I love squirrels. Don’t get me wrong. They can be pretty cute. We’ve got a whole new spring crop of them living their best young lives in and around our back deck and their antics can be pretty entertaining. Until they get into my container plantings. Then, the love is gone. I was perusing some…
Just weeks ago, weather forecasts for warm sunny days were about as reliable as a used lawn mower at a yard sale (and yet so full of promise). And now? The heat is on. If you’re interested in bringing a touch of coolness–real or imagined–to your garden regardless of its size, I have some suggestions.…
One of my favourite flowering plants native to Canada is blooming its heart out right now. The Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor) is a semi-aquatic rhizomatous perennial that can be found in the wild from Southern Manitoba eastward into the Atlantic provinces. It blooms from May through July adding small explosions of vivid purplish blue…
For folks who love a little order in their lives, there is something very soothing about the checkerboard pattern. Graphic, precise and, well, neat, those lined up squares bring order to any underfoot situation. So it’s no surprise that checkerboard patterns in the garden have been around a long time (though not without some controversy,…
You know those Victorian-style wrought iron garden chairs – all curly cues and roses? I’m not a big fan of them. Despite their diminutive size with miserly seats not much larger than a dinner plate, they can weigh a ton. And as much as they’re designed to enhance a garden, beckoning guests to stay awhile,…
When my brother and I were kids we spent several formative years enjoying a backyard that had no lawn, a veritable forest of unclimbable trees, vast swaths of mulch (known back then as ‘beauty bark’) and an enormous cement patio. We were forever suffering from scrapes, bruises and splinters from this decidedly child-unfriendly garden. But,…
We’ve all read about how nature does remarkable things to help care for and nurture its own. Research reveals new and exciting examples of this every year it seems. I love how we can learn from these findings and actually mimic some of Mother Nature’s neat tricks when caring for our own gardens. A little…
Have you ever walked down a sidewalk and felt a real sense of community was happening there? Front yards can do that. It’s surprisingly easy to communicate either openness, inclusiveness and friendliness or just the opposite – various iterations of self-imposed isolation – by your front yard garden choices from fencing to flowers to adding…
Of all the colours you can find in a garden, orange can be the trickiest, I think. As hues go, it can glow brighter than red or yellow all the while doing more clashing than complementing. It’s very much a shout out colour. But that’s what also makes it a great colour to have in…
With April showers come May flowers and lots of bees (hopefully) to lap up nectar and do their pollinator thing. I always thought that whatever was served up in a flower was good enough for the average bee but it turns out that pollen and nectar aren’t great sources of moisture. Bees need sources of…
Is this the year you’re going to rip up your turf? Are you looking for an alternative ground cover that’s low maintenance, drought resistant and yet still delivers an eye-soothing swath of green where you once had a lawn? (Yes, I realize I’m sounding like a bad TV infomercial. I’ll stop now.) I’m really excited…
Gardeners have double vision, I think. You’ve got one view towards what’s happening in the here and now. But you’ve also got a picture in your mind’s eye of what will be happening months from now and even into the next season. One way we play out this balancing act is when we plant now…
A reader of Ministry Of The Fence recently asked me about what to add to the soil for planting a new fruit tree. She posed the question in the comments section of the post entitled “Tea And Bananas: Saving Water, Feeding Plants“. Her question got me thinking. Planting fruit trees is a tricky business but…
Primulas (aka primroses) are the poster flowers of spring with their carousels of blooms in every cheery shade imaginable swirling above rosettes of velvety green leaves. The cute, short varieties are such common spring-welcoming plants here in Canada that you’ll often find them at the grocery store (strategically positioned next to the cash registers to…
A friend of mine recently asked me whether I’d heard about this new method for growing seedlings. Evidently, the “seed snail” method was heating up Instragram. I had to find out more. And when I did, I wondered what you might think about it. A screenshot of the Instagram page introducing the Snail Method of…
Horticulturist, Arborist and Garden Columnist
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Saint Andrews Forest Farm Blog
a chat over the garden fence
There's always room for one more plant.
a little garden near Gawler
.....and nurturing my soul
Ministry of the fence 