Winter Melon May is Asian Heritage Month in Canada, acknowledging the long and rich history of Asian Canadians and their contributions to Canada. Vancouver is blessed with a large, diverse, and vibrant Asian community; in fact, 20% of our population is Asian (Chinese, East Indian and Filipino making up most of that percentage). All this […]
Pet worms for sale
From my work’s internal buy-and-sell listings: I am reluctantly selling my pet worms and would like to see them go to a good family. They come with their own home, a very nice black self contained unit with ventilation. There are 2 separate family groups (they do not have to go to the same home). […]
How to: make an organic all-purpose pesticide
If it’s not slugs, it’s aphids, apparently. The little buggers have arrived and are determined to shrivel up all the new growth on my Clematis jackmanii. It being in its third year (third year leap – check!) there is a lot of new growth at stake. I’ve always used a two-pronged approach to deal with […]
The war on slugs
I have a secret. I have a fondness for slugs and snails. I think they’re, well, kind of cute. I know I’m not alone in this! Well, maybe among gardeners. But except for that unfortunate time when I stepped on a slug and it got stuck between my toes… oh, and the time the dog […]
What’s your sign?
After a conversation about birthdays revealed that there are a disproportionate number of Tauruses in my Garden Design program (including myself), I’m finding this “hortiscope” column very interesting. To me, it was no real surprise… we Tauruses are known for our need for comfort and sensuality – things a garden definitely provides! We also love […]
Isn’t that the plant with the abnormal discharge?
Like many gardeners, I spend a lot of time advising friends who are new to gardening. And sometimes the conversations turn hysterical. Like the time I was over at a friend’s new apartment, and she was wondering what to plant on her large balcony. “Think vertical,” I suggested. “You could plant a climbing vine to […]
Deciduous
I was chatting with my world-travelling sister today, and gardens came up, naturally. My parents are going to Paris to visit her in a week or so, and she’s been researching gardens for them to tour (yes, it’s a family love affair!). Anyway, she mentioned that the French word caduque has the dual meanings of […]
Garden photography
Photography. It seems to go hand-in-hand with being a gardener: this desire to capture the most fleeting of blooms, to record the brilliance that we have wrought from the earth. But we can’t all have expertise in both gardening and photography. We can, however, afford the work of someone who does. Alicia Bock describes herself […]