Summer Gardening

This time of year everyone has a different question for me. Here are 3 quick facts that everyone should know about summertime gardening, thanks to your questions. Q: Why are my plants nice and bushy but no flowers? A: Use a fertilizer with a high middle number, like 20-52-20. The middle number promotes flowering. Q: …Read more About “3 Simple And Effective Ways To Get Better Results From Your Summertime Gardening”

Your plant tags and plant info from the internet may not be accurate. Let’s start with plant tags. The plants that are at our local nurseries are not all necessarily grown here in Ontario nor are the plant tags necessarily printed here or contain our Zone 5 growing information. Please keep that in mind and …Read more About “Facts Everyone Should Know About Plant Tags And Plant Info”

Canada Blooms 2013 was the best show I had seen in years. A lot of nice display gardens and the hardscaping booths were all creatively done. Here are some highlights:    

This is becoming a reasonable option for residential yards even here in Southern Ontario. Is this going to be the solution… …to keeping our “green lawns”?

I had the opportunity to attend a Toronto Botanical Garden tour in the Rosedale neighborhood. What an opportunity it was to see some mature and well established gardens and to see some newer and updated gardens in the area as well. Also some interesting hardscaping.  As many people ooh’d and aah’d at some of the …Read more About “A Peek Inside Rosedale Gardens”

Lilacs can have lovely long seasons depending on the weather. Here is picture of how to trim off the old blooms without damaging next years flower.                       I do recommend pruning off 1/3 of the shrub, like mentioned in previous posts, once the lilac has …Read more About “Techniques To Improve Lilac Pruning”

A hot trend that seems to be growing in popularity with the help from other trends, growing your own herbs and veggies, small backyard sizes and the convenience of container gardening. Vertical garden ideas and examples are everywhere. Here are a few that I have found on Pinterest.  

After reading an article in Garden Making magazine* regarding Ontario’s 2009 ban on cosmetic pesticides, it’s obvious the debate between pro-pesticide and anti-pesticides will continue for awhile. As will the concern, not only for our personal lawns but for the many parks and public lawns that we have grown used to being beautifully green, manicured …Read more About “Do You Really Need A Lawn? This Will Help You Decide!”

Alternatives to a lawn…   Read more about lawn free spaces and see more of my designs in my blog post:  “Do You Really Need A Lawn? This Will Help You Decide!”