Calgary Garden Coach

Gardening with Kids article in the Calgary Horticultural Society's magazine

If you're a member of the Calgary Horticultural Society (and if not, why not?), you will be receiving the latest magazine this week, with a "Gardening with Kids" article by me!  Let me know what you think!

PS. I don't usually post photos of my kids on the blog but these photos are all several years old and the girls don't even really look like this any more, so I figured it was OK.  It is fun to showcase my girls, for a change, in the garden playground I have created for them.  Feel free to gush about how gorgeous they are!

front entry garden design - planning for multiple views

While there was nothing I wanted more than to take down those two giant spruce trees in my front yard, that doesn't mean I'm done.  Nope, I plan to put in native, low-maintenance shrubs and drought-tolerant perennials to fill the space!  The stumps haven't even been ground out yet but I've been busy planning already.

But how to plan a garden that is seen from multiple views?  This garden will be viewed from about 270^o and that makes for a big challenge.  Plus there are specific purposes that must be achieved.  The neighbour's house and the rain barrels need to be screened from view as you come up the front walk.  The trucks parked on the street need to be screened from the living room window.   You get the idea.  For these reasons, getting the placement of trees and shrubs right is key. 

So I was outside on the week-end, moving cut pieces of tree trunk around to mark out where I wanted to plant trees and shrubs, then standing back and viewing the stumps from multiple directions, to get their placement just right.  It is a very helpful trick!  For markers, pots or anything easily visible from a short distance would also work.  And then of course, you can take pictures and draw on them to help visualize the end result:

Above: As you come up the walk, a large juniper and several Saskatoon shrubs will help screen your view of the neighbour's house.  A nannyberry shrub will be planted in the shadier corner to help hide the rain barrels.  Ah, that's better!

Above: As you get closer to the front steps, or as you come around the path from the other side of the house, those same Saskatoon shrubs will provide a backdrop for the little sitting area and birdbath.

Above: And those same shrubs will also help screen the view of the street from inside the house.  Some blue oat grass will also provide some eye-catching colour and texture to distract your eye from the street.

Okay.  Now I'm dying for spring.

 

garden planning - 10 ingredients of a beautiful winter garden

I spend a lot of time in winter, staring out my windows, analyzing the structure of the garden and conceiving of changes to be made in the next year.  Houzz just posted on this topic, and started with the statement:

"Winter is the best time of year to take stock of your gardens and plan for the future. It's the time of year when gardens are laid flat, exposing their bones and allowing you to see the base of their structure. Take advantage of this time to restructure your design, order new plants or start plans for new hardscaping."

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/1006984/list/10-Ingredients-of-a-Beautiful-Winter-Garden

Some of the gardens featured on Houzz are a wee bit over-the-top for the average person, but nevertheless, check out their photos, drool a little, and think about how you can apply the principles inyour garden!

For me personally, I am really enjoying the view of my new trellis out the dining room window (above).  The snow makes it especially nice since you can't see that those chairs are actually fronted by an unfinished pit of mud, rather than by the nice patio that I didn't get to completing last year!

So now you know what (some of) my plans are for this year!  What are yours?

"You need more green!" - a colour scheme for the front garden

Do you have a colour scheme for your garden?  In general, I have not bothered with this in the past.  For example, I've stuck to warm colours in the Butterfly Potager, to give it a close, more intimate feel, and cool colours in the Adventure Garden, to make it look bigger, but that's about the extent of my colour adventures.  I just find it way too hard to control myself when it comes to sticking to specific colours in my own garden, and instead I tend to focus on textures, using plants that suit the spot in terms of light and moisture requirements only.

But, I admit, a colour scheme can really tie things together and take your garden up a notch.  So, after taking a 'Colour Theory for Gardeners' class last spring with Sue Gaviller, who I also had over to consult on my garden, I was convinced to give it a shot in the front garden.  She used my garden as an example in her class, and put together the figure above to show the colour scheme she devised. What do you think?  But wait, let me back up and give you the background:

Her first reaction, after coming over and seeing my blue house, and the towering blue-green Colorado spruce trees in the front yard, was "You need more green!"  Green is considered a neutral in gardening colour schemes because your eye expects to see it.  And it is a wonderful, restful colour.  But what with the house and trees, and no lawn, I had shockingly little green in my front garden.  Sue suggested sweeps of 'Calgary Carpet' junipers and lots of dogwoods to provide the restful green colour.

As for colour combinations, finding one for my front garden was rather difficult owing to the existing blue and red of the house, and the existing blue-green of the spruce trees.  These colours do not fit into a traditional colour scheme (eg. complementary colours, triad, tetrad, split-complementary, etc.)  So, Sue got creative and used the Munsell colour circle (with 10 hues, rather than the more commonly used artist's colour wheel which has 12 hues) to come up with a double complementary colour scheme of blue, blue-green, red, and orange (shown above.)

To demonstrate, she included the following plants in the figure above (left to right, top to bottom): my own Colorado spruce, dogwood 'Arctic Fire', ninebark 'Coppertina', heavy metal switchgrass, globe blue spruce, heuchera 'Peach Melba' or 'Southern Comfort', blue chip juniper, hosta 'Halcyon', blue oat grass, heuchera 'Mahogany', echinacea 'Tomato Soup', daylily 'Strawberry Candy', corydalis 'Blue Panda', heucherella 'Sweet Tea', and Kinnikinnick in the background of the bottom corner.  Of course, there are many other perennials that would work as well.

I think it looks great.  I'd add some white as well, to make sure things don't look too heavy, but otherwise I love it!  But the question remains, can I discipline myself enough to stick to it?  Well, first of all, I'm not going to just take out all of my existing plants and start from scratch - too expensive, and, well, I'm just too attached to some of them.  So I'm going to start slowly by moving some of the big clashers to other areas of the garden and by making sure any new plants I add fit into the new colour scheme.  Another reason I'm going to take it slowly is that I'm not totally convinced that I want every single plant to fit the colour scheme perfectly - I prefer a more natural look that says "this plant wanted to be here" rather than a highly designed look that says "the designer wanted this plant to be here".  Maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough in my tastes yet.  So it will be interesting to see how my tastes change (if they change) as I start to modify the existing garden.

 
For example, in this picture above from last summer, you can see I'd already added a small ninebark 'Coppertina' out front, which relates really well with the reddish-brown on the house.  But the purplish-blue of the catmint... not so much.  When you compare this garden photo with the colour scheme figure, top, it is obvious the catmint clashes.  Dang!  That's one of my favourite plants!!

This is going to be hard.

design plans for a new backyard garden

Here is a client's backyard.  She is lucky enough to have the opportunity to do a major re-do of the garden design, thanks to having had weeping tile installed next to the house this past summer.  She's also extremely lucky to have some mature trees and shrubs already in the back corners of her yard.  The trees provide structure, create privacy, and help disguise the sharp angles of the back fence corners.  Now she just needs a good layout to tie everything together.

Above (l -> r, top -> bottom), you can see the burgandy-leaved Schubert chokecherry in the back left corner, a few shrubs across the back, and a crabapple tree in the back right.  There's also a small patio behind the house, and a large lilac shrub on one side, but the yard is completely bare closer to the house due to the construction.

So the first step is to decide on a garden layout, keeping the mature trees and a large lilac (shown below.)  Here are some simple sketches of a few design possibilities:

 

Above: This design features two circles of lawn, with garden filling the surrounding areas. To keep lawn maintenance to a minimum, the smaller circle could be mulched with shredded bark.  I really like the idea of having a small, secluded getaway in that back right corner of the yard, under the shelter of the existing crabapple tree.  I could totally picture two adirondack chairs tucked in there.  An arch at the intersection of the two circles would provide a nice focal point and really separate the two areas (and could easily be added at a later date as time and budget allow.)  A couple of shrubs on either side would make that smaller circle feel like a different "room."  Personally, this is my favourite design as the circles provide such a strong shape to the garden.

Above: The second design is similar to the circle design, but with a looser, more amorphous shape that doesn't look so "designed."  I would still put mulch, an arch, and some chairs in the smaller "room".

Above: Many people tend to put straight garden beds around the perimeter of their yard, with a rectangular lawn in the middle.  This is not my preference but if the beds are at least three feet deep then you at least have the opportunity to provide some depth to the garden.  Having the stepping stones and a focal point will make things more interesting.  The pathway could be incorporated into the lawn or garden (currently shown in the lawn) depending on one's garden/lawn maintenance ratio preferences.  The semi-circular area at the back of this garden design could be mulched, and would provide a nice space for a focal point such as a bird bath, large urn or bench.

Above: The oval lawn is my second-favourite choice.  Similar to the circles, it provides a strong, shape that defines the garden well.  I always tell people that the border between your lawn and garden is the "line" that your eye sees, so it is the key thing that defines the garden.  Here the long axis of the oval is on a diagonal to make the yard seem bigger, and again a bench or some chairs could be placed under the tree to make an inviting spot that beckons you into the yard.

This client is a gardener who likes to "play" in her garden by moving things around and trying things out.  She doesn't want a detailed planting plan, so she just needs to pick a design first, then we will add a few key shrubs and ornamental grasses to the design to provide some year-long structure. 

Which design would you pick?

 

the front Entry Garden - big plans for next year!

 My front entry garden has been in a state of transition all year.  Back in spring I dug up the existing garden and laid these bricks out temporarily to see how the layout would feel. After one season I am very happy with it - the chairs are in a sunny spot for morning coffee and have been well-used despite the unattractive dirt-pit they currently rest on.  Next year I hope to put in a permanent patio using recycled bricks.

