By MARY FRAN McQUADE Sometimes gardeners seem to speak a foreign language. “Deadhead the salvia. Be sure to cut it back to a leaf node,” someone tells you. Wait – what? Usually nobody’s trying to use fancy words, but like other special activities, gardening has terms that pack a lot of meaning into one or […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE You’ve carefully tended those tiny seedlings for weeks, and now it’s time for them to go out into the wide world of your garden. If you’re a new veggie parent, you may be wondering what happens next, now that they’re out there on their own. Fear not – I talked to […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Picture a bee, and I’ll bet dollars to Timbits that a yellow-and-black striped winged creature comes to mind. But – surprise! – some of Toronto’s most common bees are solid black, dull green or bright metallic green. Others in the thousands of species around the world can be partly blue, red, […]
By Mary FRAN McQUADE Usually, right around now, gardeners would be thinking about what we want to grow this year. But nothing’s usual about this March and April of 2020. Garden centres and nurseries are closed for in-person visits. They aren’t included on the list of essential businesses the province released on March 24. But […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Ka-boom! In less than a month, Canada Blooms opens. The annual spring flower and garden show in Toronto celebrates all things gardening. and this year, there’s a twist – it’s packed with things to do for kids on March Break. A romp for the kids Every day, in the morning and […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE I’ve always been glad of the start of a new year: new calendars, new plans, clean slate (more or less). For gardeners, we also have a rebirth of our gardens to look forward to. Dates have already been set for several key gardening events, and here are some dates to mark: […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE To a gardener, it’s odd that poppies are so prominent in November. Cold-loving chrysanthemums make more sense at this time of year. Lately, even Christmas greens and trees are already appearing in garden shops. The bright red poppy rightfully belongs to the month of August, the hot harvest-time. But, as most […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Did you think of your garden during your Thanksgiving celebrations? I’m pretty sure my vegetable gardening friends did. They’ve been posting photos of their luscious tomatoes, crisp green beans, and brilliant orange carrots for weeks now. And my turkey stuffing wouldn’t taste right without its sage and parsley cut fresh from […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Flowers and food are the stars of today’s gardens. But we tree-huggers, who cherish the peace and privacy our trees give us, have to find other things to fill our shaded spaces. Beachers Ursula and Doug Eley have found the way to make the most of a shady garden. They’ve deliberately […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE The month of August is a sort of Bermuda Triangle for gardeners. It’s sunny and hot, too early to plant bulbs and put the garden to bed; too late to start anything much from seed; too hot to put in new plants. It’s a time to lie around on porch or […]
