusen garden. Actually, it's a bit misleading to call this a black garden. First, there are no true black plants in horticulture – although some deep purples

Nitobe Memorial Garden, Vancouver B.C.

2011-08-04T20:29:00.000-04:00

You are about to come with me on vacation for the next few posts. I hope you're up for a little travel. We're going to the West Coast – to Vancouver and Victoria, B.C., and to Seattle, Washington. And we'll be visiting a lot of gardens. Ready? Our first stop is the Nitobe Memorial Garden – a classical Japanese garden that belongs to the UBC Botanical Garden & Centre for Plant Research, on the

Cedar apple rust on my serviceberry

2011-07-21T12:47:00.001-04:00

The dark blue normal fruit of the serviceberry, along with one infected with Cedar apple rust It seems to be an OMG summer. Unusual things are happening after all the rain of spring 2011 – including a problem on my usually problem-free serviceberry (Amelanchier). OMG, what's that? …was my reaction on seeing the intriguing spikes growing out of the berries above. In more than a decade of

Meet the Clavate tortoise beetle

2011-07-18T14:18:00.000-04:00

Clavate tortoise beetle on a chewed potato leaf. Note that teddybear shape on its back. Noticing some pellet holes in my potato leaves, I wondered if we'd been hit by flea beetles. Then I saw what looked like a small fleck of bird droppings on the leaf. When flicked, it moved. That's when I first met what has turned out to be the Clavate tortoise beetle (Plagiometriona clavata – and other

Toronto artists in the garden

2011-07-04T09:47:00.001-04:00

Sculptor, Marilyn Walsh, with her work I've really enjoyed seeing art by local artists showcased on recent garden tours. In one of the gardens, the owner told me that the goal is to match the right piece with the right place. In fact, the placement in the garden sometimes feels so natural, it's only after noticing similar pieces repeated more than once on the tour that it clicks: hey, this is

Pushing the limits of dry shade

2011-06-28T12:05:00.000-04:00

A splash of morning sun helps this dry shade front bed Dry shade can be a gardener's worst nightmare. It's definitely a challenge. I know. I've been a dry shade gardener (on sand…under Norway maples) for 25 years. Many of Toronto's city gardeners are in my dry, shady boat. But like any problem, dry shade can be if not overcome then managed with some research, some experimentation, and some

Ravine Diary: A garden and book by Olev Edur

2011-06-27T16:04:00.000-04:00

Author/gardener Olev Edur and his book, Ravine Diary Sunday lived up to its sunny name for the Beach Garden Tour. As a change from a photo essay, this profile of Olev Edur's ravine garden will be the first in a series on some of the gardens… and gardeners… on this year's Beach tour. Olev Edur's garden tumbles sharply from Kingston Road down into the Glen Davis Ravine. The full title of his

2011 Beaches Garden Tour June 26th

2011-06-25T14:26:00.003-04:00

A hundred years ago, it was cottage country. Today, it’s Toronto’s laid-back Beach neighbourhood, along the lake in the city’s east end. This Sunday, June 26, 17 private gardens in this nature-loving area will be open on the Beach Garden Society’s annual garden tour. From small, intimate spaces to ravine-side surprises, you’ll see some of the best-kept green spaces in town. Flowers, trees, lake

A Laneway Surprise: A Secret Rose Garden

2011-06-24T13:29:00.000-04:00

Roses extend all along the fence. All driveways should be this lucky. Some gardens simply stun you, particularly when they sneak up on you unawares. I stumbled upon this garden gem while walking my dog the other day. Bored with the same old route, I'd taken a back laneway to see where it would lead. I was admiring the numerous vegetable gardens tucked away along driveways, then turned a

Stop and smell the roses

2011-06-19T11:45:00.000-04:00

What a glorious day. It's a gift to every father in Toronto – wrapped up in roses, which are blooming their heads off all over the city. Happy Father's Day, gentlemen! Nature is telling you (and each of us) to stop and smell the roses. Take pleasure in these small moments: the gift of the here and now.

