Calgary Garden Coach

espaliered apple trees in 'England' - check!

Things don't happen very fast around my garden.  Last week-end I finally got around to putting some wire up, and starting to espalier these young, dwarf apple trees along the side of the edible garden area that my family calls 'England' (I know, you can barely see them!  They'll look better when they're leafed out.)  But my point is, this was a long time coming:

3 years ago in March 2009, I posted this sketch showing my idea for espaliered trees and raised beds along the fence:

Then in August 2010 we built some raised beds in the middle of the area, which is a former RV parking pad:

...and last summer we had our first real veggie garden since we moved to this house, and finally I planted the little baby dwarf apple trees last fall.

You can go to the Edible Gardens section of this blog and scroll down if you'd like to see how this garden has progressed over the years. I still have several things to get done, including building more raised beds between the trees against the fence, planting more groundcovers around and between the stepping stones, and maybe even adding a decoration or two to the fence. 

So my second point is, if the idea of transforming your yard into a place of beauty and bounty is feeling a little overwhelming, remember that you don't have to do it all in one year.  But it is good to have a plan!

 

it's not too cold for the waxwings!

Despite the frigid temperatures, a flock of waxwings descended on our mountain ash tree this morning and denuded it of its berries. (I love my mountain ash tree for the incredible fall colour, winter berries, and the birds it attracts!)

What beautiful birds!  Here's a little movie clip, too, so you can take in a little extra nature today - enjoy the sounds of their fluttering and singing!

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/_8JeqswRS_I" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

... and for the record, it is COLD.

it's about time - green bins to be piloted in Calgary!

Here's the story:

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20111213/CGY_green_bin_111213/20111213/?hub=CalgaryHome

While trucking around picking up everybody's compostable waste isn't quite as green as composting it yourself on site, I would argue this is the next best thing.  Some people don't have the space to do it themselves, or don't have the space to compost all of their compostable waste.  Between the garden and kitchen waste thanks to a large garden and a family of 5, I barely have enough space myself even though I have two very large compost bins.

So I fully support the green bin initiative, even though I don't need one.  Do you?

Thanks to the Calgary Hort Society's facebook page for alerting me to this story!

on fall leaves and watering trees

The Mountain Ash tree in my back shade garden is finally starting to change colour.  It is such a gorgeous tree!  I feel very lucky to have it.

And in case you're not following the Calgary garden talk on facebook, here is a recent post I linked to about how to water your trees in fall.  Basically, stop watering in mid-September .  Once deciduous trees have lost their leaves, water once more with a soaker hose under the drip line.  Water evergreens in late fall just before the ground freezes as they use water throughout the winter.

And speaking of leaves, here are a few links regarding using fall leaves in the garden.  Don't let those valuable leaves go to waste!  Rake them onto the garden, add them to the compost bin, or bag them up and make leaf mold!

• How to make leaf mold in a bag from Calgary Garden Coach, Nov 2009
• Leaves valuable as mulch, compost from The Columbus Dispatch
• Making leafmoud - gardener's gold from growveg.com

fall leaves in the garden - up to my old tricks!

Ever since I noticed my neighbours putting their leaves in the garbage a few years ago, I have been "rescuing" other people's bags of leaves.  Why?   Because I only have one decent-sized deciduous tree on my property (but many, many spruce) and I don't have nearly enough leaves as I (or the kids) would like.

So I rescue other people's bags and first dump them on the back lawn for the kids to jump in for a while.  When they've tired themselves out, I mow the pile a few times with my push mower to chop up the leaves, then I start dumping them in the gardens for mulch.  Technically you should wait until the ground has frozen to put winter mulch down, but when you're a busy gardener who works full-time and has kids, you do things whenever you have the chance even if the timing isn't optimal!

I've written about the benefit of leaves before - they are high in nitrogen and they insulate the soil from our wild temperature swings and drying winds in wintertime.  This past spring I didn't even bother to clean them up!  You are supposed to remove winter mulch in order to help the soil warm up faster in the spring.  Again, here I don't follow the rules and maybe my garden is a week or two behind in the spring, but minimizing work is a higher priority for me!  Dried leaves don't look as pretty as fresh, clean soil does but you can put some compost on top of them in the late spring for a cleaner look.

I even save and reuse the garbage bags from the bags of leaves that I rescue!  I'm sure the neighbours think I'm crazy, prowling the back alleys and lurking around the leap drop-off area, but I really think I'm doing the world a favour!

ack! frost warning tonight!

Here's a good, quick summary of what to do with your vegetable garden when frost threatens.

spreading compost - the single best thing you can do for your garden

 

I can't tell you how many garden consults I did this year where people complained "My plants just don't seem to be doing very well.  I want a more lush look."  In particular, I had a lot of clients who had their gardens professionally landscaped 2-4 years ago and are not happy with the performance of their plants.  When I ask them what they do to fertilize, they say "nothing."  Many seem to think that putting bark mulch on top of their soil is enough.  It is not.  (For the people who had their gardens done 1-2 years ago, I also question the quality of soil that their landscaping companies supplied, but that is a subject for another post.)

Plants need food too! And by far the best way to feed your plants is to feed your soil.  In terms of doing minimal work for optimal gain, I suggest putting a topdressing of 1-2" of compost on top of your garden as frequently as once a year if you can get to it, or at least every other year (let's be realistic here, we're all busy!) It just so happens that compost looks nice too - like beautiful, rich, dark soil.

When should I spread compost?

I find the easiest time to do this is in late late May/ early June, when all the plants are up and growing, but there is still enough space between them to make putting down compost an easy task.  But really, it can be done anytime.  I just did my front Shade Garden (above) this past week-end, because that's when I got around to it. (This area was newly planted this spring and yes I know it is a little bare still - it is a work in progress but at least it is easy to spread compost here!)

What about mulch?

Compost also acts as a fairly good mulch, in terms of helping to retain moisture in the soil, regulating temperatures and keeping down weeds.  But bark mulch is better for that.  If you have bark mulch, you can rake it off to the side, put down the compost, and rake the bark mulch back.  Or, if you prefer to take the path of minimal work (this is what I would do!), there is nothing wrong with just putting the compost on top of the mulch.  The compost will gradually decompose and work its way down through the mulch. Alternatively, whenever you are going to top up your mulch (this needs to be done every few years), put some compost down first then new mulch on top (I don't like this method only because it means you need to do 2 big jobs at the same time rather than spreading out the work - pun intended!)

If you have rock/gravel mulch, well then we have a problem.  Compost on top of rock mulch is not going to look so nice.  This is why I never recommend rock mulch to people unless they really, really like the look.  It is just not as low maintenance as people think.  If this is your situation, then perhaps pull back the rocks from around each plant and put some compost down around each plant - being careful not to have it touching the stems or leaves - then put the rocks back.  Or get a water soluble, organic fertilizer and fertilize your garden that way.  It's not optimal, but it's better than nothing.

I don't make enough to cover my garden.  Where do I get compost?

Lots of places deliver by the cubic yard.  Or you can pick up in bulk.  I like Western Canada Compost in particular (they are not paying me to say this!)  I talked to lots of people this year who were very unhappy with Burnco's compost, but that's second-hand information.

'England' (the veggie garden) in late September

This may be my last post of the year for the vegetable garden, but I'm happy to say it was a darn good year.  And today was a great day!  It is September 25 and I've only lost a few zucchini leaves to 3^o overnight temperatures a week ago.  No frost.  No snow.  And no sign of it in the forecast.  Lots of tomatoes still ripening on the vine.  Life is pretty good!

Today I am picking the last of the lettuce which is starting to bolt and go bitter, and there are only a few peas left to pick, but scarlet runner beans, swiss chard, kohlrabi, carrots, beets and tomatoes are still in bounteous supply.  I will be having a fresh tomato, basil and bocconcini salad for supper tonight.  Is there anything yummier?

Next year I plan to install some brackets in order to put hoops and frost cloth over the raised beds to extend the season.  But I want to put the brackets on the inside of the boxes, so this will be best done in spring.  This year, I'll just be happy to be harvesting frost-tolerant chard, beets and carrots into October. 

clover in the lawn used to be encouraged - it's true!

