From October 16 to 18, the tiny town of Bala celebrated its 25th anniversary of the annual Cranberry Festival. Why cranberries in Bala? Well, it seems that this area of Muskoka is filled with acidic marshes and wetlands that are so ideal for cranberry-growing. Like most first-time visitors, I trekked out to Johnston’s (Est. 1952) for a tour [...]
Fall is my favourite season for a host of reasons. My Barracuda leaf vacuum and mulcher rates in the top 10 things I like about autumn. On crisp, sunny days, you’ll find me sucking up the fallen leaves from the linden in the front yard with my trusty Barracuda, or in the backyard chopping bags of [...]
To non-gardeners, bags of leaves left at the roadside are just so much waste material to be collected and disposed of by the city. But to the horticulturally cognoscenti, those leaves are plant duvets that keep the garden cozy all winter long. Like a deep blanket of snow, a four- to six-inch mulch of leaves [...]
As the cool winds of autumn usher out another gardening season, I can’t help reflecting on what I accomplished in the garden over this past summer. Although I planted lots of new perennials, potted up summer bulbs and separated clumps of flowers with clashing colours, what I’m most proud of is taking apart and cleaning [...]
How did your plants spend their summer vacation? Walk out into the garden and take a look around. Have the Siberian irises crowded out the phlox? Are the stems of your yarrow lazily flopping over its neighbours? Has the centre of the your silvery artemisia browned-out? Did you notice how much smaller the peony flowers [...]
Colourful bulbs are calling out to us from the shelves of garden centres and from the pages of mail order catalogues. Their siren sounds seem to say, “Buy me, plant me, water me and you’ll be rewarded with my spring beauty.”To succumb to these irresistible cries is to play into the hands of the squirrels. [...]
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