June Blooms Day in Toronto: Matchmaking

2011-06-16T12:28:00.001-04:00

Hosted on every 15th of the month by Carol of May Dreams Gardens, Garden Bloggers Bloom Day is a chance to share what's going on in your garden, month by month, all year through. It's also a chance to look back at your own garden from year to year, to review the changes, positive or not. After 2011's rainy, rainy spring, everything in the Microgarden is lush to overflowing. Once again, the

Oshawa Peony Festival: For peonies envy

2011-06-10T11:03:00.000-04:00

With 300 varieties and cultivars, the Oshawa Botanical Garden is the home of the Peony Festival If you, like Sarah and I, have a bad case of peonies envy, you'll want to know that June 11 & 12 is the kickoff for the Oshawa Peony Festival. Peonies, like poppies, tend to come and go in an instant. (Okay. I'm regretting that first line now.) But judging by the number of fat buds we saw on a

Garden trends from C to C

2011-06-09T18:05:00.000-04:00

The ribboned hats and dappled light here remind me of this Renoir Before our preview of this weekend's Through the Garden Gate (BTW, there are tickets if you hurry), Plant World co-owner Paul Reeves (seen at left) outlined some garden trends, which I thought were interesting. Plant World has been one of Toronto's independent garden centres for six generations, so has seen trends come and go.

Through the Garden Gate 2011: A preview

2011-06-01T10:58:00.000-04:00

A gaggle of writers under the tall trees Sure, you know High Park, Old Mill or The Kingsway. But did you know the Village of Swansea is just around the corner? Swansea? Yes, Swansea – one of Toronto's best-kept secrets. Long-time residents like to keep it that way, says garden writer Sonia Day, who lived there till her move to the country. But you can get in the know, now, by getting your

Doors Open Toronto 2011 at Toronto Botanical Garden

2011-05-30T10:13:00.000-04:00

On Sunday, I spent three wonderful hours looking at a spectacular garden, and talking to people about it. What bliss. Most of these images are cleverly devoid of people... but be assured, the place was hopping. And the rain held off. Hope you enjoy the tour.

Lily leaf beetle season

2011-05-30T08:06:00.001-04:00

Get those squishing fingers on. The lily leaf beetles are back, and they're noshing on your Asiatic and Oriental lilies. In fact, they're making like the two-backed beast, or beetle, to create the next generations of bright red eating machines. Until they earn their red beetle wings, these will be squishy brown blobs of beetle poo with a hungry, hungry larva inside it. (There's one here.) Not a

These onions were made for walking

2011-05-16T22:46:00.003-04:00

Upside down in this pic, these onion set form at the top of the stem There aren't too many do-nothing perennial vegetables, but one of them is the Egyptian walking onion, Allium cepa var. proliferum. That variety name, proliferum, isn't because these onions produce well, although they do. It comes from the botanical term proliferation or prolification, which means that a plant part can sprout

Frugal Tomato Seed Starting

2011-05-14T16:04:00.007-04:00

A tomato plant is indeed a beautiful thing. Don't throw out that coffee cup! Don't even toss it in the blue bin! They make great seed starting pots. Poke a hole in the bottom, fill with soil, and plant a few tomato seeds, or anything you want to start from seed. At planting time I am always looking for extra containers for seed starting and transplanting, and this spring I really did it on the

Two favourite spring ephemerals

2011-05-06T21:32:00.000-04:00

Double bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis forma multiplex AKA S. canadensis 'Flora Pleno') At last, I can put a tick mark on my Lust List: I now have double bloodroot, the fluffier, multipetalled version of the native spring ephemeral, Sanguinaria canadensis. The large-format image was a must here, that's how much in love I am. They look so fetching with a few raindrops on the petals! Sigh.