 

Above: a large patch of clover in my lawn stays greener than the grass all summer and doesn't mind being stepped on.

I have written about the benefit of clover in lawns before - I have purposely dug up clover from my garden and the occasional back alley source and brought it home to plant in my small lawn.  Clover is a nitrogen fixer which means it takes nitrogen from the air and puts it in the soil where it can be used by plants i.e. grass. Plus, I don't mind the look and the flowers even smell nice!  It can take over the whole lawn for all I care.

My friend and I were just chatting about this the other day and I told her I had read in several places (but hadn't seen any hard evidence) that clover used to be a common plant in lawns until the pesticide industry convinced us that it was a weed.  Now I have an actual reference thanks to this excellent post from May Dreams Gardens!

new plants for the front Shade Garden - ajuga 'Black Scallop' and lamiastrum 'Hermann's Pride'

Sigh.  I'm back to work now and barely have time to garden let alone blog about it.  Summer days are numbered and I still have a lot to do!  In addition to the persicaria and bittersweet I picked up at GreenGate's wine and cheese event a couple of weeks ago, I also got a couple new plants for the front Shade Garden which I haven't told you about yet. 

I've never grown ajuga before, and I don't know why, because it is such a cool and versatile plant.  I've recommended it to plenty of other people so I figured it was time to try it out myself.  It has great texture and is a low maintenance ground cover in sun or shade.  It comes in lots of cool foliage colours as well, this particular one 'Black Scallop' being black and shiny.  Above it can be seen with pulmonaria and golden creeping jenny, the latter of which I will probably be phasing out to other areas of the garden as the ajuga gets bigger.

I've also been meaning for quite a while to get more lamiastrum to go all the way across the front of the bay window here, in order to better connect the garden to the house.  Lamiastrum is one of the few plants that is tolerant of dry shade, plus its variegated foliage really brightens up dark places.  This garden area is under a spruce tree (which can't get much drier or shadier!) and my existing lamiastrum is big and healthy.  There are now 4 tiny little new plants on the right that will eventually fill in and be as big as the ones to the left. 

To see this garden and these plants at other times of the year, click here.

the veggie garden in mid-August

Wow.  I have to say I am thrilled with how well the first year of this new veggie garden has gone.  I am actually out of town right now and one of the things I miss most is freshly picked lettuce and tomatoes for my salad every night.  :-(

The peas have fallen all over the place rather than grow up one of their supports (above), so I may consider growing them in a less windy spot next year, but they're still producing just fine.

And we are also lucky to have a bounty of Saskatoon berries hanging over our fence from the neighbour's yard (above) which we have been enjoying very much! 

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.

the veggie garden in mid-July

I am not really a veggie gardener at heart.  I am a perennial gardener.  If I was a true vegetable gardener, I'd have something started inside, ready to fill the spot where I'm about to harvest the last of the spinach.  But I haven't. I don't even want to think about doing that, actually!  (I'm busy painting these days... more on that later.)  And there's more than enough to eat out there right now, anyway.

As a perennial gardener, I'm finished my mad spring rush of gardening, and I'm in cruise mode.  In the perennial garden, the plants in most areas by this time of the season are big enough to shade the soil and minimize weed growth, and the garden almost takes care of itself (I do a little deadheading and pull the largest weeds that catch my eye, and that's about it.) 

Most of the veggies are getting quite large and lush also now, and the veggie garden looks great.  So great I almost hate to harvest!  (I said almost, but I'm not quite that crazy!)  I truly have been my enjoying fresh greens these last many weeks and the strawberries and peas are starting to ripen now.  But it's kind of a pity things won't look so nice for the rest of the season, isn't it?  So in honour of the beauty of home-grown veggies, I thought I would post a few photos! 

I feel I should mention that this area is not complete - eventually those pots against the fence will also be replaced with raised beds.  Eventually...

Anyway, these beds seem to be doing very well for their first year - I've read that sometimes it takes a couple of years to get up to full production because it takes a while for the beneficial organisms to build up in the soil.  The boxes are 4' x 8' in area and more than 1 ft high.  After building them, I briefly thought that maybe they were too high, because of course, extra height means extra cost in wood and soil, and I was afraid they might dry out quickly.  But they don't, and I am loving the extra height because it is SOOOOOOO easy to weed.  My back is very happy!

And since having all this extra space was new for me this year, I wasn't sure how much of everything to plant.  So I guessed, and recorded what I did, so I can make notes for next year.  I planted 4 squares of spinach (see my notes on square foot gardening here), which was maybe a bit too much, but in case of a few dinners or potlocks, I'd like to have a little extra, so note to self: plant 4 squares of spinach again next year.  The actual garden and planting plan are shown from the same orientation, below:

'England' (the veggie garden), June 30 2011

Happy Canada Day!  I'm off to Heritage Park with the family today, but first, a few more pictures of what the gardens look like at this time of year:

Above: We call the veggie garden area 'England', and it was built last year.  You enter it through a structure which still has 'Blue Boy' clematis blooming on one side (and which is too narrow, it's on "the list"), and feast your eyes on the yummy food that is spread before you!

I am quite happy with the Square Foot Gardening layout I used this year.  It looks rather like a patchwork quilt.  Very decorative!

So far we've mostly been eating chives (!), and spinach and red orache salads.  Elsewhere in the garden, haskap (honeyberries) are ripening, strawberries are in bloom, and we've been harvesting thyme, mint, parsley and oregano.  Gawd I love this time of year!

 

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!

perennial cornflower in the Butterfly Potager garden

 

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

the vegetable garden is planted - May 29 2011

The veggie garden is all planted, except for a zucchini seedling I'm keeping in a pot for a few more days until all risk of frost is over.  And sigh.  There's frost predicted tonight.  I wish I'd been more keen this spring and put hoops on my raised beds so that I could easily put a frost cloth over them.  But I didn't.  I was too distracted with doing other things in other parts of the garden.  And so now I am heading outside with sticks and sheets to cover the tomatoes.  It had better be the last time...

asparagus!

When I volunteered at the Garden Show, we handed out pamphlets for Edgar Farms' Asparagus Festival.  Many people were surprised and said "Oh, can you grow asparagus here?"  Yes, you can!  And I ordered some bare roots this winter which just arrived yesterday. 

So here are my notes on planting and growing asparagus:

• asparagus is a long-lived perennial, so preparing the soil before planting will be very important for long-term success
• choose a spot with lots of sun, where the sun can warm the soil early in spring (the mini-raised beds shown above in my butterfly potager garden will be the perfect spot!)
• they are deep-rooted plants that prefer deep, rich, well-drained sandy loam so add lots of organic material to clay soil
• cultivate the area to at least 30 cm deep and incorporate generous amounts of manure, compost and peat moss and a high phosphorous fertilizer. 
• set the rooted crowns into the trenches about 15 cm below the soil surface and cover with no more than 5 cm of soil initially.  tamp down the soil firmly around the roots. as the spears begin to emerge, cover them lightly with soil and repeat until the trench is filled in.  do not fertilize.  wait.
• in the second year, a few shoots can be harvested, but only for a 2-3 week period.  full-scale harvesting should be possible from the third year on.
• spears are ready to harvest when they are about 15-20cm tall, just before the scales on their tips begin to open.
• leave unharvested spears to grow tall and form a fern-like plant that enables the plant to build itself up for the following year's production; give a thorough soaking and add a good feeding of phosphate-rich fertilizer in fall;  can be left standing for the winter to catch snow

More information on planting can be found on this post at Vegetable Gardener.com.

Also check out Growing, Cooking and Stashing Asparagus at A Way to Garden.com.

preparing and amending vegetable garden soil

As I sat inside this past week-end staring out at my frozen raised vegetable beds, I at least got time to plan exactly what I am going to put in them once I get the chance... (I'm trying to look on the bright side, here!)  Since a few of you recently sent in questions regarding this topic, I thought it was worthy of a post.

