Calgary Garden Coach

tulips, iceland poppies and bergenia in the Adventure Garden

daffodil and grape hyacinths in the front Entry Garden

epimedium rubrum and siberian squill in the dry, front Shade Garden

honeyberry is the first shrub to leaf out in my garden

Honeyberry is a fruit-bearing shrub which is so frost-tolerant that there is no worry about it leafing out so early.  It will have flowers on it very soon!  Hooray for spring!

Update: one week later, on April 29, the honeyberries are blooming and several big fat bees have been coming to visit!!

crocus in the side garden

Hooray!  It is finally the time of year when I can start posting pictures of what's blooming in my garden.  I planted these crocuses years ago under some snow-in-summer, which seems to protect them from squirrels.  They are in my side garden, another south-facing hotspot where things come up earlier than most other areas of my garden.  Plant these bulbs in fall.

siberian squill in the butterfly potager

What a beautiful week-end!  With this heat wave, I will soon have many more spring bulbs blooming in the garden.  But here's one of the things popping up already - tiny, electric blue siberian squill in a hot spot between the patio and house in my Butterfly Potager garden.  I wish I was able to take pictures to do this little baby justice.  If you wish you had some early spring bulbs blooming right now, consider adding some of this next fall.  It comes back perennially and even multiplies.  And the colour is fantastic!

pansies - first flowers of the year!

I was at the garden centre over the week-end and couldn't resist picking up a few pansies to put on my front and back steps.  These annuals are super hardy and once hardened off, can be left outside at this time of year.  Hardening off means gradually acclimatizing these soft, greenhouse-accustomed plants to the outdoors by starting to put them outside on a relatively warm day in a sheltered spot for short periods of time, and gradually increasing the exposure and amount of time.  The afternoons should be fairly warm starting tomorrow so I'll ask my kids to put them out for a half hour or so starting tomorrow afternoon. 

I love seeing flowers on the step when I come home from work!  It's been too long!

feathery 'Calgary Carpet' juniper

Meet Clive, the flowering clivia.

This is the first time my 1-1/2 year old houseplant, Clive, has bloomed! My husband named him Clive - he likes to name any of my things that he thinks have no useful purpose, and which take up a lot of space (admittedly, Clive does have annoyingly long, strappy leaves.  For the record, hubby also named my body pillow, which I can't sleep without, Fred.)

Clive doesn't look very Christmasy with that brassy orange colour, but at this time of year, when the christmas cactus has finished blooming, I'll take just about anything!  I LOVE flowering house plants (I NEED flowering houseplants!) and this is a plant that I expect to get better with age.  I ordered him from Garden Imports in spring 2010, after someone on GardenRant had been raving about clivias.  

He was worth the wait.

Happy December!

My Christmas cactus has been blooming the whole month of November and I haven't had time to tell you about it! This plant is at least 10 years old and super low maintenance.  Give it a sunny window and water it once in a while, and enjoy.  Suddenly I'm questioning why I don't have another one in a different colour!  I may have to indulge. (My inferior photography abilities do not do this plant justice!)

Yes, gardening and plants (and taking down spruce trees - exciting news coming on that front! but no, sadly, I didn't lose any in the windstorm) are always at least in the back of my mind even if I don't always have time to post about it.  This is a busy time of year at work (@ Mount Royal University - the marking!  the meetings!)  so I'm going easy on myself - expect just a few posts this month as I focus my time and energies on family and holiday festivities, and then the blog will start up with regular posts again in the New Year.

Have a wonderful, festive December, everyone!

purple liatris, echinacea 'White Swam', rudbecia 'Golden Glow', sedum 'Matrona' and annual borage in the Adventure Garden

September bouquet

above: a bouquet of perovskia (russian sage), rudbeckia 'Golden Glow', hyrangea 'Annabelle', and annual cosmos with golden rod, bee balm and joe pye weed in the garden in the background.

