Update February 20. I’ve just found out that I’m not going to be able to make it to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show because I’m 32 weeks pregnant and can’t get insurance coverage. (I can’t risk going to the States without it, especially in my “condition.”) Thankfully, Caitlin and Owen of Vancouver-based garden design […]
Pacific Northwest
First snowfall of winter
Yesterday morning, we woke up to snow. As if the turning of the calendar page triggered Arctic chill. It seems snow has become more and more common in Vancouver over the past few years. I guess that’s part of the global warming/weird weather phenomenon. At this point, please allow me a short lecture, since I’ll […]
Maple leaf love
What I’m loving this week: “Leaf walks”: long walks in search of the best, driest, most-kickable leaves. Something comes over me when I spy a nice thick stretch of colourful leaves. I am compelled to run through them, doing a series of low, straight-legged kicks that send the leaves flying and which cannot fail to make me […]
Bright side to Vancouver strike
We’re in week eight of a municipal workers’ strike here in Vancouver, and a lot of people are pretty pissed off about the whole thing. But the tree hugger in me is kind of enjoying it. See, the City’s gardeners are on strike, as are the garbage collectors. Public boulevards haven’t been mowed, annual plantings […]
Rainy day gardens
After my brother-in-law shared these gorgeous photos, taken this past (rainy) weekend, I started thinking about designing for the rain. Rain is such a given here on the West Coast (especially during winter months) that designing your garden with the rain in mind is such an obvious (and necessary) thing. If you don’t think about […]
More carnage
Thought I’d take a break between eating cookies from the cookie exchange I went to on the weekend (a great idea with devastating consequences. What the hell am I going to do with 70+ cookies? Exactly: eat them. All.) and knitting furiously, in the name of trying to get gifts completed, to show you some […]
Van Dusen Gardens suffers snow damage
All the snow over the past couple days has been rough on our city’s trees. But perhaps the worst of it is that Van Dusen Gardens, a 22-hectare botanical garden in the heart of Vancouver, has suffered extensive damage. The Garden is reporting damage to over three dozen species of tree, both native and exotic. […]
Winter wonderful
My back patio this morning. Let me tell you about Vancouver. Viewed in light of the Canadian stereotype (igloos, sled-dogs, cops on horseback dressed in red, people saying “aboot” instead of “about,” Celine f*ing Dion playing on every stereo), Vancouver is the antithesis. (Actually, I’m not sure any part of Canada meets that sad criteria, […]