 

Last spring I emptied the contents of my compost bins (which also contained quite a bit of soil) into these raised beds (above) and topped them up with leaves.  This spring I will be adding vermiculite, turning them over and then topping them up with good topsoil.  According to Mel Bartholomew, author of Square Foot Gardening, a good vegetable garden soil should be made up of at least 25% (up to 50%) of soil amendments such as compost or leaf mold.  Another good rule of thumb is to add 10 - 20% by volume of coarse vermiculite to a new vegetable garden for good moisture retention - vermiculite is like a sponge.

But once you've prepared your initial soil, how do you keep amending it each year to maximize production?  Mel Bartholomew has lots of recommendations.  He says (and I agree), "trying to grow crops in any kind of soil without constantly adding organic matter is sheer folloy and a waste of time, no matter how much fertilizer you add to it.  On the other hand, to garden in soil that is rich in organic matter but contains no added fertilizer is not only possible but also very practical."  He recommends:

• add a trowelful of compost or other organic soil builder after you harvest each plant in your garden - this will probably mean you are amending at least 2x per year, maybe even 3 or 4
• supplemental fertilizers to use during the growing season need only be of 2 types: a high nitrogen fertilizer for leaf crops (eg. lettuce, spinach, chard) and a high phosphorous and potassium fertilizer for root and fruit-bearing crops;
• you can add dry fertilizers when the soil is prepared for planting, plus once a month as crops are growing, in the form of a pre-packaged organic mix, or make your own, see recipes below
• heavy feeding crops (eg. brassicas) will also benefit from supplemental watering with compost tea, fish emulsion, or seaweed/kelp solutions

Basic, all-purpose fertilizer recipe

• 1 part bloodmeal
• 2 parts bonemeal
• 3 parts greensand
• 4 parts composted leaf mold
• approximate NPK value: 2.6 / 4.9 / 1.8

High-nitrogen fertilizer recipe

• 3 parts bloodmeal
• 2 parts bonemeal
• 3 parts greensand
• 4 parts leafmold
• approximate NPK value: 4.6 / 4.3 / 1.6

I haven't been nearly as diligent as I should have been in the past and still got decent results, but this year I am vowing to follow his recommendations to try to maximize my harvest. What do you do in your vegetable garden?  Please share in the comments section below.

For more tips on growing vegetables in Calgary, see my previous posts:

• When to start planting vegetable seeds in Calgary
• Vegetable gardening in Calgary 101
• Vegetable gardening tips - notes from Square Foot Gardening
• What you need to know about building raised bed vegetable gardens
• resources specific to growing vegetables in Calgary

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

Vegetable gardening in Calgary 101

I am putting together a set of links to some of my previous posts related to starting a new vegetable garden.  I was originally just going to e-mail them to a client who is planning a new raised bed front yard vegetable garden, but then I figured others might find them useful too.  So here it is, the minimum required reading if you're new to vegetable gardening in Calgary:

•  What you need to know about building raised bed vegetable gardens - this post includes the basics of how and why, plus some links at the end to some very inspiring designs.
• Vegetable gardening tips - notes from Square Foot Gardening - this post gets into a little more detail regarding planting including very useful information on plant spacing (an important factor for success!)
• When can I start planting vegetable seeds in Calgary? - this post has been one of my most popular ever.  Modified from a chart in the Calgary Gardener book, this post is all about timing (an even more important factor for success!)
• My seed-starting setup - This post describes what I do to start seeds, and the how and why of it all.  But if you're new to vegetable gardening, don't be intimidated!  Check the when-to-start link above and remember that anything that can be direct-seeded outside does not have to be started early (inside) with any kind of extra equipment!  Direct-seeding outside is probably the easiest option in terms of work as long as you don't overseed (you'll have to thin later) and as long as you keep those seeds moist until they germinate.
• Cold frame inspiration - I don't have cold frames (yet...) but they're great for extending the season if you're really serious about maximizing your production. They could be as simple as a movable wooden frame with some plastic resting on top that you can put away when not needed, or they could be a permanent structure like some of the ones shown in this post.

Most of the posts above also have links to other posts - my own and others' as well.  So do a little research, a little planning, and be creative and have fun with your vegetable garden this year! 

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

favourite quotes: "Lawns are nature purged of sex or death."

Have you read Second Nature by Michael Pollan?  I recently decided to re-read it because it was so enjoyable the first time around.  I have laughed out loud in many places, including when he describes losing all perspective while fighting a woodchuck, and his father's disconnection with their "garden" as evidenced by him standing in his underwear in the garage trying to set the automatic sprinkler system but never actually venturing outside.

The following quote, in the section where Michael Pollan describes his increasing dissatisfaction with having to spend time mowing the lawn when he'd rather be gardening, also made me chuckle:

"Hot monotonous hours behind the mower gave rise to existential speculations.  I spent part of one afternoon trying to decide who, in the absurdist drama of lawn mowing, was Sisyphus.  Me?  The case could certainly be made.  Or was it the grass, pushing up through the soil every week, one layer of cells at a time, only to be cut down and then, perversely, encouraged (with lime, fertilizer, etc.) to start the whole doomed process all over again?  Another day it occurred to me that time as we know it doesn't exist in the lawn, since grass never dies or is allowed to flower and set seed.  Lawns are nature purged of sex or death.  No wonder Americans like them so much."

Gardening article in Calgary20 featuring... me and other local Calgary gardeners!.

http://www.calgary20.ca/lifestyle/217-producing-locally-in-calgary

What is Integrated Pest Management?

I'm giving a talk on vegetable gardening soon and therefore am reviewing some of my notes on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), which BTW is not as complicated as it sounds.  Basically it refers to traditional, common sense methods of maintaining a healthy garden with minimal pesticide use (as a last resort, or not at all depending on your own beliefs.) The "integrated" part of IPM is so-called because it involves using many strategies together: cultural methods, plant selection, and physical and biological controls.

Most gardeners have become more and more aware these days that pesticides can kill beneficial organisms in the garden as well as pests, and thus create an imbalance in an ecosystem.  In many cases, an outbreak of pests is a result of an unhealthy landscape.  That said, a garden is a manipulated environment and sometimes requires more help than the checks and balances that nature can provide.  Here are some quick pointers on things you can do to prevent problems:

Cultural Controls

• Healthy soil is the most practical way to prevent problems. 
• Pair plants with the soil conditions they require to prevent stress and increase disease-resistance.  For most plants including vegetables, quality soil rich in organic matter is usually ideal (some mediterranean and desert plants prefer lean soil)
• Rotating food crops will help balance soil nutrient demands and prevent reoccurring crop-specific problems and pests.  Alternating heavy feeders (such as brassicas) with light feeders (such as onions and root crops) will also help keep soil nutrients balanced.
• Replenish your soil regularly with nutritious organic material (compost)
• Weeds will compete for sunlight, water and nutrients with desirable plants, and should be hand-pulled as soon as possible.  Preventing them from going to seed and applying an organic mulch will minimize future work.  Avoid disturbing and exposing the soil as much as possible as this brings new weed seeds to the surface where they will germinate. This means no tilling!
• Preventing over-crowding and nighttime or excessive watering can help discourage fungus and mildew problems (see my previous post notes from Square Foot Gardening for plant spacing for common vegetables.)

Know your friends (Biological Controls)

• Many insects are harmless or beneficial to the garden
• Tolerate a few pests to maintain a healthy ecosystem - otherwise what will their natural predators have to eat?
• Attract birds to the garden with water, fruit and nesting places - flickers, wrens, chickadees and warblers are all desirable birds which nest in cavities or shrubs
• Ladybugs and their larvae, dragonflies, ground beetles and lacewing larvae are all useful predators in the garden
• Parasites, nematodes and micro-organisms can be purchased and unleashed against certain pests; there are specific ones for each pest and their residues break down quickly making them relatively safe. Do your research - yes, you may actually have to learn something to be a gardener!

Know your enemies

• Inspect the garden regularly before pests become an overwhelming problem
• When you discover damage to plants, identify the pest and consider its life cycle before deciding whether it needs to be dealt with.  If you catch it early, you can probably just physically remove the pest (wash or pick it off.)
• A strong spray of water repeated several days in a row can knock down aphid populations
• Slugs love damp places so can be trapped under a board laid in the garden and collected in the early mornings
• Soaps and oils such as neem oil and dormant oils are considered safe if used properly; use insecticidal soap not just any household soap against aphids, spider mites, mealy bugs and whiteflies; dormant oil gets sprayed on trees during the winter to kill eggs of pests but can damage trees after they have leafed out
• Diatomaceous earth can be sprinkled on the ground to deter aphids, slugs and spider mites but may also harm worms.

