Colleen from In the Garden Online has started the wired equivalent of the GWA’s Quill and Trowel awards, the Mouse and Trowel.

The Mouse and Trowel Awards have categories such as “Best Writing,” “Best Gardening Podcast,” and “Garden blogger you’d most like to have as a neighbour.” I’m with Elizabeth of Gardening While Intoxicated. Where’s the “Best Name” category?? I might have had a shot at that too!

So get thyself to the nomination form and vote for your – ahem – favourite gardening blog.

Can’t wait to see the results, and hopefully discover some new blogs!

My backyard is having a bit of an identity crisis. It’s not its fault; it’s picking it up from me. I can’t decide what I want it to be. Is it a garden? A farm? Or an outdoor room?

When I say, “backyard,” I mean a 180 sq.ft square currently covered in concrete pavers, surrounded by a 5-ft fence. The 2-ft. strip that isn’t covered with pavers acts as a temporary holding area for plants I brought with me when I moved last year. As you can imagine, it is truly a thing of beauty. (I’ve only posted one photo of it, and even then it was covered in snow.)

I’ve been looking at this embarrassment of a garden for over a year now. At first I told myself that I wanted to give it a year to get to know the conditions of the site. Now I know I was just stalling. I just can’t decide what to do with it.

The nature lover in me wants to ditch the patio altogether and create a garden. In my world, this would probably start off as an earnest attempt to create a wildlife-attracting edible forest garden and end up being a mish-mash of nostalgic favourites and I-found-this-on-sale-
at-the-nursery-and-I-must-have-its. I have no self-control.

The environmentalist in me reads the first page of my local veggie-growing bible, the West Coast Seeds catalogue, and wants to create a small-plot intensive farm. Due to peak oil, climate change and general impending doom, West Coast Seeds owner Mary Ballon is this year urging her customers to use their land as a step toward self-sufficiency. She urges us to be farmers rather than gardeners, and reduce our dependency on oil. Sounds great. But while I love growing vegetables, would I be satisfied with all-veg, all the time?

The designer in me takes a look at the architecture of my building and the minimalist nature of our indoor furnishings and thinks I should create an outdoor room. Sleek, minimalist and modern, it would be mostly, if not all, patio, with just a few carefully-chosen container plantings. Obviously, this approach is in conflict with the two above.

What’s a girl to do? Have you ever (or do you always) find yourself in this predicament? What did you do?

It’s another soggy day here in Vancouver, and because the weather report tells me I won’t be spending any time in my garden this weekend, I’m substituting actual gardening with the online version of a garden tour. I’m talking about Design Assistant, from CoastalLiving.com.

It features all kinds of interior and outdoor rooms and treatments from various magazines (Sunset, Southern Accents, Coastal Living, etc.) that you can sort according to various categories. For example, I liked the garden shown above, so went to “browse for similar” and clicked on Outdoor Areas – Contemporary and found a slew of interesting designs. Each featured garden has a how-to area, so if the garden has a gravel patio, for example, and you want to know how to recreate that look, Design Assistant will lead you to an appropriate source.

Be prepared to spend many hours here – it’s the perfect rainy day cure!

Photo by Thomas J. Story from Design Assistant.

Yesterday, the first official day of spring, I went for a late afternoon walk around my East Van neighbourhood. The wind was still rather cold, but the sun was low and creating some great light, so I tried to capture what I think is the unique quality of the ‘hood: the juxtiposition of commercial and residential, old and new, fresh and grungy. And of course, I went all paparazzi on the flowers I happened across.

You can view more photos here.

I’m looking for an outdoor loveseat for my third-floor balcony. I know, I know. Sounds suspiciously like I’m wanting to create an “outdoor room,” right? And they have been so overdone and overexposed lately. “What’s next,” you’re asking, “the behemoth barbecue, the outdoor shower?” Well, no, just the loveseat. And maybe an ottoman. And a place to rest my gin and tonic. But that’s it. I swear.

And there are so many lovely outdoor sofas. Or “deep seating,” as they say in the industry. Here are a few front runners.

Modern Outdoor makes two beautiful outdoor sofas in a variety of custom cushion and frame colours. I love the mid-century feel of the Etra (above) and the low-slung minimalism of the Talt (below).

Barlow and Tyrie also make a line of stainless steel seating. The Equinox line (below) has a great retro feel to it.

Sadly, I’d have to remortgage the house to afford any of these. And I haven’t yet found a comparable stainless steel sofa that is affordable. But wood and resin (the new “wicker”) are getting better looking every year. And you can’t beat the prices.

From Walmart, a half-decent looking two-seater (above) runs only $199USD, while an entire set of resin “wicker” furniture (below) will set you back $799USD.

And at Target, the four-piece Home South Bali set, below is just $799, and would look great in an Indonesia-inspired garden.

Personally speaking, when I’m not asking my husband to buy me the $4000 Talt (ha!) for my birthday, I’m keeping my eye on a hip – and affordable – outdoor sofa in a local department store. Where? That I’m keeping to myself.

Since Maryam asked so nicely, I thought I’d explain a bit more about seed balls (also known as “seed bombs,” among a multitude of other names).

Seed balls, simply put, are a method for distributing seeds by encasing them in a mixture of clay and compost. This protects the seeds by preventing them from drying out in the sun, getting eaten by birds, or from blowing away.