I spent some time last year coming up with a new plan for the front garden (posted here), but after I had Sue Gaviller help me with the backyard design, she gave me some good ideas for the front, too, some of which you can see I have already started to implement.  That's her drawing, above.  Here is what she suggested and why:

• kept the overlapping circles theme but moved the circles to one side so that there can be a seating area without blocking access to the front door,
• nixed my idea of staining the existing concrete (click here and scroll down), but suggested just laying a soldier course of brick on either side of the existing walk, and choosing a brick that would be close to the chimney brick colour, for continuity.  She thought the idea of trying to stain concrete to match an existing brick colour was just too risky, and she's probably right,
• suggested putting down gravel mulch in the smaller circle with the bird bath in it, so that the grey of the existing concrete path had something to relate to.  All awesome ideas!  Thank you Sue!

As is a recurring theme in my garden, I have to get rid of a few more trees before I can make all this happen.  It is not obvious from the usual views I post of the front yard, but I actually have 4 spruce trees here (used to be 5!), not just 2.  The other two, as you can see in the view above, are too close to the house, too close together, very spindly, and ugly.  They've already been limbed up (lower branches cut off) otherwise I wouldn't even have a front yard at all and I wouldn't be able to see out my living room windows.  It is impossible to grow anything near these trees and you can see I am not even trying to at the moment - there is nothing but bare mulch in this area. 

I have been taking down a tree or two every couple of years in my very overgrown, mature yard.  I can't get rid of them any faster due to the cost (they are huge!) and a husband who is very resistant to taking down trees even if they are ugly and planted in an inappropriate spot.  But I can't live with these 2 ugly trees much longer. (Bonus: the neighbour has beautiful trees and getting rid of my 2 spruce will open up the view to his beautiful, mature crabapple and mountain ash trees!)

Winter project: convince hubby these 2 trees have to go by spring.  And no, I don't feel guilty about it!

PS  Those snowflakes on the window in the top photo are left over from a Narnia birthday party we had a month ago.  The kids don't want to take them down.  What can I say, this is a reality garden blog!  No professional photo-staging going on here!

the back Shade Garden in mid-September

Now that I'm done the painting I'm trying to finish up last minute garden tasks while there's still time.  One main fall task that is always on my September to-do list is to re-edge the border between lawn and garden, as it makes a nice, clean line to look at in the winter times when there's no snow cover (a frequent occurence here in Calgary!)  This year I'm also cutting out a bit out of the back lawn to give it a new shape according to the arc-and-tangent design theme I told you about in spring.  A defined shape that looks as if it was designed, rather than randomly applied, really does make a huge difference in pulling the garden together!

Here's what this corner looked like before:

ornaments in the garden - the "let it touch" rule

Garden ornaments always seem to look better when they've got a little bit of foliage touching them.  It's almost like Mother Nature says "Oh yeah, you think that thing looks nice?  That's nothing! Let me show you what I can do!"  Of course, Nature is probably much more polite than that.  She doesn't need to be competitive, she just works her magic.

the North Patio Project, phase 2 complete!

So this is why I haven't had much time to blog (or garden, for that matter) lately.  Hubby has been doing building projects and I've been on babysitting duty!  Here is the pergola screen we built in the spot where the greenhouse used to be (phase I was taking down the greenhouse LAST YEAR... things don't get done very quickly around our house!)  While nothing would be big enough to totally screen our view of the neighbour's house, my plan is that this spot will be so beautiful that it will distract you from noticing that window up there.  I think it is already much prettier to look at than this...

 

... greenhouse structure (photo from September 2009) which was old, rotting, and in the shade.  The next step (after a week or so of rest!) will be to start digging to prepare the area in front of the screen to be filled in with recycled patio stones from under a nearby tree.  The design is inspired by this photo below,

and which I wrote more about here.

an arc-and-tangent design for the backyard

I've been too busy to tell you about it until now (May is crazy!), but recently I decided to consult with an experienced garden designer to help me with some major design issues in my backyard.  (It turns out she helped me with the front too, but I'll save that for another post.) 

I always shake my head when I see people who have planted things in the wrong place (a cedar under a spruce tree?  egregious!) and think - they would probably save money overall, as well as time and frustration, if they just hired a garden coach to help them find the right plants for their garden. Well, the same applies to me getting help with my own garden design.

I've been thinking about getting help myself for a while, but could never quite admit to myself that I needed it.  Until now.  And now that I've done it, I wish I'd done it ages ago, as it was well worth the investment! 

Why did I need help?  Well, for one thing, sometimes you just need the experienced eye of someone who is not so close and attached to your space as you are.  Plus, there are some MAJOR design challenges in my yard (listed below.)  Here's my drawing of what my backyard currently looks like, including the major spruce trees that I am unwilling to get rid of (there are others that are not shown that are, in my mind, doomed):

 

My problems with this yard:

• I've been fixing little problems in this already mature yard over time (usually about one major project a year - this was a very large, overgrown and neglected yard when I moved in 7 years ago!) but never really stepped back to develop an overall design for the yard. 
• I am very attached to my plants and although I know I need to edit them down a little, it is very, very hard.  I need an unbiased expert to come in and say - get rid of that, get more of that!
• I came up with a plan for something nice to fill the hole in the patio that the former greenhouse left.  But then I realized I was just patching another hole.  I wanted to do something to tie that area to the design of the rest of the yard much better.  And with a weird, trapezoidal-shaped yard, and with some straight-lines over there and some curved lines over there, I just couldn't quite figure out what to do to bring it all together.

Enter Sue Gaviller, a designer whose work has been featured on this blog before.  I took a few design classes from her this spring and she is great.  I was little afraid she was going to arrive and say "You've got to get rid of all those spruce trees" or something similarly impractical.  But she was extremely good about working with the major features of my yard which are admittedly not optimal, but are too big and/or expensive to change.  So here's what she came up with:

 
I love it!  Although I won't be putting a pergola in the spot where the greenhouse used to be (just a screen against the fence), I do like how the patio curves on either side, getting rid of the awkward triangle of space between where the greenhouse used to be and the existing retaining wall.  As Sue says, the curves allow for better flow and also deal with the problem of messy and heaving patio stones around the base of the spruce trees.

I also really like the new shape of the lawn because I knew that the random curves I had before didn't relate to the rest of the yard.  The "arc and tangent" theme utilizes both straight lines, and circles and partial circles, for a semi-formal look and seems the best way to tie the yard together since I already have some straight and curved lines in the existing layout that I can't change.

This year will be the year of the north patio project, which I have already started working on.  We'll be building the screen against the fence and reshaping the north patio.  Stay tuned to see how it developes!

what to do with a hole in your patio - the pergola revisited

 

Here is my latest idea regarding what to do with that awful hole in my patio which resulted from taking down the (even-more-awful) "greenhouse" last year.  It includes a tall, 3-panel lattice screen in front of the fence with a sitting-height frame all the way around the area, and benches on the front side for extra seating facing other parts of the garden.  A small, half-octogon cobblestone patio is set at the back of the area to set a couple of chairs and pots on.

Orignally, I had wanted to build a pergola on top of a raised deck in this spot.  I thought it would be a fun play space for the kids and I had the design all figured out!  Then my husband recently announced that, well, he didn't really feel like building it this year.  After my initial disappointment (and frustration, I admit), I decided to come up with a new plan.  After doing some serious thinking, these were my main criteria for the design:

• Make the base different than the existing patio - I don't want to try to extend the existing patio into the hole because getting it to match (both the stones and the levelness) would be a nightmare if not impossible.  (This was the reason for my original idea of putting a low deck over this spot.)
• Screen the fence and the view behind it - I want something taller than the fence to cover the view of my neighbour's house.  (This was the reason for my original idea of the pergola.  But since this spot is already relatively shady due to a large spruce tree on either side, I really don't need a roof on this structure.)
• Minimize the planting space - Yes, that's right, I said minimize it!  Firstly, I already have a ridiculous amount of garden space in other areas of the yard.  Secondly, since this spot is between two spruce trees, I will be limited in my choice of plants that I can grow here without too much coddling (can you say 'clematis macropetala', 'lamium' and 'epimedium'?) 
• Design something that will be easier for my husband to build - I only really need help with the woodworking part and I admit, a pergola-covered deck would have been a behemoth of a job!
• Incorporate a focal point - This area can be seen from parts of the back yard as well as the dining room and sunroom inside the house.  It has to look GOOD.

My new design meets all these criteria, don't you think?  Unfortunately, the new concept won't really suffice as a playhouse for the kids which was an original criterion but hey, I'm willing to give up on that criterion to get something built sooner rather than later.  Selfish me!  An added bonus of the new design concept is that the lattice screen will provide a place to hang a wall fountain without the extra parts (tubes, wires) showing.  I happen to already have electricity in this area thanks to the old greenhouse.  I am pumped to get started!  Bring on spring!

Here are a few more pictures to help you visualize what I'm talking about:

Above: the spot as it looked all spring/summer/fall 2010.  Ugh. I can't bear to look at it anymore!  Something must be done soon!

 

Above: here's a photo showing a free-standing lattice-screen wall of a similar style to what I want. photo taken from:  http://www.tonbridgefencing.co.uk/wooden_fencing/trellis_fences.php

 

Above: And here's a photo showing kind of what I imagine the whole area will look like when it's done.  A focal point on the wall and a beautiful place to sit softened by a few plants. photo scanned from a book by Canadian Gardening Magazine:

Liz Primeau (2004). city gardens, Creative Urban Gardens and Expert Design Ideas. Toronto: McArthur & Company.

If you would like unique, DIY solutions to create your urban paradise, view My Services for consultation details.

winter planning - more thoughts on my front Welcome Garden

After I posted that series of pictures of how my front Welcome Garden looked in 2010, I felt very dissatisfied.  In fact, I almost didn't post them!  Yes, I was sure to use caveats such as "this is a work in progress", this is an "experimental garden", "I don't baby this garden" and "this is only its second season and it still needs to fill in", but still, I felt this garden is not all it could be or should be.  Time to plan a renovation!