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

my seed-starting setup: it ain't pretty but it works!

Everybody's talking about starting seeds these days, it seems!  Paula asked me in a comment on a previous post about my setup, and then last night on the phone a friend told me she'd gone to a seed-starting workshop but felt overhwelmed because she could never be "that organized".  It's not very hard, really!  (Do I look organized?  See picture below!)  But there are a few things you need to know for best chance of success.

Above: My home-made seed-starting shelf just happens to fit into a corner of the furnace room in the basement.  Sometimes it's hard to get to because so much junk gets shoved in here...  but I've currently cleared a trail.  Notice the bag of milk cartons "saved for a craft".  Anyway, I only have one light on at the moment since there are only a few seeds that I start this early (see below.) The seedling trays are sitting on boxes and egg cartons to raise them up as close to the lights as possible.  Very high tech.

When to start

This is one of the most important things to get right.  If you start seeds inside too early, they will get leggy (stretched) as they try to grow too high reaching for more light.  So first, check your seed package and it will say the number of weeks before planting outside to start the seeds.  If they are annuals, you don't want to plant them outside until around the last frost date, which is about May 23.  Frost-hardy perennials could be planted out several weeks earlier.  Make yourself a seed-starting timetable to keep yourself on target.  Keep in mind that lots of things can be direct-seeded into the ground in May - so don't make more work for yourself if you don't have to!  I start all my lettuce, spinach, chard, peas, beans, carrots, beets and more by planting seeds directly outside.

See my post, When to start Vegetable Seeds in Calgary

How to start

There are plenty of resources on the web and I've posted links to several before (also see the bottom of this post.)  You don't need fancy stuff - you can use almost anything as a container as long as it drains.  Basically, a heat mat (or warm place to germinate such as over the fridge) is necessary for some seeds like tomatoes (if the seed packet says germination at 20^oC or higher, you will want a heat mat.  For other seeds, it's just a nice-to-have and will start your seeds a little faster.)  If you are starting anything other than fast-growing annuals just a few weeks before planting out, then you will want lights as well.  Keep the lights on a timer set for 16 hours on per day, and keep the lights as close as possible to the tops of the seedlings.

Above: I discussed leggy seedlings in more detail in April 2009 when I noticed that a certain someone's lavatera seedlings (name withheld for protection!) just weren't doing quite as well as mine because they were growing in a windowsill instead of under lights.

Taking care of seedlings

So your seedlings have light and you're watering and fertilizing them regularly.  Duh.  What else do you need to do?  Thin them by transplanting and/or cutting out some seedlings that are growing too close together (I use nail scissors.)  Blow on them or turn a fan on them for a little while each day.  Seriously!  This strengthens the stems.  Things like tomatoes benefit from being replanted a little deeper in larger pots several times during the seedling stage.  Transplant anything that is getting too large for whatever container it's in.

Above: In March 2008 I already had to transplant my tomatoes into larger pots.

Above: By mid-April 2008, they were too tall for my seed-starting shelf so I had to move them to a south-facing window.  Obviously, they were not ready for planting outside at that time of year!  Now I don't start tomatoes until late March.  Gardening is all about learning from your experiences!

Hardening them off

This is the last step before planting seeds outside.  Basically, you want to get your soft, indoor-grown seedlings ready for the conditions outside - wind, stronger light, etc.  You have to do this slowly and it is essential!  Put them outside in a shady, sheltered spot for a few minutes each day, gradually working up over several days from about 30 minutes to a full day.  And of course, if you are planting them out in May sometime, there is always the risk of frost or snow after you have planted your tender babies outside.  Be ready to whisk pots into the garage or cover plants with sheets to protect them.  More on this in May!

Above: By late April 2008, I was putting seedlings outside on the shady porch on the warm days.  Yes, I know, I need to get rid of that awful astroturf-outdoor-carpet.  It's on the (very long) to-do list...

If you have other questions about starting seeds, post a comment here and I'll try to answer them.

From the archives:

• When to start Vegetable Seeds in Calgary

• for the record - first seeds planted for 2011
• seeds I've ordered for 2011
• How to winter sow seeds in a milk jug. (a super easy way of starting seeds I haven't discussed above.)

Other resources:

• Blogs and Blooms Video: How to start seeds  the message - it's easy!
• Blogs and Blooms Video: Transplanting your seedlings, including hardening them off - a critical step.

• How to winter sow seeds from Urban Sustainable Living
• sowing seeds indoors from Urban Sustainable Living
• 10 Seed-starting tips from Fine Gardening magazine
• Seed-starting strategies from Vegetable Gardener magazine
• Estimating viability - how long do seeds last? from A Way to Garden

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

winter project - vermicomposting

I'm starting to gear up for spring these days with lots of garden renovation plans, seed starting, and more frequent blogging.  And then I remembered I hadn't told you about my worms yet.  Would you think I'm crazy if I told you I got myself a worm composter for Christmas?

I've already admitted to stealing bags of leaves in the early mornings, so now I'm admitting to housing worms in my basement.  Seems entirely reasonable to me!  I'm sure most gardeners would agree, although my mother-in-law, a fellow gardener, was pretty squeamish about it when I told her.

As the saying goes, "feed the soil and the soil will feed the plants."  Good soil is the key to healthy and productive plants and a handful of worm castings can do wonders. Basically, it adds biology to the soil - it adds microbes which are what extract nutrients from organic materials (dead plant material) and incorporate them into the soil to be available to plants. 

I plan to use my worm castings primarily to top dress my house plants and vegetable gardens. They could also be added to the perennial gardens and/or lawn - even just a scattering helps.  Unfortunately, I won't have enough to go around so the edible gardens will be the highest priority. 

A worm composter is a great science project for kids - my three-year-old especially likes to help feed them.  We feed them a couple of cups of chopped up kitchen vegetable waste a couple times a week, and that's about all the work it takes until it's time to harvest the compost (can you "harvest" compost? you know what I mean!)  And there's no smell or mess, honest! In fact, my bin smells quite sweet.

One tip a friend gave me is to freeze and then thaw the scraps (especially fruit) before adding them to your bin in order to kill off potential fruit flies.  I do have another friend who's had fruit fly infestations in her worm bin so I consider that very good advice!

Other resources:

• Let worms compost your kitchen scraps, from Vegetable Gardener
• Get your soils in shape, from Donna Balzer

what grows in my front Welcome Garden - 2010 reflections and 2011 planning

In the last of this series showing different areas of my gardens-in-progress over the 2010 season, here is the front Welcome Garden.  After removing a large spruce tree near the front steps in February of 2010 (but don't worry, there are still 4 left!), the garden has opened up a little.  This yard is east-facing so closer to the sidewalk is fairly sunny, but closer to the house is shady and very dry due to - the bane of my existence - all the spruce tree roots. 

I do not baby this area so I only grow very tough, drought-tolerant plants here.  It is also a bit of an experimental area just to see what will do well in these fairly harsh conditions.  I keep adding more and more ornamental grasses each year and I'm starting to think of naming my garden "Spruce Meadows."  Whaddya think?

Above: by mid-June the grape hyacinths, euphorbia and ornamental alliums are in bloom.  Mental note to plant many more hyacinths - they multiply over time and add great spring colour - the hares seem to leave them alone too (unlike tulips!)  I think some smaller varieties of ornamental onions would be nice, too.  Please note that the area on the left was all new only last year so it is only just starting to fill in.  You will also notice that in June I was in the process of mulching the front garden with cedar bark mulch.  It's half-finished in this photo.  I'm not that happy with the look but fortunately, the colour will darken over time.  Also, I was also about to start painting the house trim white to match the new windows when this picture was taken... I still have to finish the back this year!