September is a beautiful month, isn't it?

what's blooming in the Adventure Garden in late August

Yes, I know it's September already but I took these pictures a few days ago and haven't had time to post them yet.  Are you looking for ideas for perennials that are showy at this time of year in Calgary?  My Adventure Garden at this time of year is taken over by lots of late-bloomers such as sedum 'Matrona', rudbeckia 'Golden Glow',

ornamental grasses such as helitotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass),

and prairie perennials such as purple liatris spicata and echinacea 'White Swan',

and one of my all-time favourite plants, perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage.)  All of these plants do well in a sunny spot and are drought-tolerant.  They're also all low maintenance except the rudbeckia, which is a tall plant that needs staking. 

To see what this garden looks like at other times of the year, click here and scroll down.

pink peony, blue oat grass and painted daisy in the Adventure Garden

white peachleaf bellflower, Morden Centennial rose, blue salvia and annual cosmos in the Adventure Garden

strawberries, and peas, and tomatoes, oh my! - the edible gardens in late July

We have had a bumper crop of strawberries this year!  I grow a perennial "June bearing" variety.  Who knows whether it was all the rain this spring, or the worm castings I topdressed the bed with, or just the fat that the plants are more mature now... or all three?  But this is the first year we've had enough strawberries for a family of five - in the past the kids picked them all before the adults had a chance! And the alpine strawberries that I started from seed this spring have some nice green berries on them so we still have more strawberries to look forward to.

The snap peas have been yummy as well but the birds have had more than their share.  Note to self: use netting on the peas next year! And I've even picked a few Sun Gold tomatoes already (no picture because I always eat them before I bother to go get my camera) which is the first time I've harvested tomatoes that I've grown myself from seed in July.  I'm sold on Sun Golds!

Above: the entrance to 'England', my veggie box area with honeysuckle blooming on the still-waiting-to-be-replaced arch (it's on the to-do list.)

Above (clockwise from top left): marigolds, lettuce and rainbow swiss chard; cherries ripening in my "orchard"; nasturtiums with foliage of kohlrabi, carrots and parsley; more cherries; marigolds, lettuce and chard; scarlet runner beans, red orache, beets, lettuce and tomatoes.

What are you enjoying in your garden right now?

 To see what's good to eat in my garden at other times of the year, and how the garden has evolved, click here and scroll down.

blue delphiniums, white peachleaf bellflower, scarlet trumpet honeysuckle, white peony, red asiatic lily

pink peony, red painted daisy, blue oat grass, blue salvia in the Adventure Garden

blue salvia, white peachleaf bellflower, pink peony, red painted daisy in the Adventure Garden

nepeta, dianthus and annual snapdragons in the Adventure Garden

 

 

martagon lily in the Butterfly Potager garden

red peony in the Butterfly Potager garden

 

 

bearded iris and blue perennial geranium in the Adventure Garden

peony, shasta daisy, rose 'Therese Bugnet', and saponaria in the Adventure Garden

iris germanica 'Bounty' and ninebark 'Coppertina' in the front Welcome Garden

bearded iris in front of 'Sun Power' hosta at the edge of the back Shade Garden

what's blooming in the Side Garden, July 1 2011

Snow-in-summer is doing a good job of keeping down weeds and looking pretty in my low-maintenance side garden right now.  The delphiniums are really big this year thanks to all the spring rain and they're just starting to open up...

Why would you grow blue flowers in front of a blue wall where they're hardly noticable, you might ask?  So that I don't feel conflicted about cutting them and bringing them into the house in bouquets, of course!

To see how this garden area has progressed over time, click here and scroll down.

Also, check back over the next few days as I post pictures of other areas of my garden as well!

Hello, Therese!

Therese Bugnet just started blooming in my Adventure Garden yesterday - the first hardy rose to bloom after the wild rose.  It is shown here with shasta daisy and saponaria.  For more on hardy, low maintenance roses in my garden and how to grow them, click here.

what's blooming in the Adventure Garden, June 30 2011

The Adventure Garden is my favourite garden and this is the time of year where it is really starting to fill in.  It is also 3 years old now so getting quite mature in spots. It is viewed from many angles depending on which area of the back yard you're in (above: from the house or north patio, which is the worst view so I don't know why I put it first...),

Above: from 'England' looking towards the garage.

Above: closer up and looking at an angle up the dry stream bed.