Above: I'm actually fairly happy with the garden area close to the sidewalk, although it does need another couple of years to fill in.  However, the area in the centre of the yard and directly in front of the steps needs help.  Big time.

I actually consider it to be a skill to view a garden and be able to see what it will look like in a couple of years.  This prevents you from planting too many plants too closely and then having to move them all in a couple of years when they reach a more mature size.  (This is a skill you don't learn in a couple of hours BTW, but it comes with experience or a garden coach can help you with that if you are planning or renovating a garden.)  But in my own garden this sometimes makes me a little blind to what the garden really looks like RIGHT NOW.  I tend to view it through rose-coloured glasses which make all the plants look like the full-sized, lush, healthy specimens that I expect them to be in a few years.  Photos on the other hand, or at least my photos which I didn't crop or alter, show the naked truth.  This garden lacks an overall plan.

To be fair, I am dealing with someone else's mistakes (planting 5 large spruce trees in a small front yard?  What were they thinking?)  And I'm also developing the garden myself on a very limited budget of time and money - this includes the tree-removal budget!  But parts of the front yard developed in stages over the last 7 years with no real plan and it kinda shows. 

 Above: I first broke ground almost 7 years ago with this small bed.  I needed a place to plunk plants that I was bringing from my old house.  Over the years some things have survived and some have not thanks to the competition from surrounding spruce trees and my general if-the-plant-doesn't-grow-with-minimum-care-it-doesn't-deserve-to-be-in-my-garden attitude.

But really, I can't look at those pictures of my front garden without cringing.  Time to add structure!  Time to add a more formal layout!  Time to add focal points!  Or, at least, plan for them (as this year will be the year of the pergola, hubby has promised!)  It is my hope that if I have a plan that won't be implemented until 2012 then at least this year I won't waste a lot of time and money doing things in this garden area that will just get undone later.

Here's one possibility for a new front yard garden design.  It is the front yard in plan view with the house at the top.  This design actually doesn't make any major changes to the front area near the sidewalk, but adds an open, patio area at the base of the stairs (the width of the sidewalk where it meets the stairs is currently too narrow), as well as a second, circular open area, mulched for low maintenance, with some extra interest using buried timbers (or possibly brick?) in a radial pattern and a birdbath as a focal point.  The existing sidewalk will be edged in the same cobblestone and the concrete will be stained to match.  This is a minimal cost design as it makes use of most of the existing sidewalk and only requires a fairly small amount of new cobblestones.

This is just a rough sketch, not to scale and showing minimal planting detail (but I promise you, there will be no grass!)  But for my own purposes I'm just trying out different layouts before I spend too much time on designing plantings.  I'd like to get out there and outline this layout with a couple of hoses in situ and really be able to visualize what it would look like.  Suddenly I can't wait for the snow to melt!

Here's a photo of a neighbour's upgraded regular concrete sidewalk that inspired me to re-use the existing concrete sidewalk.

From the archives:

• garden planning: front yard garden design
• what grows in my front Welcome Garden: 2010 reflections and 2011 planning
• my favourite plants for a sunny, low maintenance front yard
• how do I get rid of my lawn? (front yard in progress)
• why should I get rid of my lawn?
• what kind of mulch should I use?

If you would like unique, DIY solutions to create your urban paradise, view My Services for consultation details.

garden design principle - contrasting plant forms

This is the first design principle I talk about when I'm giving people advice about designing their own ornamental gardens.  For low maintenance purposes, I mostly recommend perennials over annuals, but the thing people need to be aware of is that most perennials flower for a much shorter period than annuals, which generally flower all summer long.  So to make your garden look interesting even when some things are not in flower, it's important to consider the plant's form i.e. its shape or outline. 

Round, mounding plants:
cushion spurge, artemesia 'Silver Mound', perennial geraniums
Arching
Some ornamental grasses, daylilies
Upright
snakeroot, spiked veronica, obedient plant, delphiniums, verbascum
Fanning
astilbes, hostas, columbine, meadow rue, bleeding hearts

...and some plants are combinations of these shapes depending on whether or not they are flowering.

Here are some examples of forms that work well together in my garden:

Above: a mounding euphorbia (cushion spurge) behind upright, spiky bearded iris looks brilliant in June but the contrasting form is interesting for the rest of the season too.

Above: arching helictotrichon (blue oat grass), rounded but spiky bearded iris, upright liatris spicata, fanning, flat-topped yarrow, and more!

Above: fanning hosta and broad, rounded fans of bergenia with arching, spiky blue fescue (a combination that looks great all season long even when nothing's in bloom, I might add!)

Above: rounded sedum 'Matrona' with arching daylilies and blue oat grass.

 Above: upright lamb's ears with low, spreading dianthus.

 Above: fanning peony in front of upright delphiniums (they don't bloom at the same time but I like this combination because the peony hides the shabby bottom of the delphinium later in the season)

 Above: upright calamagrostis (feather reed grass) 'Karl Foerster' with, well, pretty much anything!

• mounding geraniums in front of upright siberian irises or fanning peonies
• arching daylilies next to upright spiked veronica (these also bloom at the same time)
• tall, upright to arching grasses behind fanning astilbe (warning: astilbe is a moisture-lover!)
• upright mulleins with the billowing roundness of bearded irises
• spiky perennial salvia next to fanning, flat-topped yarrow
• broad fans of bergenia leaves in front of arching daylilies or ornamental grasses
• fanning hostas in front of upright snakeroot

You'll notice there are also contrasting textures in a lot of these plant combinations.  Although foliage colour also makes things interesting, it is secondary to texture.  A great way to check for a good plant combination is to look at the picture in black and white and see if it still looks interesting:

For more great perennial plant combinations, check out the post I wrote about Piet Oudolf-inspired plants for Calgary sustainable gardens, which was published in the Calgary Horticultural Society's magazine last year.

If you would like an urban paradise that rejoices the eye and refreshes the spirit, view My Services for consultation details.

in praise of spruce trees... except possibly mine.

If you've been following my blog for a while you know I've got a love/hate relationship with spruce trees. I curse the 9 (large, mature Colorado and white spruce) trees on my lot - a couple would be fine, but nine?  Nine severely limits the opportunities for a diversity of other plants in terms of space, sun, and availability of water and nutrients in the surrounding soil.  Here's my reasoning for having removed a few of them in the past and the results, and part of me would like to get rid of just a few more (really, wouldn't 5 large spruce trees on a regular city lot be plenty?)

Some trees have just plain been planted in an inappropriate spot and should go.  But a full-sized, healthy spruce tree that has been allowed to grow without hacking or distortion of its limbs, is a beautiful sight especially at this time of year!  I took these pictures on my walk to work this morning.  Gorgeous.  I live in a neighbourhood where in general, the trees are three times taller than the houses  (rather than the other way around in newer neighbourhoods) and I wouldn't have it any other way. 

Designers would say, trees should be kept in scale with the house.  The trees in my neighbourhood are definitely not in scale with the houses!  But they are in scale with the rest of the neighbourhood.  In the smaller, new lots that are developed these days, there are few places for large trees like this, and there are plenty of newer, smaller varieties that make much more sense to plant on small lots. 

These trees in my older neighbourhood are not only beautiful in winter, they provide shelter and nesting places for plenty of birds each year and they insulate our houses and gardens from the brutal Calgary winds. 

So should I campaign my husband to remove just a couple more trees from our yard (there are 2 in the front and 2 in the back I have in mind, the front ones being the most desirable to get rid of)?  The designer and gardener in me says 'yes'.  The environmentalist says 'no, at least not until it's absolutely necessary'.  Since my husband also says 'no (not ever!)', I guess the problem is solved for now... until a few more years from now when the ones planted too close to the house and/or each other get even more ridiculously large...

what you need to know about building raised bed vegetable gardens

Considering growing more edibles next year?  I am.  A common and easy way to add a vegetable garden is a raised bed.  Raised beds can be built quickly and on top of any surface (except contaminated soil, for obvious reasons), and will provide a place to add clean, weed-free soil which will make gardening easy.  They also warm up faster in spring, and are easy to add hoops and frost covers to.

Above: some raised beds installed by one of my clients last summer.

Here are a few important considerations I gave her during the design phase:

MATERIALS

• anything works when used properly: wood, brick, stone, plastic, metal.  But wood is easy to work with and fairly cheap.  Cedar is a great choice because it is naturally rot resistant.  DON'T use treated wood!
• if recycling some kind of container, make sure there is good drainage by removing the bottom or adding plenty of holes.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

• if at all possible, do not compromise on this point!  A veggie garden requires plenty of sunshine - at least 6 hours in the middle of the day.
• maximize the heat too - the garden shown above will receive plenty of extra warmth and shelter from the south-facing wall of the house, as well as the gravel which will absorb the warmth of the sun and radiate extra heat during the night.  My own veggie area, shown in progress below, is on the south side of a fence and includes recycled concrete stepping stones for absorbing daytime heat. (Don't worry, the garbage in the back corner will be gone!)

ACCESS

• one of the key benefits of raised beds, after the ease of building, is that the soil never gets stepped on, so make sure you build them so that you can reach far enough into them without compressing the soil.  A general rule is to make the bed max 4 ft wide if you can access it from both sides, and 2 ft wide if you can only access it from one side.
• if bending over is an issue for your back, the higher the beds are, the better.  But generally the depth should be at least 6 in (15 cm) deep or at least 1-2 ft (30 - 60 cm) if you are building on an impermeable surface.
• easy access is essential, and raised beds can look so neat and orderly that you don't have to hide them in the back corner of your yard!
• if building more than one bed, make sure you can navigate the pathways with your wheelbarrow.