Above: these photos taken later in June show close-ups of bearded iris, nepeta (catmint) 'Walker's Low', ornamental alliums, shasta daisies, sedum kamtschaticum and achillea 'Moonshine' (which was blooming early because I had just purchased it and planted it that spring.)

 
Above: In early July, before I went on holidays, the shasta daisies, iris germanica, nepeta and sedum kamtschaticum were still providing a show.

Above: close-ups of spirea 'Goldflame', veronica spicata 'Sunny Border Blue', shasta daisies, campanula glomerata, achillea 'Moonshine', nepeta, some asiatic lilies, and deschampsia (tufted hair grass.)  In the top right picture of this collage you will notice some wee little blue fescue plugs I planted last spring - they are planted in an alternating pattern on either side of the front walk and will provide some great texture and continuity once they get bigger (describing the garden is always about how much better it will look in a year or two, isn't it?)

Above: by mid-August, the nepeta is still blooming (love this plant!) plus a few shasta daisies.  Also blooming now are the asiatic lilies, daylilies, echinacea, older achillea 'Moonshine', ornamental grasses and teasel.  I've added some Dart's Gold ninebark shrubs in front of the spruce tree on the left for more colour, I finished getting rid of the lawn grass once and for all, and if you look closely there's a mound of dirt by the steps where I'm gradually getting things fixed up after the tree removal.  Like I keep saying, my garden is a work in progress so please don't judge too harshly!

Above: close-ups in August.

Above: by mid-September the foliage colours are changing - this is actually my favourite time of year for this garden!

Above: some of my favourite plants for fall foliage colour in this garden include: daylilies, euphorbia, spirea 'Gold Flame', ornamental grasses (and note! the nepeta is still blooming!), and of course, the neighbour's cotoneaster hedge across the street which is spectacular!

Above: echinacea and sedum 'Autumn Joy' are still in bloom in mid-October.  The gardens are also now mulched with fallen leaves.

Above: the snow hit mid-November last year and this garden's been buried ever since!

From the archives:

• garden planning: front yard garden design
• 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?

Other areas of my garden:

• the Butterfly Potager 2010
• the Back Shade garden 2010
• the Adventure Garden 2010
• "England" (the veggie garden) 2010

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...

vegetable gardening tips - notes from Square Foot Gardening

This is the year I will finally have a substantial amount of veggie growing space.  Since I moved from a house with a large vegetable garden almost 7 years ago, I have been without much space for vegetables because of my heavily-treed lot (veggies need sun!)  In 2010 I finally got around to cleaning out the "parking pad" in the back corner of our yard, built some raised beds, and got ready to plant in 2011.

I must admit I've been a fairly lazy vegetable gardener in the past.  I only grow the things that are super easy to grow in Calgary and that truly taste much better fresh from the garden: peas, beans, beets, chard, lettuce, spinach, squash, carrots and of course, tomatoes.  But I typically have done only one spring planting of each vegetable, which is not enough effort to maximize a garden's production.  This year I am feeling greedy - I have much more space and I'm going to use it, dammit! 

And so, I recently re-read Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  I recommend it to any vegetable gardener, by the way, even if you don't plan to grow things in squares, because it has tonnes of useful information.  The technique, invented and made famous by Mel, was developed to maximize garden production as well as minimize work.  Vegetable gardens aren't low maintenance by any means, but using these methods can certainly minimize your work with maximum success.  Here are some of my notes:

Why have a vegetable garden?

• once you have tried homegrown flavour, you can't go back!
• you get great satisfaction from growing your own
• you can save money
• it is a very pleasurable hobby
• you have control over what you eat
• you can't get any more local than your own yard or community garden!

Benefits of the "square" design

• divide your garden into square sections - Mel uses 4ft x 4ft squares with paths in between but my raised beds are 4ft x 8ft
• mark and plant each 1ft x 1ft square with different plants
• this places limits on how much you grow so you're not overwhelmed at harvest time
• a well-designated spot for veggies prevents you from walking on the soil
• planting density is easy to calculate (see below)
• each square can have a different vegetable, flower or herb
• it is easier to maintain
• it looks well organized and attractive

Planting and maintenance techniques

• rather than overseeding and then having to thin later in the season, only plant exactly as many seeds as the number of plants you intend to grow (or if you're worried about germination rates, perhaps plant 2 seeds per hole and then you only have to thin a few plants at most)
• for each seed, poke a hole with your finger, half fill the hole with vermiculite, place one seed (or two, as above) and cover with vermiculite
• how many seeds to plant in a one-foot-square depends on the full-grown size of the plant (see below)
• interplant fast growing crops such as radishes, scallions and leaf lettuce between regularly-spaced slow-growing plants and harvest the former before the latter get big
• make a depression around each planting hole to direct water to the roots of the plants
• after harvesting a square, add a trowel of compost to rejuvenate the soil, then plant with something different - this takes care of crop rotation and interplanting (two techniques for pest & disease prevention) automatically!
• once a week, take note of what will be ready for final harvest in a few weeks, and start seeds for a new crop (of a different vegetable) at that time, so they'll be ready to transplant when the other crop is finished (tomatoes, chard, parsley, chives and flowers need only one planting in spring and will grow all summer)

Tools required

• once the garden is prepared, all you need is a trowel, spade, bucket and watering can!

Plant density and placement

• to fill up one 1-ft square, plant 4 plants that get about 6" wide, 9 plants that get about 4" wide, or 16 plants that get about 3" wide
• this typically means per 1-ft square:
• 16 beets, onions, radishes, or carrots
• 9 bush beans, spinach, garlic, chives
• 8 peas, pole beans
• 4 swiss chard, lettuce, parsley, annual flowers
• 2 cucumber
• 1 cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, pepper, eggplant, potato, tomato
• a typical zucchini plant will take up a 3ft x 3ft square
• plant taller plants on the north side of the garden
• plant tomato, cucumber and squash on trellises to maximize space
• pole beans can be planted in a double row, 3 in. apart in each square
• typically, smaller growing varieties of vegetables will give you a bigger yield per sq. ft. of gardening space

 Planting times

• in general, cool weather veggies are fast growing and can be planted both spring and fall (eg. lettuce and greens, root vegetables, cabbage family)
• in general, hot weather veggies are slow growers and get planted in late spring (eg. bush beans, zucchini)
• see my previous post: when to plant vegetable seeds in Calgary
• beans can be planted one new square every month over the summer

If you're really energetic and serious about organic gardening and extending the season, there are also lots of tips in the book about building cages, covers and cold frames, as well as building your own vertical supports out of 1/2 in. pipe, etc. If you're preparing a new garden bed, you'll also find the information on soil preparation and amendments very useful.  I could go on, but why don't you just get the book?

From the archives:

• what you need to know about building raised bed vegetable gardens
• seeds I've ordered for 2011
• herbs for Calgary gardens

Other resources:

• estimating viability - how long do seeds last?
• sun ray vegetable garden design
• successful home vegetable gardening by the Renegade Gardener

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

"England" in progress - 2010 reflections

This former parking pad in the back corner of my yard was named "England" by my oldest daughter about 5 years ago, and the name stuck.  Maybe I kept calling it that because I knew this area was eventually going to be a vegetable garden and I only wish things here would actually grow as if they were growing in England!  As you will see below, I did a lot of work here this past year and things are just about ready for the 2011 growing season.  I can't wait!

Above: Ugh.  This area was so ugly!  (but better than last year and the year before)  Here's what it looked like at the end of last May when I had my tomatoes planted but still protected in Kozy Koats and blankets!  I've been planting everything here in pots since there is no good soil in this area.

Above: In an effort to brighten things up a little, I placed an urn just inside the entrance to this area, which is on an axis with the view from the back steps and the butterfly potager sitting area.  But the "arch" shown here leaves a little something to be desired, don't you think?  My husband removed the top several years ago because it was too low for him.  This arch-less arch is also very narrow and the wheelbarrow barely fits through it.  I hope to finally get around to replacing it this coming season and I'll probably paint it a fun colour, too.  I'm currently thinking either kelly green or royal purple.  Any suggestions?

Above: In July it was time to harvest cherries, lettuce, peas and chard (the chard was growing in the Butterfly Potager.)  Strawberries were also producing in another area of the backyard, not shown.

