Garden Design, Garden Makeover, Garden Coach
I highly recommend Select Roses in Langley for Wet Coast-friendly rose selections. This weekend Mar 18-19 and Mar 25 2017) Brad Jalbert is doing a Rose Pruning session at the nursery, free-of-charge, just long enough to feel you've got useful information, but not so much that you're overwhelmed. This is what Brad says about rose pruning:... Continue Reading →
How To--Ornamental Grasses I wanted to post this several weeks ago, but then we had another dump of snow (haven't heard the stats, but more snow this winter than I've experienced in my many years here on the Wet Coast!) But it's now seasonably warm, the ice all gone and most of the snow, so I got... Continue Reading →
I'm re-learning a landscape-based CAD program--Dynascape. I haven't decided what to do about colour--whether to hand colour or invest in the colour plug-in. In the meantime, I'm enjoying learning...
Ornamental Grass Wreaths For all you crafty people out there who also have ornamental grasses in your garden, I suggest you craft some wreaths or swags with the flowers/seed heads of your grasses. Do a Pinterest search for Wreaths Ornamental Grasses to get an idea of what to do with these: Or Or any of your... Continue Reading →
Wisteria This article about Wisteria in Gardenista reminded me of an assignment I did in Landscape Design. I can't remember any details of the assignment except that the "client" wanted Wisteria growing up and over an arbour. One of the other students felt it was wrong plant wrong place and asked to just omit it, but the... Continue Reading →
I've stolen that expression from Darcy at egardengo and I hope he won't sue me for copyright infringement. The principle goes like this: the more valuable space a plant occupies in your garden, the more it has to perform for you and the less you should tolerate its shortcomings. For example: Here is the exquisite Rosemary... Continue Reading →
Irises The year I moved into this house I got irises from various friends. I thought I loved Iris, especially Bearded Iris, with their spectacular colours and falls and beards. Because they're so hardy, and drought tolerant, and need virtually nothing in the way of care, I planted them--more like "placed" them, since they don't... Continue Reading →
This stunning Japanese Maple at the Bob Prittie Library (Burnaby) looks better right now than almost any other time of the year. Yes, the fringe of red leaves and the lake underneath contribute. But even more than that is the blackness of the bark and the structure of the tree--now visible without leaves. Key to... Continue Reading →
It's been way too long since I last wrote a blog post, so I'm going to ease back into it slowly. With this: I was at the Nursery looking for who knows what when I spied this amazing specimen. It's Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide', a fall-winter blooming camellia, which, like most camellias, really likes our climate.... Continue Reading →
Lessons Learned I love almost everything about my little pond (about 10' x 7') but I certainly didn't build it perfectly. There's probably a reason people make their living creating ponds for people who can't do it themselves... Mosquitos Latest lesson is about water movement. Guess what? The movement of 1000 G per hour at... Continue Reading →
Real Life Garden Solutions 