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 [...]
With fall in the air, all gardeners’ thoughts turn to autumn planters – right? Like opening the closet to examine the state of our fall wardrobes, planning a container of autumn plants signals the change of season from the fun, but toasty days of summer, to the energizingly crisp cool days of fall. Each year [...]
Fall is in the air and you probably think it’s time I started writing about fall bulbs. Well, although I promise to do it soon, I’m not quite ready.That’s because I’ve just been re-introduced to the herb garden, which reminded me that fall is also a time for harvesting and preserving culinary herbs such as [...]
Are there naked ladies in your garden? Calm down, I’m not talking about nude gardening; I’m referring to flower bulbs that bloom in the fall.Naked ladies, also called autumn crocus and known botanically as Colchicum, are bulbs that can be planted right now that will bloom this fall – unlike other hardy bulbs, such as [...]
How and when did we start thinking that back-to-school time signals the change in seasons from summer to fall? Technically, summer is with us until September 22, so there’s a whole lotta summer left to enjoy. If you’re one of the many who think that June is the peak of the gardening season, listen up [...]
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