Seed balls are scattered directly on the ground, not planted. Self-sufficiency and sustainability website Path To Freedom says seed balls are useful for seeding dry, thin and compacted soils and for reclaiming derelict ground (which is why they are often used in guerilla gardening). Seed balls are particularly useful in dry and arid areas where rainfall is highly unpredictable. I like ‘em because they’re easy to chuck over fences into empty lots.

You can “sow” your seed balls on a sunny day – and just leave them. When sufficient rain has permeated the clay, the seeds inside sprout and are aided by the nutrients and beneficial soil microbes surrounding them. I put one (shown above) in my garden so I can track its progress and show my readers that – yes! – seed balls do actually work.

In fact, the seed ball method has been working for centuries. I’ve read that some North American First Nations’ tribes used seed balls. More recently natural farming pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka has experimented with them. And in New York City, seed bombs were used in 1973′s revitalization of the Bowery neighbourhood and the development of the city’s first community garden.

So there you have it. The Heavy Petal version of seed ball history. Now go play outside!

Seedballs: microcosms of the living world.

This past weekend, Al from my guerilla gardening group led a seedball-making workshop. I loved it; it was so satisfying just to get my hands muddy and spend a couple hours in a zen-like trance rolling seedballs… I highly recommend the process!

Here’s the recipe:

5 parts dry red clay*
3 parts dry organic compost
1 part seed**
1 – 2 parts water

We used a 16oz. plastic cup as a measure, which made enough for approximately 300 seedballs. After mixing together all the dry ingredients, we added enough water to form a mix that held together without crumbling but wasn’t so wet that it wouldn’t roll into balls. Pinching off small bits of the lovely mud, we rolled penny-sized balls and set them in trays. They will sit on my windowsill for three or four days until completely dry.

Ingredient notes:
*Dry red clay: Yes, this is the stuff that potters use. Commonly it comes pre-mixed, which you don’t want. You want the dry powder so it can be easily mixed. I’ve tried using grey clay from a riverbank – it doesn’t work so well. In Greater Vancouver there is something called Red Art Clay which is available at Greenbarn Potters Supply Ltd., 9548 – 192nd Street in Surrey (604-888-3411). Try asking at your local art supply store.

**Seeds: Workshop organizer Al provided crimson clover, white dutch clover and wild flower seeds, while the rest of the participants donated appropriate seeds – I put in California poppy, nasturtium and cilantro. Al also suggested using the edible, perennial and drought-tolerant plants listed at Plants for a Future.

Here we are, rolling away.

One of these kids is doing their own thing.

More on seedballs:

Path to Freedom
Masanobu Fukuoka

something that is fabulous.

I’m not the only one who stops traffic to snap a picture of a nice garden, right? Well, this one made me slam on the brakes.

Keep in mind that this is March, so the garden isn’t even in its prime. But if this is what is meant by a four-season garden, I’m sold. It puts my garden to shame; even with its paperwhites and emerging buds, it’s still pretty sparse.

It’s maybe only 2m (6′) deep and certainly isn’t bursting with flowers, so what makes this garden work? I’d say its strong but limited colour pallette, depth of tone and texture, and its use of repeated elements. Love it!

Never mind the flamingo – they’re everywhere right now as a result of a local communication company’s promotion.

Vancouver locals, you won’t want to miss these workshops.

Garden Ninja presents:

March 24: Soil/compost/mulch
Exposed soil is wounded soil. Soil is a living skin. This session lays out the basis of soil components and their functions – bacteria, fungi, and carbon-nitrogen ratios – for a holistic perspective of how fertility is built and maintained by the soil ecosystem; and how to accelerate and accentuate these processes with composts and mulch.

March 31: Eat your weeds
What plants arrive first to wounded soil? Weeds, and as they are medicines for wounded soils, they are also medicines for animals. Learn which weeds are medicines, what they do for the soil, what they indicate, and how they help you.

April 07: Intro to gardening with the cosmos
The Egyptians, the Mayans, the Pagans, the ancient Chinese all gardened according to cosmological patterns. Biodynamics is a modern language for how to hold the cosmos in mind while dancing through the web of life. This class is an introductory class; a base framework from which to begin observing patterns of moon, season, growth, and energy.

All workshops are 10 am to noon at the M.O.B.Y. gardens, between 10th & 11th on Commercial Drive, under the Skytrain. By donation (suggested donation $5.00).

Contact Garden Ninja for details or to RSVP.

Cedar hedges are so ubiquitous in Vancouver they rarely merit a second glance. But in the tony neighbourhood of Point Grey, there’s one particular hedge that makes me giggle every time I pass it. And I actually go out of my way to check on it; I keep thinking that sooner or later, it’s going to be removed in the interest of good taste or some such nonsense.

See, the hedge in question is made up of a series of three grouped cedars. One columnar cedar flanked by two smaller, round ones. See where this is going?

Holy hedges, Batman!

Together, these phallic sentinals present a vigorous demonstration of masculinity (said with tongue planted firmly in cheek).

Who lives here? Why have they planted thusly? Is it all a big joke? Do they sit behind their curtains and watch people fall off their bicycles? Is this a Do or a Don’t? I don’t know of any garden magazine that would suggest this arrangement, but you have to admit, it sure is a conversation piece!