This is the navel-gazing section where I ponder gardening beyond the how-to and sometimes go off-topic entirely.
This is how it started (sort-of): Three years ago I found Tobacco Hornworms making a meal of some of my tomato plants. I was fascinated and repulsed. I grabbed my camera and took a few pictures, and then, like a good gardener, I immediately killed them. It wasn’t long before I regretted that action. I’ve …
Many years ago, not long after gardening came to me* and stuck, I read a statistic that said something to the effect that just looking at a plant lowers our heart rate. This was so long ago now that I no longer recall the exact phrasing, nor where I read it, or why. Regardless, it …
We call them ditch lilies here, a disparaging double entendre that eludes to their place in the proper garden plant hierarchy as well as their preferred wild landscape. It came into my garden uninvited, an opportunist that hitched a ride in some little pot of earth alongside another plant, probably something gifted or bought at …
Year Start to End Despite a very long and cold winter that had many of us bemoaning life in the northeast, the first six months weren’t so bad. In February I celebrated 15 years publishing this website. It still shocks me to think that so much time has passed. I organized my massive seed collection …
Six years ago today, Davin and I embarked on a month-long trip that took us to 3 Caribbean islands. This trip was a really big deal for me as my maternal side is from the Caribbean, and until then I had never been, save a few weeklong trips to Cuba. At that time I had …
Approximately five months ago, I wrote this piece about the manic, messy, madness of the springtime garden. As I said at the time, every spring is like that, and given a choice, I would have it no other way. Winter stretches here in Toronto, and sometimes it is longer, colder, and more deprived of greenery …
[Just a heads up that I write a bit about death in this one and if that is too morose for you right now then I’d suggest skipping this one.] The other day I looked down on the 6 or 7 trays of transplants that are scattered around the holding area near the back door …
This week I started reading, The Lost Language of Plants by Stephen Harrod Buhner. My approach to this book has been non-linear, picking and choosing the parts that catch my eye. I often read in this way — even novels, which are generally meant to be read from front to back. Eventually, I do often …
The Guardian in the UK have recently started up a new topical gardening podcast series with hosts Alys Fowler and Jane Perrone called, “Sow, Grow, Repeat.” Last week I was a guest on their second episode on the topic of Gardening Without a Garden. Until recently, I did not have a “proper” space in which …
Welcome back. I hope you had a great holiday and were able to get in a solid break. Mine was very good, exceptional really. I tackled items on my to-do list, saw friends, cooked a few nice meals, read books, visited museums (The Textile Museum of Canada is amazing), laid about on the couch with …
Summer is almost over. Or maybe it’s just begun. Temperatures are expected to go back down again. Or was that back up? Who can tell anymore. Every year in the garden is new and different, even if just because of the weather. This is why I can never wrap my head around the old timers …