Calgary Garden Coach

helictotrichon sempervirens (blue oat grass) in snow

I snapped a few pictures on my way to work this morning.  A gardener in my neighbourhood has lots of mature blue oat grass in her front yard and it looks amazing.  All year, actually.  But particularly in fall (once the seed heads have matured) and winter - these plants will look great like this all winter long.  Each of the clumps below are planted in groups of 3 for a larger effect.  I have two specimens of this plant in separate spots in my back adventure garden, but none in the front.  I think I must add some next year...

Good-bye Karl... but not for long!

I am just finishing cutting down all last year's perennials this week.  Here is the before and after of the front "welcome garden."

I was a little sad cutting Karl down.  Seriously, calamagrostis (feather reed grass) 'Karl Foerster' is one of my favourite plants.  This one is several years old and almost as tall and wide as a real person, so I think of him as one.  Every time I walk past, I say hello to Karl!  (The kids love this plant too but they think it's wheat!)

He has such presence in the front garden - he makes a great vertical accent, and as you can see stands tall all winter long.  It's easy to give people directions to my house because I can just say "it's the blue house with the ornamental grass - you'll know what I mean when you see it."  He may not look like much after his haircut but by June he'll be several feet tall again and interesting to look at for another 11 months.  I also have one in the back to screen a gas meter, and added another to my back hill garden as a "bookend" last year.  I've recommended it as a fast-growing screen for a kids' play area and as a substitute for pink pampas grass, too.

winter interest - calamagrostis and sedum

winter interest - rose hips in front of liatris and perovskia

red branches of "Therese Bugnet" rose in winter

sedum 'Autumn Joy' in the winter

 

 

sorbus (mountain ash) in winter

   

 

calamagrostis (feather reed grass) in front of centaurea macrocephala

centaurea macrocephala in the snow

liatris spicata in the snow

annabelle hydrangea in the snow

 

I'm still lovin' winter!

  Calgary's had snow cover for over a month now - very unusual for us!  How could you not love it when it insulates the garden (against temperature variation as well as our dry winds) and looks so beautiful?  Plus I'm getting some other projects done around the house that would never get any attention during the gardening season.

Still, it will be time to order seeds soon...

 

locally sourced Christmas tree

I've read a lot about the debate on real vs. artificial trees in terms of the environment.  For me it's a no brainer - it's got to be a real tree for emotional and nostalgic reasons.  But there are still many factors to consider when you choose a real tree (how far was it shipped?  was it sustainably grown and harvested?  has it been sprayed with fungicide or who knows what else?)  It's enough to make a person want to give up!!

This year I am happy to report that I didn't have to worry about any of these issues!  I had a pine tree in my backyard that I've been wanting to take down for a while now - and I saved it until now.  How's that for a locally grown, organic, small carbon footprint tree?!?
We're going to chop off the top to bring inside for our Christmas tree this year, and the rest of the branches will be put on the garden for winter insulation.

This is the last tree I wanted to get rid of in my backyard.  It had to go because it was too close to a retaining wall we want to replace next spring.  Besides, someone landscaped this yard nicely about 30 years ago but planted way too many trees and shrubs way too close together (a pet peeve of mine), so I don't feel guilty at all about taking down a tree or two (or ten).  Now only one more tree to get rid of in the front yard, if I can only convince my husband...

more winter shots

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

winter interest - thank goodness for beautiful evergreens

  These spruce boughs were absolutely gorgeous when I was walking to work yesterday.  A picture taken in the dark doesn't really do justice to the delicate frostiness of the snow-laden boughs, but here you go anyway. 

The branches looked like gigantic snowflakes and I couldn't resisit snapping a few pics.  Once again, gardeners in zone 3 really need to pay attention to how our gardens look the other six months of the year and make sure we have lots of winter beauty to get us through these dark, cold months...

i'd say winter is officially here

  Here is the same view I posted a picture of 2 days ago for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.  I took it on the way to work so sadly it was dark at the time (but it's also dark when I come home so I really had no choice).

Right now everything looks beautiful covered in ice and snow, so I will be blogging about the beauties of winter and designing for winter interest a lot over the next few months!  Then I will start to go stir crazy and be dying for spring...

snow!

When I looked out the window this morning, I saw snow.  My first thought was "Oh, I need to go take a picture for my blog."  My second thought was "I really should have made getting the kids new mittens a higher priority these last few weeks."  My third thought was "What kind of Mom always thinks about gardening before her kids?!" 

Better go mitten shopping this week-end.

(and BTW I didn't take a pictures until much later on since it was dark at the time anyway...)

design for winter interest

Right about now, every Canadian is dying for spring.  While you're making your wish list to take to the garden centre this spring, make sure you don't just fall for those plants blooming their little hearts out in their pots in the store.  Grab some plants that will look good all winter as well - we might as well make our gardens look as nice as possible all year considering at least half the time they will be in "winter mode". 

This neighbour's yard makes me stop and stare year-round.  I took this picture today (March 28) and as you can see, everything is still standing from last year, and still looking great. 

The evergreens add colour to an otherwise brown landscape, and the ornamental grasses, artemesias, sedums, hydrangeas (not shown) and more look good all winter.  Basically anything that makes a good dried flower will likely look good over the winter.  If it gets knocked over by a big dump of snow, you can always cut it down later.