Published in the Toronto Star – May 5, 2018   Early May – finally time to get planting. But before you plant, you shop.  With garden retailers preparing for the predictable spring surge in business, shoppers need to prepare themselves for the best shopping experience ever. Here are our tips for getting the very best plant…

Published in the Toronto Star – April 28, 2018   Want to save money? Enjoy a gorgeous and productive garden?  Now is the perfect time of year to direct-sow cool season crops.  You will achieve substantial savings and a host of flowers and vegetables this year. Check out the seed racks at a garden centre or…

Published in the Toronto Star – April 21 2018   You don’t have to be a magician for a kid in your life to think you are. Just dig up a potato and watch their eyes widen in wonder. Witnessing a familiar vegetable reveal itself from under the soil is one of the earliest memories…

Published in the Toronto Star – April 14, 2018   Time to sweep away the mouse droppings in your garden shed.  Spring is here and mice have moved out of doors for gardening season.  You should consider joining them. Here are the top 5 tasks that will help you enjoy the great out of doors while…

Published in the Toronto Star – April 7, 2018   These are questions that are repeated over and over.    One is from young people considering their future in the work-world, “Where can I find a meaningful career?” and the other from employers, “Where can I find good help?” It seems that we could use a match-maker…

Published in the Toronto Star – March 31, 2018   There is a way to squeeze more gardening into your life. Podcasts. Increasingly, during long drives, plane travel or even puttering around the house, we find ourselves tuned into them. For the uninitiated, podcasts are audio productions which can be downloaded to your phone and listened…

Published in the Toronto Star – March 24, 2018   The idea of collecting rose bushes is dead.  For generations, a sunny yard included a ‘rose garden’ somewhere.  In the early days of Weall and Cullen Nurseries, our family business, retail customers would buy wagon loads of rose bushes each spring. Canadians have not lost their…

Published in the Toronto Star – March 17, 2018   Gardening trends are constantly changing.  Never faster than now. Some things don’t change (thankfully), like the sound of the wind in the trees, bird song and the daffodils that arrive each spring, while others do.  Here is our list of the top six current trends that…

Published in the Toronto Star – March 10, 2018   If you go down to the Festival today beware of a big surprise.  Canada Blooms that is.  Be prepared be inspired.  You will find yourself thinking, “When the gardening season gets here I am going to really get into it!” Well, guess what. The gardening season…

Published in the Toronto Star – March 3, 2018   “Negative emissions” are a good thing.  For the environment and for your health. Scientists don’t always think like marketers when they name these things.  We wish that negative emissions sounded more positive.  Cause they are. Negative emissions – the removal of pollutants from the atmosphere –…

Published in the Toronto Star – February 24, 2018   You may get a shock when your doctor gives you your next prescription. A man walks into the doctor’s office.  He complains of feeling listless, lack of energy and generally depressed.  The doctor asks him some questions, thinks for a moment and looks him in…

Published in the Toronto Star – February 17, 2018 The herbs in your herb rack may be fraudulent. “Food Fraud” happens when the food in the package is not what it says on the label. The UK Food Standards Agency estimates that roughly 10% of the food on supermarket shelves is adulterated and estimated costs to…

Published in the Toronto Star – February 10, 2018 Fusion gardens are about to blow our minds. A growing number of professionals in the gardening world are bringing many of the natural benefits of a garden together under one exciting concept called ‘Fusion gardening’ and the concept is nothing short of revolutionary. Many aspects of Fusion…

Published in the Toronto Star – February 3, 2018 What is it, this love affair that we have with wood?  Robert Penn has some suggestions.  He is the author of The Man Who Made Things Out of Trees, a book that is a deep dive into the meaning of wood. We recently picked up a copy…

Published in the Toronto Star – January 27, 2018   Do you enjoy saving money?  Want to pursue a healthier lifestyle? We have an answer to both questions: sow seeds of your favourite food plants. Before you lay down a single carrot seed, you should start with a plan.   We are working on ours right now….

Published in the Toronto Star – January 20, 2018   Ben was ‘an artist without a canvas’ – a passion for food, and nowhere to plant. When he graduated from the Ridgetown Agriculture College there was one thing that set him apart from most of his classmates: he was not leaving school to return to the…

Published in the Toronto Star – January 13, 2018 Dirty knees and gardening go together, just not at this time of year.  Fact is, many of us ‘garden’ indoors in the Canadian winter.  We grow tropical plants, amaryllis, windowsill herbs, bean sprouts and more. The need to nurture plants through the winter months is a good…

Published in the Toronto Star – January 6, 2018 When does a house become a home? When fresh baked cookies come out of the oven, when a new baby is brought ‘home’, and when the place in which we live becomes larger than life. Recently we were privileged to attend the Toronto Garden Awards Ceremony at…

Published in the Toronto Star – December 30, 2017   A new year: a clean slate.  Gardeners appreciate clean air and want to make the world a better place.  After all, they are in the business of producing oxygen every time we nurture a plant. We are here with stories that will make you think outside…

Published in the Toronto Star – December 23, 2017   This close to Christmas is the perfect time to pick up a last-minute gift for the gardeners on your list.   People who enjoy a hobby are often easy to buy for, when you know something about their past time.  We have come up with some easy,…