Are you starting a garden in Kitsilano this year? Whether you are thinking of a container garden for your patio or restocking your front yard, there are many things to consider before you start buying plants. I’ll touch on some of these topics in the next few articles. A primary challenge in creating a satisfying perennial garden is determining what pleases you. Discovering what you want, then making that a reality. What is your version of a perfect garden? Let’s…
Helleborus Harvey Hybrids. Photo credit: M. Brehaut With Daylight Savings Time newly in place for another season, spring is very close. In anticipation, we are having a giveaway. Up on offer is one of the two hellebores shown, and a gift certificate for $50 to the Natural Gardener Garden Store. If you are new to gardening, you might spend the money on a pot, some soil and a trowel so you can plant your new hellebore. If you are an…
Can you feel it? Spring is coming. Everyone has signs that one looks for, signs that indicate the end of winter and the appreciated hint of another season of sun and warmth. My husband looks for the light. “Can’t you see it?” he asks me – it looks like yesterday’s light to me. But my early pretty little things, these I notice. They start coming up and I start hoping for spring.
It’s a quiet time of year for this gardener – while the weather is mild, possibly promising an early spring, and the snowdrops are starting to bloom, I remain a bit detached from my garden. I know I will be drawn in soon, but not quite yet. Thankfully, there are a few things to look forward to… The Vancouver Hardy Plant Group is having its Spring Study Day on Saturday, Feb 16, holding it at the H.R. Macmillan Space Centre.…
At this point in the year, I have most of the front garden stripped down – the dahlia tubers are tucked in, and the foliage that does not age well, chopped and composted. It will be another couple of months before I see anything approaching an early spring display. But I do feel as though I still have a garden out front – I just have to look a bit harder for the beauty.
Before we moved into this house, my husband and I spent years in an apartment in the Arbutus/York area of Kits. Our ground level patio faced north. We turned it into an abundant container garden that started us gardening and kept us happy. There are advantages to gardening in pots. You can do a little or a lot. You can adjust the soil composition for the needs of each plant. And you can move things around, depending upon the season…
In many urban lots, there are two passageways from the front to the back garden – one side is used and the other tends to be too narrow and congested and is generally avoided. Certainly that has been the case with our house and circulation patterns. Along our west side path, we have three Styrax japonica (Japanese snowbell), lots of oxalis, and a large white Clematis montana that had been creeping up the side of the house. It is a…
I love Hallowe’en. It is my favorite seasonal event. Everyone is excited and happy, it involves candy, and most of the adornment takes place in the garden. Autumn shades of dark and orange complement pumpkins and various night creatures, all of which gather together for a final celebration before the serious business of wet fall and winter. Here are a few images, with ideas for transforming your front garden into some place very scary: Lawns make an ideal spot to…
Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’ I expect to learn a great deal this weekend at the Vancouver Hardy Plant Group Study Day. My own yard is another great educational centre. Here are a few of my recent lessons, taught to me by my plants. 1) Sneezeweed is one of the plants you can ‘chelsea chop’ in order to delay the blooming and encourage the plant to produce more blooms on slightly shorter stalks. The phrase means lopping off the top third of…
I believe we are all vibrantly creative and it is for us to find our medium. I have discovered that I can be creative through the design of my garden: what I will plant and what I will place there. Art in the garden is one way to express who you are. Custom made pieces can be the focal point of an entire space. Having something made for you that you have imagined is a very personal experience. Placing that…
