This is the navel-gazing section where I ponder gardening beyond the how-to and sometimes go off-topic entirely.
Can you believe You Grow Girl is eight years old? Neither can I. Sometimes it feels like all of this has passed in a blink of an eye. Eight years is a small child in grade three. When I look at it that way it pretty much blows my mind. Of course I would be …
I didn’t buy much in Vancouver — I’m not really a shopper but am more of a walker and picture-taker. In fact everything I acquired in Vancouver was collected within a single block. Upon arriving in the neighbourhood of my scheduled two-hour coffee I happened upon a thrift store that I could not pass by …
Unfortunately when it comes to Mr. Michael Pollan I can not seem to get past an unfortunate and debilitating case of “teenage fan girl ridiculousness” (squeal!) to write about his work with a modicum of professionalism. If you haven’t heard of his writings and work already I would highly suggest running out and getting a …
Let’s turn the clock back for a moment to late August 2007. Toronto was experiencing the “worst drought in 50 years” accompanied by a drowning humidity. How an intense lack of water AND a drowning humidity can coexist is beyond me. I’m sure there is a meteorologist out there who can explain it. All I …
So I was gonna hold off on this one until it hit new stands but it looks like Organic Gardening Magazine let the cat out of the bag early and has published an article I wrote for the Feb 2008 issue (“Grow Where You Are Planted”) on their website. I really enjoyed writing this article. …
I received the following update on the Scotts Miracle-Gro versus TerraCycle lawsuit from Scotts over a week ago but was a little freaked that the Scotts PR team would be so eager to get the facts of the settlement out into the world as soon as the verdict came through. Regardless, I figure I may …
In a recent New York Magazine feature entitled “My Empire of Dirt“, writer Manny Howard takes on the arduous task of growing a farm, complete with flora and fauna in his Brooklyn backyard to explore just what is involved in trying to feed himself locally for one month. The results are a humorous and slightly …
Let’s all agree right now to stop pretending to hate cosmos (Cosmos bipinnatus) and (Cosmos sulphureus). Let’s agree to stop telling ourselves we are too good for it. Or that it’s too easy. Let’s agree to admit right here, right now that we think it’s a pretty flower. Let’s stop telling ourselves it doesn’t have …
Yesterday afternoon, while working on the garden, a woman stopped to chat and mentioned that she had seen my sad and pathetic sign (my words, not hers) and knew who had destroyed the day lilies. It was the dudes who change the advertising on the large billboard that hangs on the wall over the garden! …
A friend pointed me to this opinion piece in the New York Times that looks at the Eat Local concept as a way to mark environmental impact in food production. The article describes a New Zealand study that challenges the assumption that distance traveled automatically means higher fossil fuel consumption. The study doesn’t undermine the …
I really need to make a sign like this for my street garden. Except mine would include an assortment of choice words and threats… all the things I want to say to the various offenders but can’t because I never catch them in the act. Threats such as, “If I ever catch you urinating in …
“I don’t promote myself as an authority. I’m a person who really, really loves to garden. I know a thing or two but there is a ton I don’t know and will probably never know. I make mistakes. I experiment like crazy. I don’t have all of the answers, I don’t believe in that “right” …