A garden for children of all ages. Since, some three or four years ago we decided to stop mowing our lawn but create a native flower “mead” in its place, we have been fascinated by how much more interesting our garden has become - and also by the fascination this style of [...]
We have a much loved etching by the English artist Graham Clarke hanging in our dining room ... admire it every day. This is another of his works that pretty well sums up life for us these days - apart from the thatched roof. No complaints.
An afternoon in July The experiment with "no-mow" gardening continues and now we are in the first half of July and three years along the road to creating a "mead" where once there were boring, monoculture grasses. It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words so here is a small [...]
Today is the Fête nationale in Quebec, St-Jean Baptiste, and the sun is shining. Not many words to go with this, just a sunny corner of the garden to share with anyone who likes gardens. So much greenery here with fat flower buds starting to form ... it won't be long now until [...]
It's that time of the year again when the young birds leave the nest and the berries on the trees begin to ripen. This morning a recently fledged American Robin (note spotty breast) was flopping about in an Amelanchier canadensis tree in the garden and learning to take fruit without falling out [...]
Why taxonomy is fun and confusing ... on the naming of roses. For years we have grown a truly splendid red-leaved species rose that is hardy to zone 2 (that's really hardy). When we first knew it, it was named Rosa rubrifolia but in recent years it has been renamed Rosa glauca. [...]
At last - it can be shared (** Warning - what follows was only observed and recorded because it was possible to do so without the birds being aware that they were being watched. We are only sharing it now that the birds have fledged and departed and there is no risk to [...]
Showdown at the OK Bathhouse … Although many people equate birds with calm and peaceful lifestyles spent twittering about amongst the rose and blossoms, in reality birds are feisty creatures. None more so than Wrens who have serious dominance issues. This afternoon at the “bird magnet” pool atop our waterfall the male and [...]
We get a number of requests from interested gardeners wishing to see our developing "Lo-Mow" ex-lawn. Accordingly this year, as visiting and seeing in person is still not wise under present circumstances, we are creating a page on this website devoted to seasonal changes. In essence, every week or two we will add [...]
Spring Planting Last year was the year of experimental vegetable gardening, not that we don't have many years of experience but very little of that in Canada. We had three excellent raised beds installed for us by Urban Seedling and stock the beds with seedling vegetables or seeds obtained from the same people. [...]