So here’s a question. Did you know flowers can hear very small sounds? Sure we’ve all heard that classical music makes plants grow better than heavy rock but seriously? Probably the first serious research to show the effect of sound on flowers was reported in National Geographic in January this year.
And that’s when I saw the flower shop. Big fluffy roses packed into luxurious bundles combined with a plant we usually eat for supper. Yes, it’s true. The roses were bundled with tall stems of colourful kale.
I felt like a fraud last week. I was having dinner with Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott and she was correcting my understanding of wood mulch depth around trees. For years I have been insisting on 4 inches (10 cms) of wood mulch at the base of trees in new landscape installations. She was disputing that…. so If you are using bark mulch tell me how much mulch you use. You may be surprised by Linda’s suggestion.
Last week started with a bang…. literally. My beautiful car crashed and is out of commission. But now it is sunny again, we have a rental car in the driveway and no one is injured. So, I am happy to be back in the garden cleaning up, harvesting and playing in my greenhouse.
Nancy and Darren have built picturesque flower frames and they call them Living Easels. Combining a found wooden frame plus rustic evergreen saplings for the easel poles, they made some beautiful garden decor. This blog post is a great big shout out to all the gardeners out there who are not only growing plants but growing beauty in their back yards. Nancy and Darren surprised me with their picturesque floral Living Easels and Tammy spruced up her strawberry pot with berries of a different kind.
There are so many kinds and they seem to be in endless rotation so I don’t even put clematis names on my consulting lists any more. Instead, I suggest you choose the ones you like when you find them. If it is early colour you need try the ones that bloom on old wood (Type #1) and never ever cut them back in fall. Instead cut them as soon as they finish blooming in the spring.
