About two months before our Caribbean trip, I posted here on You Grow Girl reaching out to anyone who could help connect me with other gardeners living on the islands I would be visiting. This is how I met Celia. We exchanged emails before the trip and then met up in Dominica. It was all …
Like caladium, anthurium are a tropical I never could get into. I have a penchant for freakish, alien plants, but there is something about their waxy, fake phalus-like appearance that bugs me. They just seem so Hollywood — the plastic surgery disasters of the plant world. Last year’s trip to Dominica changed that. There, for …
This started out as a general gardener’s gift guide; however, I found lots of great handmade items on Etsy and decided to keep going. Walnut Garden Dibble $18.00: I think I like this dibble more than my well-worn favorite. It’s made of a beautiful, salvaged dark wood and the price is very fair for handmade. …
UPDATE (December 4): Wow!!! We’ve exceeded the goal in just a few days. The original goal was an arbitrary number and does not reflect House of Hope’s actual need. I simply chose a number that I felt was reachable. Turns out I underestimated you! While we’ve exceeded the initial target number, the drive will continue …
Yesterday afternoon I was offered some bulbs for free, but I had to pass. I had a deadline for my next book to-be today, and I have a much bigger one in two weeks. When would I have time to plant bulbs? Never-mind the fact that it is already December and the top crust of …
Earlier this year I contemplated trying some unusual amaryllis (Hippeastrum) varieties including
My final Globe and Mail article for the 2010 growing season was on growing and eating cardoon. Cardoon is lesser-known relative of the artichoke that is considered a delicacy in Mediterranean cuisine. Like artichokes it grows into a stately and somewhat dangerous thistle-like plant, but unlike artichokes you eat the stems, not the flower buds. …
I like the droopy, thin leaves.
One of the unforeseen negatives we inherited with the new house is a Legion of Cats who have taken up residence in the yard. They’re not strays, just neighbourhood cats that have decided that since no one else was using it, the’d make the yard their playground. And so they’ve made themselves very comfortable back …
This little rosemary is ‘Blue Boy’ a compact variety that grows into interesting no-work bonsai shapes in a pot. I originally purchased several of these as table decoration and parting gifts for people who attended the Grow Great Grub book launch party back in February. I even took one home myself. And then I lost …
Once again my attempt at Wordless Wednesdays is a complete failure. As I was prepping this image, I realized I could not post it without saying something about these fascinating flowers. Begonia plants have male and female flowers that carry the reproductive organs on individual flowers. This flower is the female, aka pistillate flower. The …
One of my paying gigs is writing (and some photography) for a new gardening magazine called Garden Making. This last week, the magazine celebrated a year in publication with four issues in print. That is no small feat for a specialized print magazine, on the topic of gardening (in Canada, no less), in the age …