Just as many early to mid summer plants start to look a bit tired, the lavender bushes send up their beautiful blue spires with their unmistakable old-fashioned fragrance to lift the whole garden out of the doldrums. What a treat this plant is, easy care and totally reliable, it is also extremely drought tolerant which [...]
Final Thoughts:
“Shrubs in the garden, perennials from seed and garden surprises” by Mala Gunadasa-Rohling
A nice surprise greeted me one morning a couple of weeks ago - I looked out the window at the weeping willow that hangs over one corner of our garden from the neighbours (a very nice ‘borrowed’ plant) and saw that [...]
June In-Depth How-To:
Increase your vegetable production with Succession Planting
Many beginner gardeners plant their crops in the spring, harvest the vegetables, then clean up the garden and wait till next year to start all over again. It is very easy to get more enjoyment, not to mention more production out of your garden. Try succession planting [...]
Summer Book Review:
“Perennials for British Columbia”
by Alison Beck & Marianne Binetti.
Lone Pine Publishing
ISBN 1-55105-258-X
Softcover. 352 pages.
$21.95 CAD Suggested Retail Price
This new book from Lone Pine Publishing is the Canadian (British Columbia to be precise) edition of the gardening guide ‘Perennials for Washington and Oregon’, launched at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle, February [...]
It’s official - summer is here, although the rainy and cold weather that we’ve been having so far in Vancouver (and also in England if Chelsea coverage is anything to go by) wouldn’t let on to that fact…still, there is lots to do in the garden now, so out you go!
Start to sow quick maturing [...]
Even experienced gardeners can benefit by using some seedtapes - this is a super easy and fast way to sow seeds that are the perfect space apart every time (no more thinning, which is great for people like myself that can’t bear to remove perfectly healthy seedlings just because they are too close to another [...]
May and June are really the best months for many perennials, before the real heat of the summer cuts them short. Work in the garden takes on the familiar rhythm of seasons past, with some staking, potting up seedlings, preparing beds for annuals, planting out, etc etc. A busy time, but filled with promise and [...]
“Beneficial Insects - Part III” by Sharon Hanna.Lacewings are unmistakeable: pale green, with slender, elongated bodies, and two pairs of extremely delicate netted wings. Their larvae are similar to that of the ladybird beetle (ladybug), in that they resemble little dragons or alligators, except that they are beige with brown markings.
Adult lacewing
While adult lacewings require [...]
Reprinted with permission from the New York Institute of Photography website at www.nyip.com. All photographs on this page by Mala Gunadasa-Rohling.
Sunshine on the new buds and blossoms of a lavatera. (MGR)
It’s spring in many parts of the world. For those of us who spent the winter trapped inside, spring means, among other things, an irresistible [...]
With all the Millenium hype and the lack of holidays during the first part of this Canadian year, winter has been drearily dragging on and on and on.. But, I know spring is really here when the huge magnolia trees are ready to burst.
Magnolia stellata (Zone 4-9) has already peaked, but M. kobus (Zone 4-8), [...]