Alas, my bouquet of tu*ips

2011-05-02T20:15:00.000-04:00

Call me superstitious, but some garden things are best left unsaid. For example, it can be dangerous to look forward to the blooming of t***ps. I dare not speak their name. Because the squirrels who, each spring, unceremoniously snap off the heads of the handful of t***ps in my tiny, tiny garden have been at it again. In fall, we live in terror that squirrels will dig up our newly planted

Independent Garden Centres in Toronto

2011-04-27T12:42:00.002-04:00

Cornus kousa 'Summer Fun' from Reeves last year We've had a lot of hits to our blog recently looking for the now sadly closed Reeves Nursery, which we wrote about when it opened on the Danforth in our east-end neighborhood last spring. Makes me think that we are sorely in need of another independent garden centre in the east end of Toronto, Danforth latitude. While the big box places have good

Mark your calendars: Through the Garden Gate 2011

2011-04-25T13:34:00.000-04:00

No need to choose between your garden voyeur fix and your favourite dad in 2011. For the first time in I don't know how long, Through the Garden Gate, Toronto's biggest garden tour, does not fall on Father's Day. Every year highlights a different part of Toronto, and Swansea Village is this year's destination – it's just west of High Park, of which some of the gardens you'll tour have enviable

Bee, my love, for Earth Day 2011

2011-04-22T17:23:00.002-04:00

Study nesting box for wild solitary bees Something special arrived in our back yard on Earth Day 2011: a nesting box for wild cavity-nesting solitary bees such as mason (Osmia) and leaf-cutter bees (Megachile). It's one of 220 scattered in private and public spaces, including green roofs, around the city, as part of a York University study of Toronto's wild bee population. In fact, though, 15

We need our parks, and Parks People need us

2011-04-20T19:42:00.002-04:00

Historic industrial space becomes an innovative park at the Brick Works Despite the grey skies, a sunshine of ideas bloomed at the Toronto Alliance for Better Parks Summit last Saturday – ideas about the importance of parks to people, and importance of people to our city's parks. Where better to do this than at the Evergreen Brick Works, one of Toronto's most innovative public spaces. We're

Calculator For Seed Starting Indoors & Outdoors

2011-04-09T13:41:00.000-04:00

I always let out a whoop of delight when I see the first seedlings poking their heads up. Spring has sprung! You may be going crazy wondering where to start if you are planning a vegetable garden by growing from seed. Help is at hand. Some vegetable seeds you baby a little by starting indoors, like warmth-loving tomatoes. If ever a plant said, "Please buy me a greenhouse," tomatoes are it.

Book Review: "No Guff Vegetable Gardening"

2011-04-07T11:22:00.000-04:00

Sarah and Helen tag-team for a She Said/She Said review of No Guff Vegetable Gardening by Donna Balzer and Steven Biggs (all illustrations used here are © Mariko McCrae). Sarah: My first impression was, Wow, I love these illustrations! The graphic designer in me really appreciated Mariko McCrae's fun, whimsical drawings. It sets a friendly tone that made me want to dive in right away. The masked

The power of forcing (branches, that is)

2011-03-24T10:35:00.001-04:00

Some early downiness from the downy serviceberry (Amelanchier) branches I'm forcing As winter has thrown an I don't wanna go to bed! tantrum in Toronto, I'm extra glad I decided to trim off a couple of wayward branches from my serviceberry last weekend – and pop them in a vase for early spring bloom. In just a few short days – just enough to blanket the city with snow again – the buds are

Canada Blooms 2011 - Part 2

2011-03-22T00:06:00.000-04:00

A garden gate to swing on, lean on, and peek through. An antique metal garden gate painted red is the image that stayed in my mind after my visit to Canada Blooms. It was the entry to a garden inspired by Sarah Harmer, in one of the Juno Rocks gardens. There was something delightfully homey about this one, with its piles of well-used tools and a garden hose coiled up on the ground. It felt

Canada Blooms 2011: Gardens and garden trends

2011-03-17T21:47:00.000-04:00

A full blast of spring from the Home Depot Backyard Oasis. Orange, naturally. Despite the full-on colour above, this year's Canada Blooms 2011 is not a Big Wow Year. However, it is a year of many Quiet Little Wows, the kind that have you thoughtfully nodding your head. Really, the kind real gardeners like you can use. That makes it worth experiencing, which I hope you will. The huge

Canada Blooms – Daffodils heard around the world

2011-03-16T17:41:00.007-04:00

In Spring, cancer societies in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., Ireland and Canada sell daffodils to raise money for cancer research. But here's something I'll bet you didn't know: It all started here in Canada back in 1957, when a single volunteer for the Canadian Cancer Society had a great idea… that grew. That's the difference one person can make. In Sarah's 2010 wrap-up for Canada