I just finished deadheading most of the dwarf bearded iris and some of my other favourite plants and combinations for sun are blooming in this garden right now:

Above (clockwise from top left): perennial geranium 'Ballerina'; blue oat grass looks good with just about anything; ornamental alliums, siberian iris 'Caesar's Brother', and white hesperalis matronalis (the purple variety is considered a weed but white is a little less vigorous and smells soooooo nice!); pink saponaria (a bit of a spreader but I have it at the back of the garden where it helps keep down the weeds); blue and pink perennial geraniums, variegated iris (great foliage and blooms smell like grape juice! yum!), white hesperalis matronalis and purple siberian iris; the variegated iris backlit with geranium 'Ballerina' and pink sea thrift 'Dusseldorf Pride' in the background.

To see how this garden area has progressed over time, click here and scroll down.

More pictures coming tomorrow!  Now I'm off to celebrate Canada Day at Heritage Park.  What are you and your garden doing today?

wild rose in the Adventure Garden

I know other people have roses blooming already, but in my relatively shady yard, the wild rose is the first to bloom and just started blooming today.  I may regret planting it (it was a seedling that randomly appeared in my yard a couple of years ago and I rescued it and gave it a home at the back of the Adventure Garden) because it suckers quite a bit, but it's a hardy native and is not only the first rose in my garden to bloom, but also the first to leaf out and look good in spring.  So for now, it stays (those are purple dwarf bearded iris in the background.)

yellow doronicum (leopard's bane), pink bergenia, orange geum and white anemone sylvestris (snowdrop anemone)

... in the back Shade Garden.

deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair grass) 'Goldstaub'

My poor photography skills just do not do justice to this light, feathery grass which is dancing in the wind out there right now.  It is growing in part shade and seems pretty happy there.

perennial cornflower in the Butterfly Potager garden

 

a bit of a messy plant but I like blue!  and so do the bees:

Mountain Ash tree blooming in the back Shade Garden

blue oat grass, bearded iris, geranium 'Ballerina', pink moss phlox and sea thrift 'Dusseldorf Pride'

... in a hot, sunny spot in the Adventure Garden.

allium 'Purple Sensation'

The alliums are blooming right now.  My kids love these plants to use as magic wands!  If you like them, make a mental note to plant some bulbs this fall.  'Purple Sensation' is a variety that is particularly easy to grow in Calgary - even though they come back reliably, I always plant a few more every year.

Clockwise from the top you can see it paired with: golden hops in the Butterfly Potager Garden; and saponaria (soapwort), bearded iris, late yellow tulips, blue oat grass, iceland poppies in the Adventure Garden.

spring-blooming clematis alpina

Looking for a vine that can take shade and a spot away from the foundation of the house?  Super-tough clematis alpina is it.  My blue one, probably 'Blue Bird' and probably at least 15 years old, survives under a spruce tree with no extra care.  Now that is my kind of plant!  My pink one, 'Willy' is only a year old but I expect great things from it.

These kinds of clematis do not need to be cut down at all and their fuzzy seed heads look cool too, so they add vertical dimension to the garden all year long.  I highly recommend them.

iris, snapdragons, tulips and cherries blooming in the Adventure Garden

 

 

Doronicum orientale (leopard's bane), bergenia in the back Shade Garden

Bergenia bridges the border between my sunny Adventure Garden and the back Shade Garden.  Here it is with its shade-loving neighbour, sunny yellow leopard's bane.

bergenia, iris, tulips and iceland poppies in the Adventure Garden

Are you looking for something to jazz up an area of your garden at this time of year?  Here are some of my favourite plants blooming in the Adventure Garden right now.  Bergenia and iris are especially great because they have very strong textures and their foliage stays healthy all season, which adds interest to the garden even after the plants are done blooming.

for the record: hail for 3 days in a row!

How are your plants holding up?

what's blooming in my Calgary garden - May 29 2011

Above: bergenia, chionodoxa and tulipa tarda in the back shade garden.  Do you have bergenia in your garden?  If not, why not?  The flowers are so showy and bloom for ages, and the leaves add great texture the rest of the season.  It makes a great, hardy groundcover in shade or part shade.  I never have to weed this patch as it is so thick and healthy.