IRRIGATION

• veggie-growing is not low maintenance; you will need a convenient water source.
• that said, if you are always at home, hand watering from a rain barrel could be all you really need.
• if you've got a large garden planned, consider getting water plumbed to the area (before you build!), and/or use water timers and a sprinkler or irrigation system if you are away a lot.

INSTALLATION

• if the bed will be shallow, remove any weeds before building.
• if it will be 30 cm deep or more, the new soil should smother any weeds below, but it's not a bad idea to put a thick layer of cardboard or newspaper down first just in case.  The paper/cardboard will decompose over time, but may initially interfere with deep-rooted vegetables if the raised bed is not very deep.

DESIGN

• the two examples I've shown above used 4x8 ft rectangular beds, but there's no reason to limit yourself! 
• be creative: if you have the space you can do anything from a series of squares, to spirals, to a radiating, pie-shaped design.
• this website has some great design possibilities to get you started dreaming.  If I had more space, I'd be all over these designs!
• a gallery of raised bed designs from Fine Gardening
• have fun with it - add some pretty pots, funky trellises or garden art on the walls, and an inviting place to sit.

From the archives:

When to plant vegetable seeds in Calgary.

If you would like a help developing a beautiful and successful garden that nourishes your body and soul, view My Services for consultation details.

Honeysuckle - Pantone 2011 Colour of the Year

Above: Garage door colour inspired by the long-blooming, drought-tolerant lonicera brownii (scarlet trumpet honeysuckle), which is planted in several spots in my backyard.

I just found out that "Honeysuckle" is Pantone's Colour of the Year for 2011.  Who follows these things?  I have no idea! People who care about these things more than I do, I guess.  But the bright, reddish-pink colour goes great with green so don't just consider it for interior design - it sure looks great in the garden!

I picked this colour two years ago for my house's front door and back garage door on a sudden whim at the paint store and have been loving it ever since!  I keep adding more of this colour to my garden every year, including flowers, but also I am considering spray-painting a couple of metal trellises this colour for the new veggie garden in the spring.

Above: the window box in the butterfly potager garden is also painted in 'honeysuckle'.

Above: the front door in fall.

 

If you would like an urban oasis that rejoices the eye and refreshes the soul, view My Services for consultation details.

colour in the late season garden

Yes, Calgary has a very short "growing season".  If you define the season from the last frost in the spring to the first frost in the fall.  But perennials last much longer than that and of course, shrubs, trees and evergreens extend the season even further.  This late fall has been glorious - the first Hallowe'en the kids didn't have to try to squeeze their costumes over winter coats and mitts!  There are many shrubs and perennials still looking very colourful in the garden right now. 

Since my two main criteria for choosing plants is that they must be low maintenance and must have a long season of interest, it just so happens that many of the plants still looking good right now happen to be many of my overall favourites:

Above: sedum 'Matrona' and helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass);

 

Above: blue oat grass again with my new barberry 'Rose Glow' in front;

 

Above: the same blue oat grass from another angle, with ornamental allium seed head in front and sedum, nepeta (catmint) and lamb's ears adding texture and colour in the background;

 

Above: many of the roses still have leaves on them and this one, 'Snow Pavement' also has extra large hips;

 

Above: asters still blooming with a rose, artemesia 'Silver Mound', a purple sedum and perovskia (russian sage) in the background;

 

Above: lonicera 'Scarlet Trumpet' honeysuckle still blooming;

 

Above: scarlet trumpet honeysuckle with perovskia (russian sage) and liatris;

 

Above: ninebark 'Diabolo' at the back of the Adventure Garden;

 

Above: lamb's ears, nepeta (catmint), sedum 'Matrona', bergenia, festuca glauca and calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' still providing colour and texture;

 

Above: sedum 'Autumn Joy' (this particular specimen is getting a little leggy due to its warm location on the west side of the house, so it probably needs dividing next spring);

 

Above: sedum 'Autumn Joy' in more exposed locations in the front Welcome Garden stay more compact;

 

Above: sedum 'Autumn Joy' in front of calamagrostis (feather reed grass) 'Karl Foerster';

 

Above: teasel and feather reed grass in the front Welcome Garden seem to glow when backlit;

 

Above: another specimen of 'Karl Foerster' that I enjoy viewing from the kitchen window all year long;

 

Above: the leaves in hte strawberry patch are turning brilliant colours in front of dwart Alberta spruce (a plant I don't recommend for Calgary, BTW) and calamagrostis (feather reed grass) 'Overdam';

 

Above: and finally, many of my tough, dry, shade-tolerant perennials such as lamiastrum (shown) and epimedium are still looking green and healthy.

 

 

 

 

 

favourite perennials for late-season colour

It has been a great fall for the perennial garden in Calgary!  Things were blooming a little late after our cool (read: crappy!) summer, but after all that moisture in early September and now this great weather, many things are still looking fresh.

All these pictures were taken Oct 10.  Clockwise from top left: purple asters just starting to bloom (Donna Balzer just wrote about how this is a great plant for the bees); clematis 'Polish Spirit'; raspberry monarda, golden hyssop and purple liatris (and you can just make out the white bloom of a relatively new (to this garden) hydrangea 'Annabelle' in the background); sedum 'Matrona' mixed with annual borage and perennial nepeta, lamb's ears and yellow rudbeckia 'Golden Glow' way at the top of the photo; honeysuckle 'Scarlet Trumpet' still blooming while the leaves are turning; more sedum 'Matrona' with ornamental grass helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass), purple liatris and some dark pink achillea (yarrow) in the background.

ornamental grasses - not just for the perennial garden

Ornamental grasses are some of the showiest things you can have in your garden this time of year.  They're also super low-maintenance plants and have almost year-round interest.  I've been meaning to do a post about some of the perennial grasses I'm growing, but I just haven't got around to it yet.  If you're a member of the Calgary Horticultural Society, there was a good article in the last newsletter. (and if you're not a member, you should be!)

But grasses work great in pots, too!  I've had these two pots of stipa tenuissima (mexican feather grass) growing on my front steps all summer, mixed with other containers of flowers.  While most of the other blooms are done, these pots continue to look great and will do so all winter.  Since stipa isn't hardy here, my only problem is deciding whether I want to leave them outside to look cool all winter, or to put the pots in my cold room to try to overwinter the plants until next year.  Decisions, decisions...

I've also started planting non-hardy grasses such as pennisetums and sedges (not actually grasses but they qualify visually) in combinations with other plants in containers around the garden.  Again, the grasses can be left outside all winter to add some interest.  I wrote about this last spring when the sedge I'd left out all winter in a pot still looked good in March.

If you're going to cut down the non-hardy grasses to overwinter them in pots (inside in a cool, dark place or a heated garage), you can also make indoor arrangements with the seedheads.  I made this arrangement of purple pennisetum seedheads last fall and it still looks good one year later!

[picture coming soon...]

do you plan for fall foliage when choosing trees and shrubs? you should!

Check out this photo of one of my neighbour's yards a few days ago.  Gawd, don't you just love fall?

Normally I don't really like the look of shrubs and trees planted in the middle of lawns with no connection between them - they are each their own little island floating adrift in a sea of turf grass.  But right now they look spectacular and all is forgiven!  From left to right in the photo above:

a red viburnum; an orangey-red hedge of cotoneaster in the background; a green lilac just starting to change colour; a yellow nanking cherry; and a red crabapple (probably Thunderchild?)

Here's one more view 'cause they're just so godd#m gorgeous right now:

What are your favourite plants for fall foliage? 

Some more of mine (in addition to the ones above) include the Sorbus spp. (Mountain Ash tree), Aesculus glabra (Ohio buckeye), Acer ginnala (Amur maple), Acer tataricum (Tatarian maple), Euonymus alata (winged burning bush), Euonymus nana 'Turkestanica' (Turkestan burning bush) and Cornus spp. (dogwoods).

Close-ups of leaves help if you're trying to identify something, so also check out this post at Gardening zone 3b.

pathways - what kids want in a garden

Someone asked me a while ago if I could post some plan view sketches of my garden so they could get a feel for the layout.  Doing so is still on my winter to-do list..  but in the meantime here's one my 7-year-old drew of our backyard.

It is actually quite amazing (she's a genius, of course!) in terms of the details she has included... I don't think she's missed a single container! Although the drawing isn't exactly to scale... 

She drew this plan because she wanted to show me what she thinks I should do in the garden next year... put in more trees and more pathways.  The section in the middle is where she'd like me to take out the current lawn and plant a lot of deciduous trees (so that we'll have lots of fall leaves for playing in) with pathways in between them for exploring/chasing/playing hide-and-seek.  Cute!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: putting pathways in the garden for the kids to roam was the best thing I ever did.  Pathways that link and make circles are even better.  For posts about the pathways I've created in my garden, check these out:

• the family mosaic path from 2008
• building the dry stream bed/path from 2009

the pergola / playhouse : still in the planning stages

The photos below show my latest ideas for a playhouse... or a teahouse... or actually a playhouse to eventually be turned into a teahouse. But first, this lovely spot in my yard is where it's going:

Yikes!  It almost hurts me to post this picture but this is what my north patio has looked like all summer!  We took down the nasty greenhouse last spring and this empty spot has been just sitting here growing weeds.  But actually, that's OK, because I've been waffling back and forth on what exactly I want to put here.  Now I've got the winter to finish planning and deciding, and my husband has promised that this project will be the top of his priority list next summer.

Originally I thought a "treehouse" would be fun, and I posted a picture of an inspiring playhouse previously.  I wanted something that was fairly high to eliminate the imposing view of the side of my neighbour's house (only partially seen above.)

