Canadian House & Home – Groundbreakers Profile

– From: Canadian House & Home (May 2006 – Green Issue) “Ripe with tips and anecdotes geared towards the urban gardener, the book is an offshoot of her flourishing website yougrowgirl.com, where a growing community of gardeners share inspiration and advice.”

Plant Sales – Mark Your Calendars

I hate to be so Toronto-centric but there are a number of local and very good plant sales coming up that ya’ll should know about. They’re more bang for your buck, the experience is fun, and often times the haul is of better quality than your typical garden super centre. FoodShare’s Plant Sale When: Saturday,

The Lee Valley Lure

The one-stop crack distribution depo of the Canadian gardening world recently opened a store in downtown Toronto, and… ummm… I have been there twice in two days. I want to state for the record that prior to this I have never purchased a Lee Valley product, somehow managing to walk past the booths at garden

Der Blumenladen

How ingenious is this: a flower shop where rather than buying cut flowers, you buy photos of plant bits that are then constructed into 3-Dimensional arrangements. Wolf Klein’s Der Blumenladen (The Flower Shop) is part old-school flower shop, part mad take-out menu, and part wacky flip book with a splash of conceptual art (at least

Earth Day: Toronto

Come out to Earth Day Spring Festival events this weekend at Budapest Park here in Toronto! When: Sat, April 22. 2006. 10:30 am – 4 pm Where: Budapest Park (on the waterfront at the bottome of Roncessvalles Ave., just east of Sunnyside Park and west of the Palais Royale.) Stop by the You Grow Girl

Paper Houseplants

As if gardening with living plants isn’t enough to keep me occupied, I’ve recently become obsessed with plants crafted from paper. Download and construct your own garden of indoor houseplants, from the Epson Hong Kong site. Patterns include ivy, lucky bamboo, saguaro cactus, and a cute barrel cactus.

Phase 1 Complete

Phase 1 of “Project Deck Garden 2006” was enacted yesterday afternoon. It was inspired by a sunny day and a headache that wouldn’t quit, which not surprisingly, was abated after a few hours in the fresh air. I won’t bore you with the details as Phase 1 involves large helpings of gardening’s lesser joys; clean-up,

Pop Bottle Pots

So they’re not very stylin’, but these self-watering planters made from junked pop bottles are pretty handy for the well-intentioned but forgetful gardener. The bottom watering system keeps cuttings and seedlings on the right side of moist without the discipline (and hassle) of routine dampness patrol. There’s more talk and experimentation with this concept in

Chicago Apartment Therapy

– From Chicago Apartment Therapy (April 2006.) “Speaking of Spring, You Grow Girl is an amazing website that will inspire both the novice and experienced gardener (and no, you don’t have to be a girl). Our friend Roni turned us on to You Grow Girl a couple of weeks ago, and we have been daydreaming

Getting My Seeds Started, Right

This year will go down in history as the year I not only started seeds on time, organized all seeds by category (direct sow, indoor starts, and never-going-to-grow-it-so-trade-it-already), AND managed to draw up some kind of “plan” beyond casual (and quickly forgetten) mental lists. I rule. For now. We’ll see what happens when transplant buying

Keeping Kitty Off the Goods

My 12 year old cat Voltron is a determined plant nibbler – in fact most cats have a natural curiosity about their surroundings and tend to enjoy a little taste of fresh greenery now and again. Unfortunately many common houseplants are toxic so it is worth familiarizing yourself with both your plants and your cat’s

There’s Some Livin’ Going On

We’ve been experiencing unseasonably warm temperatures here in Toronto which have pushed me to get out and do some early-season garden work. I can’t recall being this eager to get gardening but I suspect that I am always this excited, it’s just the lapse of time between fall and spring that has me convinced my