Garden Design, Garden Makeover, Garden Coach
Lots of plants are designated as "ground cover", because they do in fact cover the ground. If the whole object is to prevent weeds from falling on the soil and germinating, almost anything dense will do. But my own definition is limited to plants that are essentially living mulch (and you all know how much I... Continue Reading →
More About Trees Since I posted a few days ago about planting trees this year, I'm reminded about how easy it is to plant a tree badly (and how easy to not do the wrong things and do the right things instead!). I've written about this before, and another here, but from a slightly different viewpoint,... Continue Reading →
Favourite Things--Hedges I'm not generally a big fan of closing in a property with ultra-privacy screening. Tall fences, dense cedars and laurels--as we've seen before, they just say "KEEP OUT". I prefer the "come on in and have a look" style of garden design. Having said that, hedging isn't always a bad thing even for... Continue Reading →
5 Winter Questions It's the coldest day of the season. Everything that had started to grow in the warmth of January is turning to mush. My hummingbird feeder nectar froze in one hour. Clearly it's time to start thinking about how you'll spend your summer in the garden! Of course all my faithful readers will have read... 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 →
5 design tips for your hummingbird garden I'm obsessed. And like all obsessors, I'd love to drag other suckers into the vortex! Six years ago, when I moved into this house, I saw a hummingbird hovering around my Princess Alexandra rose. I went right out a bought a campsis radicans (red Trumpet Vine) reading that... Continue Reading →
5 Design Tips--Pruning Small Trees We usually think the beauty of trees is either their foliage or their flowers. But let's not forget structure, shape, limbs and bark. IMHO some of the most beautiful trees are the ones with interesting trunk or limb shape (such as this Acer dissectum from a previous post), or beautiful... Continue Reading →
So I'll recap the story. Ben's wife and little son have been gone all summer and are coming back in two weeks. He wants to do something nice for them and asks for a balcony design. This is one of my favourite balcony pictures: And because of its simplicity, that is the idea I gave... Continue Reading →
I used to think the concept of having a dry river bed in your yard was stupid, artificial, a waste of good planting space, pretentious, and lot of other adjectives I don't have to mention. But having had my vision expanded and exposed to lots more interesting features recently, I'm increasingly a fan. Of well... Continue Reading →
As promised, here's another instalment of 5 Great Containers, this time a variant on the formula--"One Tree, One small Evergreen, One tall Perennial, One fluffy Perennial, One Grass". I saw this amazing grafted Cotoneaster (some feel this is an artificial-looking device, but what is art but an artificial device?), and had to buy it. My original... Continue Reading →
Real Life Garden Solutions 