But now I'm leaning towards something lower down, that adults will actually be able to use when the kids aren't using it.  I'm thinking longterm here - the kids won't need a playhouse forever! 
And to save ourselves the work of trying to lay a patio in this spot to match the already existing patio (a big pain in the &^$%, believe me, we've done it before), we're thinking of building a pergola/house with a slightly raised deck for a base.  I like the base of this one (below) for its openness and style:

Above photo from the LA Times.

I wouldn't go quite so Asian for the style of the rest of the structure though, as it wouldn't fit with my yard.  So I kept looking for more inspiration... 

Design tip: renovation and design options can be overwhelming so one way to figure out what you really want is to collect photos over a period of time of things that catch your eye, then figure out what are the key elements that the photos have in common that you liked.  Here are the pergola photos I've collected this summer:

Above: I love anything in blue, of course!  But I also love the chandelier and the interesting fence as a backdrop.

Another one with a chandelier.  Too bad I don't have such a view...

Above: Lanterns are cute too though, don't you think?

But let's be realistic here.  I'm not going to have such a beautiful "adult space" for a few years still.  I was thinking our structure could be used for the kids for a playhouse for a few years first.  We could put temporary walls on it but an easier way would be to add curtains:

This (above) is pretty, don't you think?  I could see kids using something like this as either a playhouse or a stage, depending on whether the curtains were open or shut.

And finally, I'm leaning toward a covered roof (so more of a teahouse than a pergola) because our structure is going to be situated between two large spruce trees in my backyard (practically everything is between two large spruce trees in my yard, but I digress...)  A solid roof will prevent everything underneath from getting covered with needles, cones and sap.  But I'd like to keep it as open as possible to maximize light.  The roof and curtains on this one (above) are perfect.

I should have been more diligent in keeping track but I believe all unlabelled photos above are from www.houzz.com.

curb appeal - more than just a few flowers

Sometimes I feel a little conflicted being a garden coach.  Yes, I can help people who want to spruce up their existing gardens, who need help with learning how to maintain their garden, and even those who want overall design drawings.  But really, people, if you want to have a garden with personality you're going to have to put in a little effort yourself.  The gardens I myself am most drawn to are the ones that have some individuality, rather than just a well-put-together selection of the standard, low-maintenance plants that are proven to do well in Calgary.

I walk/ride by this house often with my girls when we're toodling around the neighbourhood and it always catches my eye.  The garden is great but I actually cropped most of it out because what I really love are the unique things - the lanterns hanging on the wall, the house numbers on a fencepost topped with a finial, and the home-made teepees which appear to be made of bamboo with chicken wire fastened neatly to them (I didn't venture up the steps to take a closer look!)

From a slightly different view you get a peek into a shady sitting area near the front entrance, complete with more lanterns and pots.  Charming!

What catches your eye in your neighbourhood?

a low maintenance front yard garden in Calgary

Two separate people have shown me pictures of this garden recently and asked me what plants are in it or "Can you design my yard to look like this?"  In fact, this yard has lots of my favourite plants in it and it also is super low-maintenance so it is definitely worth sharing with y'all. You'll notice that almost all of the colour and texture comes from trees, shrubs and ornamental grasses, not flowers.  If low maintenance is what you want, this is the way to go.

Here are some pictures I took of it recently where the second picture indicates plant names (as best I can remember from my head and the photos.)  The pictures are from left to right as you look at the front of the house.  Note that you can click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

--- 

Update

And shortly after I posted this, I got a note from the designer of this garden.  Here's what she had to say:

Hi Janice,

One of my former landscape design students came across your blog - ‘A low maintenance front yard garden in Calgary’. She recognized the yard from photos I’d shown in class, so sent me the link. As the designer of this garden, I am of course flattered that my design has generated some interest, but I thought it might be helpful if you had more precise info on the plant material.

In your first photo, the weeping crab cultivar is ‘Royal Beauty’, the Heuchera is ‘Raspberry Ice’, the Juniper is Juniperus scopulorum ‘Blue Arrow’ and the dogwood in the back right hand corner is Prairie Fire Golden Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Aurea’). In the second photo(and third), the Spiraea is not Goldflame but rather ‘Goldmound’, which I prefer due to its more uniform globe shape and superior chartreuse colour (without the ‘bronzy’ overtones of Goldflame, which to me kinda clash with the pink flowers). In the third photo, the variegated dogwood is Cornus alba ‘Bailhalo’(Ivory Halo dogwood), the upright pine is Pinus uncinata (Mountain Pine), the low spreading pine is a cultivar of the Scot’s pine - Pinus sylvestris ‘Hillside Creeper’. The Campanula is Campanula carpatica var. turbinata  ‘Karl Foerster’(yes the same cv. name as the feather reed grass also in the photo). The shrubs labelled ninebark are also Prairie Fire Golden Dogwood (Cornus alba ‘Aurea’) – you can see that the colour is much more intense in this spot because they get considerably more sun here.

The front yard garden was designed September 2004 and installed May of 2005 – it has filled out nicely, more than just filled out actually, it could use a bit if a ‘haircut’. I see from the photo that one of the creeping pines has developed an upright leader which needs to be pruned off and the Schubert chokecherry - well I just won’t go there. It wasn’t in the original design – we had first installed a Sorbus decora (showy mountain ash) but couldn’t find a very large specimen. As you know they grow at a painfully slow rate, so the homeowner decided he couldn’t wait for it to grow and planted instead, the largest caliper tree he could find. Unfortunately, a Schubert chokecherry was just not a good substitute since its growth habit can be so shrubby and unkempt. The mountain ash would have been so much nicer and more in keeping with the overall theme - however, all in all I’m fairly happy with how the design has turned out

Anyways, feel free to share this info with your clients. I‘d like to ask if I might use one or two of these photos in upcoming lectures – the most recent photos I have of this garden are from a couple of years ago, and I doubt I will have time to get back down that way in time for these workshops. I would of course give you credit for any photo I use. Please respond at your convenience.

Regards,

Sue Gaviller

EScapes

 

Landscape Design and Consultation

two great plants for texture - rose glow barberry and blue oat grass

It's starting to feel like fall and now is a great time to take stock of your garden, make notes about what worked or didn't work this year, and make plans for next year.  It's also a good time to plant.  While in some ways it is more difficult to plant in fall because the garden is full and it's hard to squeeze in there and mess it up, I actually like planting and moving things in fall since everything is full size and it's easier to see how far apart things need to be.  It's just too easy to plant things too close together in spring when everything is still small!

Anyway, I just added these two plants to my Adventure Garden.  The garden is quite full but there are still just a few tweaks I want to make.  But anything new needs to meet some pretty strict criteria to earn a place here.  It has to have major structural interest and texture, and preferably an interesting foliage colour to provide contrast even when not in bloom.  In fact, I didn't choose these two plants for their bloom at all.

Berberis thunbergii ‘Rose Glow’ is a shrub which is reported to do well in Calgary.  I admittedly haven't had much experience with barberries  - I put a couple in the front garden a few years ago but the hares kept nibbling them to the ground and the poor things never had a chance.  (I've seen barberries on lists of hare-proof plants but let me tell you - they are not!)  The colour of this shrub is fabulous - a mix of mottled creamy-pink new foliage, dark purple older foliage and brilliant red fall colour.  I've planted it in a spot where it will be backlit in the evening and I expect it to truly glow.

Helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass) is an ornamental grass which I already have a couple of, and I'm adding one more because I like it so much.  It's got foliage colour, good textural contrast, winter interest, and is low maintenance... what more could you ask for in a plant, really?  (OK, fragrance perhaps but that's just being greedy!)

Above: 'Rose Glow' Barberry in its new home with purple liatris and 'White Swan' echinacea

the butterfly potager - late July photos and judges' comments

Welcome to my butterfly potager garden!  I entered it in this year's Hort Society garden competition in the "Outdoor Living" category.  I didn't win anything and I didn't expect to - it needs a few years to mature and I need more time to take care of it.  But here's what it looks like in late July and here's what the judges said about it:

Overall Effect and Appearance

• one judge commented that a pot on the table would make it more welcoming.  Yes, I would have done that (and a tablecloth, table setting, etc) had I been home.  Mental note to make sure I don't go on holidays during the judging period next time I decide to enter the competition.  Here's the table with at least a nice table cloth on it which it didn't have during judging:

• another comment was that some vines on the fence would create more lushness.  I disagree - I think that would take away from the framing effect of the columnar crabapple trees, which are only one year old and will get fuller in a few years anyway.  Plus there's already 4 large vines (2 clematis on the house wall, 1 golden hops on the garage wall, and 1 honeysuckle on the arch) and 2 climbing roses (John Cabot and John Davis, each planted with a clematis) surrounding this small patio.  Granted, the roses are still small so we will have to wait a couple of years to see their full glory.

• judges suggested some sensory elements (a small fountain perhaps?  don't worry, it's already on my wish list!) and a focal point or special feature such as a specimen tree or shrub.  Agreed, design-wise this is needed, but this area is also one of the only flat, sunny spots in my backyard and that's why I'm growing some veggies here.  I don't want to fill it up or shade it with more trees and shrubs.  Perhaps I should have entered this area in the "edible garden" category instead of "outdoor living"?  Or maybe I should think about sticking a gazing ball in here...

Hard Lanscaping

• Judges commented on the poor condition of the "temporary stairs" nearby.  This is one of many things I said last year needed to be fixed and it hasn't been done yet.  Sigh.
• Judges did like the little raised beds for veggies I put in here.  Hooray!  Validation!  I like them too!
• There was one comment on weeds in the brick patio.  I thought I got rid of them all before I left on holidays.  Mental note to not go away during the judging period next time... did I say that already?

