Most of us know that plants create their own food through photosynthesis, in the presence of light and chlorophyll, carbon dioxide and water are combined to make sugar and oxygen. Sugar is then converted to starch in order to store the energy. Plants also need various macro and micronutrients derived from the soil in order to thrive, bloom and reproduce. The three most important macronutrients … Continue reading Fertilizing 101, part 1
Daylilies are the workhorses of the plant world. Dependable, tough, low maintenance, generally well behaved and the latest varieties are anything but dull! They have come a long way from the old orange daylilies that you see growing along the roadside and marking out the outlines of long gone homesteads, yet have retained that long lived tenacity from their orange ancestor. Now you can get … Continue reading Dashing and Dependable Daylilies
Colour and colour combinations are a very personal choice and when clients ask me to do what “I think looks good” because they don’t know, I make sure to get a feel of the colours they like. I look at their interior colour schemes, deep jewel like tones or pale neutrals and carry that out into the garden. Make sure the colours harmonize or alternatively … Continue reading Summer Colour Combos
With the ongoing concern about declining bee populations, I am still surprised by the number of clients who don’t want “flowers” that attract bees. They are afraid of being stung and lump any flying buzzing insect under bees. In reality it is more often wasps that sting, not bees, so todays blog is how to identify the “bad guys from the good guys” Honeybees on … Continue reading Bee Not Afraid
Happy Canada Day!! http://www.gardengraces.ca Continue reading Canada Day
I keep meaning to write a blog but am lured by the siren song of the garden!! The weather is glorious for the moment, the first roses are opening even before the paeonies! Even in my small suburban garden, nature moves to her own rhythm. A swallowtail butterfly visits my Korean lilac bush every spring. The bumblebees adore my double columbines aptly named Granny’s Bonnets … Continue reading Trapped by the garden
Crazy, crazy weather, global warming and we’re having one of the coldest, wettest Mays in a long time here in southern Ontario with serious flooding in eastern Ontario, Quebec and around Canada. In spite of the cold and rain, the spring blooms march on with the big players blowing their trumpets…tulips and daffodils. Even though I’m Dutch, I’m not a big fan of the large tulips … Continue reading The Big Players