Canada Blooms: 2010 Highs & Lows

2011-03-13T18:23:00.002-04:00

Canada Blooms 2010: Reford Gardens always has an individual, witty display. Some in the online garden community are talking about Garden Show Letdown. I've got to admit that, of late, the magical effect of our annual show, Canada Blooms has waned. I never miss it though, as it's a desperately needed green shot in the arm, and there is always something worth seeing. Below is an overview of

Signs of Spring 2011: There be snowdrops!

2011-03-11T17:27:00.001-05:00

The evidence is in: there's Spring in them thar hills! Or, at least, there are snowdrops (Galanthus nivalis) blooming in the east end of Toronto. These fellas aren't the 60 or so I planted last fall. They're part of the happily multiplying family that has been hardily pushing through snow and leaves for years. One year, as early as January. Most years, though, at around about this time. Next

Warning: Eastern Filbert Blight

2011-03-01T17:27:00.005-05:00

The rather gross-looking cankers of Eastern filbert blight, a fungus that's not a fun-guy! Run out right now and inspect your corkscrew hazel shrub (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') for bumps like these. If you see semi-regular, black cankers along the stems (like I did), your hazel has Eastern filbert blight (Anisogramma anomala). If left to its own devices, this will kill the branch, spread, and

Companion books to get you growing

2011-02-27T16:50:00.000-05:00

Heard of companion planting? It's the concept of putting plants together – ones that attract pollinators, let's say, with fruiting plants that need pollinating. In that spirit, I've just read two books on vegetable growing that make perfect companions. The first is Garden Rant-er Michele Owens' Grow the Good Life: Why a Vegetable Garden Will Make You Happy, Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise. Part

Plants for Atlantic Gardens, and Toronto gardens, too

2011-02-25T10:43:00.001-05:00

Don't be mislead by the title of Plants for Atlantic Gardens, Jodi DeLong's new book from Nimbus Publishing. Atlantic gardeners aren't the only ones who will find this book useful. Sure, east-coasters deal with a harsher range of climates (as cold as Zone 0!) than we do in our part of the Golden Horseshoe (Zone 5-6). They're more likely to enjoy the protection of deep winter snow cover than we

Trouble on the urban homestead: Is Canada safe?

2011-02-21T16:52:00.000-05:00

A battle is waging in the green community south of the border. It isn't about chemical versus organic or genetically modified versus heirloom. It's about words, and who has the right to use them. The words are urban homestead and urban homesteading – commonly applied to the growing movement (no pun) that covers front-yard veggies or back-yard chickens. As phrases, they've been seen in

Blooms Day: In February, make something from nothing

2011-02-15T11:05:00.000-05:00

Not very promising for Blooms Day, eh? But don't go away. You might be surprised by how this story ends. Yesterday's wind did a good job trimming branches from the trees, including these whips from a weeping willow. I wish I'd found more. Because, with their flexibility and buttery colour, weeping willow whips make excellent material for flower arrangements. And they're free! Gather as many as

Adventures in winter seeding

2011-02-13T22:14:00.000-05:00

You're looking at a greenhouse. No, actually, you're looking at many teeny tiny greenhouses. Or, they will be, once we get through with them. My Number One Dot and I have embarked on an adventure in winter seed starting, inspired and informed by the Garden Faerie blogger Monica Milla and Montreal garden blogger Dirt Gently. Links to them in a minute. I normally have two problems with seed

Take that, winter! A foretaste of spring

2011-02-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

Just to remind you that spring will be springing soon... because we're just fed up with winter. These photos were captured on Mother's Day 2010 at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington Drink in all that voluptuous colour. Don't worry about the species or cultivar now. Although the dark purple Tulipa 'Queen of the Night' does look lovely with her pink ladies-in-waiting. These