Plant Material

• I got good marks for diversity of plant material and plant health, but comments were made about needing more bloom and more height variation to add interest, eg. a dwarf lilac or weeping caragana.  Hmm.  Again, for me this area is partially about growing vegetables.  I had more height variation last year when I put in teepees for growing beans and peas.  But due to crop rotation practices the beans and peas are in another part of the garden this year.  I'll have to think about whether I want to sacrifice my veggie space for design principles...  

Horticultural practices

• check marks for mulch, drought tolerant plants, integrated pest management, soaker hoses, reduced lawn area, rain barrels, trees/shrubs well pruned, composting
• lost marks for not being weed free and debris/clutter free.  Like I warned you, I don't really have the time to get my garden up to competition standards.  There are always a few weeds.  But I was going for feedback on other topics and now I have a few things to think about which is exactly what I wanted.  Thanks judges!!

To see pictures of this garden area at other times of the year, check out

• last year (2009 overview)
• early June 2010
• mid-June 2010
• late June 2010
• mid-July 2010

on using paint for colour in the garden

Although I originally wanted to paint my house trim some fun and wacky colours, practicality and new vinyl windows prevented me from doing so.  So while the door colour is fun, I am gradually working on painting the faded yellow trim of my house with more conservative white and brown (below).  I still like the blue though and I really don't get why most people prefer to have a beige house.  Isn't Calgary beige enough most of the year already?

But speaking of using paint in the garden, check out Nancy J Ondra's recent post about her 'Happy Garden'.  There are some great ideas here to add colour in a fun way, and all the things she did would work extremely well in a children's garden.  Make sure you scroll down to see the pictures near the bottom.

on mixing rock and bark mulch

I've talked before about the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of mulch.  In short, rock mulch is difficult to use in a garden because it prevents you from amending the soil with compost and it gets dirty with fallen leaves etc.  I prefer shredded bark mulch in a garden - this does great things for your plants!  It moderates soil temperature, keeps in moisture, and minimizes weeds.  It does need to be topped up every few years because it slowly decomposes, but that's a good thing because it feeds the soil as it breaks down.  So I always recommend bark mulch in a garden, but rocks have their place too.

In my brother's front yard makeover, we're doing a mix - bark mulch in the garden and rock mulch in the unplanted areas.  Rocks can be arranged to look like a dry stream bed, with larger rocks on the "shoulder" and smaller rocks in the middle, to look very natural.  Since my brother is in the process of preparing his yard for mulching and is doing it all himself (with the help of family and friends, of course), I took a few pictures of gardens I've notice recently that have done a good job of mixing rock and bark mulch.

These are for you, Doug!  Cheers, and keep digging!  :-)

doomed to fail

This is not my garden, but I walk by it approximately 400 times per year.  And every time I wince.

Every year these people plant something new between their two spruce trees.  Every year that something dies.  And I won't even go into the problems of rock mulch and little circles around the bottom of spruce trees.  Ew.  These people need help!  For the cost of hiring a garden coach for one hour they could have saved themselves a lot of money on cedars and countless other poor, tortured shrubs!

From the archives:

What to plant under a spruce tree?

What kind of mulch should I use?

Why hire a garden coach?

for the record: gas meter almost invisible by June 21!

my brother's front yard makeover - take 2, part 2

So my brother finished removing all the grass from his front yard last week-end.  We're ready for step 2 - the overall layout.  Here's what it looked like before and here's my rough plan:

Normally I would do a scale drawing for a client but this is just my brother (!), so I'm being a little less accurate than I normally would since I will be working with him throughout the whole makeover (and he's not paying me!)

A few details about the sketch:

• they want super low maintenance so I didn't want to design a large area to plant.  The gravel area will not be planted at all and the surrounding areas will be planted and mulched with bark.  There are some existing shrubs I haven't shown here that will be worked into the design;
• the X marks the existing tree.  It's in an awkward place and I'd never put one there if I was doing a design from scratch, but we can work with it;
• the gravel area is meant to add a nice diagonal through an otherwise very square layout and to provide some negative space;
• the stepping stones and the gravel areas will provide several ways to travel through the yard and several circular routes - which is fun for kids!
• the gravel area will need to be dug out a little so that once we put down landscape fabric and 2 inches of gravel, the rocks will not be higher than the existing concrete.  The soil that is dug out can be used to make the berm;
• I have a few ideas for plants so more detail coming soon...  but we will definitely use the Karl Foerster grasses to provide a privacy screen around the patio.

So what is the next step in replacing a front lawn with a low-maintenance garden?  We'll use spray paint to finalize the edge between the gravel and garden areas, then start digging out the gravel area.  Stay tuned...

my brother's front yard makeover - take 2

I helped my brother and his family re-do their very small front lawn a few years ago.  I lost sleep planning a beautiful  little garden filled with low maintenance, high impact plants.  It looked awesome.  Then they moved.

So they asked me to do it again.  Well, at least this means they liked what I did last time!  But this time their front yard is huge.  Quite a different challenge.  They had planned to start a year or so ago but decided to redo the concrete first.  Now that's done and this is what things look like to start with:

View from the street:

View from the house:

They want to remove all the grass right away, but they're OK with planting in stages to distribute the cost over a period of time.  So, here's what to do first:

• Remove the rest of the grass.  For that much grass I'd say it's best to rent a sod cutter.
• Have compost delivered.  Figure out how much it will take to spread about 2 inches of compost over the entire yard (need help with the math, dear brother?).  Have it delivered, spread it, and turn it in with a fork.
• Fill in the hole in the hedge with a few more cotoneaster bushes.  *Sunnyside has some for a discount if you buy more than one.

We'll also have bark mulch delivered but we must have a plan first because we might re-contour the yard a little.  Stay tuned...

Related posts:

Why should I get rid of my lawn?

How do I get rid of my lawn?

Design for winter interest

How to re-design a perennial bed.

back from Montreal

I'm back and I'm not sorry to say that I missed the horrible Calgary snowstorm!  (What I want to know is - why does it make the news every year and everyone acts so surprised?  There's always a snowstorm in late April in Calgary!  I hate to say I told you so, but I told you so!  but I digress...)

I was at a conference in Montreal so didn't have a lot of free time but I managed to walk around in the evenings and find a few good restaurants, shops, ... and interesting gardens!

   

The historical gardens at the lovely Chateau Ramezay in Old Montreal (above and below)...
 


... with a formal french potager, laid out in a grid and lined with chives, wooden pathways, and espaliered fruit trees.  Sorry for the lack of light.

Plus, the wonderful architecture and lovely front gardens in the area of the Plateau.  I was particularly drawn to the very unique ones - the ones with colour, of course!  Granted, it would be much easier to maintain a front garden if it was this small, but I loved that barely anyone had a front lawn!  How wonderful and un-Calgary-like!

And lastly, some tulips, mayday tree and crabs blooming for you in downtown Montreal.  

you know it's spring when...

... your six-year-old starts drawing garden designs and telling you what she thinks you should do in the garden this year!

a pergola idea

... and nobody can say I don't plan ahead!  While we've got a playhouse in the works for this year, I want to have hubby build the playhouse in such a way that when the kids are older, we can turn the frame into a pergola. 

What I like in this picture is the small stone wall that provides an extra place to sit if necessary.  I also like the little rectangular garden on the outside of the stone wall. 

This little wall is an extra touch that would be so easy to build, would lend a sense of permanence to the structure, and would also reflect some heat to the garden in front of it, creating a little micro-climate for heat-loving plants.  The spot where I have in mind for this idea would also benefit visually because the small garden would break up a large expanse of patio.  I am definitely keeping this idea for when my pergola gets built, someday in the far distance future...

This picture is also taken from "Garden Magic; Inspired Garden Design" by Gisela Keil and Gary Rogers.

a little bit of spring fever?

This weather must be getting to me.  I keep saying that you shouldn't even dream about gardening in Calgary until at least mid-April (when it's time to put pansies outside) - that way you don't set yourself up for inevitable disappointment and frustration when the snow storms of March and April (and probably May) blow through...

But ever since I wrote that article I've been thinking of Piet-Oudolf-ifying my garden a little.  So I just ordered from Bluestem nursery:

• 25 deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair grass)
• 25 festuca glauca (blue fescue)
• 1 helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass)
• 1 sporobulus heterolepis (prairie dropseed)

I have nothing more than a vague idea of where I'm going to put all of these ornamental grasses!  So much for garden planning and design...

What are you doing to stay sane until spring arrives?

creative hobbies are good for you

Dreaming about the changes you're going to make to the garden this year?  I am - the ideas have been on the backburner of my brain for a few months, but I planned what I wanted to get done in the garden this year way back last fall!

And I don't have to apologize for being a crazy, obsessed gardener because having a creative hobby is good for my brain and my health!  (Maybe I just feel a little defensive...)  I could have told you this all along, but it is validating when Psychology Today says:

"evidence increases that the arts, crafts and other recreational activities we pursue for pure fun may have significant, if hidden, impact on our professional skills and accomplishments as well as other areas of our lives."

In short, this article reports that creative hobbies reduce stress, exercise imaginative skills that come in handy in the workplace, provide a learning benefit and help cultivate our personal creativity.  And most importantly perhaps, they take us out of the "passive role of receivers" of art and put us in the active role of contributing to the "creative capital of society at large."

Hear, hear!

it is time.

Are you thinking about spring yet?  While it seems other people are starting to complain about winter dragging on (except maybe in Vancouver), I have been thankful for the yearly 5-month hiatus so that I can focus on other parts of my life (and I literally mean "can" because I don't think I am actually capable of focusing on much else extracurricular during gardening season.  I know. I have a serious problem.)

But it is time.  Time to start wrapping up my indoor projects (I barely did anything this year!  where did the time go?)  Time to start making seed-starting charts.  And time to start addressing those questions new gardeners are looking to get answered - as evidenced by the increased blog traffic and questions I start getting at this time of year.

