City Gardening

a gardening blog-a-zine by Lorraine Flanigan

Posts Tagged ‘Gardens’

A Big Win for Pollinators

By Lorraine • Oct 6th, 2011 • Category: Designers, Gurus & Trends, Fresh Dirt, Style

There’s a buzz in the air about local hero Clement Kent, a York University postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Biology in York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering and president of the Horticultural Societies of Parkdale and Toronto.  Kent founded the Pollinator Garden Project two years ago to teach gardeners, members of the public and school [...]



June 2, Woman to Woman Luncheon Party in the Garden

By Lorraine • May 17th, 2011 • Category: Fresh Dirt

Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) is ushering in the summer season with a new signature event: Woman To Woman is an elegant luncheon that will take place on Thursday, June 2, between 11:30 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. against the spectacular backdrop of Toronto Botanical Garden. This much anticipated event will bring together passionate gardeners and nature [...]



Is there a spirit house in your garden?

By Lorraine • Apr 25th, 2011 • Category: Favourite Gardens, Fresh Dirt, Gardens

Those of you who have been following my Facebook posts know that I was lucky enough to be invited by the Tourism Authority of Thailand to visit some of that amazing country’s gardens and attractions. Fresh from that trip, I’m all agog with ideas for adding a touch of Thai to my own garden. Once [...]



Kingsbrae Garden: Top 5 North American Gardens Worth Travelling For

By Lorraine • Apr 24th, 2011 • Category: Favourite Gardens, Fresh Dirt, Gardens

Hooray to New Brunswick’s Kingsbrae Garden, which was recognized as one of the top five gardens worth travelling for at the recent Garden Tourism Conference, held in Toronto. Marketing Director Maureen McIlwain sent me these gorgeous shots of the garden to share with Citygardening readers. Enjoy!



Barracuda Blast!

By Lorraine • Oct 13th, 2010 • Category: Dig in, Fall

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 [...]



High Line in Winter

By Lorraine • Jan 14th, 2010 • Category: Favourite Gardens, Fresh Dirt, Gardens

I love New York City at Christmastime: the sidewalk vendors roasting chestnuts; skaters at Bryant Park; open-air craft booths that sprout up in Central Park — and now, the High Line.   Non-gardeners just shake their heads when I tell them one of the highlights of a recent pre-Christmas trip to New York (apart from [...]



8 of 12 Great Things I Found At Raleigh

By Lorraine • Oct 8th, 2009 • Category: Favourite Gardens, Gardens

8. Private Gardens The story tours of private gardens are a real treat of any Garden Writers Symposium, and the 2009 symposium in Raleigh was no exception. These tours offer a chance to see the best gardens of the region, to talk with the garden-makers and to discover new plants, plant combinations, and design ideas. [...]



6 of 12 Great Things I Found at Raleigh

By Lorraine • Oct 5th, 2009 • Category: Designers, Gurus & Trends, Style

  6. Natural landscapes for the real world Larry Weaner, a landscape architect based in Glenside, Pennsylviania, opened his talk on “Breaking the Rules” at the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh with a story about how Native Americans were this continent’s first ecologists. Among their sustainable practices was the deliberate division the carex plants [...]



4 of 12 Great Things I Found at Raleigh

By Lorraine • Oct 3rd, 2009 • Category: Favourite Gardens, Gardens

Story tours are a popular part of Garden Writers Symposiums. We all board buses, usually at ungodly hours of the morning, to tramp through public and private gardens. It’s a real challenge to take a photo without a single garden writer in the frame, and just as difficult to stay out of the way of [...]



Buffalo Garden Walk

By Lorraine • Jun 30th, 2009 • Category: Favourite Gardens, Gardens

Where can you ogle 300 beautiful gardens for free? At the Buffalo Garden Walk, which takes place on July 25 and 26. This is one of my favourite self-guided walking tours. Not only are there some great gardens, but it’s a chance to look beyond the outlet malls and explore the many unique and interesting neighbourhoods in [...]