Above: In August my husband built 2 large raised beds for me and I set about preparing the space for next year.  This is it in progress.

Above: While all this construction was going on, tomatoes, lettuce, snap peas and scarlet runner beans were growing in pots.  In other August edible news, raspberries were producing in raised beds in another (quite shady) area of the yard, and we also benefitted from our neighbour's saskatoon berries hanging over the fence!

 

Above: By mid-September I had the compost bins emptied into the new raised beds, and was almost finished laying down the recycled patio stones.  

Above: And now the new beds lay waiting to be topped up and planted in spring.  I've got seeds ordered, and I've been busy re-reading "Square Foot Gardening" to help me in my planning.  I'll report more on that next.  I also have further plans for cold frames and apple trees espaliered along the fence - this place is gonna look great eventually, just give me a few more years!

From the archives:

• what you need to know about building raised bed vegetable gardens
• when to plant vegetable seeds in Calgary
• cold frame inspiration

Other areas of my garden:

• the Butterfly Potager 2010
• the Back Shade garden 2010
• the Adventure Garden 2010

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

a Merlin in the backyard

My husband took these pictures yesterday of a male Merlin hanging out in our Mountain Ash and spruce trees in our backyard.  According to my bird book, these small falcons come to heavily treed areas of cities in the winter to hunt waxwings... which not surprisingly we also had visiting our Mountain Ash tree yesterday.  Watch out, my beautiful little waxwings!

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.

grow your own 2011 planning: seeds I've ordered this year

What do gardeners do in the winter?  For me, not much garden-wise except stare out the window and browse the seed catalogues! 

Every year it seems I order more seeds than the last year.  There are a number of reasons for this:

1. As my family has been growing, my gardening budget keeps shrinking.
2. I don't have much space left for new stuff in the perennial gardens so these days I'm buying fewer plants and starting just a few easy-to-grow annuals to stuff in places that need "a little something".
3. I'm growing more vegetables now that I have space and why wouldn't you start vegetables from seed?  The selection from catalogues is far superior to what you will find in the garden centres in spring.
4. It's fun and I feel like I'm gardening as early as February!
5. It's a great hands-on science lesson for the kids!
6. Just keeping with the times - "grow your own" is a big movement these days and I'm fully on board for environmental reasons, not just because I'm a gardener.

Here's what I've ordered this year:

From Dominion Seed House:

• agastache "fragrant delight" for filling pots around the patios
• calendula "bon bon mixture" for the potager
• nasturtiums "salmon baby" and "jewel of africa" for the potager, herb and veggie gardens
• ornamental kale "nagoya improved" to keep pots looking great into late fall
• cosmos "sonata" because I always grow these.  Love them!
• sweet peas "sugar and spice" for pots 
• amaranth "fireworks" for the dry front welcome garden
• verbena bonariensis for the potager and adventure garden
• castor bean "impala" for pots on the patio
• zucchini "spineless beauty", mesclun mix, lettuce "two star" and "new red fire", patio, tumbler and Sun Gold tomatoes for the veggie garden

From Veseys seeds:

• sweet peas "ripples mix" for the adventure garden
• alpine strawberries "temptation" to trial in pots and later plant at the edge of the back shade garden if they do well
• birdhouse gourds for crafts with the kids

From T&T seeds:

• asparagus "martha washington" roots for the potager - I planted asparagus at my old house and then promtply moved, and I can't wait to have freshly harvested asparagus again!  (next year)
• grape "valiant" root - I'm not sure I have a sunny enough spot for this but I'm going to give it a go
• 2 dwarf apples "dexter jackson" to grow in pots this summer and eventually plant and train as espaliers in the veggie garden (their permanent planting spots will be ready by fall)

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

hardy, low maintenance roses in my Calgary garden

When I first started gardening I didn't dare try to grow roses, as I thought they were temperamental divas that were difficult to grow.  That is true of tea roses, but not hardy shrub roses, some of which thrive on neglect and are perfectly hardy here in dry, windy zone 3.  Now I'm addicted and I have quite a few in my garden.  In fact, I probably have too many and when they get larger I'm going to have to decide which ones to keep or do some major pruning!

Rugosa Roses
I highly recommend rugosa roses for low-maintenance gardens as they are very hardy (to extreme cold as well as intense heat), very disease resistant, drought-tolerant, and can handle light shade, salt spray, strong winds, and neglect.  They are easily recognized by their deep green, wrinkled foliage which is very healthy and should never be sprayed with chemicals.  They usually bloom repeatedly throughout the summer, and even better - most have scent.  Most also have attractive hips that extend their show into fall and winter.

Hansa grows in my Adventure Garden and is hardy to zone 2 and very robust. It is a tall classic hybrid with flowers that are large, vibrant purlish-red and double, with a powerful clove fragrance.
It has repeat blooms with two strong showings - early summer and in fall. 

It has large hips which turn deep scarlet in late fall.  Mine is fairly new and still small but it will  reach a height and spread of just over 2m.  Warning: it has tough, very prickly branches so place accordingly.

 

Therese Bugnet is one of my favourites and I recommend it to friends and clients often.  It is similar to Hansa in its size and fragrande.  Hardy to zone 2, it is a tall, vase-shaped shrub with intense pink, double very fragrant flowers, and is repeat-blooming.

It is extremely cold tolerant - mine is in a very exposed section at the top of my adventure garden and she doesn't seem to mind at all. 

The main reason it is my favourite is because of her gorgeous deep red canes which add interest to the winter landscape.

Blanc Double de Coubert is also hardy to zone 2, and is of medium size (about 1.5mx1.2m or 5x4').  It also grows in my Adventure Garden.  It is a true classic with flowers that are white, semi-double, richly fragrant, and repeat blooming, and dark green wrinkled foliage.  It sets a few large hips but mostly I grow it for its colour and fragrance.

Snow Pavement
Pavement roses don't sound very glamorous but they are called this because they are perfect for planting along walkways.  Pavement roses are as hardy as nails, are the most tolerant of salt, are fragrant repeat bloomers and are fairly small, reaching a mature size of about 1 m high and wide.  They have small but profuse semi-double flowers with prominent gold stamens which don't need deadheading.Snow Pavement has very pale pink blooms with a wonderful fragrance, and it also has a great show of large hips in the fall.  It also grows in my Adventure Garden (hmmm, maybe I should call it the rose garden?)

Wild Rose
The wild rose is technically not a rugosa but it is super hardy, of course.  I found a little seedling in my yard a year ago (a gift from the birds?) and transplanted it into the Adventure Garden.  It is a tad invasive so I guess I wouldn't call it low maintenance, but I'm OK with that.  It is delightfully fragrant, with delicate pink petals soaked with a heady perfume.  And you can't get more sustainable than growing Alberta's own wild rose in your backyard!

Frau Dagmar Hastrup is a rugosa that I am growing in my front Welcome Garden.  Also hardy to zone 2, it has a short, spreading habit (0.2x1.2m or 3x4'). Its flowers are large, silvery pink, and single (reminiscent of the wild rose), and moderately fragrant.  It supposedly blooms continuously until frost but I got mine as a little cutting a few years ago and it has yet to take off.  This past year it had only one or two blooms on it. I'm hoping for better things once it gets a bit more mature.  It supposedly sets many huge bright red hips and its foliage turns a bright gold in fall.

Parkland roses
Parkland roses were bred for the prairies and are cold hardy, repeat blooming shrub roses.  They often tip-kill in the spring, but grow back quickly to bloom on new wood.

Morden Sunrise, hardy to zone 3, is a very short rose and is another one of my faves because of its unique colour.  It grows near the front of my Adventure Garden.

Its flowers are a blend of yellow and pink and are semi-double, but I don't find them strongly fragrant. 

It repeat blooms and in fact was the last rose blooming in my garden this past fall.

 

Morden Centennial is a medium shrub rose that has clusters of double, bright pink blooms all summer.  Also growing in the Adventure Garden.  The canes of this rose are also quite red in colour so it is another good choice for winter interest.

