Growing Better Food in Outdoor Garden Beds: Improve Existing Soil
How can I improve my existing soil to grow more food? Year one is always the honeymoon period in your new raised food beds. Everything is perfect and you are thinking about writing a book about how easy it is to grow food in your front yard. Potatoes are large,...
In My Greenhouse: Food and pests
Pillbugs are so voracious, the wood in the planter is actually falling apart in some places. While Bob was filming I picked up a pillbug to show him and it started dropping live young. I was so shocked. I have never seen this before in my 40 years of gardening.
Ready For Garden Disasters: Response, Recovery, Restoration
Racoons, Rats and Snow in September. Three disasters for gardeners and what you can do to bring your garden back from the brink.
When a Good Bug Goes Bad: A Good Gardener Can Make it Right
I am watching ladybugs eat my aphids and I am patting myself on the back. And then I see it’s a bad version of a good bug. How can that be possible in my all-organic beautiful garden? Yikes. We all know and love lady beetles and children’s rhymes have even been written for them…”Fly away, fly away, fly away home…” But who knew a positive role model, known to eat aphids in our garden, could go bad? Like bunnies in Australia this beetle is snapping up habitat and pushing our own native beetles aside! Luckily, says Ken Fry, this bug is not everywhere. “This species is well established in the coastal areas of B.C., favouring humid environments. It is only rarely found in Alberta (too arid).” Find out more about how you can encourage native predators and why you should stop buying lady beetles for your garden.
