Tuesday 4 ~ Gardens

It's Toni Taddeo's Tuesday 4 once again and we are talking about gardens or house plants.  

1. Do you have a garden indoors or outdoors?   Houseplants count I think.  If not, why don't you have them?

I have both houseplants indoors, mainly snake plants but I also have a fiddle leaf fig and another tropical plant which I think is a Dracaena Janet Craig.

2. Have you visited Longwood Gardens or any of the large gardens and horticultural sites around the world or your state? Tell us about it.

I've never heard of Longwood Gardens but I have visited 2 gardens in my Province of British Columbia. One in Vancouver called Van Dusen Botanical Gardens and one in Victoria called The Butchart Gardens. Both of them are very beautiful and I think they are much like gardens elsewhere in the world. I last visited the Van Dusen Gardens in December 2022 for a spectacular display of Christmas lights.  Here is a link to the website for The Butchart Gardens which I haven't visited for a very long while. It's a beautiful garden that receives visitors from all around the world. While I'm thinking about it I remember I also visited the beautiful gardens at the Palace of Versailles during the winter of 2019.  I loved it and it was so large that you literally need a day to see all of it and probably several days to really have a good look all around.  I'm also fortunate to live in a city where there are actually gardens and flowers almost everywhere you go both public and private which you can enjoy up close or from afar.

3.  Most people really enjoy a little garden but I think we sometimes make too many excuses not to do things we really would enjoy.  Too busy, not enough space, etc.   But if we put our minds to it, anything is possible  Do you believe that?

If you have physical handicaps of any kind it affects your energy levels and ability to plant even a small garden. However, you could probably still plant a few house plants to enjoy even in a small space. The challenges indoors are really the temperature and lighting situations. Most of us like to have the natural sunlight come through our windows for the plants to thrive.  But I suppose if you don't have adequate light, you can also use a grow lamp which I do not currently have.  I've also found that even a constant source of a low wattage bulb above finicky plants also helps them to survive and grow.

 4. Ideally, what flowers, shrubs and trees do you want in your little garden real or imagined?

Anything and everything, lol. I do love colourful flowers of all kinds, especially ones that attract bees and birds. I also like ornamental grasses and various bushes.

Here is one photo of my patio garden from a 2022.

I didn't have a garden in 2023 because work was supposed to be started to redo all the patios in the building. Now here we are in September and the work hasn't even started. I'm not sure what will happen in the summer of 2024 on the balcony but we hope we will still have the community plot at a local park where we can plant vegetables or flowers.

Thanks for stopping by.

Note: My apologies for the margin issues with the blog. I recently changed back to a former template but it looks like I need to customize the margins too.

It's Another Day

Hi friends and fellow bloggers, 

I hope you're having an awesome weekend. I'm having a quiet but good one so far.

I took these beautiful photos of a public garden. I love admiring the public gardens around the city (click on any photo to enlarge).

For Saturday's dinner I made a new to me dish called Cheesy Tater Tot Meatloaf Casserole from the English Kitchen website. It was very tasty and I'll be making it again.  Thanks for stopping by!

It's Been a Very Hot Week - Skywatch Friday, May 19, 2023

Hi friends and fellow bloggers,

We have been experiencing extremely hot and dry temperatures over the past week and wild fires have broken out in several places around the province. Wild fires are also raging in northern Alberta and now into the province of Saskatchewan.

I stayed in as much as possible and only went out late in the afternoon. 

The first few photos were taken earlier this week at sunrise followed by a few photos taken at the park where I have my garden allotment. 

I was out for a long walk on one evening and stopped to rest at a bench outside of a coffee shop. This beautiful planter box was net to me. Isn't it a lovely sight on a busy street? That's what I love about my city. You'll find greenery and plants everywhere. Even on busy streets we often have small gardens planted by guerrilla gardeners.

 I hope you are staying safe and cool wherever you are.

Thank you for visiting my submission to

Skywatch Friday this week.

Not My Garden

(If you missed my sky post which was posted on the same day, you can  see it here.)

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One of my favourite things to do is to take photos of flowers in someone's garden as I walk around doing my errands. 

Mostly I photograph flowers planted by guerrilla gardeners; that is gardeners who plant in public spaces. 

Today's flowers were taken with my phone.

The flowers in this post were planted by a retired Asian man who simply loves gardening.  I often see him out planting and tending to his many flowers.  He is planting in spaces around his condominium building that do not belong to him. I don't know if he has asked for permission or if he just decided to beautify the space and didn't bother seeking approval.

Over the past two years the garden has really mushroomed and is getting quite gorgeous.. 

His flowers seem to grow like weeds compared to mine.  I've notice the soil in the space is very dark and rich compared to what I have in my small patio garden.  Every year I add bags and bags of manure and soil hoping to make the soil nice and rich. It has improved a bit but still has a ways to go.  It is a lot of work to carry the bags of manure and soil required every year for the small garden otherwise I might do a big job of it and get it all over and done with but I have to do it bit by bit.

Do you like to garden dear reader? 

How is your garden growing this year?


Please don't be shy to leave a comment. I love to hear from my readers and always try to return the favour.
 Enjoy your weekend!