Each Autumn, big, beautiful Amaryllis bulbs show up in stores alongside spring blooming bulbs. And every year I hesitate, full of guilt about the indulgence at a time when I have so many houseplants to shift indoors for the winter. However, once the snow is settled over the garden and the world has lost its …
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 …
This morning I walked into the kitchen to make my tea, as I do at the start of every morning. The kitchen is a mess. If I’m being honest it is always a mess, but right now the disaster has taken the form of camera gear, photo props, 300 pounds of pumpkin, and a few …
Have you heard about this? According to an article I read this morning in The Atlantic, linguists are recognizing the word “because” as a preposition, or what they are calling the “because-noun.” I generally try to steer clear of Internet-inspired turns of phrase, because, annoying and overdone. I like the hint of irony behind this …
All of our gardening tees are 15% off until November 24, 2013 when you use the coupon code: WITHLOVE at checkout. Click here to see the list of designs we are currently selling. p.s. This is the first and last time I will post a selfie to the site. Promise.
Herbal bundles are tightly bound rolls of dried woody, resinous herbs, that are slowly burned as a way to purify and cleanse the air. The roots of burning an herbal bundle, or smudging, is in indigenous purification rites and ceremony that span the world globally. It is not a homogeneous practice, and since I am …
Since moving to a house with a basement three years ago, I have been experimenting with hanging whole tomato vines before the frost to ripen indoors. I’ve tried this technique in varying conditions: in a cold, dark basement; in the darker corners of an unheated porch; right up in the windows of the same south-facing …
It’s that time of year. Let’s do this! Yee Olde Merry Basket of Preserves: A basket or box (tip: I look for good quality ones at thrift stores throughout the year), some tissue paper, a few jars of dried herbs and fruit, pickles, jam, ketchup, etc and you’ve got yourself a gift that anyone who …
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) …
Yesterday afternoon 20 gorgeous, and very large pumpkins/winter squash arrived on my doorstep courtesy of my friend Uli. She had gone out of her way to purchase many of them from a local farmer to use as Halloween decor, and a few others were given to her for free. Knowing that they would only rot …
Colourful fall leaves collected from the 7 small Japanese maple trees I am growing in my garden. The colder days and nights of fall have really brought the city’s Japanese maples (Acer) trees into full form. Lately, as I walk through Toronto neighbourhoods, I am blown away again and again by the vibrant reds, oranges, …
It may come as no surprise that in addition to plants, I also collect things that are connected to the world of plants and horticulture in some way: old books in the categories of gardening, botany, or nature; prints that feature images of plants, birds, insects, and other things of a scientific nature; old gardening …