Six Easy Flowers to Grow from Seed
By Elizabeth Spence I suppose the easiest way to plant a flower bed is to buy the plants from a garden centre and pop them in the ground. But think what you’re missing if you don’t sow the seeds directly in the ground yourself: the joy and thrill of seeing those little shoots emerging from […]
Happy Poinsettia Day!
By Elizabeth Spence Yes indeed! Since 2002, December 12th has been National Poinsettia Day. In the States, anyway. Has anyone heard of us celebrating this in Canada? Not that we don’t know what a poinsettia is, of course. Almost everyone has had one of these lovely plants for Christmas at one time or another. They […]
Sweet Amaryllis Forever
Photo by George Klass By Elizabeth Spence Funny how things seem to dovetail, isn’t it? A couple of weeks ago I was listening to a song written in 1598 by an English composer, John Wilbye, called “Adieu, Sweet Amaryllis” in which the lovely maiden, Amaryllis, is gently rejecting her lover, and all he can do […]
Remembrance: The Poppy
Photo by George Klass By Elizabeth Spence We all know John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields, where “the poppies blow,” written during the First World War (1914-1918). McCrae was a Canadian military officer and surgeon at the front in France and was deeply affected by the sight of red poppies growing amongst the graves of […]
The Leaves Are Falling
By Elizabeth Spence It’s like the leaves are falling from far away, as if distant gardens withered in the skies; the falling leaves are sighing “no.” . . . Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. Elizabeth Spence The time has come. The leaves are indeed falling from far away. What with the winds we’ve been having. The […]
We Are Content
By Trish Rubin Slowly, the gardens are being prepared for their winter rest. They gave us so much this growing season and now it’s time to settle in for the long winter’s respite. These pictures, mostly, are of my section of the garden with the broccoli and cabbage from John’s. We have slightly different gardening techinques […]
Zella Perry: Rug Hooker
By Elizabeth Spence Rug hooking is synonymous with the Eastern provinces of Canada. It is an ancient way of recycling old or worn-out wool and cotton clothing and scraps of spun wool. The fabric would be cut into strips and hooked through the spaces of woven burlap or jute feed bags. In the beginning, a […]
Storing Dahlia Tubers
By Elizabeth Spence Dahlias are such gorgeous flowers. They come in an enormous variety of shapes, heights and colours. (Geek alert: if you’re interested in why there are so many variations in dahlias, look up “dahlia octoploid” and “dahlia jumping genes.”) Stunning in the flower bed or in containers, they can be real showstoppers or […]
Peter Martyn
by Elizabeth Spence Peter Martyn is proud to admit that he does indeed know one end of a spade fromthe other. But plants and planting – not so much. For his mother and late wife, he was the one who dug the holes, carried the stuff, mowed the lawns, raked the leaves, did the weeding […]
Magnolias love Beetles! Old Ones!
By Elizabeth Spence Here’s a piece of garden trivia! Did you know that gorgeous magnolias are thought to be 95 million years old? They existed before bees did and they were pollinated by ancient beetles haplessly crawling around. Today, they are recognized as having typical “beetle” flowers – they are bowl-shaped to provide shelter for the beetles, although […]