Changing weather patterns due to global warming make you wonder when the winter ends or whether it will end at all. But without any worries, Crocus will push through the snow, make a bright display and announce the arrival of spring. Crocus is one of the first flowers to appear in the spring. It is […]
Composting has come mainstream and is being done in big scale. There are always questions about what can be composted. We do get conflicting advice regarding those questions. One item I am more concerned is the use of paper in compost. We are told to use newspaper and cardboard in composting. Make sure you shred […]
Your garden shouldn’t look like a sick person at the end of summer. A garden with dead flowers and foliage is a depressing sight. With a decent dose of Fall Asters, you can make the sick person look alive with beauty! They will bloom till the frost and give a fresh look for the garden. […]
Sometimes, you get vegetables and fruits that look strangely odd-looking exotic. They might make you wonder about the edibility. ‘Do you really eat that? Or you do …. with that’? Something that has nothing to do with eating! There is one that looks like a hybrid of a caveman’s club and medieval torture device. That […]
We love vegetables for their taste and nutrients. But sometimes, we love them for their looks. We love them so much, we end up planting them in the flower garden. Bloody dock is one of those edible ornamental foliage plants that have exotic look as well as taste. It is a perfect plant for container […]
Just leave the leaves alone! Every fall, it is like a religious ritual. On every garbage pick up day, you see paper bags filled with raked leaves waiting on the curbs. In big box store-bought paper bags, proudly made from recycled paper! Like billboards along the residential streets, giving free advertisment to those big box […]
A grandma living down a few houses in our street is from Eastern Europe and, though she is in Canada for a long time, doesn’t speak English well. That didn’t stop my wife from striking a conversation with her. Somehow both understand each other very well, which wonders me. But my wife’s complain is that […]
When the summer ends and fall creeps in, gardens start looking like war zones. The greens and flowers that adorned the garden will start dying. That is something unsightly! But there are a few that put on a show in the fall. Mums and asters can beautify the fall garden. But there is one that […]
As children, all of us were fascinated with Butterflies! When we know the connection with caterpillars and butterflies, in the early science classes, we started wondering about Mother Nature. With pollution by pesticide use, habitat loss by urbanization and global warming, their numbers are dwindling. As gardeners, butterflies help us in pollination. Though they are […]
There are some tools that no gardener should be without. Pruners are one of them. They are not just for pruning. You also use them to harvest thick-stemmed vegetables or flowers. When it comes to pruning, you have many tools to do the job. You have folding saws, loppers and pruners. While pruners and saw […]