Fling wrap-up at Toronto Botanical Garden: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
July 01, 2015 Wherever I travel, I enjoy visiting local botanical gardens. So I was happy to see that Toronto Botanical Garden would be our final stop — including a catered dinner — on the recent Garden Bloggers Fling in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Upon arrival we 70 garden bloggers were ...
Wildlife garden with an artful touch: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 30, 2015 On our last day of the Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling in early June, we visited a private garden described as a wildlife garden. I didn’t end up taking photos of its wildlife-attracting features, however. Instead I was drawn to the artful touches found throughout, many of them ...
Evergreen Brick Works community greenspace: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 30, 2015 For nearly 100 years, Don Valley Brick Works supplied Toronto with masonry bricks and helped the city rebuild and grow after a devastating fire. By 1984, however, the kilns were closed down, and the factory buildings languished. Urban explorers and partying teens found their way in, and ...
Cabbagetown garden art and Hugh Garner Co-Op Green Roof: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 29, 2015 The teeny tiny gardens of Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighborhood of Victorian homes kicked off our final day of Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling in early June. Due to the tight quarters, pictures of artful vignettes were easier to take than overview photos, and I’m sharing my favorites here. Cabbagetown ...
Golden brocade garden of Marion Jarvie: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 28, 2015 All that is gold does not glitter, especially in the Toronto, Ontario, garden of designer and speaker Marion Jarvie. Her home garden was our midday stop on the 2nd day of touring at Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling. High and bright, the sun flattened and shadowed my photos ...
Simple lines, big impact in Forest Hill contemporary garden: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 26, 2015 One of my favorite gardens on the recent Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling was a contemporary garden of massed grasses and alliums in the upscale Forest Hill neighborhood. Nearly all of the gardening space is located in front of the house (the back and side gardens are very ...
Storybook garden on Algonquin Island: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 25, 2015 Tell me this doesn’t look like a Thomas Kinkade painting, but in the best sense — light gleaming in the window of a picturesque cottage — without the kitsch. With rain clouds darkening the sky, this was the last island garden I visited (see my Toronto Islands ...
Garden is But-A-Dream on Algonquin Island: Toronto Garden Blogger Fling
June 24, 2015 While exploring the Toronto Islands (click for an overview tour) during Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling, I happened upon a cheery yellow cottage near the Algonquin Island harbor. Adorned with a black unicorn and a sign proclaiming the garden’s name — But-a-Dream — it was irresistibly charming. You ...
Island hopping, Toronto-style: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 23, 2015 Seventy garden bloggers boarded a ferry earlier this month and were transported from bustling downtown Toronto (pictured above) to the idyllic lanes of the Toronto Islands (below), a mere 15 minutes across Lake Ontario but seemingly a world away. This was the last tour on our first ...
Floral design demo with urban farmer Sarah Nixon: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 21, 2015 Floral designer and urban farmer Sarah Nixon welcomed approximately 70 bloggers (in two shifts) into her tiny back garden during our first day at Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling earlier this month. Sarah, a gardener and floral designer who operates My Luscious Backyard, explained her business to us ...
Hillside Swansea gardens: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 20, 2015For 8 years I’ve been fortunate to attend the annual Garden Bloggers Fling, a 3-day international garden blogger meet-up and city-wide garden tour, organized each year by volunteer bloggers from the host city. This year, in early June, Toronto’s garden bloggers hosted the Fling, led by sisters Helen ...
Toronto teaser Foliage Follow-Up
June 16, 2015 I returned home from the Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling last Monday, but I haven’t had a moment to post about the gardens yet thanks to a big deadline. I’m still slogging away on that, but for Foliage Follow-Up, which is today, I offer you a teaser of ...
Inviting all garden bloggers: Let’s Fling in Toronto!
March 10, 2015 Bee balm and a mysterious blue door at Buffalo Fling 2010 The annual Garden Bloggers Fling is not only the best garden tour around. It’s a win-win-win event for you, your garden, and your blog. How? First, you’ll end up with oodles of ideas for your own ...