General growing and maintenance guidelines. Your plants and how to care for them…
I recently discovered that what I have been identifying as ‘Deadly Nightshade’ since childhood is actually ‘Bittersweet Nightshade’ or ‘Woody Nightshade’ (Solanum dulcamara). I can see where the mistake could be made in terms of similarities in their foliage but both the flowers and berries are completely different. Deadly Nightshade’s Latin name is Atropa belladonna. …
I’ll be traveling to Hamilton, Ontario this Sunday to do a book signing and give two presentations at the Royal Botanical Gardens. Giving gardening presentations and workshops has become a regular part of my spring schedule yet it is something I rarely seem to talk about here. What’s worse is that I have been noticing …
So. Ummmm. Who’s a little freaked out by this crazy weather? They say Canada is totally backwards especially for an El Nino year with the west coast all wet and wild and the east unseasonably warm and snow-less. I’ve heard that things are also a bit nutty in parts of the U.S and my Northern …
I posted back in October about my new-found culinary interest in dandelion greens and a few of you have been writing to ask where I got the seeds. In my case the dandelions have been coming up all on their own in my community garden. If you’ve got the short-leaved variety and you’re looking for …
I don’t think I’ve ever done a “Best of” gardening list* but it seems about time to get started. I have done a “Things Killed” list but this year I’m going to accentuate the positive. Picking favourites is difficult for someone like me who tends to favour several things at once. Be warned that what’s …
I bought this Hibiscus rosea plant back in May at the Parkdale Horticultural Society Annual Plant Sale. At the time the plant was a wee cutting but just today it opened its first bloom with two buds on the way. I generally dislike the over-bearing tackiness and waxy leaves of tropical hibiscus plants, reserving my …
I was just thinking… seems like THE HOLIDAY SEASON is here, or something. I am very good at shutting out that which I would rather not see but with the powers that be pummeling us over the head with it earlier and earlier every year, it’s kinda hard to miss. Really, I don’t hate the …
I closed up shop on my rooftop garden this weekend. The terra cotta containers are all brought indoors and stored away for the winter. I’ll admit that while I’m sad to see it end for another season, I have begun to realize that I really need the freed-up time and energy to focus on indoor …
Germination has taken place in both the Eggling and the Real Egg. The Real Egg showed a few sprouts about 6 hours before the Eggling. Sorry about the lack of photo to accompany this update however both seedlings are microscopic in size and I don’t have a macro lens. I’m glad I saved a few …
While setting up my “Eggling Experience” I thought it would fall more into the spirit of the much loved but long forgotten “The Lab” section of this site if I were to make this into an Eggling versus Real Egg experiment. I made the claim in my introductory post that an Eggling could be closely …
A friend and I attended The Royal, Toronto’s big city attempt at a country fall fair. I was unable to make it over the last few years and forgot how good it is. Fall fairs are like cultural anthropology that happens close to home. There’s just something wholesome, quaint, and yet slightly off about neatly …
Today was a dry and mild reprieve from the awful cold, wet and sometimes windy late fall weather we’ve been enduring here in Southern Ontario — a good day to do some garden work. I have found frozen water in the trays underneath the containers on the roof a couple of times recently increasing my …