The Aptly Named Hell Strip

2011-02-03T08:43:00.000-05:00

I'd been gardening on it for almost 10 years before I knew these garden spaces actually had a name: The Hell Strip. And suddenly all my challenges made sense. Yep, I've been trying to garden on a little strip o' hell. For those of you unacquainted with the "hell strip" it's a long garden space bordered on both sides by either a road or a concrete walkway. Some are obviously hell-like, in full

Speaking of precipitation: Cheap rain barrels

2011-02-02T16:17:00.001-05:00

And by "cheap," I mean "a really, really good bargain." The Toronto Master Gardeners has teamed with the Toronto Botanical Garden to sell these rain barrels with a neat history. They're former food product containers that once travelled the world holding things like olive oil. Now, thanks to a Canadian company, they're fully rigged up with all the fittings to serve a new life harvesting

Native plants: Prepare to do some thinking

2011-01-31T12:30:00.001-05:00

Ontario's native floral symbol Trillium grandiflorum – can you be sure it was responsibly propagated? Is choosing native plants always the right thing to do for the planet? Simple answer, right? Well, after a couple of recent encounters, I'm surprised. The simple answer turns out to be more than a little complex. When are native plants NOT the answer? was the title of the January 2011 Edwards

Go with the snow. It's a good thing.

2011-01-26T11:34:00.000-05:00

The view is clear when you can see a tree silhouetted in its underwear. Let's let go of our moaning. Snow in January is a good friend to the Toronto gardener. First, it's precipitation; a long, cool drink for the garden. It's an insulating blanket of snow for our tender plants, especially when the temps dip below normal, as they have in January 2011. But snow also offers a distraction-free

Where do creative ideas come from?

2011-01-19T21:52:00.000-05:00

Last March in the Dominican Republic, I watched a craftsman build a palapa or tiki hut from wood and palms. I recorded the process in pictures and have wanted to share it ever since. But how is the construction of a tropical palapa relevant to a Toronto audience? Especially a wintry Toronto audience. That was my stumbling block. Till now. The other day, on Inhabitat.com, I read this story about

Blooms Day, January 2011 in Toronto

2011-01-15T13:39:00.000-05:00

Hip-hip-hip hooray for Hippeastrum (aka Amaryllis) 'Evergreen' Other than snow flowers decking the branches, there's not much blooming outdoors this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in our frosty neck of the woods. Indoors, the leaves of the over-wintering pelargoniums are hanging in, and the pale greeny-white blooms of Sarah's new Amaryllis/Hippeastrum 'Evergreen' make a fabulous picture in her

Worth Repeating: Top 10 reasons to join your local hort society

2011-01-06T12:11:00.000-05:00

We published this in its original form back in April 2009. But with January starting the season for many garden societies, it's worth saying again: Ten reasons why it simply makes sense for any gardener (or would-be gardener) to belong to a local garden society: 1. Inside dirt on what will work in your garden. Your local garden society isn't only for experts. But they are there, and they like

2010 leaves... for the last day of the year

2010-12-31T22:26:00.000-05:00

As 2010 leaves us, we hope you'll enjoy this little slideshow of some of the memorable leaves from the year behind. It doesn't always have to be about the flowers... although a few did sneak in here and there. We hope that 2010 leaves you with fond memories, and that 2011 brings you health, happiness and the best of your best wishes. Happy New Year from those Battersby girls at Toronto

Garden colour: Cooling down the reds, Part 2

2010-12-12T13:53:00.002-05:00

Naughty Berberis 'Rose Glow' in its brazen autumn garb, with a leaf in just the right place While there's no denying its scarlet beauty in fall, purple Berberis thunbergii or Japanese barberry is a shrub I can't in conscience recommend due to the tendency of barberries to install themselves, uninvited, in wild spaces. Darn it. However, this post is about colour, not conscience. And the issue I

Garden colour: Cooling down the reds, Part 1

2010-12-11T18:29:00.002-05:00

Papaver orientalis 'Beauty of Livermere' is an astonishingly red red*. Our grey-day colour series continues with red. A craving for red seems to be programmed into our red-blooded DNA, especially at this time of year. And this red is pure Santa-suit, Rudolph's-nose, holly-berry red – the red that seems even redder when paired with its complement green. So, given the almost-winter chill, why