Explorer Roses

John Cabot is a hardy shrub rose that grows long canes so it can be tied to a trellis as a "climber".  It produces clusters of bright, cherry pink semi-double flowers all summer.  I grow mine on a trellis in the Butterfly Potager garden paired with a 'Polish Spirit' clematis.

John Davis is another tall rose which can be tied to a support and grown as a "climber".  It has dark red canes and delicate, semi-double light pink flowers with a spicy scent.  Mine grows on another trellis in the Butterfly Potager and is paired with another clematis.

Rosa Glauca

I don't actually have rosa glauca (red-leaf rose) in my garden but if I were ever to find just a wee bit more space, I would want to add it!  It is hardy to zone 2, and is grown for its beautiful foliage which is greenish-grey-blue on top, and reddish purple underneath.  It has starry flowers that are small, single, bright pink with a white eye, and moderately fragrant.  Since it is a species rose, it only blooms once per season but its foliage is interesting enough to make up for that.  It produces small hips and has excellent disease resistance.

Pruning roses

Pruning roses also sounds intimidating but it's not if you grow shrub roses. In Calgary, pruning is typically done just after they start to leaf out in spring.

For groundcovers such as Frau Dagmar Hartrup (above), you simply need to remove old wood and shorten overgrown canes, then deadhead faded flowers during the season.

For shrub roses, remove dead wood and shorten the canes by one-half to one third. Vary the length of the canes to give the bush a more natural appearance. Remove older, woody, unproductive canes completely by cutting to ground level to allow vigorous new canes to develop.To promote flowering, cut back by half, one of every two or three long stems and tip-prune the side shoots.

For climbers/ramblers, keep the growth as near to horizontal as possible, because if canes are allowed to grow directly upward they will flower only at their tops.  To do this, take the side-shoots from the tall stems and tie them so they grow horizontally across a trellis.  Tying down side-shoots induces the buds in the leaf axils to break into flower-bearing shoots.

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

Eating roses

Do you eat your roses?  I haven't yet but I'm intrigued...  and since I have so many I feel I should try! 

Rose hips are chock-full of Vitamin C and many other good things.  They sound a little high maintenance to harvest, but I may try someday.  Here's what I've read:

To harvest rose hips, wait until the hips turn red, which usually happens just after the first light frost.  They should be soft but not mushy.  Cut off the ends, slice in half and using the point of a sharp knife, remove all the seeds (important!  seeds have little hooks that can lodge in the intestine - this is the part that sounds like lots of work to me!)  Spread on a cookie sheet covered with a clean dry cloth and dry completely before storing.  Store dried hips in glass jars in a pantry or keep in plastic bags or containers in the freezer.

Rose Hip Tea
Pour 1 cup of boiling water over 1 tsp dried rose hips or 3-4 fresh rose hips.  Steep up to 30 minutes, depending on how strong you like your tea.

While harvesting hips sounds like a fair amount of work, I'm sure I can handle harvesting rose petals. They can be sprinkled on a tossed salad or on top of desserts, or mashed into honey, cream cheese or butter and used as a sandwhich spread.  Voila, serve these and impress your friends! 

The following recipes that I found in the August 2009 edition of Gardens West also look yummy, unique and fairly easy:

Rose Syrup
1 cup fragrant pink or red rose petals with white parts removed if bitter
1 cup filtered spring or bottled water
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 whole cloves
Combine rose petals and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 mintues. add sugar and cloves.  Simmer only until sugar dissolves; strain and discard petals.  Store in a jar in the fridge or freezer.  Serve over plain sponge cake, add several fresh rose petals and decorate with three or four fresh raspberries.  Makes about 1 2/3 cups.

Black Tea and Rose Sorbet
4 cups water
1 tea bag black tea
1/2 cup sugar
juice of one freshly squeezed lemon
2 tbsp rose syrup
2 tbsp chopped fresh rose petals
Bring water to a boil, add the tea bag and remove from heat.  Let steep 30 mintues.  Remove tea bag and discard.  Add other ingredients  Stirring well.  Chill for at least 2 hours in the fridge.  Pour into an ice cream freezer and freeze.  Serve with fresh rose petals scattered on top.

 

more on collecting leaves for the garden

In my October garden to-do list I mentioned saving/stealing leaves for mulching the garden.  Really, this is such a cheap, easy, and beneficial thing to do for the garden, I have no idea why everybody doesn't do it! And don't just take my word for it: Donna Balzer recently wrote about how leaves have more nutrients than manure and Nora Bryan recently wrote about how NOT cleaning up the garden is best practice in Calgary's climate because the plants left standing and the leaf mulch will catch the snow and also insulate our gardens against Calgary's drastic winter temperature changes and dryness (Chinooks).

If you haven't started, it's not too late to save leaves for the garden!  Here are some tips to consider:

• If you have lots of your own leaves, save them!  Rake them onto the garden.  It's better to wait until the perennials have died back so the plants don't smother under too many leaves, but a few leaves in between the still-growing perennials shouldn't hurt anything.
• If you've got extra, start a dedicated compost bin of just leaves, or do the almost zero-work method of turning them into leaf mold that I described in this post last year.  If you've got a lawn mower or mulcher, chop of the leaves first for faster decomposition, but it's not necessary if the leaves are small (see below.)
• If you don't have enough of your own leaves (that's me!), steal them!  I've taken bagged leaves from people's back alleys and also from leaf drop locations (before the leaf drop signs were up so technically that's not stealing, right?)  I am even picky about the leaves I take - pre-chopped leaves are best (you can tell because the bag will be at least five times heavier than a bag of unchopped leaves), and also clear bags are preferable because you can see what's inside (you want nothing but leaves, and smaller, curly leaves such as birch and elm are better than big, flat leaves such as poplar because the big leaves get matted down and don't make as light and fluffy of a mulch as the smaller ones do.)

I'm currently saving bags of stolen leaves to gradually mulch the whole garden as the perennials die back, and I've filled one cubic-yard-sized compost bin as well.  I think I've "rescued" at least 30 bags!  My friends and family think I'm crazy...  Do you?

More reading:

There is also some good information posted at Fine Gardening on this topic:

Fall Leaves Make a Great Garden Mulch

Get an Early Start for your Spring Garden

Improve your soil by Raking Less

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...]

Snowberry - a low maintenance front yard shrub that hares don't eat!

Due to the four large spruce trees in my front yard, I've been having some trouble finding some low-maintenance shrubs that will tolerate the shade and dryness in this area without a lot of babying.  I've also lost several shrubs to the local hare population in the past. 

So, when I decided to try Symphoricarpos albus laevigatus (Snowberry) this spring, I bought only two with the intention to get at least one more if the shrubs lasted through their first year without getting nibbled to the ground by the local "wildlife".

I'm happy to report that the hares haven't touched them! 

Snowberries have roundish, blue-green leaves on arching thing stems, and will eventually get to about 5 ft tall.  They bloom with small, white flowers in mid spring and produce white berries in early autumn.  They are drought-tolerant once established and do well in low light conditions and infertile soils (hence why I tried them near my spruce trees).  Unfortunately, the birds do not like their berries, but I have heard of people using branch cuttings with berries for seasonal decorations so I will try that in the future once my shrubs are bigger.

Snowberries do sucker a little but they are easy to control and they make great informal hedges (i.e. don't require pruning i.e. low maintenance!) if you have the space. 

more cold frame inspiration

I posted some cold frame pictures and links last spring but around my house we still haven't got around to building any cold frames.  Ah well, there's always next year (more likely the year after that...)

So I am continuing to collect inspirational pictures and instructions.  Here's a good, instructional post from Fine Gardening.

2010 was not a good year for tomatoes... but...

Growing tomatoes in any given year in Calgary can be a challenge.  I only grow short season varieties and I put them in Kozy Coats in spring to give them a headstart, plus keep them in pots in the hottest area of my yard.  Usually I get a fairly decent crop.  But this year the crop has been sparse, to say the least!

Here are all my poor little tomato plants shivering in our unusually cold, wet September weather.  We've had a lack of heat all summer and everything is very behind!  I'll be cutting these tomato plants off in the next few days (tomorrow?) and bringing them inside to hang upside down as per a previous post.  I probably could have done this weeks ago and it wouldn't have made a difference for all the lack of sun we've been having lately.

