Growing thyme in the cottage garden

It’s always a good time in Muskoka You can walk on it and bathe with it, eat it, drink it, or just enjoy its scent. It’s supposed to boost your courage and decrease your melancholy, repel snakes and attract faeries to your garden. It’s a trouble-free garden plant that asks for nothing more than dry […]

More than monarch butterflies

Native plants like milkweed are good for monarchs, but what about all the other butterflies? Monarch butterflies are the poster child of the butterfly world, and with good reason. Their annual migration is one of the true miracles of nature, a multi-generational epic trek that sees great-great-great grandchildren going from Mexico to Muskoka, returning to […]

Colour and texture in the garden

Crafting a great Muskoka landscape with nature’s bounty By Andrew Wagner-Chazalon The sunlight gently filters through the tall pines and hemlocks on the point as a gentle breeze ruffles the blooms and leaves of the plants growing below. It’s an idyllic scene, but it’s also one that captures so many of the features Muskoka cottage […]

Hummingbird feeder

Meet the bird that keeps the hummingbirds fed before the flowers open We love to hang bright red hummingbird feeders to welcome these gorgeous birds when they arrive at the Muskoka cottage in May. But without flowers in bloom, how would they feed themselves without our help? The yellow-bellied sapsucker keeps them fed. You may […]

Gardening in planters

By Andrew Wagner-Chazalon Can’t contain your enthusiasm for gardening? Planters and pots are perfect for Muskoka cottage landscapes Containers and planters aren’t just an option for most Muskoka gardens: they’re essential. Lush planters filled with flowers at the end of the dock, window boxes overflowing with vibrant annuals, and creative containers artfully placed around the […]

Wildlife by camera

Trail cameras let you see what the bears, wolves, moose, and more are up to Every cottager wonders what goes on when you’re not there. Security systems can help deter human intruders, but the real fun comes when you set up a game camera to see which animals saunter through the property. Suddenly you can […]

Let your garden bring you joy

Need a boost to your mental health? A garden full of lush plants can help By Andrew Wagner-Chazalon When our spirits need a lift, we seek comfort in all kinds of places and things. But above all, we seek joy in our gardens. Whether it’s a sweeping landscape at a cottage in Muskoka or some […]

The migrating birds of spring

According to the birds, spring in Muskoka begins sometime in February and lasts well into the warm days of late May A lot of us think of bird migration as a single event, something that nature organizes as soon as the snow and ice are gone. It’s as spring begins the moment the first robin […]

Canoe or kayak Muskoka this spring

Spring paddling is a great way to get out on the lakes and see all that nature has to offer Spring is in the air, and boaters are starting to get enthusiastic. Keen anglers will already be getting their power boats out of winter storage, bundling up and heading out on the lake in pursuit […]

Blooms for nature in your flower garden

Annuals and perennials bring garden joy to the Muskoka cottage. And the natural world delights in flowers just as much as we do. All winter, our world was a sea of white. In spring, it turned to muddy brown with increasing splashes of green. But by late spring and early summer we want to see […]