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Got Shade? Part 2 – Summer in the Shade
This spring, I wrote an article about spring ephemerals – those woodland species that flower early in the spring and then, for the most part, disappear till the following year. Summer has arrived and...
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Fall Garden Prep for the Native Plant Garden
The leaves are starting to turn colour, the air is getting cooler, and there are lots of gardening articles being written about what to do with your Canna Lilies and rose bushes and dahlias for the...
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Got Shade Part 3 – Late Season Shade
Fall tends to be a quiet time for flowers in the forests. Long gone are many of the showier shade perennials like Woodland Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) and the Meadowrues (Thalictrum species). And...
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Can I Eat My Garden?
There are entire books on edible wild plants and on foraging, but I’ve never really paid much attention to them (even though I do have a few on my bookshelves). For me, growing native plants is all...
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It’s Raining, It’s Pouring, My Garden is Growing
Designing a Rain Garden Most yards, whether urban or rural, are high and dry – and for good reason. No one wants to walk around on a sloppy, muddy lawn each time it rains. During a heavy downpour,...
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The Rain Garden – Part 2: Plant Choices
Last month’s article “It’s Raining, It’s Pouring, My Garden is Growing” discussed the how and why to build a rain garden. In this month’s article I will share some of my favourite plants that are well...
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The Versatile Fern
Ostrich Fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) growing under Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) trees in my southwestern Ontario garden. They don’t have big showy flowers (or even tiny inconspicuous flowers),...
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On Writing a Book
March 1, 2024 is an exciting date for me. This is the release date of my book The Gardener’s Guide to Native Plants of the Southern Great Lakes Region. I thought that for this month’s article I would...
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Is it Invasive or is it just Aggressive?
Canada Goldenrod (Solidago canadensis), often mislabeled as “invasive”, is not. It is simply an aggressive native plant. There are strategies that you can use to grow this pollinator magnet even in a...
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Building a Mini-wetland
As a native plant gardener in a small southwestern Ontario town, I am blessed to have a half-acre property with a variety of growing conditions. These range from dry, full sun to dry, full shade and...
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On Buying Native Plants
When I started growing native plants back in 2005/2006, native plant specialty nurseries were few and far between, poorly advertised, and the selection of plants was quite limited. And unfortunately,...
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The Importance of Growing Native Plants
Native plant gardening is one of the fastest growing sectors of horticulture in North America today. I started growing native plants 20 years ago, but I was not really an early adopter; there were...
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Native Plant Gardens: Naturalized or Formal – Which is Better?
We all garden to our own aesthetic. For some, green, sterile lawns of shortly mown grass is a beautiful sight. Others see beauty in lush beds of exotic (and often invasive) flowers, shrubs and vines....
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Hate mowing lawns? Get rid of the grass!
Most people reading this article will have, at one time or another, faced the prospect of removing a section of lawn in order to create a new garden – whether that be specifically for a native flower...
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Keeping an Edge
Last month I wrote about preparing your lawn for a new garden. In that article I discussed some of the strategies I’ve tried (and a few I haven’t) for removing the sod. This month I’m going to look at...
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The dirt on dirt (aka soil) – Part 1 – Soil Texture
Let me preface this piece with the caveat that I am not trained as a soil scientist (though I did take a couple of university soils courses many years ago). Nevertheless, as a gardener I am always...
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The dirt on dirt (aka soil) – Part 2
Beyond Sand, Silt and Clay – Organic Matter, Loam, Soil pH and other magic Last month I wrote about how to determine your soil texture. This month I’d like to discuss some of the other components of...
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