With all this rain I haven't had time to do much construction in this area of the yard either, as you can see.  But I'm slowly making progress laying down those recycled concrete patio stones. 

But enough complaining.  All this moisture is great for the trees which suffered a lot of stress from a too-hot September last year.  Plus the cool temperatures and extra moisture are sure making the perennial garden lush and the flower blooms extra vivid in colour.  Also, my cool-season vegetables such as lettuce, spinach, chard, beans and peas all did very well this year.  I guess you can't have everything!

And while I'm on the topic of the harvest, I must add that my strawberries and raspberries did very well this summer.  I can't say whether it's because the plants are now more mature or because I was a little more diligent in fertilizing this year (probably has at least something to do with that!) or because of the weather or who knows what else.  My neighbour's Saskatoons did extremely well this year too and they are quite old shrubs so the Saskatoon harvest, at least, didn't seem to have anything to do with plant maturity.

What did well (or not) in your garden this year?

Hello, Joe Pye!

Eupatorium (Joe Pye Weed) has been in my garden for several years now, and I kept moving it around trying to find the right spot.  Apparently it needs to have some time to get settled before really taking off, so finally I found a permanent spot for it a few years ago and this year (2 years later) it is finally blooming!  Well, those are flower buds but they'll open soon if we ever get some sun...

I was a bit concerned it might not get enough sun here in general (on the north side of a fence and east side of the garage) but it seems to get just enough. 

Sure, it would probably bloom earlier and bigger somewhere else in the garden with more sun, but Joe needs lots of moisture, too.  Therefore he's in the corner of the butterfly garden near a downspout, next to an 'Annabelle' hydrangea, another moisture-lover and late summer bloomer.  Looks like they're going to be happy together!

Elsewhere you might hear about Joe Pye being a weed (hence the name!) and self-seeding aggressively, but in Calgary zone 3 he's very well-behaved.  This is a tall perennial that doesn't need staking and looks great in fall.  Just make sure you've got enough moisture for him and he's an excellent candidate for a low maintenance garden.

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

ripening tomatoes

Sigh.  The time has come to start thinking about these things.

I don't have time these days to write about it but an excellent and timely article about how to hasten ripening in the garden and when to give up and go indoors, can be found here.

I also posted about what to do with green tomatoes here last year.

Let's hope we don't need this information quite yet!

raspberry monarda (bee balm) in the butterfly potager

what's blooming in the butterfly potager, mid August

This garden features either edible plants or ones that attract hummingbirds and/or butterflies (but I thought the name "hummingbird butterfly potager" was too long).  On the annual side the red poppies, orange and yellow calendula, dill and nasturtiums are blooming away, although the poppies are petering out.  There are also red lilies, raspberry monarda (bee balm), a yellow-leaved agastache foeniculum (hyssop), purple daylily, and purple and magenta clematises (clemati?) in bloom right now.  We can barely keep up with the 'Bright Lights' swiss chard so I'll be freezing some soon.

I'm happy to report the two columnar crabapples I planted last spring are now taller than the fence and seem happy and healthy.  They must be OK with the amount of sun they get even though they're on the north side of the fence.

Here's the butterfly potager at other times of the year:

• early August 2010
• late July 2010
• early June 2010
• mid-June 2010
• late June 2010
• mid-July 2010
• 2009 overview

what I've been up to - new raised beds!

Take a peek into the back corner of my yard that I call "England":

That's right, last week-end we got a bunch of cedar 2x6's and made 2 raised beds for veggies.  I really wanted to get them in this fall (did I just say fall?  sigh!) so the soil will settle over the winter and they'll be ready to plant first thing next spring.  There are 2 boxes, each 4 ft by 8 ft - tonnes of veggies space compared to what I currently have!!  Hooray!

Here's the work in progress.  I still have to even out the slope around the boxes and re-lay the patio stones and put down gravel around them.  And of course fill the boxes.  But it's a good start for a week-end's work, wouldn't you say?  And it certainly looks better than last year, don't you think?

fruit you can grow in part shade in Calgary

Most fruits and vegetables require full sun (6 hours or more) to produce well.  But if you're like me, you have lots of shade on your property and therefore you must experiment with your edible-producing plants and push the limits a little.

I have raspberries growing in these raised beds on the patio.  They are on the north side of my house and in the shade of large spruce trees (if you read this blog regularly you'll know I have way too many large spruce trees - they are the bane of my existence) so they only get, I don't know, maybe about 3 hours of sun a day.  They still produce.  They might produce a little more if they got more sun (I haven't done a controlled experiment or anything) but they seem to do just fine here.  They are 'Boyne' raspberries which are tried-and-true hardy in Calgary.

I am also lucky enough to have a neighbour who planted Saskatoon shrubs all along the north side of our shared fence many years ago.  They're large enough now to reach over the fence so I get some too!  Yum!  They are also in the shade of - you guessed it - two of my large spruce trees and do just fine, although I expect my neighbour must water them a lot.

On another note, the season seems to be quite condensed this year.  I'm still picking strawberries this week and the raspberries have started ripening as well - usually I don't get them at the same time.  Other things around the garden seem to be late also.

"England" in late July - some of the edibles in my Calgary garden

This area was christened "England" a few years ago by my oldest daughter after we got back from a trip there.  It's eventually going to be an edible garden area with raised beds and cold frames.... someday!  In the meantime, it's a former RV pad and I'm growing things in pots.  It certainly looks better than last year, don't you think?

We're currently harvesting peas, lettuce and cherries from this area, and soon scarlet runner beans.  The kids love to snack on things from the garden!!  Strawberries, chard and other edibles are sprinkled throughout the rest of the yard.

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?

cold frame inspiration

Some friends of mine are building cold frames this year with the glass from our greenhouse take-down.  Am I jealous?  Totally!  I dreamed about cold frames and raised beds over a year ago and I'll be lucky if I get them built by next year at the rate things are going.  Sigh!

But they're looking for ideas on how to actually build them.  Fortunately, I've been collecting pictures for inspiration for a while now.  I've even kept almost all the source information.  Here are some of my favourites:

The above pictures were taken from http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/2504/cold-frame-gardening, accessed March 2009.

Sorry, I don't have a source for this one.  Oops!

This one's from http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/4083/extend-the-seasons-with-a-cold-frame, accessed March 2009.

And finally, I'm sure I got this one from Garden Rant but I don't have the actual link.

Some useful plans for coldframes can also be found here and here.

herbs for Calgary gardens

 
A friend of mine just told me she was surprised to recently find out that some herbs are perennial in Calgary.  Yes, it's true!  Not every herb is a heat-loving Mediterranean plant (although many are!)  Here are some herbs, both perennial and annual, which grow well in Calgary:

Perennials (come back every year):

• chives - this plant is so tough I've had it survive the winter in a small pot I left on the patio! they also self-seed but grow very slowly
• oregano - I grow the gold-leafed variety (above) just for colour, but it doesn't have as strong a taste as the regular kind.
• lovage
• mint - this is an easy plant to grow and my kids love rubbing their hands over the plant to release its yummy scent, just watch where you plant it as it will spread;  mine is confined in a spot between the house and a patio so it won't take over the rest of the garden.
• sage
• sorrel
• tarragon
• thyme - there are several varieties, some culinary and some ornamental, all great groundcovers

Annuals (plant every spring):

• basil - heat is an absolute must for this plant so I grow it in a pot so I can ensure it gets the most sun and heat, and can bring it inside if evenings are going to be cool.
• borage - this plant self-seeds in my garden but not invasively.  and it's so pretty that I let it.  bees love it too! I haven't found the edible flowers to add much to salads though.
• bronze fennel - a perennial in warmer climes so if you have a hot microclimate in your garden you could try to overwinter it with some mulch protection.
• cilantro - yummy but goes to seed quickly so buy seeds to start and re-sow every few weeks
• dill - also easy to grow from seed
• parsley - easy to grow and fairly cold-tolerant
• nasturtiums - I'll save a list of edible flowers for another day but I want to include nasturtiums here because they are just so yummy; both the leaves and flowers are edible and have a peppery taste; I especially like the taste of the flowers.