My Everchanging Garden

Gardening That Grows With Me

Welcome to my garden blog

I love to garden. I also love to experiment. Throw the two together and you have my everchanging garden.

In 2004 we purchased a little over 2 acres in the country in Southern Ontario. My garden has taken many twists and turns since then and I have made many discoveries along the way. My blog is a simple record of how our garden landscape has changed over the years. I also post our family recipes, something I can refer to easily and share among family and friends.

I post here for my own garden record. It’s my garden journal and bullet journal of to-do lists and goals. If you manage to stumble upon a page or two, I hope you enjoy a little of what is here.

Latest from the Blog

Butternut Maple Soup

Category: Let's Talk Recipes

Almost everything tastes better with home grown maple syrup! This was a small batch soup made with left over roasted butternut squash and made just after finishing our maple syrup for the season. Measurements are very rough INGREDIENTS 1 tablespoon butter 1/2 onion, chopped 2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped large bunch thyme, left on stems… Read more »

Maple Cookies with Butterscotch Chips and Pecans

Category: Let's Talk Recipes

It’s hard to get a strong maple flavoured cookie without maple extract. Since I only make these cookies once or twice a year (definitely right after making our own maple syrup) I don’t feel like buying maple extract. To boost the flavour a little I added butterscotch chips which I always have on hand. I… Read more »

Roasted Cauliflower & Pancetta Soup

Category: Let's Talk Recipes

I bought a gigantic head of cauliflower this week so decided to make a savoury flavoured soup. It turned out quite well. The pancetta adds a real deep flavour and the zest adds some nice acidity. INGREDIENTS 1 large head cauliflower, break into florets 200g pancetta 1 onion, chopped medium 2 stalks celery, chopped fine… Read more »

Garden & Landscape Bucket List for 2024

Category: Let's Talk Gardening

Pool garden design plans

My garden landscape has evolved over the years. When I first started, I focused on designing a garden with shrubs and trees, thinking woody plants would be low maintenance for my big yard. I worked hard to add trees and shrubs that bloomed at different times during the season or offered interesting foliage. I supplemented… Read more »

Mushroom & Onion Meatloaf

Category: Let's Talk Recipes

These measurements are rough since I never measure when I cook. The recipe fills a 5 x 9 loaf pan completely, and it took almost 1 1/2 hours to cook at 350°F. Next time, I’d make it in a larger baking pan or make two to cut down the cooking time. INGREDIENTS: 2 pounds medium… Read more »

Extreme Cold: How Did the Greenhouse Radiant Floor Hold Up?

Category: Let's Talk Gardening

Plants moved to floor of the greenhouse

This is my first winter with radiant floor heating in the greenhouse, and our first extreme cold front of 2024 is here. During my first winter with the Hartley, I had only electric heaters in the greenhouse. Unfortunately, when outside temperatures reached negative double-digits Celcius, the greenhouse temperature fell to 2°C. It was also expensive… Read more »

Making a Collage for Container Garden Planning

Category: Let's Talk Gardening

collage or mood board of all the annuals I'm growing this year

I’ve been reading Arthur Parkinson’s book “The Flower Yard: Growing Flamboyant Flowers in Containers”. I was intrigued by his use of a collage to plan out his seasonal colour schemes. Arthur calls them ‘mood boards’. The idea is you work out your garden colours using images cut out from magazines and garden catalogues. Since I’m… Read more »

2023 Weather Recap – It Felt Cold But Was It?

Category: Let's Talk Gardening

average temperatures in my area by month

As gardeners, we may feel we’re in tune with the weather, but our perceptions are often skewed by impressions of events that don’t always align with meteorological conditions. I recently pulled some historical weather data for our area, thinking that 2023 was colder than usual. I was very surprised to see that overall, we experienced… Read more »