Beckie Fox
Renovating a lawn
Early spring is arguably the best time to renovate a lawn. Fresh lawn seed is available, temperatures are cool and you can usually count on spring showers to help germination. Early fall is the next best time.
Lessons learned while renovating a lawn
After nearly 20 years of letting things be in our lawn, we decided early last spring to give the lawn a makeover. Early spring, when temperatures are cool and rain is expected, is an excellent time to renovate turfgrass. Fall is good, too. Summer is not recommended.
Cue the spring ephemerals
Before the leaf canopy fully opens to shade the forest floor in woodland gardens, perennial spring ephemerals put on their show of delicate blooms. They’re called “ephemeral” because their presence above ground is fleeting — they bloom quickly, produce seed and then disappear, leaving only their roots to carry on underground.
Kale still riding high
It was the 1990s when kale began its meteoric rise from merely a decorative annual used in fall containers to a nurient-rich superfood with recipes for kale chips, smoothies, salads and stir-fries everywhere. Kale continues to be popular, and fortunately it’s an easy crop.
Colourful, blooming lawns
Small early bulbs — crocus, species tulips, puschkinia and others — in bloom are an encouraging sight for they are the opening hinting at for the bigger bulb show to come. They’re also the easiest of the fall-planted bulbs to incorporate into a garden because of their small size; they can be tucked in almost anywhere there’s a square inch of bare soil.
