Why barrenwort is no longer one of my most loved plants
In the early 1990s, I suffered, as did most other young gardeners who were starting out on their first major gardening project, from a serious case of plant lust: I felt I just had...
Six great vines for spring planting
Here’s a quick look at six of the best vines to plant in your garden this spring. These will get visitors to look up. Raising their head will give them a positive feeling and...
New garden tours coming up and in the works for 2019
What new and upcoming garden tours do I have planned for the remainder of 2018 and into 2019?
In May, I will return to Italy for the ninth time to lead a very special Islands...
Untold stories from my India trip
Here are a few untold stories from my recent India Tour, stories that for one reason or another just didn’t fit into posts I published each day.
Head injury
The first and most important untold story...
It’s so nice to be back in Canada
It’s very nice to go travelling - to Paris, London and Rome - but it’s so much nicer to come home.
So sang Frank Sinatra. And it’s true. When you live in Canada, it's very...
10 top favourite moments from our India Tour
After three weeks in India, we're heading home to Vancouver today, carrying gifts for everyone, especially grandchildren, who will be waiting eagerly for our arrival.
It is always a little like Christmas Day when we...
Into Kerala’s backwaters and the Arabian Sea
We had the most relaxing time walking the warm and beautiful hillsides of tea plants in and around Munnar.
Being high up the Western Ghats, the air was sweet and clean and scented by jasmine...
From Udaipur to Munnar and the beautiful tea hills of southern India
We left Udaipur and flew back to Delhi for one night before catching an early morning flight to Kochi in southern India.
The moment we arrived, we were aware of the change in temperature and...
Time in Udaipur, Venice of the East, white city of lakes and palaces
We left Jaipur to catch an early morning flight to Udaipur, also known as the ‘Venice of the East’ because it is a city on five lakes.
However, our flight was delayed and we ended...
Into Jaipur to see pink architecture and elephants
Apparently, the word “pur” on the end of any Indian town or city name means place.
So, Bharatpur, I assume means, the place of Bharat and Jaipur, means the place of Jai.
From Bharatpur, we headed...
From the chaos of Agra to the serenity of the Taj Mahal
Our journey from Delhi to Agra was uneventful, but for our awareness of the poor air quality. The thick white mist sat like a morning fog, obscuring most of the countryside until we were...
Into Chandigarh’s weird and wonderful gardens
Chandigarh, which is also known as the “beautiful city”, was one of the first planned cities after India got its independence from Britain in 1947.
The city’s planners opted for a grid system with each...
Into gardens of New Delhi and on to Chandigarh
We came to India for many reasons. Most of us wanted to get a more intimate, personal, first-hand experience of the country rather than relying on what we had read or been told by...
Exciting sightseeing tour around New Delhi
Our first day of touring Delhi was filled with a dazzling spectrum of sights and sounds from impressive historic buildings to the perpetual honking of city traffic to the hauntingly hypnotic tones of snake...
First days in Delhi after 14-hour flight from Vancouver
Our flight from Vancouver to Delhi could not have gone more smoothly. It was long - 14 hours, Delhi being 13 1/2 hours ahead of us on the West Coast - but there is...
Exercise your right to an easy morning work out
I know exercise is important. These days I'm content to walk the dog or go for a swim or a bike ride. That's about it.
My days of jogging and playing soccer are over. Not...
Japan 2018 Tour: Join us on this wonderful adventure
My next garden tour will be an exclusive 13-day adventure to Japan to see spectacular fall foliage colour, visit picturesque temple sites, famous and historic locations as well as enjoy seasonal festivals and other...
We’re making big plans for a sensational sunflower patch
My son, Joel, has been an enthusiastic gardener for a few years now. He has a love for echinops and eryngium, shasta daisies, Austin roses and hydrangeas.
When he was a kid, he wowed us...
Clever way to create an elegant privacy screen
Pleaching is a clever technique that involves twining together the branches of a row of closely planted trees to create a stylish, formal hedge-on-stilts.
It’s not something you see here in Canada or even in the...
Call it quirky or eccentric, but this all looks like fun to me
Quirkiness is defined as something “peculiar” or “unexpected” although I have always tended to interpret it as harmless, mostly humorous, eccentricity.
Growing up in England, I found people were invariably labelled "eccentric" for being...
