Marjorie Harris

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Marjorie Harris (born 15 September 1937) is a Canadian writer of non-fiction, particularly in gardening.

Early life

Marjorie Kathleen Harris, nee Stibbards, was born in Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, the eldest of three children of Bernard and Kay Stibbards. Her father’s work as a Baptist minister led the family to move to many different places over the years, including Goose Bay, Labrador, and Vancouver, British Columbia. During the Second World War, she lived with her mother and siblings in Winnipeg, while her father was overseas as an air force chaplain. She attended McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and graduated with a B.A. in English in 1959. Ron Graham, “Force of Nature,” Toronto Life, July 1999, pages 64–69.

Writing career

Harris’s writing career began when she began working for Maclean’s magazine in 1966. She went on to be a freelance journalist for Saturday Night (magazine), Chatelaine (magazine), Weekend, The Canadian, Artscanada, Quest{{clarify|date=December 2023|reason=possibly Quest (lifestyle magazine)}}, Toronto Life, Financial Post magazine, Flare, and the Toronto Star, writing on topics including design, art, and feminism. In the 1970s, she was associate editor at Chatelaine for several years.

In 1988, she decided to focus her writing on gardening and plants, and began to write articles on the subject for the Toronto Star and Toronto Life. For her first gardening book, The Canadian Gardener, published in 1990, she and photographer Tim Saunders travelled across Canada, talking to dozens of gardeners to get their best advice. Leanne Hindmarch, “Gardening in the Great White North,” McMaster University, https://digitalcollections.mcmaster.ca/hpcanpub/case-study/gardening-great-white-north-marjorie-harriss-canadian-gardener

She was editor-in-chief of Gardening Life magazinehttps://www.thepaintboxgarden.com/visiting-marjories-garden/05-marjorie-harris-editor-gardening-life-2005/ and wrote regular columns on gardening for The Globe and Mail. Colleen Zacharias, “Thank God there is the garden,” Winnipeg Free Press, April 18, 2020.

Much of her writing has focused on her own garden in midtown Toronto, a narrow plot that she has cultivated carefully to make the most of the space.At Home with Canada’s Favorite Garden Writer, https://www.gardenista.com/posts/garden-visit-at-home-with-canadas-favorite-garden-writer/, Janet Davis, "Visiting Marjorie's Garden, The Paintbox Garden, August 6, 2019, https://www.thepaintboxgarden.com/visiting-marjories-garden/, Toronto Shade Garden, Garden Design, https://www.gardendesign.com/pictures/toronto-shade-garden_318/#7774 She strongly promotes ecological gardening principlesEcobeneficial podcast with Kim Eierman, https://www.ecobeneficial.com/audio/marjorie-harris/ and growing native plants that are adapted to Canadian conditions.What obsessive gardener Marjorie Harris has learned from a lifetime of growing, CBC Life, May 14, 2019, https://www.cbc.ca/life/home/what-obsessive-gardener-marjorie-harris-has-learned-from-a-lifetime-of-growing-1.5135911

Broadcasting career

Harris has written and produced documentaries for CBC radio. She had a radio host job at CBC Radio’s Metro Morning as “The Urban Gardener.” For many years, she was a regular guest on This Country in the Morning hosted by Peter Gzowski, a popular CBC radio program. In 2003, she appeared in the Recreating Eden TV series episode “A Perfect Life.” Recreating Eden: “A Perfect Life” (2003, Season 2, Episode 2) at IMDb. Harris has also created several short videos for YouTube aimed at home gardeners See, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oJtmQaZTmk, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twWx2qIOVUM and contributed gardening advice to CBC Life.https://www.cbc.ca/life/author/marjorie-harris-1.4667978

Awards

McMaster University Distinguished Alumni Awardhttps://alumni.mcmaster.ca/s/1439/17/interior.aspx?sid=1439&gid=1&pgid=2443

Personal life

Her first marriage was to television producer and musician Barry Harris; she has two children, Christopher and Jennifer. Currently, she lives in Toronto with her second husband, writer Jack Batten.