ROM HOSTS CAROLINIAN CANADA IN STYLE The day started with extreme weather and cancellation of all TDSB classes, sending me scrambling for childcare so I could attend the much anticipated sophomore production of Shifting the Paradigm put on by Carolinian Canada. My late arrival meant missing the opening ceremony with Carolyn King the former elected Chief…

Introducing a symposium for gardeners, landscapers, landscape architects, and city builders. Learn to use ecosystem references in cities bearing the brunt of climate change. How can we develop, implement and maintain sustainable, robust planting designs at all scales? Session 1: Guest Speakers Sarah Mainguy, ecologist at North-South Environmental Stefan Weber, biology PhD candidate at McMaster…

Alvar habitats provide model for highway restoration planting It was a pretty average gray day that did nothing to hint at the wonders to come. Expectations were high for Shifting the Paradigm Forum 2018: Growing the native plant industry through innovation and collaboration. Right off the bat Allan Arthur was blasting about how tough native…

Expectations were high and the room was full as Ryerson University was graced with a panel of experts for an evening session appropriately titled “Promoting the Health and Resilience of Urban Vegetation”. The city is a novel ecosystem Host Sam Benvie opened the panel discussion by talking about resilience of urban vegetation in the context of climate…

Dear Reader, I am writing a letter to the MPP’s in my riding to find out what position they have  on the planned closure of the Ontario Tree Seed Plant. Normally I wouldn’t bother you with political stories but if you take the time to read some of the links below, you will understand the…

WORKING DOWNTOWN OFTEN MEANS SMALL LOTS ADJACENT TO CITY TREES eclecticlibrarian via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND Dear Councillor Bailao, I am writing you to bring your attention to critical under staffing at Urban Forestry, particularly in the area that reviews permit to injure applications. As a landscape contractor, I often deal with city by-laws and…

Join me in exploring the everyday spaces of our city to see, appreciate and value the complex beauty of our urban ecology. Previous posts explored the beautiful interaction between people and place, remarkable feets of walking, and what happens when a master gardener meets a tree no one else in this city could love. The truth…

Join me in exploring the everyday spaces of our city to see, appreciate and value the complex beauty of our urban ecology. Previous blog posts about the interaction between people and place  and extraordinary feats of walking had a theme of stories from regular everyday parts of the city. In keeping with that theme, today we…

Join me in exploring the everyday spaces of our city to see, appreciate and value the complex beauty of our urban ecology. Last post was about the interaction between natural processes and a homeowner’s aesthetic values. This week we keep in the theme of ordinary spaces to take a look at how repetition can change a…

Climate Math: 3 Critical Numbers You Should Know For a brief but terrifying overview of basic climate math start here. What you need to know is over 150 countries have signed on to the Copenhagen Accord, agreeing that the maximum warming we can tolerate is 2 degrees. After that, things start to look like a…