Light up the spring garden with easy-to-grow early spring flowering shrubs like azaleas, lilacs, forsythia, and fothergilla. These spring stunners provide eye-catching flowers for you as well as pollen and nectar for the early bees and beneficial insects. While certain spring shrubs can grow quite large, many of newer cultivars are extremely compact, making them perfect for small space gardens or tucking between perennials.
Read More »The best early spring flowering shrubs for your garden
Mulch calculator: How to determine the amount of mulch you need
Mulching is an essential spring chore for every gardener. Whether you’re mulching the vegetable garden to cut down on watering, dressing up your flower beds, or hoping to keep weeds at bay in shrub plantings, it’s important to know how much mulch you need for the job. Getting stuck with too little mulch – or worse, too much! – has caused plenty of gardeners to scratch their head in confusion. This article introduces mulch calculator formulas you can use to purchase the perfect amount of mulch for your garden each and every time. Continue Reading
Read More »Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ and other tickseed varieties that will make a cheerful splash in the garden
Coreopsis ‘Zagreb’ is a dependable, drought-tolerant perennial in my front yard garden. I bought a couple of tiny plants at a native plant sale a few years ago because my first house had them in the garden. They have since spread into a decent little sunny swath of yellow, surrounded by lavender, catmint, and black-eyed Susans. I’ve since discovered many varieties of coreopsis—‘Solar Dance’ is in my list of favourite yellow perennial flowers.
Read More »The best herbs to start from seed for garden beds and containers
The first seeds I ever started were herbs: basil, lemon balm, chamomile, and parsley. I was amazed at how easy it was to grow my own herbs and quickly caught the gardening bug. In the below article, you’ll discover my favorite herbs to start from seed. Many popular culinary herbs are a snap to grow from seeds that are started indoors or direct seeded, but others are better purchased as transplants. Why? Some, like thyme are super slow to grow from seed while others, like mint, have varieties that don’t come true to type when grown from seed. Read on to discover the best herbs to start from seed.
Read More »Weeping Alaskan cedar: An elegant, easy-to-grow evergreen tree
Some horticulturists might have trouble choosing a favorite evergreen tree. Not me. If you ask, I won’t hesitate to tell you the evergreen tree I adore above all others is the weeping Alaskan cedar. Botanically known most commonly as Chamaecyparis nootkatensis (or occasionally by its newer genus, Xanthocyparis), this tree is a winner in every sense of the word. I’d like to tell you more about the weeping Alaskan cedar in hopes that you’ll fall in love with it, too. Continue Reading
Read More »New plants for 2020 gardens
One of the perks of being a garden writer is I sometimes get to trial new plants and seeds a year before they appear in retail nurseries, garden centres, or catalogues. I may also spot a striking specimen in other trial gardens a year or two before they’re released, or watch someone in the plant world tease new varieties in a talk. And at some point in any given year, my inbox starts to receive sneak peeks at new plant introductions. By the time the growing season rolls around, I’m usually pretty prepared to make recommendations—and seek out my favourites for my pots and plots.
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