 

Above: an early, red tulip of a forgotten variety.  The patch in the back shade garden has been blooming for a week but with all the rain I never got a chance to take a picture until today - the last one still blooming!

 

Above: daffodils in the Butterfly Potager garden.  Yes, things are definitely late this year!

 

Above: more daffodils in the Front Entry garden and grape hyacinths also starting to bloom.

 

Above: some annuals for colour!  I tell ya, all this colour is such a sight for sore eyes after our long winter and late spring.

 

Above: and more annuals in containers.  Za zing!  I can't be unhappy looking at this colour!

 

Above: Kinnikinnick in the front Welcome Garden - another great groundcover, and a native one, too!  Such cute little flowers.  These leaves also look good all season and turn beautiful bronze in fall.

 

Above: Kinnikinnick again with some tulipa tarda in front, closing up for the evening.  Good night!

"early" spring blooms in my Calgary garden - May 14

 
Above: siberian squill in the Butterfly Potager

Above: striped squill in the Back Shade Garden

 

Above: weeping pussy willow in the Butterfly Potager

 

Above: tulipa tarda in the Adventure Garden

 

 

crocus! at last!

species crocus and hens&chicks in the side garden - the south-facing, hottest and driest part of my garden

weeping pussy willow in the butterfly potager

There's not much happening in my garden yet - the snow hasn't even melted on the shady side of the yard.  But I noticed this little weeping pussy willow was starting to open its catkins yesterday.  This is a cute little tree I purchased at Safeway last year just for the cuteness of those fuzzy little catkins, and I plunked it in the garden later in the summer, in a fairly shady spot near a downspout (willows are not known for their drought tolerance!)

I just noticed they're for sale again this year so if you're looking for something to perk you up in early spring, head out and pick one up for yourself!  (Sorry for the messiness of the background in these pictures, I guess it will be time to head outside and start doing some clean-up soon! Hooray!)

 

what grows in my Adventure Garden: 2010 reflections and 2011 planning

The Adventure Garden has got to be one of my favourite garden areas in my yard.  The sunroom at the back of my house looks out directly onto this garden and the slope allows for a great show with plenty of layering of textures.  This garden is also one of the most challenging areas because it ranges from a dry shade area on the left to a hot, exposed sunny area on the right, so repetition of plants across the entire width of the garden is impossible.  I am still experimenting with incorporating repeating colours and textures with different (shade and sun-loving) plants to improve the continuity of this area and it's definitely a work in progress. 

There are many young shrubs near the back of this garden that need a few more years to mature and really strut their stuff.  Eventually you shouldn't be able to see the fence at the back.  This garden is very low-maintenance with mostly shrubs and perennials, and just a few of my favourite annuals for added colour - I like to plant snapdragons and cosmos every year, and borage self-seeds itself around this garden with abandon.  Fortunately, it's easy to recognize in spring so I just pull up the unwanted ones or gradually cut them down over the season if they get too big.  The only plant that's not low maintenance here is the iceland poppy, but it provides such early season colour that I can't quite bring myself to get rid of it.  But I wouldn't recommend it if you want low maintenance 'cause it seeds itself all over like crazy and is perennial, not annual.

Here's what this garden looked like in 2010:

Above: In late May, tulips, dwarf bearded iris and iceland poppies (also shown in close-ups, below) are providing some colour.  But the area on the right side of the dry stream bed is much more mature and full.  The area on the left needs a few more years to fill in, and a lot more bulbs which I will plant once I'm happy with the placement of the shrubs and perennials (this fall I hope!)

 
Above: by mid-June things are taking off and you can see perennial geraniums, ornamental alliums and iceland poppies in bloom here.  Things change fast and below is the garden at the end of June:

Above: iceland poppies, nepeta (catmint), painted daisy, geraniums, sea thrift, blue salvia and siberian iris in bloom.

 Above: close-ups in June.

