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More fun with Containers!

This week, in between rain showers, I filled up more containers with the lovely flowers I bought at Atwater Market.  I would have loved to spend a whole day planning my containers, making lists and then driving up to my favourite nursery, Jasmin, but at the last minute I decided that I could skip all...

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Container planting!

We’re coming up to the long weekend in May, which is when Canadian gardeners tend to think it’s safe to start planting annuals, either in containers or into the garden. I love to get ideas about planting containers from garden magazines or from internet sites. The sky’s the limit with containers, but keep in mind...

Spring Ahead (of me)
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Spring Ahead (of me)

Last weekend I got back from a two week tour of South America with the OSM and since then have been nursing a husband with a broken collar bone, getting the house in order, going to my daughter’s final Master’s voice recital (she made us proud!) and all kinds of other things.  I have not...

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Work and Art

I mentioned a few posts ago (now I can’t find the reference; maybe I dreamt it!) that in the fall after planting the tulip bulbs, I covered each area with a heavy stone to dissuade the squirrels from digging them up.  I promised that I’d let you know how successful that idea was.  I was...

This is a playful pond ornament in a garden near Florence.
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Taking a Step Back

Yesterday I got ahead of myself and started rhapsodizing about taking walks around the garden.  It made me laugh to read it over and then glance outside at the Tranquil Garden, still mostly covered in snow.  It’s okay to look ahead with new resolutions for the gardening season but there’s still some time before we’ll...

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A Garden in Balance

As a gardener a lot of my job is to keep the garden in balance. The soil, the amount of water, the plants and the creatures can all go out of balance. Some plants (often called “invasive” species) can get out of control if they are ignored, and will eventually strangle their neighbours.  They need...

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An Ode to Spring

Hi, All, I am not writing a whole post today but I am going to share a video I saw on Facebook in case  you haven’t seen it.  I really enjoyed it so I thought I’d post it along with a couple more photos to get us really in the mood for spring. I took...

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Cabot Garden Trip

The following is a re-issuing of a post I did on my old site, since I just published my photos from my trip to The Cabot Gardens (look under Garden Photos on the top menu) and thought a little background might be useful.  In 2011 I  went on a “mini-break holiday” to Lamalbaie, Québec, with...

A lovely pink iris. .
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Celebrate the Equinox!

As a non-religious person, every year I’m becoming more and more attracted to the idea of celebrating the natural rhythms of the earth instead of celebrating man-made (in my view) occasions like Christmas or Easter, (I’m using Christian examples because my background is more Christian than anything else, but any man-made occasion will do as...

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Last Day of Winter

“In like a lion, out like a lamb,” could describe March in reverse this year.  It’s been pretty sweet all month and now it’s decided to give us one more whammy before the big fade-out.  Despite the set-back to my spring fever, I can’t help admiring the beauty of this March snowstorm (feel free to...