Calgary Garden Coach

the front Entry Garden, June 29 2011

As you walk through the Welcome Garden on the way to the front door, you will come to a new (unfinished) seating area on the right hand side:

... This is the change I was referring to in my last post.  Nothing was growing well in this area anyway due to the 4 large spruce trees surrounding it, so I've spent the last couple of weeks digging up the plants that used to be where the chairs are, and temporarily marking out the new overlapping circle design with bricks.  This will actually become a brick patio at some point (next year, hopefully) but for now I just wanted to outline the area to make sure I was happy with size and placement.  What do you think?  Here's a look from another view:

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

Check back over the next few days as I post pictures of other areas of my garden as well.

what's blooming in the front Welcome Garden, June 29 2011

It's that time of the month again!  In the summer I post pictures of my garden bi-monthly.  They are mostly a record for myself to see how things have changed and what still needs to be changed, which means that the pictures are not all close-cropped pictures that try to hide the stuff that doesn't look good.  I like to look at these pictures over the winter and come up with ideas of what to improve, so the pictures have to be honest and the bad stuff has to show.  There, that's the caveat. 

But I also try to explain what is blooming so that anyone looking for a little something extra for their garden right now will get some ideas of what blooms at this time.

Above is the view of the front garden from the street.  It is east-facing, quite dry and probably only gets about a half day of sun due to all the trees.  I still have tulips, euphorbia and a few dwarf bearded iris in bloom here (see mid-June's post), but the ornamental alliums, catmint and shasta daisies are starting to take over.  A few more days of this sun and heat and things will look quite different... I'll have to post a few more then!  Here are some close-ups from June 29:

Above (clockwise from top left): ornamental allium 'Purple Sensation'; ninebark 'Coppertina' blooms (which I got for its foliage colour, the flowers are just a small bonus) and nepeta (catmint); pink tulips and purple dwarf bearded iris; euphorbia (cushion spurge), white tulip and purple dwarf bearded iris; shasta daisies, ornamental allium, nepeta 'Walker's Low' and ninebark 'Coppertina'.

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

Check back over the next few days as I post pictures of other areas of my garden as well.

June 2011 garden blog round-up

Every month I post a month 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 June.  If you'd like a more timely update, you can get them in "real time" on my Facebook page.

Blogs and Blooms

• To feed or not to feed. - some tips on fertilizing your potted plants.

Garden Buzz

• The Aspens are Red.  It must be spring.  - were you wondering about your red aspens?
• The Number One Garden Scourge - some tips on reducing hail damage
• Good Bug. Bad Bug. A Modern Day fairy tale - a good case against pesticides!
• Is this a Weed or a Plant? - a practical post on dealing with weeds.

Grounded Design

• The Best Planting Tip I ever Received - a great tip for planting rootbound plants!

Fine Gardening

• Veggie Garden trellising ideas

Houzz

• Inspiration from New York's High Line - Add some Urban Chic to your own stretch of green
• Creating an Art-Inspired Garden - benches and pots and focal points, oh my!

wild rose in the Adventure Garden

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

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

... in the back Shade Garden.

just one of the challenges of gardening in Calgary - the prairie wind!

Calgary is "lucky" to be near the mountains (read: high elevation and therefore cool nights and a short growing season, not to mention freak snowstorms), as well as the prairies (read: dry and windy.)  If you don't garden in Calgary, you may have to see this short clip to believe it!

deschampsia cespitosa (tufted hair grass) 'Goldstaub'

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

perennial cornflower in the Butterfly Potager garden

 

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

Mountain Ash tree blooming in the back Shade Garden

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

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

allium 'Purple Sensation'

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

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

the edible gardens, mid-June 2011

Above: These beds were built last fall and just filled this spring, so they got a little bit of a late start but now I've got baby spinach ready to harvest and many other things coming along well.  On the right hand side, along the fence, there are potted tomatoes and a couple of dwarf apple trees that will eventually be planted in the ground and espaliered along the fence.

Above: The Dexter Jackson dwarf apple is flowering right now.  So cute!

Above: I have many edibles sprinkled around the rest of the garden areas as well, including strawberries which are flowering right now.

To see how this garden was built last year, click here.

