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Looking for Colour Outdoors in February

Editor — Thu, 02 Mar 2023 04:07:27 +0000

Looking for Colour Outdoors in February Editor Wed, 03/01/2023 - 20:07

Winter Blooms

Vancouver — Fri, 27 Jan 2023 02:43:48 +0000

Winter Blooms Vancouver Thu, 01/26/2023 - 18:43

Mixing it Up

Editor — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 04:48:43 +0000

Mixing it Up Editor Fri, 12/02/2022 - 20:48

MGABC

Event Date

January 21, 2023 - 9:00 am

REGISTER NOW WITH KARELO

Saturday, January 21, 2023 | 9 to 4:30 | Mary Winspear Centre, Sidney BC

The 100-mile diet meets the 100-mile conference!

In the midst of winter, when we most need a day of learning and chatting about gardening, five local speakers will offer us possibilities for our changing climate. Practical possibilities, to create resilient gardens, employing sustainable practices.

Your garden is an ecosystem | Gord Baird

How do you stop climate change from crashing your garden’s party? It depends on the partygoers of course. Gord, owner of the award-winning Eco-Sense home, will discuss the relevance of our gardens as ecosystems in the presence of an unwanted guest. He will unearth his observations of the impacts of climate change on his gardens and nursery, share his successes and failures, and help you write a more inclusive guest list -- one offering a biodiverse menu and stifling your garden party guests' thirst. Sure to be fun, fast paced and informative – and perhaps a bit unconventional.

It all starts with the soil | Dr. Barbara Hawkins

Successful sustainable gardening begins with healthy soils. Understanding soil ecology leads to healthier garden ecosystems. Barbara’s session will focus on soil biology, soil chemistry and helpful soil microbes, including mycorrhizae and nitrogen fixing bacteria.

Planting for resilience | Linda Petite

What plants are resilient to our changing climate? With extended periods of drought, heavy rainfall and increasing heat waves, some of our traditional plants are stressed, causing them to be less productive. While we cannot control the weather, we do have some control over what we plant in our gardens. Maintaining healthy fertile soil, growing plants with similar needs together, planting for drought-tolerance, and identifying new plants that adapt to these evolving conditions will help our gardens thrive. Linda will focus on her experience as Head Gardener at the Horticulture Centre of the Pacific to talk about the emerging winners in the changing climate conditions.

Foodscaping the future | Josh Wagler

Our fragile food supply chain has been tested countless times in recent years. Beyond the pandemic, climate change has been at the root of many of these disturbances, manifesting as floods, fires, drought, and other extreme weather events. These factors combined have given birth to an unprecedented interest in growing food at home, and yet have also provided a unique set of gardening challenges. In this time of great change, your environment is bursting with potential, whether you live in an apartment, on an acreage, or somewhere in between. Looking to the forest as our teacher, Josh will explore powerful plants and extraordinary edibles that can transform your landscape into a foodscape. No matter how large or small, sunny or shady your space, it is possible to cultivate a beautiful, resilient, deliciously decentralized, foodshed for the future starting in your own home.

New beginnings | Egan Davis

There is nothing more satisfying than propagating your own plants - the process is always a marvel. Egan will provide expert instruction on how to start your own plants at home. He will cover the principles behind seed germination and vegetative propagation. You will learn how to set up and manage a controlled propagation environment, and how to grow seedlings and freshly rooted cuttings. While it may seem like a technical pursuit, the biggest secret to propagation is a love for plants, so muster up all your horticultural passion and start propagating!

Conference fee:

Early Bird fee until November 30, 2022 $ 80

Regular fee from December 1, 2022 $100

Recordings Only fee (for 30 days after the conference) $ 40

“Bring your own lunch and mug” will extend the green theme.

Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided at breaks.

Vendors and a Silent Auction will add excitement to the day.

REGISTER WITH KARELO

Find Speaker Bios here

Learn about the great day we had at Mixing it up 2021

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Putting Your Garden to Bed

Editor — Thu, 24 Nov 2022 02:20:49 +0000

Putting Your Garden to Bed Editor Wed, 11/23/2022 - 18:20

In a tumultuous year of ups and downs, one shining aspect was seeing the number of people around Squamish pick up their trowels and try their hands at gardening. I wanted to share a few tips on how to put your garden to bed.

