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Coastal Gardening: Perennial Flowers for the Sea Coast
Recently I discussed some of the challenges people face when gardening in windy coastal conditions, and some counter-intuitive tips for gardening on the sea coast. The biggest struggle is finding plants that will thrive and bloom even with all that wind and salt. Trial and error is a big part of gardening, but it’s nice…
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Book Review: The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden by Valerie Easton
You’d think that a landscape designer who also does landscape maintenance would be dismissive of the whole low-maintenance gardening thing. After all, there’s a negative impression of low-maintenance gardens as being dull, static, lifeless places devoid of wildlife or any personal character. But there is a balance in a well-designed garden between hardscape (the patios,…
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Heather and Heath Fans: Free E-Books from the Heather Society!
Besides the Timber Press book Gardening with Hardy Heathers by Wulff and Small, my favorite heather resources have been two slender booklets published by the International Heather Society and given to me by our local Heather guru Maria Krenek. The books are about how to care for and grow heathers successfully, and which heathers they…
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Callunas, Ericas, Daboecias, Oh My! Demystifying the Different Kinds of Heather
I first heard about the heather plant when I was 10, reading an old-fashioned British book about a group of children who escaped their abusive guardians and made a home together on a secret island. They built a willow house out of live willow stems, so their home grew lush and protected, and they used…
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Coastal Gardening: How to Garden on the Seacoast
Coastal gardening presents some big challenges. There is constant strong wind, sandy soil that doesn’t hold water well and is lean on nutrients, and the salt! Oh, the salt. Of course, it has its benefits too. Nowhere else do you get such a sense of motion in the landscape, between the beauty of the waves…
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Bringing Some Semblance of Order to Your Crazy Busy Garden
If you’re a plant geek, you’ve probably fallen prey to the “one of this, one of that” style of gardening. You know how it is – you walk out into your garden one day and realize that your beloved plant friends are all clamoring for individual attention (Look at me! No, look at ME!), with…
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Victoria, B.C.- Style Hanging Flower Baskets
The city of Victoria, British Columbia has the most decadent flower baskets hanging from the lamp posts in the shopping district all summer long. They’re bright, they’re cheerful, and most importantly, they guide tourists down the streets and show shoppers which areas they’re likely to find most interesting. How can you use this idea at…
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Amy Stewart’s Chicken Chronicles on Garden Rant
If you’ve considered raising your own backyard chickens (I highly recommend it, they make great pets, eat your snails, and make fantastic eggs!), then head on over to Garden Rant to read local writer Amy Stewart’s Chicken Chronicles. She starts out at Week One and brings you through her journey of raising chicks from cheeping…
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Vinegar Weed Control that Actually Works
When I was in horticulture school, the old-skool dudes teaching pest control were all about the chemicals – they just didn’t believe organics could be as effective as the lethal stuff. Yet every so often, a hint of doubt would creep into their voices about safety. I’d hear, “well, this one’s actually pretty bad” or …
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Selling Your Home? Four Steps to a Fast Garden Makeover
Thinking of selling your home, or having a party? While a garden makeover may seem like an overwhelming task, if you know where to focus your energy you can get great results without having to fix everything. Use these four tips in the garden areas most likely to be seen first – near the front…
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Video Review of Fiskars Powergear Hedging Shear
If you’ve hung around North Coast Gardening for any length of time, you know that I’m a sucker for tools that do multiple jobs well. This hedging shear is my go-to tool for cutting back perennials in fall and winter, pruning ornamental grasses and sword ferns in winter, and deadheading heathers and other plants that…