by Donna | Feb 8, 2017 | Bugs & Buggers, GARDENING
Do you wish you could change the world? Make a real difference to your friends and family and to the little creatures like bees who seem so innocent, so fragile? I found out last week that we can do it. We can change our world by changing our garden.
But it’s not what you think. I am not going to insult you and tell you to plant flowers or herbs to attract pollinators to your yard because if you are on my page you are already a gardener and the plants you grow do exactly that. They attract bees.
by Donna | Feb 6, 2017 | Food, Greenhouse
“It’s too heavy grandma” 4 year old grandson Rupert complained when asked to hold my cauliflower for a photo-op last year. I didn’t have the same problem this year, that’s for sure.
I have been gardening and writing about gardening for thirty years so I was basically bragging about growing the biggest and best cauliflower crop ever. Until I flunked out.
by Donna | Feb 2, 2017 | GARDENING, Soil
After seeing a photo of Barry Furneaux in the Qualicum Beach newspaper I had to visit him. He had raised a 14 pound cabbage (one of many) and it was featured prominently in the news in late October. So of course I had to visit and find out the secret to Barry’s success. I found out secret #1 – Steve Solomon’s Book (The Intelligent Gardener, New Society Press) and secret #2, his homemade compost. After making a fatal mistake with his compost one year, Barry now makes compost in the fall in a very strategic way following advice from Steve Soloman.
by Donna | Jan 30, 2017 | Bugs & Buggers, GARDENING
So I’m in the greenhouse this morning looking at my plants and of course admiring them and smiling and then I see two slugs curled up together. On a leaf. A broccoli leaf. So of course I run for my camera and here is the evidence of slugs at work: mating.
by Donna | Jan 26, 2017 | GARDENING, Soil, Trees & Shrubs
What kind of nutrients do falling leaves really have? Are they just drained out empty shells of their former selves? Answers vary.
Some older studies show commercially collected fallen leaves in urban centers contained nasty elements such as lead and cadmium because the tree leaves were swept up by machine along with portions of lead-contaminated soil.
by Donna | Jan 24, 2017 | Bugs & Buggers, Food, VIDEOS
Dear Donna
To-day we noted a dense infestation of red bugs on one of our ‘pseudo sunflower plants’ – with a ‘pseudo-ant-like’ appearance.
The picture shows the poor growth with the ’enemy’.