If you’re expecting an excessive clean and overhaul, then hit the brakes cowboy.

There are several reasons to hold off on an overzealous cutback. Aside from looking unsightly and barren, all of those wonderful pollinators and good insects that you’ve worked so hard to bring to your yard will be gone now as well.

It turns out that the best thing you can do is to not do much at all. While I still recommend cutting off diseased, and damaged plants, leaving the other plants to overwinter can be very beneficial. Your garden, even in the winter, provides a wonderful habitat of food and shelter for our animal friends. Sunflowers, sedum, echinacea, grasses, rudbeckia, and cosmos can all provide food sources for songbirds, especially during a cold, and snowy winter.

Fall mums, asters, and grasses provide cover not only for other plants, but for butterflies, and other insects who winter in them.

Hollow stalks provide winter shelter for bees, and birds will use the remaining material in the spring for new nests.

That being said, there are still things that need to be done before we tuck our gardens away for the season.

This can include cold frames, greenhouses, and hoop houses to extend your harvest time. Some people might have planned a winter harvest in the summer, and their veggies should be hitting their tweens.

This leads me to the number one thing you can do for your garden, which is to replenish it with organic matter. A healthy garden starts with healthy soil. Throughout the year nutrients have been utilized, and leached out of the soil, requiring nutrients to be added back in. Add a compost, or partially decomposed compost to your garden before the ground freezes. This will allow it to fully decompose over the winter. Compost benefits your garden in many ways. It provides energy for microorganisms, improves the soil structure, encourages root development, reduces erosion, and improves the capacity of the soil for air, and water. Another part of your organic matter is your mulch.

Mulch is the layer of organic materials placed on the top of the soil as a protective cover.

Mulch helps to suppress weed germination, retain moisture, insulate the soil, and reduce erosion.

Butterfly larvae, spiders, and beneficial insects also overwinter in mulch. Your mulch will also provide cover for frogs, toads, salamanders, and other wildlife. Songbirds benefit by feeding on the insect eggs, and caterpillars.

Leaves, grass cuttings, bark chips, or straw can all be used as coverings. Just be conscious that large leaves like the broadleaf maple should be shredded into smaller pieces as they can smother your plants, and compact rather than break down. I like a six-inch mulch as a protective covering. Keep in mind that this isn’t to prevent the ground from freezing, but from the constant freezing and thawing, it will experience over the winter. Those of you comfortable in your gardens might be storing your seeds for next year.

One thing I enjoy doing in the fall is a little record keeping. Do it now because you won’t remember it come spring! What worked in your garden? What didn’t, and most importantly, what did you enjoy?

Finally, clean those tools before you tuck them away in a nice dry spot.

Scour off the rust, and re-sharpen tools where needed. I was tickled pink when someone showed me that I could clean my shovels by filling a bucket full of sand, and vegetable oil.

Plunge your shovel in multiple times, and voila! While most of us like a nice clean yard, this is a case where less is more in the long run. So take a breather from all your hard work.

—————— LEAH M. - Class of 2020, Student VMG

References;

UBC lecture Sept 22/2020 5:30-7:30

Instructor: Mik Turje

Subject: Preparing your garden for winter

VMG zoom lecture Sept 27/2020

Instructor: Linda Gilkensen

Subject: gardening in the fall, and winter

Backyard Bounty

Author: Linda Gilkensen

The American Gardener Set/Oct 2019 issue

Author: Kris Wetherbee

Subject: Garden cleanup, reconsidered

Native Plant Nurseries In British Columbia

Editor2 — Wed, 02 Nov 2022 22:08:06 +0000

Native Plant Nurseries In British Columbia Editor2 Wed, 11/02/2022 - 15:08

Native Plant Nurseries in British Columbia

Check out our recent listing of available Native Plant Nurseries in British Columbia.

See the attached PDF for local listings and websites for sourcing Native Plants.

PDF

Attachment	Size
List of BC Native Plant Nurseries	216.65 KB

Deer-resistant plants

Victoria — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 02:55:14 +0000

Deer-resistant plants Victoria Tue, 08/09/2022 - 19:55