Plentiful earthworms and water draws the thrushes and robins.
There’s More to Shrubs than Just Hedges
The "bones" of a garden are usually provided with two very different features: hardscape and shrubs. I'll leave the hardscape to another post and address shrubs for now. Layers I think the thing I find the most essential in a perennial border or garden space is variety of heights. Even when my garden was very... Continue Reading →
Bee “Arrival Sequence”
"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 →
Vancouver’s “City Bird”
This article, "City hopes bird strategy will take flight", appeared in today's Vancouver Sun. Apparently Vancouver aims to make the area increasingly bird-friendly, and city management will tell us how to do that. Which is what I've been writing about since I started RLGS. (Sorry for all the links--better than cutting and pasting.)
Is This YOUR Time to Plant a Tree?
Is it time to plant a tree? Treekeepers is a program established recently (2013) to encourage Vancouverites and locals to plant trees. And their strategy is to almost give them away ($10 each!). Go to the website for details. According to Steve Whysall in his column (Mar 24, 2014), the city of Vancouver planted 10,000 trees (just in Vancouver)... Continue Reading →
When to Start Your Spring Clean-Up
When to Start Your Spring Clean-Up Back in the Fall I wrote a post about NOT doing Fall clean-up. There are lots of reasons, not least is to leave some seed-heads for the birds. Well, it's mid-February, and the birds have eaten all the available seeds, and now there's a good reason to start your pre-Spring... Continue Reading →
Design a Wildlife Garden–Instalment Last
Design Your Wildlife Garden We've had an overview of the Wildlife Garden with "How to Design the Wildlife Garden". That covered a lot about Birds. Next were a bunch more B's--Planning Your Wildlife Garden--Bees, Butterflies, Beneficials. Finally, let's look at ponds and bogs. I've linked to NatureScape BC several times, and this is no exception: here's... Continue Reading →
Planning Your Wildlife Garden (cont’d.)
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 →
How to Design a Wildlife Garden
"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 →
Real Life Garden Solutions 