Hello everyone! I sent this out as an email but for my clients and followers whose email I don’t have, here is a short blog on fall garden chores. Although the gorgeous weather may be lulling us into a wishful summer mode, even the butterflies are still here, fall is upon us and there are garden chores to do! Now is the time to apply … Continue reading Fall garden chores
For all you fellow Canadians, if your red geraniums still look good but white petunias have faded, add some white mums and white pumpkins to your planters for an easy patriotic fall arrangement. Happy Thanksgiving to all in Canada!! 🙂 http://www.gardengraces.ca Continue reading Quick container makeover
Here we are in the third day of fall in southern Ontario and it’s a steamy 31 deg celsius (88 F). I have watered more in the last week than all of the summer! Annuals are blooming madly and the butterflies are still hanging about. A swallowtail on my lantana However, it is fall and time to plant bulbs, trim back dead summer leaves and … Continue reading Fertilizing 101. part 3: fertilizers for the fall
I started to write this blog and quickly realized it would be waaay too long if I write about both soil and fertilizer. So this one will be an introduction to soils and what makes a good soil. The backbone of a healthy and productive garden is the soil. It both supports and feeds the plants that grow in it. By far the best way … Continue reading Fertilizing 101, part 2: soils
As usual I am still mulling over the second part of fertilizing 101 but here is a quick snapshot of the life you can find in your garden no matter how small it may be. A monarch fueling up on a lantana bush An eastern black swallowtail larva on a dill plant A cicada When the cicadas sing, the temperature is usually 25 deg C … Continue reading Life in the Garden
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
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
Garden Graces 