Vegetables in a beautiful bouquet?
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.
How Much Mulch Do Trees Need?
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.
Happy in the Garden Oct 8 – 14
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.
Garden Decorating 2018
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.
A Few Quick Notes on Clematis
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.
Shrubs With Blooms: Attract Pollinators
Yes we all love early blooming alpine flowers and summer-long showy annuals. But sometimes it is the humble shrub that wins praise with its fantastic blooms and ability to welcome the world of pollinators. When I walked outside and saw my ninebark ( Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Tiny Wine’) in bloom I was surprised by the range and number of bees attracted to the flowers.
