Annie Proulx has written an excellent, very personal and opinionated little book titled “Fen, Bog & Swamp, A Short History of Peatland Destruction and Its Role in the Climate Crisis.” American writer Proulx is quite well known for her fiction, including works which have been made into films: novel “The Shipping News” and short story
Prologue: I read an interesting article about reading Companion Books. Written by a teacher, she suggested that fiction and non-fiction texts can compliment each other. The author recommends that pairing books can deepen our understanding of a topic by engaging our minds and hearts. In preparation for this article, I read the main book The
I was curious to find more about this book after it was mentioned by a speaker at the Toronto MG Technical Update in January of this year. The author, Ken Thompson is a plant ecologist and Senior Lecturer at the University of Sheffield (UK) in the Dept of Animal and Plant Sciences. I found it
New Naturalism, by Kelly D. Norris Some books are just a joy to read- this is one such book. Norris has an engaging writing style, the book is replete with stunning photographs of naturalized gardens and there are a plethora witty and engaging engaging quotes. The book encourages gardeners to re-think their approach to gardens
Lady beetles or ladybird beetles are very familiar and widely recognized predators of garden pests. Their phylum is Arthropoda, Class: Insecta; Order: Coleoptera; and Family: Coccinellidae. True bugs have sucking mouth parts, to extract juices from plants, but lady beetles, being predators, have chewing apparatus, so are not classified as bugs. They feed on soft-bodied
Yellow Flag Iris Iris pseudacorus- Example of invasive species, imported as a water garden plant. It has escaped from gardens and now infests the shores of the
Avon River in Stratford.
The winter seems to drag on and on this time of year for the avid gardeners in Southern Ontario who can hardly wait to get outside to work at one of their favorite hobbies. But don’t despair, there is a very pleasant way to extend our all too short growing season by starting your own
Climate change is the challenge of the century. You hear about it, read about it, worry about it. Rising global temperatures are caused by our overuse of fossil fuels in combination with widespread destruction of forests, grasslands, peat bogs and other flora. The average temperature of Earth is rising because our polluted atmosphere traps heat
Check out the following two resources on gardening with children!
Updated July 26 2021 Looking for native plants? Check out these suppliers!