Happy Earth Day, dolls! How are you marking the occasion? (Yes, I know, we’re gardeners. Everyday is Earth Day. Right.) I’m heading down the road to the MOBY garden to do some cobbing. Let me explain. MOBY, or My Own Back Yard, is a very cool community garden project near the Commercial Drive skytrain station […]
Green Gardening & Living
Is your garden contributing to climate change?
The energy cost for an electric mower (like the Black and Decker model shown above) is typically no more than $5.00 per year – and costs far less to the environment than gas-powered versions. As gardeners, we like to think we’re pretty “green.” But did you know that gas lawnmowers and trimmers release about 80,000 […]
Green driveways
I’m working on designing a French Country-style front garden for a client, and a large part of it is taken up by the driveway. Right now, the whole yard is dominated by concrete – driveway, walkways, steps. It’s too much! Anyway, I was thinking of using some sort of permeable pavement or gravel/grass country-lane type […]
How to make seed balls
seed balls, seedballs, guerilla gardening
Sharing is good
City Farmer recently announced Sharing Backyards in Greater Vancouver, a website that aims to bring together people looking for a space to garden with those who have under-used backyards and are willing to share. Check it out.
But is it really heirloom?
Ottawa Hortiphilia recently posted about large seed companies jumping on the heirloom seed bandwagon. It’s something I’ve also noticed recently: the Big Guns offering more and more supposedly-heirloom seeds in their catalogues. But how can you really be sure you’re buying heirloom seeds? And why should you care? People choose heirloom varieties for a number […]
All I’m hearing is “spring is coming!”
So the groundhogs say spring is right around the corner. As a gardener, of course I say, “yahoo!” But is there any truth to their predictions? I have no idea. But I thought it was interesting that, although completely unrelated, tonight is also Tu be-Shvat, which, in the Jewish calendar, is the New Year of […]
Roundup dangers censored
Up for a little conspiracy theorizing this lovely Friday morning? Check out Project Censored‘s Top 25 Censored Stories of 2007 (“The news that doesn’t make the news”). Of particular interest to gardeners, number 13: New Evidence Establishes Dangers of Roundup: New studies from both sides of the Atlantic reveal that Roundup, the most widely used […]