For a start, here are some posts I've written around this time in past years that people have seemed to find useful:

When to plant vegetable seeds in Calgary.

How do I get rid of my lawn?

February (and March) are good times to prune.

How to make a large, new perennial garden on a budget.

Garden planning: front yard garden design.

My favourite plants for a sunny, low-maintenance front yard garden.

What can you do in a Calgary zone 3 garden in mid-March?

And this year my kids (aged 6, 4, and 2) are a little older and I feel it is time to reach out to the gardening community a little more than just from my computer at home when I happen to have a minute or two to myself.  I wrote an article on Piet Oudolf-inspired plants for Calgary sustainable gardens recently for the Calgary Horticultural Society's magazine, and I have now committed myself to making a presentation on "Tips for Growing Food in Calgary" for them in March.  Any suggestions about tips or questions you think I should address would be most welcome!

piet oudolf-inspired plants for Calgary sustainable gardens

... and here at last, are some of my thoughts on Piet Oudolf-inspired gardens for Calgary, which I promised way back over a month ago...

--

I first became interested in Piet Oudolf’s garden designs when I saw pictures of some of his commissioned works in North America – the Battery Park Conservancy Gardens of Remembrance in New York, the Lurie Gardens at Millennium Park in Chicago, and the High line Gardens in New York City.  If you look up these gardens or his home page online, you will see the pictures are stunning!  Since then I’ve been studying two of his books written with Noel Kingsbury:   Designing with Plants, and Planting Design: Gardens in Time and Space.  I highly recommend them.

Piet Oudolf’s garden design philosophy strikes me as perfect for Calgary gardens – it is inspired by nature and respects ecology.  He uses wild plant communities as inspiration and sticks to plants with a “wild character”, meaning plants that have a natural proportion and – bonus! therefore do not require staking.  (In other words, no peonies allowed!)  He uses native species, although not exclusively, and considers biodiversity and ecological fit when designing his plantings.  He also uses ornamental grasses extensively and designs for long seasons of interest – his gardens come into their own in fall and also look good in winter.  With “sustainability” and “winter interest” being some of the buzz words in Calgary gardening these days, I’m sure we could all learn a thing or two from Piet Oudolf.

If you must have your tropical cannas and Japanese maples that you overwinter in your basement or heated garage, then Piet Oudolf-inspired design may not be for you.  To be honest, I cannot claim to agree with everything he says as he echews roses (nothing can convince me to give up my shrub roses) and in fact tends not to use shrubs at all, since most tend to be amorphous shapes with little structure, and they do not change form dramatically in one season which is another aspect of his designs.  But you can’t become a world-famous designer and establish your own unique style of design without being opinionated, right?  He does use hedges as more formal borders and accents in a garden, but otherwise he sticks to naturalistic, low-maintenance perennials in combinations that will blow you away.

After we garden for a few years, we all start to realize that texture is important in garden design, rather than just flowers, flowers, flowers.  Usually we think of leaf texture but Piet Oudolf takes this texture criterion to a higher level by making the form and structure of seed heads the most important aspect in choosing plants.  He classifies plants by the shape of these seed heads, such as spires (digitalis, salvia, veronica, cimicifuga, liatris, verbascum), buttons and globes (echinops, monarda, astrantia, centaurea montana, allium), plumes (filipendula, solidago, thalictrum, persicaria, calamagrostis), umbels (angelica, phlox paniculata, lychnis, sedums, eupatorium, achillea), and daisies (echinacea, rudbeckia, asters).   All of these plants are hardy in Calgary, by the way.  As mentioned above, he also uses long-lasting plants with strong shapes that have good structure even after flowering, often well into winter.  Leaf shape and texture is only the second consideration, and colour (flower or leaf) is the third. 

What makes Piet Oudolf’s gardens so special is not only the plants that he chooses, but how he puts them together.  A restricted number of plants are used in a space, and plants are intermingled with not only the macro effect in mind, but also the micro.  In other words, the planting en masse is beautiful, but the details of contrast between two neighbouring plant groupings are also important.  He avoids formality, preferring planting patterns that are not controlled or geometric, and ends up with a unique style, sometimes termed “New Wave”. I can only try to describe the quality his complex plantings have as a modern, stylized, sweeping force of nature. 

If you do nothing but add a few drifts of the above-mentioned plants to your already existing garden, you will benefit from the beauty and low maintenance of the plants he uses.  If you are looking to fill or renovate a larger area, then perhaps some of these combinations will be of inspiration to you:

• Astrantia major, astilbe and deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair grass)
• Astrantia major, actaea simplex (these first two combinations are the only ones that will do well in partial shade)
• Eupatorium purpureum (joe pye weed), actea simplex (bugbane), deschampsia cespitosa, echinacea purpurea, astilbe
• Echinops ritro (globe thistle) and verbascum (mullein)
• Perovskia (Russian sage), Echinacea purpurea, helictrotrichon (blue oat grass), eryngium (sea holly)
• Purple sedum, deschampsia cespitosa, perovskia, nepeta (catmint), verbena bonariensis
• Digitalis (fox glove), monarda (bee balm), agastache foeniculum
• Eryngium (sea holly), salvia superba, pink achillea (yarrow)
• Astrantia major ‘Roma’, allium ‘Purple Sensation’
• Perovskia, liatris spicata, coreopsis, deschampsia cespitosa
• Astilbe, aster, sedum, persicaria (fleeceflower), deschampsia cespitosa
• Calamagrostis ‘Karl Foerster’, eupatorium purpureum, monarda, persicaria polymorpha
• Veronicastratum virginicum ‘Roseum’, echinops ritro, thalictrum polygamum (meadow rue), eupatorium purpureum
• Calamagrostis brachytricha, salvia superba, allium ‘Purple Sensation’
• Monarda, helenium, echinops ritro, persicaria amplexicaulis, achillea, hemerocallis, dianthus, stachys byzantine, nepeta racemosa
• Thalictrum polygamum, phlox paniculata, campanula lactiflora, persicaria, filipendula rubra

While most of the plants listed above bloom in summer or fall, there are also some early spring plants that Piet Oudolf uses to fill a garden in spring.  In addition to spring-flowering bulbs, phlox divaricata, euphorbia, epimedium (bishop’s hat) and geraniums are all used for their toughness and beautiful spring flowers.

So, as you are planning the changes you want to make to your garden next year, why not consider a few of Piet Oudolf’s favoured plants?  You can’t go wrong with these for low-maintenance, sustainable plants and for adding long seasons of interest to your garden.

a garden consultation for Christmas

Garden consulting is something I do part-time over the summers, mostly just because I enjoy talking about gardening with anyone who will listen.  So I haven't really thought much about the business lately, but I recently got an inquiry from someone asking if I did gift certificates for Christmas.

Sure, why not?  And it occurred to me that this would be the perfect Christmas gift!  I certainly would have appreciated such a gift when I first started gardening.  Plus it wasn't made in China, doesn't involve any plastic, and won't eventually end up in the landfill.  Not to mention that if the recipient ends up adding a few drought tolerant and/or edible plants to their garden, we could end up increasing the sustainability and biodiversity of their local little environment.  How great is that?

For all you gardeners out there, why not make up your own little gift certificates to give to family and friends?  Just a thought.

piet oudolf garden design - perfect for Calgary gardens!

Lately I've been studying a few of Piet Oudolf's garden books.  His garden design philosophy has been described as "naturalistic", as he uses mostly perennials that look close to their wild ancestors and that have long seasons of interest.  His gardens are gorgeous - let me repeat, GORGEOUS! - and best of all, many of the plants he regularly uses in his designs do well in Calgary - a bonus!

I'm planning to write a little more about his design principles here in the next few months, and maybe even an article for the Calgary Horticultural Society's newsletter (I'm getting ambitious, aren't I?)  But in the meantime, have a look at some of these photos posted on other websites.  I could spend all day staring at some of these, couldn't you?

Piet Oudolf home page

Piet Oudolf's photostream on Flickr

Adam Woodruff's photostream on Flickr

Piet Oudolf interview on Gardening Gone Wild (with lots more links in this article)

Paula's garden

A regular reader and commenter (thanks, BTW!) of this blog, Paula, sent me some pictures a while ago and I've been meaning to post them.  I don't post too many "before and after" of my own garden designs for clients, since I don't usually do the actual planting, just provide a drawing, so there's nothing much to look at.  So, here are some pictures that are much prettier to look at than my sketches!

Some of the front/side garden - nice job Paula!

I especially love this one (above).  I always tell clients that the line between where the grass ends and the garden begins is one of the most important things in the overall design - because it is the line that your eye sees.  So make big, sweeping, smooth curves, not little squiggly ones.  The circular shape of this line and how it follows the circle around the base of the tree looks great.  I wouldn't necessarily change a thing, but if you wanted to go for even more impact I could see the bed around the tree becoming just a little bigger, and the grass effectively becoming a narrow pathway around the tree.  A bench in there somewhere would also be a visual treat and provide a place to sit and enjoy the view.  BTW, the repeat of pink flowers and the various foliage colours and textures look great, too!

Paula sent me a couple pictures of her morning glories, after I complained about mine.  Paula, I'm still not convinced!  Yes, yours are beautiful! Yes, I finally got flowers too this year and yes, they are big and exotic looking, but the quantity of flowers and length of bloom time cannot beat sweet peas - not to mention morning glories don't have any fragrance!  I'm definitely planting more sweet peas next year and will probably skip the morning glories...

Here is Paula's greenhouse (I am so jealous!) in the back, surrounded by lots of garden.  I love the green picnic table too - as you know I'm all about colour, there's no beige in my garden! She's done an especially great job because here's what it used to look like...

