I’ll be the first to admit that my banter this winter is grating and repetitive, a broken record stuck on a particularly whoa woe is me whine. “This winter is brutal. It’s too cold. It’s too dark! Waaa!” While I don’t believe in the notion that you can magically make everything better by begging the …
Maybe it’s just me being a big baby, but it feels as if this winter has been especially cruel. Ice storms, weeks of darkness, power outages, damaged trees, and “extreme cold” are just some of the events of the season. The days locked inside have jump-started fantasies about the coming growing season. What am I …
Last week, I lay flat on the examination table wearing nothing but a thin hospital gown while my doctor went through the routine of a physical, poking and prodding, checking for any unusual growth. I’ll spare you the details, but we all know what this entails. It’s uncomfortable and nobody enjoys it, but it’s one …
The last prompt was tough, so I thought I’d switch to something lighter, although perhaps not easier. Plant descriptions are essential to writing about gardening. A good description functions like a story, drawing the reader in to want to find out more and maybe even try the plant in their own garden. It’s easy to …
I am currently participating in National Novel Writing Month. While the goal is to write a 50,000 word novel within the month of November, I do not expect that I will write that many words, nor do I intend to write a novel. Instead, my personal goal is to create a habit around personal, fiction(ish) …
I’ve been writing about gardening regularly on this website for nearly fourteen years. Naturally, there are days when I sit down to write and my mind draws a blank. I keep stacks of ideas and notes next to my desk, but there are times when I am not in the mood to tackle any of …
I just spent the holiday weekend purging books, magazines, and a bit of this and that from my living and work spaces. Since it was Thanksgiving here in Canada, we called it Purgegiving. Getting rid of books is difficult, but letting go of plants can be even more difficult. We humans can form attachments to …
I’m beginning to see the end*. Gaps are appearing where summer annuals have been yanked. Seed heads are quickly replacing flowers and colour in the garden comes more from the green leaves that are shifting towards yellows, reds, and browns. The world is in transition. I’ve been thinking about this lately. The way I focus …
And just like that we’ve gone from summer to fall. I could see the changes coming: the bean plants turning yellow and then brown; then, of course, that first colourful fallen leaf on the sidewalk. Despite these subtle signs, this year fall came suddenly, almost painfully. For that reason I thought it would be good …
It’s the height of the harvest season, and while I know not all of you are into growing food, it’s practically impossible to be a gardener without growing at least one edible plant: a special variety of mint because nothing else will do in a mojito; hot peppers because their diversity fascinates you (this is …
We all have one plant (or a few) that we do not understand. For me it was radish. In my first few years as a rooftop gardener, every radish crop I tried to grow came out wooden, under-sized, and pathetic. Radishes are easy to grow (given the right conditions) and I eventually figured out what …
I’ve been saving this prompt idea for a time when we could all use something a bit silly and dumb and with this hot muggy weather and the early July holidays behind us, I think the time is now. This idea came to me when my dog Molly was outside chasing the squirrels that invade …