Throwback Thursday – Side Garden

Less than a month of ‘official’ winter left this year, but at least two months until my garden starts to really wake up. Today’s pictures were taken last April 19; the photo above is a close up of Muscari latifolium – broad-leaved grape Hyacinth – which have naturalized really nicely in what I call the […]

Dream a Little Dream

One of my favourite gardening activities isn’t actually an activity – it’s just standing (or squatting or sitting) in the midst of it all, day-dreaming about what it will look like next year. Or three years from now. I enjoy this (non) activity so much that when a neighbour had a large spruce cut down […]

tiny tiny tomatoes….

I was amazed this year when three volunteer tomato seedlings quickly took over a pretty big micro garden.  Last year this area was home to large artichoke plants.  This year I changed it up and planted Canna lilies, a hardy Hibiscus, rhubarb, a few asparagus roots and a row of purple beans in front. Then […]

In Praise of a Not Very Spectacular Native Shrub

Snowberry.  Doesn’t the name conjures up images of large, juicy, creamy berries produced after pollinators have spent the summer happily buzzing amongst fluttery, multi-petaled white flowers? Then you add the botanical name, Symphoricarpos albus, and reality sets in.  Latin can really be a buzzkill sometimes. For me, the Snowberry is a memory pant — a […]

Creating a Garden in the Urban Jungle

On a busy street just east of the Don Valley near downtown Toronto there’s a tiny micro garden planted at the base of a 24/7 gas station sign.  I saw a man there once in early spring, hovering over the space as if he was weeding or planting but generally it’s unattended most of if […]