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Side Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011

what's blooming in the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011

Above: If you don't count the bergenia on the shady side of this garden, then the iris are mainly what are happening in the Adventure Garden right now.  They were one of the few plants here when I moved in almost 7 years ago and I've gradually spread them around.  Here are some close-ups:

Above: moss phlox and geranium 'Ballerina' are also just starting to bloom.

Above: iris in front of a cherry bush.

Above: alliums are also just starting to bloom.  The kids love these to use as magic wands!

Above: and the iceland poppies are popping up everywhere.  Not a low maintenance plant by any means, but so colourful at this time of year!  I'll be ripping out seedlings for the rest of the summer after this first flush finishes.

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

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Side Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

what's blooming in the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011

 
Above: bergenia, leopard's bane and snowdrop anemone (viewed from the centre of the yard.) Yes, the colours clash, but at this time of year I'm so happy to have colour again that I just don't care!  :-)

... and from the other side looking towards the Adventure Garden.

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

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Side garden, mid-June 2011
• the Butterfly Potager Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

 

what's blooming in the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011

Above: As you come around the south side of the house, you enter the Butterfly Potager garden.  This year the honeysuckle growing on the arch seems to have died back to almost the ground and I need to cut it back.

Above: The lilacs are in bloom right now as well as a few shade plants: pulmonaria and lamium. 

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

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Side garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

what's blooming in the Side Garden, mid-June 2011

Snow-in-summer and emerald blue moss phlox are just starting to bloom in front of the windows.  This is a low-maintenance / cutting garden area because I never spend any time here.

Pictures of the back coming tomorrow...

To see previous pictures of this garden, click here.

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011

• the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011

• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

 

what's blooming in the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011

Above: You want pictures in mid-June?  This is what you get!  I haven't had time to do anything here yet, not even move the hose (oops!)  But right now I'm thinking I need to get some more of that lamiastrum (silvery stuff) to go all the way across the bottom of the window, and I'm wishing the new Coppertina ninebark shrub was just a wee bit bigger so you could see more than just a hint of it behind those flowers...

Above: tulips and leopard's bane and bleeding heart.

Above: epimedium rubrum (bishop's hat - a great plant for dry shade.)

 

Above: Ahh, that's a slightly better view!  On a positive note, I can at least say that the plants seem to be doing much better now that the nearby spruce tree has been gone for one whole growing season (and that includes the weeds...)

To see pictures of this garden before the infamous tree came down, click here.

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011

• the Side Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011

• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

what's blooming in the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011

From the bricks I've temporarily laid out, you can see something major is going to happen here...  more soon!

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011

• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Side Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011

• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

 

what's blooming in the front Welcome Garden, mid-June 2011

Here comes my series of pictures for mid-June.  We may as well start with the least impressive ones!  Caveat: I did some major re-working of the Welcome Garden this spring.  For starters, I planted 12 Calgary Carpet junipers and 9 Arctic Fire dogwoods - except they're all really small at this point so they won't look like much this year.  I also moved the Karl Foerster feather reed grass I had in the front corner (behind the sign) and replaced it with the variegated 'Avalanche' variety for a little more 'pop'. 

Above:  RIght now there are grape hyacinths, tulips, euphorbia and dwarf bearded irises blooming.  There's not much yet, but I will be planting more spring-blooming bulbs such as tulips once the major renovations are over in this area.

Above: Here is the view from the house - which may not be important to you, but of course it is very important to me, pehaps even more important than the view from the street!

 

Above: And here's the view from the front bay window.  I took Karl and divided him into 5 and planted him in a swooping curve around the base of the spruce tree.  You can barely see them right now but they'll fill in, don't worry!  I know it doesn't look like much yet but for me, this post will serve as something to look back on once everything has grown.  In case you can't see where the Karl Jr's are, I circled them below:

To see pictures of this garden last year, click here.

To see pictures of other areas of my garden at this time of year, please see:

• the front Entry Garden, mid-June 2011
• the front Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Side Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Butterfly Potager garden, mid-June 2011
• the back Shade Garden, mid-June 2011
• the Adventure Garden, mid-June 2011

• the Edible Gardens, mid-June 2011

rainy day post

I did a little planting this morning in the rain!  This qualifies as obsessive compulsive gardening behaviour, I'm sure, but after a week away in May and a week away in June, I am behind in my planting and I just couldn't help myself!  It's not good for the soil to walk around on it while it's wet, but I did it anyway.  I've only a little more to do now and I will be done for the season but then it started raining harder and I was forced to come inside...

