Your spring garden containers don’t always need to include tulips and daffodils for a pop of colour. Many spring-blooming perennials hold up for weeks in a pot display, and can transplanted at the end of the season to make room for summer flowers. Here’s an 18-inch (45-cm) diameter concrete container beside a neighbour’s front porch filled with lemon yellow Himalayan … [Read more...] about Spring garden container with pink and yellow
April in the garden
Frost protection for plants
After a hard winter, the last thing you want is to lose plants to a late spring frost. Knowing how to provide frost protection for plants is your first defence. Simply put, most light frost is frozen dew. It forms on vegetative surfaces and can damage the cells of plants that are actively growing. These include emerging and transplanted perennials, newly planted vegetables, … [Read more...] about Frost protection for plants
How to choose garden pots
Even before you think about what plants you’ll grow in your container garden, consider what garden pots you have on hand, what needs replacing and what you need to acquire. Almost anything that holds soil and water will work as a container for plants, but consider practicalities and aesthetics, too. The larger the container, the more room there is for a beautiful display of … [Read more...] about How to choose garden pots
How to use a bloom chart in your garden design
The Garden Making bloom chart will help you keep track of when plants in your garden are in flower, showing you when there are gaps in bloom. It can be an important tool in achieving succession of bloom in your garden design. Using a bloom chart for individual areas will also be a help in colour design, allowing you to better plan beds devoted to monochromatic schemes, such as … [Read more...] about How to use a bloom chart in your garden design
Starting tuberous begonias
When you consider that tuberous begonias can flower continuously from June until frost, have blooms that last more than a week, are easy to grow, and come in just about every colour, it’s a wonder more gardeners don’t grow them. If this is your year to try growing tuberous begonias, now is the time to get them started. Bulb basics The neat thing about … [Read more...] about Starting tuberous begonias
