Jeff Lowenfels travelled all the way from Alaska to Canada Blooms to dish the dirt on soil to Toronto gardeners — and I’m glad he did. His lecture on Wednesday afternoon was all about mycorrhizal fungi, protazoa, nematodes and bacteria. Yes, I’ve heard about these micro-organisms but never in such an entertaining way. Somehow, he [...]
To non-gardeners, bags of leaves left at the roadside are just so much waste material to be collected and disposed of by the city. But to the horticulturally cognoscenti, those leaves are plant duvets that keep the garden cozy all winter long. Like a deep blanket of snow, a four- to six-inch mulch of leaves [...]
As the cool winds of autumn usher out another gardening season, I can’t help reflecting on what I accomplished in the garden over this past summer. Although I planted lots of new perennials, potted up summer bulbs and separated clumps of flowers with clashing colours, what I’m most proud of is taking apart and cleaning [...]
Fall is my favourite season for a host of reasons. My Barracuda leaf vacuum and mulcher rates in the top 10 things I like about autumn. On crisp, sunny days, you’ll find me sucking up the fallen leaves from the linden in the front yard with my trusty Barracuda, or in the backyard chopping bags of [...]
Colourful bulbs are calling out to us from the shelves of garden centres and from the pages of mail order catalogues. Their siren sounds seem to say, “Buy me, plant me, water me and you’ll be rewarded with my spring beauty.”To succumb to these irresistible cries is to play into the hands of the squirrels. [...]
How did your plants spend their summer vacation? Walk out into the garden and take a look around. Have the Siberian irises crowded out the phlox? Are the stems of your yarrow lazily flopping over its neighbours? Has the centre of the your silvery artemisia browned-out? Did you notice how much smaller the peony flowers [...]
10.Give it an Edge Finish your spring spruce-up by edging flowerbeds. The easiest way is to dig a shallow trench between lawn and border using an edger (a half-moon shaped tool available at hardware stores). It may take time, but the payoff is a garden with a professional edge!
9.Rake it off Raking the lawn is not only a pleasant spring pastime, but it helps remove thatch buildup, which can weaken the roots of turf grass. Rake off the winter mulch from flowerbeds too, so they warm up faster. Reserve the mulch, mix it with compost and reapply as a top dressing in a [...]
8.Clean tools and pots Skip this task if you were good and cleaned, sharpened and oiled your shovels, secateurs and spades last fall. For those of us who put it off till spring, unearth abandoned gardening tools and forsaken containers, and clean them up so they’re ready for another season.
7.Weed, weed, weed Before they get out of hand, control annual weeds that germinate in the spring, such as crabgrass, purslane and lamb’s quarters, and perennial weeds that overwintered, including chickweed and wild mustard. Hand pulling is most satisfying, but there are organic herbicides and all manner of specialty tools available, like this dandelion puller [...]
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