The Scarboro Garden Scene

The Scarboro Garden Scene – less work, more play.

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The Scarboro Garden Scene
Marjorie Harris and Thomas Hobbs, and in-door plants

2015

Lawns: love ’em or leave ’em
Lawns can have an important part to play in garden design and they have a long-standing feature of our landscape architecture. The idea developed over centuries in Europe as a status symbol … deer roaming in tree-dotted parklands … but that does not negate its attractiveness. However, with our increasing awareness of climate change, we are more concerned with the balance between our desires and our environment, certainly it is easier to find a good caretaker for our lawns than it is to find time or gain expertise in managing other types of vegetation.

The Scarboro Garden Scene – bees and pollination

Bumble bee on Iceland Poppy
Insect on Pyrethrum

I love the buzz of bees – and our plants benefit from the pollination that occurs as an adjunct to the bees’ nectar collection. Commercially there is great interest in their ability to fertilize crops. (Another mechanism for fertilization is wind - sorry allergy sufferers – pine and grass pollen are a real pain to you). Honey of course is a product many of us enjoy, and the honeybee (“Apis mellifera”, meaning honey-bearing bee) is important throughout the agricultural world.

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The Scarboro Garden Scene

celebrating spring

March Issue

Reducing Fertilizers

Fungal spore & threads
Pine Seedling
Root colonized by mycorrhizae
Root without mycorrhizae

The Scarboro Garden Scene
Reducing fertilizers

The Scarboro Garden Scene – Indian Summer beauty

The Scarboro Garden Scene – Growing Grape Vines

Larch Hills Vineyard
Larch Hills Vineyard
Larch Hills Vineyard
Valiant Grapes
The Scarboro Garden Scene


New Guide Books for Gardeners

Lyndon Penner’s recent books can benefit us all. Two are reviewed here: The Chinook Short Season Yard (2014), and Garden Design for the Short Season Yard (2015). Both have great pictures and many ideas to share. The Short Season Yard’s first 131 pages are easily read and informative – the other 104 pages illustrate a great variety of perennial plants, trees and shrubs. If you only read part of the book, look at the chapters on location and soils. A word of caution: the text was prepared before Calgary was recognized as being in plant hardiness zone 4.

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