Cultivating curiosity and confidence
Thinning carrots is one of those tedious garden tasks that, although necessary, isn’t much fun. But why do we need to thin carrots anyway? It’s because carrot seeds are very small and it’s easy to accidentally plant them too thickly when sowing the tiny seeds. If carrots are spaced too close together, there isn’t enough room to develop large healthy roots and they may become stunted or misshapen.
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If you’re a gardener or homeowner with a lot of shade on your property, you may find yourself struggling to find plants that thrive and bloom with minimal sunlight, especially when it comes to shrubs. While there are many colorful flowering perennials and annuals for shade, there are far fewer shrubs with vivid blooms for shady conditions. Today, I’d like to introduce you to 16 flowering shrubs for shade to fill your landscape with color from early spring through fall. There’s even a shrub for shade that blooms in the winter on this list!
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In my first home, I dug out a wee little veggie garden in the backyard. That first spring, I planted cucumber seedlings alongside a few other edibles, like tomatoes and peppers. For some reason, the squirrels focused on my cucumber plants. Every morning I’d go out and a seedling had either been dug out or snapped in two. More than once I caught a squirrel in the act. I would run out the back door shouting (I’m sure the neighbours wondered what my problem was!). This was the beginning of my ongoing quest to find tips on how to keep squirrels out of your garden.
While growing vegetables is my passion, I also grow a cut flower garden because I enjoy having a non-stop supply of beautiful flowers to harvest for homegrown bouquets. And while many plants are grown for their flowers – perennials, biennials, bulbs, and even edibles – annual flowers like zinnias and sunflowers are among the most popular type of cut flowers grown by gardeners. They’re productive, easy to grow, beautiful, and can be planted in gardens or containers.
Lilies are among the most recognizable of all summer garden flowers. Their large, bright flowers suit all types of gardens, whether classically designed, rustic, cottage-style or contemporary. While some folks might think lilies are too old-fashioned for today’s gardens, the truth is that there are dozens of modern hybrid varieties of lilies that offer color, elegance, fragrance, and a whole lot of style to today’s landscapes. Read on to discover 8 of my favorite types of lilies, and see why these glorious blooms deserve a prominent place in every garden.
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With lots of sunny spots in my front and backyard, I love gathering my container plants for full sun to put together my pots each year. I like to amass a whole bunch of annuals with various textures, blooms, and foliage before figuring out what will go where. I visit nurseries, my local grocery store’s garden center, and plant sales. I enjoy starting some annuals from seed, and I usually receive a few trial plants, too. My list of favorites grows each year. Here are some examples of what I like to grow.
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