 
Above:  In July, just before I went on holidays, here's how the Adventure Garden looked.  I'll be honest here and admit that I keep cropping out the left-hand side of this garden area because it doesn't look like much yet.  That's where the transition is to the dry, shady side and I'm still experimenting with plants that will do well here and fit with the rest of the garden.  This year I plan to try some calamagrostis 'Avalanche' to the left of those pink, painted daisies to add some tall foliage texture which is sadly lacking at the back left right now.   This particular grass has variegated foliage and should do well in the part shade there.

Above: peonies, columbine meadow rue, painted daisies, blue salvia, peachleaf bellflower, roses, cosmos(started from seed), yarrow, nepeta, iceland poppies, siberian iris, dianthus, and blue flax bloom in this garden in July.

 

Above: By early August, the lilies have started blooming  - one of my favourite flowers!

 Above: close-ups in August.  Let me know if you have questions about any of the plants in these photos!

 
Above: I love the colours in this late September photo!

 
Above:  still a few annuals blooming and plenty of late-season perennials.

Above: We had a nice, long Indian Summer in October this year and the sedums, ornamental grasses, rudbeckia, liatris and russian sage looked great!

 

 

To see what this garden looked like last year, click here.

To see other areas of my garden in 2010, check out:

• the Butterfly Potager 2010
• the Back Shade garden 2010

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

what grows in my butterfly potager garden: 2010 reflections and 2011 planning

The butterfly potager is one of my favourite gardens in my yard.  It is enclosed on all 4 sides by fence, house and garage so it has a special, protected hideaway kind of feeling to it.  I also try to stick to mostly hot colours in this area, which tend to "advance" and therefore make the space feel even more intimate.  Plus the reds will hopefully attract humingbirds and many of the purples attract butterflies. 

Since I grow more veggies and annuals here than in other areas of the garden (this year the boxes were planted with spinach and chard) and thus this garden fills in later in the season, I've gradually added a few elements to add interest even before the plants get big, such as the bench, trellises and garden art.  Here's a look at it in 2010, including what is blooming when:

Above: by early June, there are still just little seedlings in the veggie growing area, although the crabapples (planted last year) are in bloom and so are some daffodils in another area of this garden.  This spring I will be planting asparagus in the two little raised beds.

Above: later in June things are finally taking off.  Ornamental alliums, chives, violas, centaurea, calendula, martagon lilies, pulmonaria and lilacs are in bloom in this garden.

Above: by late July, the chard is fully grown and poppies and delphiniums add colour in this area.

Above: ornamentals such as peonies, delphiniums, honeysuckle, roses, dianthus, violas and calendula are also in bloom.  The poppies self-seed everywhere but are easy to recognize in spring and it's easy to pull up the extras you don't want.

 
Above: by mid-August the lilies, dill, hyssop and bee balm are also blooming.

Above: in August there are also 2 different clematis, daylilies, nasturtiums, and roses in bloom.

Above: here's a longer shot in September, giving you a bit more perspective on the whole garden.

Above: eupatorium (joe pye) about to bloom, plus clematis, roses, nasturtiums, thyme, monarda (bee balm), hemerocallis (daylily), hyssop (agastache), violas, calendula and zinnias.

Besides planting asparagus in the raised boxes and probably adding a scarlet runner bean teepee where the dill was last year, I don't plan to make too many changes to this garden this season.  I'm just looking forward to watching it mature.

To see what this garden looked like last year, click here.

To see other areas of my garden, check out:

• the back shade garden 2010

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

what grows in my back shade garden: 2010 reflections and 2011 planning

My back shade garden is directly outside my kitchen window - the picture above was taken from the kitchen sink.  In other words I've been staring at this view a lot lately and I can't help scheming and planning what I'm going to do to change/improve it for next year.  Here's a look at it in 2010, including what is blooming when:

Above: tulips and bergenia add early seaon colour and don't mind the snow! I love my bergenia patch for its low maintenance, early colour and leaf texture!

Above: closer to the garage is deeper, drier shade (background in the top left photo) and there is not a lot happening yet in May.  But fritillaria is already blooming there and this year I planted some forget-me-nots so I'm working on more bloom in this area next year.  I also have some chionodoxa in the area and should plant more.