Wow, what a transformation!  And don't get me started on what a pain it is to get rid of all that gravel mulch....  Please people, it is not low maintenance, and unless you are planting a desert-style, xeriscape type of garden, it is ugly, ugly, ugly.  Paula, we should start an educational campaign about the disadvantages of gravel mulch!  The number of clients I've had who've asked me how to get rid of weeds that are growing in their "no maintenance" gravel mulch... well, I could go on but I won't. 

Here's some more "before" pictures from Paula.  Paula, I sympathize with you on the paint colours and the gravel!  As you know, I've had the same issues at my own house.  Sometimes you just want to meet the previous owners, shake them, and ask them what the &*^$#! they were thinking, don't you?!!

Anybody else out there want to share like Paula and show us some of your garden pics?

plants for the new shade garden - check!

What fun it is to have a whole new garden area to plant from scratch!  In my large, established yard with mostly garden and little grass left, I don't get this opportunity very often any more!  In fact, I think this area may be the last large-ish area I had left to plant! 

The area behind the new retaining wall is very shady on the left, and a little more sunny on the right.  What were my plant criteria?  I wanted to put in some shrubs around the back to prevent the kids from playing back there - anything that produces berries was preferred (BTW that is more difficult to find in shade plants but made the plant selection easier).  I definately wanted something evergreen to look at in the winter, and a wide variety of foliage colours and textures from perennials, of course!  Here's what I ended up with:

 

... and closer up:

 

The plants are:

• 3 virburnum trilobum (american cranberry) 'Bailey Compact'.  This shrub is shade tolerant but will probably produce fewer flowers and berries in shade.  Nevertheless, it does have a spectactular red colour in fall, even in shade, and will definitely serve the purpose of keeping the kids from falling off the back of the wall!  They will eventually get up to 1.5 m tall and wide.
• 1 virburnum lentago (nannyberry).  This is a great shrub for producing berries even in shade.  The bluish-black berries are supposed to be delicious, but I've not yet had any myself.  Maybe next year!  This shrub will have white flowers in spring, purplish-red foliage in fall, and will eventually get up to 5 m tall and 3 m wide!!
• That empty space on the right will be filled next spring with a picea pungens globosa (dwarf globe blue spruce) to meet the "something evergreen" requirement.  This shrub requires more sun than the others, which it will get on the right side of this area.
• 1 tiarella 'Mystic Mist'.  This perennial groundcover has great foliage colour and likes shade.  I had some plants in the front garden that the hares kept nibbling to the ground until they finally died.  I hope this one has a better chance in my fenced backyard!
• 3 heuchera 'Palace Purple'.  These purple-leaved plants are not as fancy as some of the newer varieties you can get these days, but are tried-and-true hardy in Calgary (and way cheaper!)  The dark foliage will stand out more once that blue spruce is behind them, and it also looks nice beside the burgundy veins in the tiarella.  These plants spread to about 30-40 cm and are drought tolerant.
• 1 hosta 'Halcyon'.  This plant is so big because I transferred it here from another area of the garden (it is over 5 years old). Its blue foliage colour will nicely repeat the colour from the blue spruce (that is, once the spruce is planted), and I love how that blue contrasts with the burgundy shades in the tiarella and heucheras.
• 1 calamgrostis acutiflora (feather reed grass) 'Avalanche'.  I have some of the regular green 'Karl Foerster' variety growing in shade, so I'm hoping this variegated variety will also do well in shade.  This one is a bit floppy from growing in a greenhouse but next year it should stand straight and tall, and get up to 120 cm tall.
• The existing iris germanica (bearded iris) should get enough sun here to flower, and the spiked leaves will contrast in texture with the rounded heucheras and globe spruce.
• There are some existing anemone sylvestris (windflowers) behind the hosta that can't be seen in this picture.  They have lovely white flowers in spring, and do well in full shade.
• At the base of the wall, to the left of the birdbath, there is one more hosta that you can't see in these pictures.  It is hosta 'Night Before Christmas'.  The green and white leaves should stand out well in shade and echo the other hostas of the same colour (but forgotten variety) on the other side of the pathway.  This is a fairly large variety that can eventually get over 1 m wide!!

There.  New shade garden finished (for now).  Now I really must concentrate on emptying that compost bin that I said was such a high priority!  Planting new stuff is way more fun...

trellis tips

If you are attaching a trellis directly to a wall, leave a space of about 5 cm behind it to make it easier for the vine to grow around and behind the slats.  Here you can see the new trellis in my back shade garden is screwed into some pieces of wood which create the desired space.  If a trellis is the kind with "legs" that you poke into the ground, then leave the same amount of space but secure the top with a wire or bracket to give some extra support.

Voila!  Here's my new trellis with a little clematis tangutica planted at the bottom.  I really like the feeling of being "in" a garden, which means that there are not only plants at your feet, but plants growing up the walls of the garden as well, and closing you in.  I hope this trellis and vine will help to achieve that in a few years, in a very shady, dry area of the garden where things had been looking a little bare.

Now if only I could camouflage that electrical meter box!  I'm thinking of painting it blue...

giant annuals in my garden

I only started growing my own annuals from seed a few years ago.  I think I started to get greedy - I could have so many more flowers for so cheap!!  Greedy, but true. And annuals are a great way to fill space while you're waiting for shrubs and perennials to mature.  But by this time of year I'm always overwhelmed with the giant annuals I grow (see the annuals are taking over 2008 and too full 2009).  I must make a mental note for next year to grow some smaller things, because my perennials and shrubs are getting bigger now and I'm running out of room for the big stuff.  Or else I just need to plant less of it...

Nicotiana sylvestris has been easy to grow for me and gets up to 6 ft tall in my garden!  Every year after I plant it, it takes a while to start growing and I think I'm not going to bother growing it again. But then it starts flowering and the scent overwhelms me! So sweet! The big leaves sure grab your attention as well.  I don't really have space but maybe I should make some?

The lavatera 'Silver Cup' is a must-have.  It is getting huge and bush-like but I just keep cutting it back and making bouquets with it.  Love it, love it, love it!

The verbena bonariensis can be seen here in front of purple monkshood, pink lavatera, purple liatris and white echinacea.  This is called a "see-through plant" because it is so wiry that even though it is tall, you can plant it in front of shorter things and can see through to the things behind.  It self-seeds a little bit but I always start some from seed to make sure I have lots in the garden.  It's also a butterfly magnet.

I already mentioned that my castor bean isn't as big as usual this year, but I think that is due to location.  I also start this from seed every year.  I never really know where I'm going to put it but I jam it in there anyway.  And I'm supposed to be a garden designer?

Here's a cloud of borage in the bottom right of this photo.  There are several such "clouds" in my garden.  This plant mysteriously appeared in my garden one year, and once you have borage you will have it forever.  I do love it though (and so do the bees!) and it is easy to pull up and remove any plants you don't want.  This year I started resorting to giving some away.

And finally, there's cardoon, which I wrote about here.

How much foliage variation is too much?

(text coming soon...)

my newly planted strawberry bed

Here's the strawberry bed under the sunroom windows at the back of my house.  Besides the fact that it dried out and needed to be lined to retain moisture, there were a few other problems with it before.

 

It used to be all strawberries and so it was fairly boring to look at.  I like to have garden designs, especially up against the house, that are tied with the house in some way, rather than looking like the garden was just plunked there with no regard to the design of the house.  Also, the back of the garden is under the eaves and therefore is quite dry, so the strawberries growing at the back were fairly thin anyway (not to mention hard to reach).

I added some dwarf alberta spruce (which I will probably end up treating as an annual since they don't do well here... I have until next year to think about what I want to replace them with) and ornamental millet to add height and texture at the back of the bed.  Whaddya think?

PS  Um, don't look at the lawn.  I am not a lawn person.  Maybe I will be someday after I finish all these other projects...

I don't get the "prune shrubs into a ball shape" thing.

Here are two nanking cherry shrubs in my neighbourhood.  Which one do you think looks better?  The one that looks like it is exploding with flowers or the one that is painfully trying to bloom on the tips of its unnaturally sheared branches?

I definitely have an opinion on this!!  Fine, prune your shrubs into neat, trim shapes if you are using them for a formal hedge or you are into topiary or something.  But otherwise, there is no need!  It is less work and I think the shrub looks much nicer if you let it take its natural shape.  Instead, prune out some of the older wood once in a while by cutting out the thickest branches right from the base of the shrub, removing the odd crossing branch, and that's about it.
Of course, I guess it's a matter of taste.  What do you think?

columnar crabapple trees in the butterfly potager garden

Here is the beginning of my plan to make a nice focal point in front of the ugly fence at the back of my butterfly potager garden. 

I splurged on the largest size columnar crabapple trees so I think I will wait to see if I can find a bench and/or wall decoration at the end-of-season sales.

microclimates in the garden

Oh how I wish for more hot spots in my garden!  I don't have very many really sunny spots so my garden is generally behind a lot of others I see at this time of year - in fact in the shade garden on the north side of my garage, nothing is even growing yet except the lamium and a couple tulips just starting to poke up!

Anyway, here are two pictures of sedum Autumn Joy I took this morning.  One picture is the plant just starting to appear in my north-east facing front garden.  The other picture is in a little hot spot in between the south-west corner of the house and a patio.  The reflected heat from the bricks and wall, plus the warmth of the basement wall below the soil makes this the hottest spot in my garden.  The plant in the hotter microclimate is weeks ahead!

I've also heard people complain that Annabelle hydrangea doesn't grow in Calgary, but I've had one for 5 years on the northwest side of my house right up against the house and in a spot sheltered by trees. 

These warmer microclimates are great places to experiment with plants that are rated for warmer zones.  I met one gardener last week-end who is growing a buddleia (butterfly bush) in her front, hot, west-facing garden!  Wow am I jealous.  Are you growing anything in your garden that isn't supposed to grow here?