Just the other day I wrote about the hit my garden took this year as a result of an unusually harsh winter. As spring progressed, I watched a number of particularly beaten plants closely for signs of life or recovery. As April turned to May and the time for recovery was well passed its due …
The time has come for me to accept the losses suffered as a result of a peculiarly difficult winter and move on. I’ve known for months that some of these plants were not going to pull through. It is May now, and well past the time when many of them begin to wake up from …
This podcast was a longtime in the making. I’m a visually-oriented person; sound is not my forte. It took quite some doing (and a lot of help and encouragement from Davin), but after a seemingly endless stream of hurdles I am pleased to finally launch my new podcast, What’cha Growing?. Since this is the inaugural …
Violets (Viola odorata) and (V. sororia) are a spring flowering plant that really don’t get their due. In the midst of so many flashy, bold, spring blooms, they’re nearly forgettable. Violets are a “weed.” They pop up in lawns, aggressively claiming space pretty much wherever they want. They’re seen as “common,” and the generally held …
This past winter was a particularly cold and difficult one. I lost a number of plants and there are several others that have come out of dormancy looking shaken and forlorn. It’s frustrating, but I’m also trying to see the positive in this. Holes in the garden offer the opportunity to try something new or …
I’m a week behind in posting a writing prompt. I came down with some sort of plague that knocked me flat out cold and it seems to have overlapped with the onset of spring seasonal allergies. Through even the worst days when I could barely get up and get dressed, I thought about the garden …
Next Saturday I’ll be giving a presentation at Plant World in Etobicoke, Ontario (in the suburbs of Toronto) on the topic of Growing Beautiful and Edible Herbs and Edible Flowers in Small Spaces (description below). The store will have copies of my first three books available for sale, including You Grow Girl, Grow Great Grub, …
Chalkboard illustration by Davin Risk. There’s a double meaning to this title and if you’re over 21 I suspect that you know exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve got aches and pains all over. I took advantage of the great weather this weekend to cross several items off of my April garden to-do list. I …
My gluttonous seed-hoarding habits seem to be behind me now, or have at least calmed for a spell. This year I have abstained from impulse buys from swollen turnstile racks and I only placed one mail order this season. Of course, I say this having bought 40 packets of seed in Tucson, Arizona last June. …
I like salvias. I like any and all salvias; from the delicious, culinary sages to the nectar-rich, super smellerific and sticky sweet types that aren’t hardy in my region. I even like the ones that aren’t edible or aromatic. I’m not sure what it is about this genus. Is it their drought tolerance? Their snapdragon-like …
Over the years, I have met all sorts of people as a result of my personal and professional interest in gardening. Some of these experiences have been thrilling and joyful; others were colorful, frightening, a bit odd, or downright nuts. Some of the strangest conversations took place as I tended my former “Guerilla garden” on …
I usually avoid republishing images that were recently posted to one of my social media accounts, but when you consider how hard won this spring feels and the fact that this little flower was trapped underneath a deep lake of ice less than a week ago… I think it begs repeating here. And now, we …