Above: by mid-June, much more is happening in the back shade garden.  The bergenia is still blooming (did I mention I love bergenia?), the ferns are up, plus tulips, snowdrop anemone, and leopard's bane are blooming.  The bare patch in the bottom right of the photo is a pathway that I don't even bother to mulch anymore because the kids are always running up and down, keeping the weeds down for me!

Above: June in the back shade garden also include bleeding heart and dwarf bearded irises blooming.  I added the hopscotch stepping stones to the lawn this year and the kids love 'em (so do I!)  And I bet you can't even see the chair in the corner of the top left photo above, can you?  I'm thinking of painting that chair green this year to help it stand out.

 

Above (two photos): the light in this area of the garden in the late afternoons can be magical!  Both these photos were taken in July.

 Above: more photos from July.  Lots of texture plus irises, columbine, goat's beard and ornamental grasses (calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' and festuca glauca) in bloom.

 
Above: The back shade garden in August.  Ligularia, astilbes, hostas, heucheras and ornamental grasses are in bloom.  This month I added a variegated dogwood to the right of the birdbath for even more foliage interest.  You can see I also painted the trim and I really need to paint that electrical meter on the right hand side of the garage wall (it keeps sticking out of these pictures like a sore thumb!)  I also tried growing a clematis tangutica on that trellis but it didn't make it - that spot is super dry and 100% dark shade, being between two large trees and on the north side of the garage.  So instead I'm planning to spray paint a decorative metal scroll a fun, bright colour and hang it on that trellis to dress things up in that area year-round!  And phew, doesn't the brown and white trim look so much better than that gawd-awful yellow?

Above: close-ups in August.

 
Above: by the end of September, the mountain ash tree, cotoneaster shrubs, and hostas and bergenia are showing plenty of beautiful fall colour!

Above: close-ups in September.

Above: in October I've started cutting stuff back and mulching with leaves, but the ornamental grasses and bergenia still look great and the virburnum lentago (nannyberry) and viburnum trilobum (dwarf american cranberry) 'Bailey Compact' shrubs are still adding fall colour.  They were new last year and will get bigger and put on a better show in the future.

Above: nannyberry and cranberry fall foliage.

Above: the back shade garden in early November.

So, to summarize my to-do list for this garden in 2011:

• paint the electrical meter box
• paint the chair in the back corner green
• paint a decoration to hang on the trellis since nothing will actually grow there
• plant plenty of early blooming bulbs next fall

To see what this garden looked like last year, click here.

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

Happy holidays!

 

Above: amaryllis in front of jade plant in bloom, in front of the snowy back garden (the jade plant has been in bloom since early November, by the way!  I love this houseplant!)

 

So I'm finished my semester-from-hell at work. Christmas mayhem is about to descend on our house, and then I'll have time to start posting again.  Regularly. Once a week at least. I promise!

But right now it's time to go enjoy Christmas with a 7, 4 and 3-year-old and hubby.  Joy!

... more flowering houseplants... and snow... and general winter thoughts

Since we've been talking about flowering houseplants, here's my jade plant in bloom.  Like the Christmas cactus and lemon tree (calling it a tree is pushing it at this point), it is in a sunny, west-facing window, and that's the Adventure Garden - now blanketed in thick snow - in the background again.  Jade plants will bloom when they reach about 7ish years old if they get enough sun.

I've been meaning to post an explanation of what I'm up to these days, but, well, I just haven't had time.  At this time of the year, I can barely remember what it's like to be able to keep on top of the laundry, let alone have time to garden! Hooray for winter!  If it was gardening season and I didn't have time to garden, I would be a lot more grumpy.

For those of you who don't know, I work at Mount Royal University and at this time of year I'm swamped with teaching prep and marking issues.  I would say that for me, the four seasons of the year are:

1. Gardening season
2. Trying to stay 1-minute ahead of my students
3. Reflecting on the past year's garden
4. Planning next year's garden

In actuality, I reflect and plan constantly all year round, but it just so happens I don't have time to write about it in seasons 1 and 2.  So I have lots of interesting ideas to talk about and in a few weeks when season 2 starts to wind down, expect to hear more from me! 

Enjoy the snow... isn't it beautiful?