Living Room Plants

In late October, once most of the houseplants had been moved back indoors for the winter, I posted a series of photos to my social media accounts documenting the main spaces in my home where plants are kept. I thought I’d post them here with some explanatory text. As I have written before, my living

Recently in My Garden – Spring Videos

Garden season is underway and a sudden burst in activity has prompted a frenzy of posts to my social media accounts. I’ve made several quick minute-long videos and thought I’d share some of them with you here. The first set of videos were shot impromptu from my kitchen counter and are quick little snapshots highlighting

You Grow Girl Garden 2017

Time-lapse of My Garden: 2017

Both Davin and I regularly document the garden’s progress throughout the year with quick and easy cellphone shots taken from specific vantage points. We’ve been doing this since year one in this house and we both post these updates to our respective social media accounts (links below). He takes photos from the kitchen window at

Interview with Back to Our Roots Urban Farm

For the second year in a row I have been working with Fiskars Project Orange Thumb® as a member of their editorial board. Project Orange Thumb® gives a financial lending hand to educational, therapeutic, and community gardens in the US and Canada, and this year 30 gardens were each awarded $3,500 in cash and tools.

Gayla Trail in her garden

The Gardener Turns 43

Davin took this photo of me standing in the garden the other day, on the occasion of my 43rd birthday. It was drizzling at the time, but I was elated. It has been unbearably dry and hot here in Toronto for some time. I have never appreciated rain more than I have this summer. In

A Timelapse of My Garden: 2015

Here it is, the seasons of my garden for the calendar year 2015. If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, I regularly post overhead shots of the garden taken from an upstairs window. Well, my spouse Davin Risk records the garden from a different vantage point via the kitchen window nearly every day and

Peterborough Community Garden

The Peterborough Community Garden Network’s Urban Grain Seed Project

Way back in the depths of deepest winter I accepted a position with Fiskars Project Orange Thumb® as a member of the editorial board. Project Orange Thumb gives a financial lending hand to community gardens in the US and Canada and this year 30 gardens were slotted to each receive $3,500 in cash and tools.

Recently in My Garden

As mentioned in my last post, we’ve hit that time of the spring when the garden is coming alive faster than I can keep up with. There’s lots to do, and my enthusiasm after a long winter matches my to-do list. I’ve already suffered from a bad case of “can’t stop gardening even though I

Whatcha Growin? episode 10

What’cha Growin? Podcast Episode #10 David Leeman

My friend David Leeman is an adventurous gardener whose experiences span a widely divergent range of growing conditions. During Toronto’s growing season he works non-stop as a professional gardener, tending to and restoring gardens for clients. When not working on other people’s gardens, David experiments in growing trees seedlings and has been growing his own

Whatcha Growin Alys Fowler

What’cha Growin? Podcast Episode #7 Alys Fowler +Giveaway

“…increasingly I am finding it very hard to justify that sort of tidy up, very designed garden over the fact that it’s an ecosystem and I care much more about the insects and the other animals, birds, than I care about my own aesthetic being.” This week we take a trip across the pond (as

What’cha Growin? Podcast Episode #6 Delia Snyder

“Everybody right now who is gardening (and who lives long enough), will eventually be a disabled gardener, it’s just that some of us encounter disability earlier than others do.” Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the physicality of gardening. When I was younger I was well aware of the financial, time, and space limitations

Gayla Garden June 10 2014

Recently in My Garden (mid-June)

We’re well into that part of the season when there is more going on in the garden than I can document. I could do one of these posts daily! This is the garden’s fourth year — a proper walk-through tour is sorely overdue. Unfortunately, I have a tendency to put off proper photos, telling myself