By MARY FRAN McQUADE Once upon a time, gardens were filled with bright flowering plants that bloomed their pretty heads off all summer long. Impatiens, tiny fibrous begonias, marigolds, geraniums, snapdragons and more covered garden beds, public and private. Then people caught on to the idea of perennials, and annuals were left behind in the […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE My very first job in Toronto was working in Eaton’s flower shop. One of my co-workers was so good at getting people to buy that my boss often said, “She could sell dirt!” I’ve often laughed ironically to myself since then. Sell dirt? Heck, everyone does that. But plain old dirt […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE We’ve got the light – now all we need is the warmth. April flounces in with a few flutters of green, and gardeners go gaga. Frost is still in the air, and snow is a possibility, but we can get our hands on green and growing things, so who cares? Earth […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE A Canadian spring is a mudsome thing, With patches of snow that just won’t go. There’s earth beneath that slippery mess, But we can only make plans, I guess. Spring is absurdly slow to show up around here. On the calendar, spring appears sometime in March, but in chilly reality, we […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE BOOM! What just happened? Suddenly, houseplants are exploding out of the Internet and into shops and people’s homes. Just a little while ago, all the buzz was about native and pollinator plants. Gardeners were rushing to spread milkweed and asters all over the place. Some years before that, perennials were all […]
I’m a traditionalist in some ways. I like roses. They’re pretty, they’re romantic, they smell nice and they even taste good (some of them, anyway). I’ve never been fond of the fusspot hybrid teas, which my dad used to drench in stinky, poisonous malathion to save them from a platoon of bugs and diseases. And […]
Are you feeling garden-deprived? Me, too. February seems at least 98 days long, and then there’s tiresome March. Good thing we can spend our time filling in the calendar with garden-y gatherings to enjoy. You don’t even have to scour the Web for what’s on – I’ve done that for you and listed all the […]
Most people make an automatic connection between beer and hops. They’re the ingredient that gives beers and ales their tangy, bitter taste. But – surprise! – hops are also considered herbs. So much so, that they’ve been named the 2018 Herb of the Year by the International Herb Association. First, a little background on Humulus […]
Gardeners, I’m talking to you here. Any gardener worth their mulch knows what gifts to give another gardener. And you also know it’s really, really hard to tell non-gardeners what to get for you. Say “I could use bypass secateurs with gear action to trim the hydrangeas,” and you may well be met with a […]
Have you given up on your tender outdoor plants yet? I confess I try to keep them going as long as I can. This means my neighbours see me staggering around with an unlikely collection of cardboard, sheets and towels, tenderly wrapping up my giant basil and gallant cannas like some kind of weird garden […]