Pictures coming soon!

And here's a funny post from Christine if you want a good laugh on a rainy day!

spring-blooming clematis alpina

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

I may have been a maritimer in a previous life!

I'm in St. John's all this week and totally digging the colourful houses here.  Unfortunately, it's so foggy that you can't take a picture of anything further away than the other side of the street, but you get the idea.  This place is so colourful I wouldn't even need a garden if I lived here!

 

 

 

And my house, below.  It would fit right in, don't you think?  I've always said that Calgary is so brown for most of the year, that I just need to have painted colour to cheer myself up.

red lily beetle alert

I know a few people in northern Calgary who had this beetle in their gardens last year and have recently had some questions about it from others, so here is a relevant link from CBC Calgary with information about what to look for and what to do about this nasty little bugger!

my June 2011 garden to do list

I'm happy to say I got a lot of planting done this past month, but now I had better start focussing on weeding before it is too late!  Those dandelions are just out of control this time of year, aren't they? 

On the up side, June is the month when Calgary gardens really start to fill out and are at their freshest and greenest.  The Saskatoons are blooming now, double-flowering plums and crabapples are just starting, and the lilacs will be blooming soon.  Gorgessity in the garden, finally!

Here's my to do list for June:

VEGETABLE GARDEN:

• I've seeded everything that I plan to until the spring produce (spinach, lettuce etc.) has been harvested, so there's not much to do here except weed, and water regularly when necessary.  If you're still planting, check out my Vegetable Gardening in Calgary 101 post.

TREES & SHRUBS:

• I prune my roses in early June because they are only just leafing out now and it is easy to see the dead material that needs to be removed.  I posted some tips on rose pruning in this post.
• Lilacs should be pruned immediately after they have finished flowering.

ORNAMENTAL GARDEN:

• Deadhead (cut off finished flowers of) spring bulbs if they look messy but leave the foliage intact to provide energy to the bulb for next year.
• Weed, weed, weed.  Seriously, this is the month to focus on weeds thanks to all the moisture we get this time of year.  At a minimum if you don't have time, pull the flowers off weeds before they set seed so at least you have minimized future problems.  If you do this in June you will really thank yourself later, I promise.
• Re-edge the borders between lawn and garden if not done done already.  I think this looks so much better than plastic edging!  But I haven't done this yet, even though I believe it was on my April and May to-do lists!
• Top up organic mulch.  I've been using spruce needles (I have an endless supply!) and dried leaves around my shrubs, and compost in the perennial garden.  Not sure how much I'll get around to adding this month, but this could be an ongoing or a yearly job.  June is a great time for mulching because the soil has warmed up but the plants are still small enough that it is easy to get in around them to put down the compost or whatever mulch you choose.  Make sure the mulch isn't touching the stems of your plants.

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

How are your plants holding up?

May 2011 blog round-up

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

Alberta Perennial Trials

• Evaluation and Demonstration of New Perennials 2008-2010

Garden Buzz

• What is happening with spruce trees? - Nora explains possible reasons for tops dying
• Too many tulips? - take note now of where you would like to have more tulips next year!

Blogs and Blooms

• Kids & worms in the Calgary garden - sifting through my vermicastings is what I'll be doing this rainy season, as well.  My kids think the worms are great fun!

The Garden Professors

• reasons to consider getting a soil test if you are starting a vegetable garden - a rant about urban farming
• visiting GP takes on fertilizers - the message of this excellent post: know your fertilizers. know your soil

Gardening Zone 3b

• a plant list including trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals - planting for butterflies and bees
• information about a project to foster bumblebees in Calgary - Can you Babysit a Bumblebee?
• noxious weeds in Alberta

Last Frontier Garden

• reliable perennials in Alaska are also reliable here in Calgary - Oldies but Goodies

Life on the Balcony

• a cool idea! How to turn a Pallet into a Garden

Houzz

• Inspiring Garden Gates - What's Behind that Door?
• Bamboo screens make your garden glow
• 4 Steps to the Perfect Garden - some good general design tips here, but I'm not sure about the mirror suggestion (dangerous for birds!)

the Butterfly Potager garden - June 1 2011

Above: Welcome to the Butterfly Potager!  I plant primarily edible plants plus flowers to attract butterflies and hummingbirds in this garden (because I am unable to stick to just one theme!)

