Calgary Garden Coach

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

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...

Rain, rain, go away!

But of course it's raining.  It's the Hort Society Plant Share and the Lilac Festival this week-end.

Fingers crossed for the last day of big rain today!

May mid-month madness

In May I always have too much going on!  It's always a rush to get everything planted (not to mention this is the busiest garden coaching month) but by June things settle down again and I can let the rainy season take care of all my new plantings, so it always feels worth it afterwards. 

But this year I'm behind because of the late spring (I haven't even finished cleaning up last year's leaves yet!) and currently I'm out of town for a week (that darned real job getting in the way of gardening again!) so I'm just crossing my fingers and hoping that hubby remembers to water the veggie garden and that frost doesn't get the tomatoes that I didn't have time to protect before I left (there was none in the forecast but you never know - it was a bit of a gamble.) 

I'm also behind on blog posts and responding to emails so I'm going to a rush job tonight of updating you on what I've been up to in the garden...

- got the rest of the veggie seeds in but not the seedlings or marigolds yet as I had planned

- had a brief distraction from regular spring activities when I unexpectedly found a bunch of Calgary Carpet junipers for CHEAP! and immediately had to plant 12 of them in my front yard (you can ony see 7 here) to fill the hole where a spruce tree used to be (more on front yard plans soon, and sorry for the shadows in the photo below, no time these days to wait for the right lighting either!)

- dug out concrete piles from where the greenhouse used to be to prepare for the new patio design as part of the north patio project (actually, I was on kid duty while hubby did this job); the section to the left of the board in the photo below is where the patio has been pulled up, which I started doing a couple of weeks ago... and look, I've already started planting! I just can't help myself - bare soil is just not safe in my yard!)

 

OK, I'm sort of caught up.  Must go rest now...

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

 
Above: siberian squill in the Butterfly Potager

Above: striped squill in the Back Shade Garden

 

Above: weeping pussy willow in the Butterfly Potager

 

Above: tulipa tarda in the Adventure Garden

 

 

an arc-and-tangent design for the backyard

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

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

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

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

 

My problems with this yard:

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

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

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

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

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

mid-May planting and transplanting

Not a lot of time at the moment but here's a quick update so you know what I'm doing in the garden this week-end:

I started seeds of calendula, nigella, kale, zinnia, kohlrabi, tomatoes and sweet peas indoors a while back, and I'll be transplanting them out into the garden this week-end.

I also picked up some starter plants of snapdragons and marigolds that I'll be transplanting out too.

And finally, I have more seeds of nasturtiums, scarlet runner beans, corn (a dwarf variety I thought I'd try just for fun, I'm not expecting much), lettuce and spinach to sow this week-end too!

What will you be up to?

Calgary Garden Coach in the Calgary Herald!

http://www.calgaryherald.com/life/Kids+their+hands+dirty+with+urban+gardening/4769250/story.html

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.

hail protection advice?

Hello Janice!  First I would like to say thank you for running your website – I find it very helpful and pictures from your garden are so inspiring!

 I wanted to ask you advice on something. I am planning to put all my annuals and perennials out in the beginning of June and then I would be away for a week. Knowing that June our rainiest months with possible thunder-storms and hail I thought that covering my plants would be a great idea. But I can’t find anything what can be used as hail protection. I have checked in the stores like LOWES and Canadian tire (their garden departments) and nobody never heard about any kind of hail protection. They all saying: just cover plants with empty pots, and it would be fine if I would be at home….

 Then I searched internet and I was able to see some websites which offered very fine plastic nets which you stretch above plants, so sun light and rain go through but hail doesn’t. Great idea, but they only sell it for major growers, farms, vineries, etc. So, the amount of your purchase needs to be in hundreds of meters of that net, unfortunately lots in Calgary are not that big J

 Soooo, may be you can advise me from your own experience what can be used for protecting plants from hail damage….I am scared that all my hard work will just go wasted and when I come back I would be in tears.

 Thank you very much in advance and have a great spring!

 Sincerely, Kseniya.

Hi Kseniya,

 Thanks for the feedback and you are smart to think ahead!  Actually, I haven't ever used anything that is specific for hail protection so I can't speak from experience - but the hail we get here can be so strong that in some cases it is hard to imagine a thin screening material being able to protect plants without getting shredded itself or else the supports not being able to hold the load.  You could try window screening material as long as it is well supported.  That said, I haven't tried it, so maybe someone else will chime in...?

I tend to grow my most tender things in pots that can be moved, so if I am going away in the summertime (or if hail threatens) I put them all in a sheltered spot in the yard (eg. east facing).  The sheltered spot is also partly shady so the pots don't dry out as fast either, if you're going to be away for a while, meaning they don't have to be watered as often.  I think you're more likely to get help from a neighbour to water every couple of days rather than asking them to be responsible to run out and shelter your plants at any sign of bad weather.

