“Anyone anywhere can have a garden…” Sound familiar? I was shocked when I heard the first line spoken by Carol Bowlby in this National Film Board of Canada film on urban gardening from 1984. Separated by birth and about thirty years, she and I. Watching the film was like watching myself go through my own …
Hello Friends, This isn’t the sort of thing I normally post, or would make public so early in the process, but I need some help so here it goes… I am working with a team to create a new television program (I am the host) and we need to shoot some footage. Unfortunately, it is …
Do you become absolutely insufferable through the last dregs of winter? Do you cry, bitch, and moan that spring will never come and you will not make it out alive, not this time? Well then you and I are in the same boat my friend, and this post is for you. Last April I spoke …
To the average person it’s just a gigantic, oversized nail, or a weapon of intimidation (who needs to carry a can of mace when you’ve got this up your sleeve, am I right?), but to me this is the perfect tool for making drainage holes in things that were not manufactured to function as plant …
Narcissus cantabricus in my friend Barry’s greenhouse last month. Here’s what was blooming in his greenhouse last year around this time.
Photo of me in my community garden taken by Davin Risk. Spigarello aka Spigariello is an old Italian heirloom leafy green that I grew last year. Some refer to it as broccoli rabe and others call it “leaf broccoli.” Both descriptions are apt. I’d put it somewhere between kale and broccoli. The plant grows just …
It’s that time of year, again. Seedy Saturday and Sunday events have begun across Canada in anticipation of the gardening season. In case you missed it, the Toronto event (this Sunday!) is earlier this year, and they’ve broken it up into three locations across the Greater Toronto Area in an attempt to manage crowds. Check …
At about 2 weeks old. I’m not sure if they are developing colour due to age or the lighting. They were much greener shortly after germination.
When we moved, I abandoned the cobbled together grow light setup I had been struggling with for years in favour of beginning again with a much improved, bigger and badder system. In the old place I had to stuff the grow light shelving system into a corner nook of my office. Consequently, it couldn’t be …
Two of my oxalis plants are blooming and at least one more has buds that are on the way. First up is Oxalis obtusa ‘Buttercup’. Here’s a photo of the plant, back in November when it was still in the process of emerging from dormancy. I used to keep the oxalis in my unheated porch, …
UPDATE: The winner is commenter #116: Kaitlin. Seed starting season is in the air and I must say that even though it is early days yet, having a handful of pots on the go gives me something new to look forward to everyday and brings the gardening season that much closer as we slog through …
I’ve had my new lighting setup in place for a while now, and last week I finally got around to sowing the lithops seeds I purchased almost a year ago. Here they are this morning, a few days after they first started to emerge from the soil. Based on the size of the vermiculite, you …