Beckie Fox
Making a brand-new garden
Starting a new garden from scratch can be intimidating. First piece of advice: go slow. Here are tips on how to prioritize your decision making when creating your dream garden from scratch.
Tips for planning a perennial border
Whether you’re starting a new garden or renovating an overgrown mix of plants, some advance planning and soil preparation as well as careful plant selection will help you create a cohesive picture with well-chosen and sited perennials, trees and shrubs.
Caring for oxalis
If you celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by purchasing a shamrock plant (Oxalis regnelli), here's suggestions how to keep it thriving, as well as describing several varieties to look for to grow outdoors, either as a pretty edging in the garden or as a container plant.
Evaluating purple coneflowers
Purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea) and their cultivars are exceedingly popular perennials. They’re easy to grow, relatively hardy, pest-free, drought-tolerant and provide a source of nectar and pollen for insects.
The allure of variegated foliage
I’m a sucker for variegated foliage, so much so that I need to stop myself from adding more fancy patterned leaves to the garden to avoid creating a muddled mess. One of my current favourites is a rex begonia (Begonia rex).
