by Leslie Cox; Wednesday; January 8, 2025

Another plant ID has been updated in the new format layout with photos that are now working as they should when you click on them.

Check out Chasmanthium latifolium.

by Leslie Cox; Tuesday; January 7, 2025

Polystichum munitum – western sword fern

by Leslie Cox; Monday; January 6, 2025

Did you know…

                   …the tallest sunflower ever recorded reached an unbelievable height of 9.169 metres (30.08 feet)?

On August 28, 2014 Guinness World Records verified a sunflower grown by Hans-Peter Schiffer of Karst, Nordrhein Westfalen, Germany was a record-breaking 9.17 metres (30.08 feet) tall! Incredibly, Hans-Peter broke his own tallest sunflower record as he had won this honour twice before.

by Leslie Cox; Sunday; January 5, 2025

January is the quietest month in the garden.
But just because it looks quiet doesn’t mean that nothing is happening.
The soil, open to the sky, absorbs the pure rainfall while microorganisms
convert tilled-under fodder into usable nutrients for the next crop of plants.
The feasting earthworms tunnel along, aerating the soil and
preparing it to welcome the seeds and bare roots to come.

~ Rosalie Muller Wright
Editor of Sunset Magazine

by Leslie Cox; Saturday; January 4, 2025

This week in the garden I have been thinking about how much my dad influenced my love of gardening. From my earliest memories of the garden surrounding our first home my parents built at 2659 Fernwood Rd, I was picking flower bouquets for my mom, laying on my stomach watching the goldfish in our pond and talking to my pet turtle as he sunned himself on a rock.

When I was old enough…like about 4…my dad gave me the chore of pulling weeds from between the clumps of spreading thyme and tiny dianthus. At that age, I thought it was really neat Dad had designed the driveway with a strip of garden bed running down the middle between two strips of concrete. There was probably an economic reason for this design but at my young age, I just adored the added floral display which brightened up the driveway.

There was also an added bonus because the “two lanes of concrete” allowed us to hold many, many tricycle races with the other kids in the neighbourhood. First prize was usually one of Mom’s cookies.

The year I turned 5, my dad started letting me mow the back lawn with the push mower. Under his supervision, of course. He would take over if the grass had grown too tall, but, for the most part, I did manage to mow the whole back lawn with only one or two rest breaks.

When Dad built the new house at 1661 Cyril Close because we needed more bedrooms to accommodate our little brother…and so my sister and I could have our own rooms in the name of peace…the gardening sessions with my dad naturally continued. This time with virtually a blank slate. And so my gardening knowledge grew along with the new garden.

I reflect on the values I gained during those years spent beside my dad in the garden throughout my youth. The love of plants he helped nurture in me, the knowledge he shared and the pleasure we experienced in quality time spent quietly together as Dad was a man of very few words.

Thoughts of the two gardens of my childhood return every year on his birthday, January 4. And each year since his passing on December 26, 2012, I miss the garden time with my dad just that much more. But I know he is proud of the garden John and I have created together and I am sure he is happy knowing he had a nurturing hand in my gardening education all those years ago.