We bought our new home for the possibilities, projects and experiments it afforded us, in the quiet of the countryside just outside the city limits, but where school buses still stop to pickup our 3 kids en route to 3 different schools. Here, our neighbour walks her horse up and down our street to graze … Continue reading Making a Tiny Forest, the Miyawaki way
I went to a therapy session right after our most recent Butterflyway planting, still wearing my giant monarch wings and Butterflyway Ranger t-shirt, excited to gush to my therapist about the morning I had spent with some of my Pollinate Aylmer peeps and two classes of kindergarten kids building little pollinator habitats at a local … Continue reading The very personal downward spiral of crumpled butterfly wings
I've been quiet. It's a great feeling, because we've been so busy outside this first spring in our new place, with so many ideas and discoveries and projects, and dirty hands with mud-crusted nails, and if you know me you know that means I am happy. We finally got around to starting one project both … Continue reading A purpose-built (future) rain garden
OMG OMG we are moving! More on where we are going later, today I'm focused on the why. As I re-read what I wrote below I have noticed that this post is very long, and gushy, and riddled with run-on sentences. Maybe you stumbled on my blog and you don't want to read my stream … Continue reading Embracing Change: Our Family’s Journey to a New Home
Contracting the services of a reputable and traditional landscaping company is the best way to achieve uniform manicured paths in highly trafficked areas of your yard. That is absolutely not what we do. Some of our finished garden paths While we have studied and learned from watching countless hours of DIY videos what the essential … Continue reading Transform Your Yard with Creative Garden Pathways
Imagine a garden that you (almost) never have to water. In a nutshell, that is xeric garden design. Reminiscent of a desert landscape, but adapted to our northern climate, xeric gardens thrive without additional water needs beyond natural elements once established. Plants selected for use in xeric landscape design are drought tolerant, thrive in dry … Continue reading Creating a Drought-Tolerant Xeric Garden
The first patch we converted from lawn in our garden was the dreaded "right of way" area of our front yard, which sees heavy foot traffic and deposits of winter salt and ice left by city ploughs, where I thought no plants would ever survive a winter season. My solution for the space was to … Continue reading Creative Rock Garden Ideas for Challenging Areas
LocaLeaf 