By MARY FRAN McQUADE Every gardener I know is aching to plant something or to get out in the garden right now. Long days and comparatively warmer temperatures are tempting, but it’s still just a bit too early to start your summer plants indoors. A few clipped words One truly garden-y thing you can do […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Are you sensing the approach of spring? I can see the sunset from my office windows facing due west, which means the sun isn’t sulking in the south anymore. Our gardens are still frozen under a blanket of snow, and we’re still frozen in COVID-19’s grip. Already, though, I’m hearing a […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Let’s skip the New Year’s resolutions here. Instead, pick up a book, a TV series or an online talk to keep your spirits bright this winter. Here’s a selection of my own favourites. Laugh a little Just about any book by Beverley Nichols will enchant you and make you laugh. Nichols […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Gardeners usually have some kind of plant indoors over the winter – maybe an African violet, a tropical dracaena or a jade plant. But in the month of December, it seems as though all our neighbours and the entire city decide to bring the outdoors in. Why the outburst of greenery […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE Who’s ready for Christmas (or other end-of-year holidays that are celebrated)? I’m not, but I’m reminding myself that it’s looming just over the horizon. Like every other special occasion this year, I expect it’ll be a very different kind of celebration due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And I’m starting my holiday […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE I can’t pretend any longer. Fall has moved in, with its mists and all. Our gardens are sweetly saying goodbye to us, with brilliant leaf colours, a few final brave roses, defiant geraniums and hydrangea blooms turning a dusky pink. It’s time now to turn our attention to leaves and seeds. […]
By MARY FRAN McQUADE You’re not a real gardener if you hang up your trowel in September. The blazing hot sun isn’t beating down on you anymore. The days are sunny and cool. The pesky bugs have moved on or died off. It’s a great time to be out in the garden. Wage war on […]
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, […]
