Dandelion | Harbinger of Spring

Originally posted on Garden Variety:
This photo courtesy of wallpaperswide. Subsequent photos copyright by Mike Alexander. Our man in Europe, horticulturist Mike Alexander, on the season of the dandelion, the bane of gardeners everywhere. The dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is a perennial weed that plagues gardeners and grows on every continent on the planet, including Antarctica.…

Lavender Calibrachoa for container

Container idea: Super colour battling sizzle

Forecasters are predicting a long, hot summer. If we’re looking at a dry summer, too, that’ll also mean plenty of blazingly bright days. Luckily, you can still turn a deck or patio into a lush oasis despite the hot + dry + bright equation. One answer is wildly popular Calibrachoa hybrids, commonly known as million bells…

Container planting with pebble mulch.

Container idea: Broken mirror? Thank you very mulch

In this month’s issue of Sunset magazine, a feature on mulches for containers suggests using untumbled mirror. That’s little pieces of broken mirror. Hmmmm. The idea is kinda cool. For a combo of alien-looking succulents, why not have something metallic and shiny as a mulch? I figure if you don’t have kids or pets and…

Garden view through a window

Looking outside for gardening insight

The countdown to full-on gardening in Southern Ontario has started. But the ground is still frozen and our daytime temps are climbing. Very. Slowly. So, I’m still looking at the garden from inside the house and repeating to myself that, this spring, I’m going to plant some plants and arrange some containers out there to make the long…