Above and below: There are some perennials popping up around the border but primarily I plant annuals from seed in the middle so there's not much to see yet.  Scarlet runner beans will grow on the bamboo teepee this year.  The little raised beds were planted with asparagus this spring and will be filled in as the asparagus grows (fingers crossed.)

the Side Garden - June 1 2011

Above: the side Garden is under the eaves on the south side of the house and never gets any direct rainfall.  We don't spend any time here, just use it as a passage from front to back, so there are some low maintenance, drought-tolerant groundcovers here (primarily sedums and cerastium tomentosum), and a few special things that I baby a little by handwatering from the rainbarrels - some clematis for height, and a few delphiniums which I grow for cutting.

the front Welcome Garden - June 1 2011

Blah.  I know this garden doesn't look like much yet, but in the interest of providing a record, here's what it looked like on June 1 this year.  As I said before, I like to plant spring bulbs in a garden once I'm happy with the overall layout of shrubs and perennials, but I'm planning a major overhaul of this garden next year so there aren't a lot of bulbs yet.  (At least there's more greenery to look at now that I've added some junipers where that old tree used to be!)  Here are some pictures from last year, or alternatively, check back in 2013 when this garden will look more colourful in spring...

the front Shade Garden - June 1 2011

Above: In the foreground of this garden I just planted some wee baby dogwood shrubs and junipers this spring.  They should fill out nicely in a few years.  (Oops, shoulda moved that hose out of the way before I took this picture.  Oh well, like I said before, this is a reality garden blog!)  There's also a new Coppertina ninebark shrub next to the steps, which I planted on Sue Gaviller's recommendation because it ties in with the colours of the house well.  Or... at least it will when it gets bigger and more noticeable...

Above: closer to the house looks like this right now.  I'm considering adding more of that lamiastrum (that silvery stuff at the top left) as an edging plant because it's so early and vigorous and bushy even in this dry shade garden.  There is some epimedium here which is barely noticeable right now and is causing a hole in the overall view so I think I'm going to move it.  If you look closely, you can see blue and striped siberian squill in bloom, plus a pulmonaria just starting to bloom.  The doronicum in this area hasn't started blooming yet because it's in more shade than my other one in the back.  This garden will look better soon, I promise!

the back Shade Garden - June 1 2011

Above: the part of this garden nearest the garage is extremely shady, so there's not a lot happening there yet.  But ya gotta love that bergenia and now the doronicum (leopard's bane) is also starting to bloom.  Let's have a closer look:

tulips and poppies in the Adventure Garden - June 1 2011

Above: Here is my back Adventure Garden in late May/early June. Doesn't look that impressive yet, does it?  The roses at the back haven't even leafed out yet.  But this is a reality gardening blog, so here you go.  To see impressive pictures please check out some from last year!

The right side is sunny and the left is shady, so it is a challenge to get a sense of continuity across this garden.  The right side is also more mature.  The iceland poppies are spreading all over the place - not exactly a low maintenance plant, but I let them stay because they add so much colour at this time of year.  In a couple more days I should have more of them blooming on the left (shady) side as well.  Both early and late tulips are also blooming right now thanks to the short, condensed spring we have had. 

This garden needs work to add to the spring show, I think.  I tend to plant spring bulbs last once I am happy with the overall layout of perennials and shrubs, which I think I am for this garden.  So that means I'm making notes right now of where to plant more bulbs this fall.  Like maybe a whole bunch of tulipa tarda in front of my catmint and also in the top left in front of the feather reed grass.

Since the above picture isn't very impressive, here are a few close-ups:

Above: Another challenge of this garden is that it can be viewed from many directions.  At least from this side, it looks a little more full.

Above: tulipa tarda and helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass.)

 

Above and below: the Darwin tulips are just starting to bloom.