Garden Design, Garden Makeover, Garden Coach
A Better Lawn There are a lot of issues involved in keeping a pretty lawn here in coastal BC. First of all, the explosion of European Chafer Beetle in the last 8 years has seen many lawns decimated as tho' someone had taken a rototiller to them. Next there's "summer dry" (can't call it "drought" when... Continue Reading →
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 →
CHAFER BEETLE DAMAGE Female chafers lay 20-40 eggs over their lifespan. They are laid singly, 5–10 centimetres (2.0–3.9 in) deep in moist soil, and take 2 weeks to hatch. The grubs hatch by late July. In frost zones, the grubs feed until November, then move deeper into the soil. In frost-free areas, the larva will... Continue Reading →
Googled "Garden Solutions" (still haven't found RLGS after 17 pages :-(), and found a great Pinterest Board called "Garden Solutions". ...on which was this picture: Unfortunately the link was just to the picture instead of the article, so that's all you get here as well. But then you've also got my article, so you're all set!... Continue Reading →
The pictures of turf on the package of grass fertilizer is ultra-high maintenance, and unless you're a golf-turf manager, you'll never achieve it. It needs watering, weeding, fertilizing, liming; top-dressing with compost, overseeding; receives lots of harmful chemicals to weed-and-feed (golf course turf isn't subject to the same restrictions as homeowners), and needs a team... Continue Reading →
What's your soil like? Here are some of the possibilities: Clay-ish: rich in nutrients, but very fine particles, so it clumps together so much that there's no air spaces between particles. Doesn't drain very well. Sandy-ish: almost no nutrients, but very large particles, so drains very well. So well in fact it's hard to keep... Continue Reading →
I remember reading a few years back that grass seed mixtures, up until 50 years ago, always contained a percentage of white clover (Trifolium repens, also known as Dutch clover). The chemical companies that developed herbicides managed to persuade lawn growers that seeing white clover in their lawns was a bad thing, and consequently, the... Continue Reading →
Real Life Garden Solutions 