Does that help?  If anyone else out there has advice, please chime in!

Janice

Calgary Garden Coach is quoted in the Globe & Mail!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/home-and-garden/gardening/gardening-trends/need-a-hand-garden-coaches-coax-a-harvest-from-the-seeds/article2016998/

it's shopping time!

Flower alert - they're here!

I was at the Richmond Rd SW Canadian Tire location to pick up something totally unrelated to gardening and spent about a half hour walking around their garden centre admiring the greenery and smelling the flowers.  Wow, it feels good to see plants again!  It was also completely dead and very peaceful.  Ah, lovely!

I was tempted to buy everything of course, and normally at this time of year I do buy my annuals and spend a few weeks toting them inside at night just to get that extra time with them.  But this year I'm away for a week in mid-May (prime gardening season!  I'm not happy about it!) and it will be enough to ask hubby to take care of the veggies and seedlings I've already planted...  so I was good, I was very restrained.  I only bought a few snapdragons because they're frost tolerant and I'll be putting them in the ground this week-end.

They also had colourful tomato cages that I'm tempted to go back and pick up a few of.  Once I decide what colour I want...

But if you're out there let us know what beautiful and interesting things you see!

crocus! at last!

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

my May 2011 garden to do list

Yikes.  I have so much to do I have to sit down when I try to think of it all!  Thanks to the weather, I didn't get a start on my spring garden to do list until one week ago, so I am a little behind!  And May is the busiest gardening month of the year anyway!  OK Janice, take a deep breath, sit down and do some prioritizing.  Here's what you need to get done:

April to-do list:

•  Lightly rake the lawn with a fan rake.  The lawn has been pretty wet until now so I haven't done it yet.  Fortunatley, it's a small job as I have a small lawn.  Hopefully this week...
• Cut down last year's perennials.  Not a small job.  I only just starting doing this and I need to get it done in the next week because for certain plants such as ornamental grasses, it gets harder to cut the old stuff out when the new stuff is already growing.  And things are actually starting to grow out there!

Ornamental garden in May:

• This is prime perennial-moving and planting time.  I try to get all my major planting done this month as moving things in the heat of summer can be very stressful on plants.  Plus, June is our rainiest month so the things planted now are well-established and well-watered before they have to experience the hot summer.  I will be adding some junipers to the front garden this year and moving a few things around - stay posted!
• Gradually pull the winter mulch of chopped leaves off the perennial gardens.  Put them in the compost.
• Edge beds to make a clean line and define them well.  This makes such a visual difference!
• Weed, weed, weed.  Dandelions are already greening up out there and so is the grass, long before many perennials start to get big, so this is the easiest time to get in there and do a thorough weeding.  It may not be fun, but you'll thank yourself later if you get it done now!
• On warm days, put seedlings outside to begin hardening them off.

Vegetable garden in May:

• Sow veggie seeds all month according to this schedule - when to plant vegetable seeds in Calgary.
• Water daily until seeds have germinated.

Lawn in May:

• This is my lowest priority but since I'll have some extra compost lying around this year, I'll rake it over the lawn sometime after Mother's Day for a good, organic slow-release fertilizer.

April 2011 blog roundup

Recently I started posting a monthly round-up of useful and interesting articles I've read that are related to beautiful and sustainable gardening in Calgary.  Here's what I found for April.  If you'd like a more timely update, you can get them in "real time" on my Facebook page.

Garden Buzz

• Nora shows a picture of vole damage and describes how to prevent it.  - Oh! those voles!
• this post highlights hardy and interesting trees for Calgary - It's a Good Day to Plant a Tree

Gardening Zone 3b

• this post describes one easy way of making a new garden bed - Making Your Bed (but I wouldn't recommend this is if you are making a bed next to a pathway or patio, in which case if you don't somehow retain the soil, you will always be sweeping it off your pathway/patio)

Digging

• a wonderful Mexican-themed garden is featured - lots of colour and creativity here! - Enchanted evening in Lucinda's cantina garden

Houzz

• some really great photos of creative edible gardens - Unexpected edible gardens
• some beautiful rain chains - I want one! Design with Weather
• 10 secrets to beautiful outdoor rooms (not gardening photos persay but beautiful, nonetheless!)
• photos of ornamental grasses used in minimalist designs - Ornamental grasses in the landscape
• inspiring trellis/arbour/pergola photos - 12 one-of-a-kind trellis and arbour designs

A Way to Garden

• soil-saving tips for planting big pots

Chatelaine

• this is the time of year that every magazine you see has some kind of pat gardening article in it, but I agree with everything in this one! - 7 dirt-cheap tips for your garden