Garden Design, Garden Makeover, Garden Coach
I subscribe to quite a few gardening and design blogs, one of my favourite being Northwest Edible LIfe. Today’s guest author on Erica’s blog is Grace Hensley of eTilth.com, who vegetable-gardens in 150 sq ft of space, which is just about how much room I’ve designated in my garden for edibles. You can go to… Continue Reading →
A BIG disclaimer to start with: I live in coastal BC, Zone 7b to 8b (depending on your micro-climate). So we have a big advantage when it comes to herbs–most common herbs will survive, even thrive through our rainy but seldom frosty winters (today notwithstanding). 1. Basil I’ll start with basil, because it’s a favourite,… Continue Reading →
Everyone seems to want to grow herbs. When I look at custom garden designs, many of them have a dedicated “herb garden”, often in a knot garden kind of look. Here’s a link to a detailed How To for an Herb Knot Garden, thanks to DIY Network . Personally, I prefer to have my herbs scattered among… Continue Reading →
Rodale’s water use infographic: It’s not a bad thing to review your water use, and it’s certainly a good thing to manage your garden responsibly. But I have a few comments about this graphic: Why would California governor Jerry Brown be proud if you were “growing nothing in your yard”? Not even a joke. I guess… Continue Reading →
Tomatoes! North America’s favourite home-grown vegetable. (Actually, it’s said it is “America’s” favourite home-grown vegetable, but I’m sure Canadians are as keen on home-grown toms as Americans.) Garden Tribe’s final day of Boot Camp focuses on tomatoes, and what a great ending (and how great that it’s ending!). And isn’t this a brilliant line: Some gardeners are… Continue Reading →
Herb Gardens. Boot Camp is almost done, and growing herbs is definitely the easiest way of getting going with your edible garden. I’ve written often about herbs, so I won’t re-hash everything here. A few quick notes: 1. Most of our popular herbs originate in the Mediterranean, so they like sunny exposures, but most, with the… Continue Reading →
It’s been TOO LOOONG since I last posted, so for the next little while I’m going to flood your inboxes with illustrated info. (Apparently hipsters love alliterations!) Garden Tribe is currently running a 21-day mini course on successful edible gardening. I’m taking it. And while I’ll be linking to the lessons, I’ll also editorialize here. The first day… Continue Reading →
Winter Blooms For the last few days I’ve had a surprise every time I step out the front door or return to the front door. An unexpected fragrance wafts up from somewhere, and I look around to see what it is. In fact the first day I smelled it–probably one week ago– it didn’t even… Continue Reading →
Mosquito Prevention–5 Things I don’t get a lot of mosquitos where I live, in fact, several of my windows don’t even have screens on them. But I hate a mosquito bite as much as the next person, so I was interested in a recent article about mosquito-repellant plants. Preventing an invasion, tho’, starts with knowing… Continue Reading →
Grasses in My Garden–no, not MY garden, though after looking at these pictures, I’ll definitely be adding some of them to MY garden–and YOURS. Admittedly, you need to have a fair sized garden to really appreciate these, and as you’ll see, located in such a place where you’ll SEE the flowers and seed heads backlit… Continue Reading →
Real Life Garden Solutions 