Garden Design, Garden Makeover, Garden Coach
It's been so long since I posted here, I'll have to ease back into it gently. So here's a little video of one of my favourite shrubs--Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'Victoria'. If you're looking for an evergreen, low-maintenance, honey bee and other pollinator attractor, you couldn't do better.
I just read this in Friday's Burnaby Now: "Burnaby Subsidizing Pricey Bug Packages". Isn't that a great heading? Even I, who has lawns on the brain, having just finished a new project with lawn in the front and the back, and having ripped up my front grass for reasons that will become apparent, didn't clue in... Continue Reading →
"Arrival Sequence" is an expression used by some designers (not me I'm afraid, I'm far to common for that) to refer to the approach to your house--how you get there, what you see as you're getting there, and what you see and experience once you're there. That's my artsy way of introducing this bee. This is... 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 →
Steve Whysall (Vancouver Sun gardening columnist) wrote a great article in Friday's paper entitled Six Ways To Keep Your Garden Looking Great. He interviewed Egan Davis, the chief instructor of the Horticultural Training Program at the University of B.C. Botanical Garden, but formerly at Van Dusen Botanical Garden, and one of my Master Gardener instructors. So I'm... Continue Reading →
Last month I covered the basics of planning your wildlife garden: Water. Food. Shelter. Don't use pesticides. Do plant some natives (NatureScapeBC.ca is a great resource)--here's a short list of natives for various garden sites. Include a wide variety of plants--flowers, deciduous and evergreen shrubs, ornamental grasses, but enough of all to actually make a statement.... Continue Reading →
"If You Build It They Will Come" First of all, why should you bother with a "wildlife garden"? Providing habitat for native critters will not only benefit them, but you as well. The more diversity you have in your garden the more you'll appreciate it and get out into it. Which as you know from... Continue Reading →
Fall Clean up--What not to do. It's pretty late to be talking about fall clean up, but today it's still sunny, and pretty cold for coastal BC (-1 right now), and it's Sunday. So there might be a feeling that it's now or never to clean up the garden. Make it "never"--or at least make... Continue Reading →
Mostly we hate bugs. Unless they're Pixar bugs. We don't want ants in the house (never mind cockroaches!) Spiders are just plain awful, and beetles look intimidating. But in fact, none of them are bad for the garden. So here are a few (of the many) bugs that we can happily live with. Spitbug Inside... Continue Reading →
Real Life Garden Solutions 