My pizza oven
Pizza ovens hit the Canadian market in force about 10 years ago, I’m constantly asked by my guests about the one I constructed and the reason behind my choices. I made a conscious choice to go with a less efficient design of pizza oven. The best ovens for wood consumption and for ease of use […]
Wood versus composite
As I travel back and forth across the country speaking at home shows, I keep asking the audience ‘How many people have decks in their backyards’? Pretty sure you won’t be surprised to hear that a majority of people have decks. Then I ask ‘How many people have composite or manmade decks?’ This number drops […]
The “M”Word
Here’s a topic I never, ever, thought I’d be writing about— menopause. Yeah, you read that correctly. Menopause! There are a whole lot of things my mother never warned me about, like childbirth and breastfeeding and toddlers and menstruation, male doctors who don’t listen to female patients and the fact that most women’s dresses don’t […]
Which is best?
When it comes to driveways, I am not a fan of using interlock for the entire space. I have several reasons why: Often interlock is installed without a proper base. We know that in our climate with lots of freeze-thaw periods, a patio needs at least eight to ten inches of drainage gravel (base) to […]
Candy Floss, Parades and Horse Pucky
Like most people, there are times when I find it incredibly difficult to just get something done. This week my mind is all over the place. Should I write about our friends south-of-the-border? Should I say something about the County Fair? Should I write about how no matter what you do the brown stuff will […]
Back to it!
Wow! September is happening. Right now. It’s time for back to school, back to work, back to wearing shoes, back to bagged lunches and back to regular bedtimes. I like September now that LOML and I are retired because we don’t have to be bothered by most of the back-to’s that define a lot of […]
Gardening on a budget
One of the biggest challenges I have with landscape design and gardening in general is being patient when I am trying to envision the end result. It’s so easy to go into a nursery and buy all of the plants already matured so that you have an instant garden. Unfortunately, my financial planner disagrees. So […]
When the water runs out
Recently I wrote an article called Good to the last drop about water usage by Canadians. In the article I spoke about the fact that Canadians have more fresh water than almost anyone else on the planet and that for us, it’s considered a cheap commodity. I stand by this messaging as I still see […]
All about oak
There is a decent sized contingent of wine drinkers for whom chardonnay is undesirable because of the “oaky taste”. When I seek to further clarify, the precise feature of dislike is its butteriness. The buttery notes have little to do with oak, but can be accentuated by the barrel. They result from a second bacterial […]
Put it in a pot
This is the time of year when I personally think the containers in a garden really start to out-shine the perennial beds. The potted plants have really taken off with the sun and the rain and now our patio planters are getting all the praise. This also happens to be the time of year when […]