Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 22:12
Snow and freezing temperatures greeted us on a recent trip to Salt Spring and Vancouver Islands,
but we did find spring bulbs and of course many gardening features not seen in Calgary, perhaps
the most noticeable being the great variety of healthy evergreens. Often under the tall evergreens
is Oregon-Grape: we can grow some varieties here but in the West Coast plant hardiness zone
(zone nine compared to our cold, zone four) they are ubiquitous – almost too common to be
Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 19:58
The Scarboro Garden Scene
Pots of pots
A brief walk around the neighbourhood in September provided a fine view of a selection of pots – some contain a mixture of perennial grasses flowers, as well as a whole array of local and exotic annuals, and the digital version of this newsletter shows coloured photographs of an attractive selection.
Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 19:20
The Scarboro Garden Scene
Protection from Pollution
Hedges, shrubs and trees all play a big part in reducing the transportation of airborne pollutants. According to the Royal Horticultural Society’s magazine, “The Garden”, particulate pollution causes about 4 million premature deaths worldwide per year: we in Calgary are very fortunate in that we suffer relatively little from this problem, but the edges of the Scarboro community clearly have more of a problem than the interior.
Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 18:44
The Scarboro Garden Scene
Good taste in garden design
I’ll avoid the obvious pun about veggies, although growing vegetable in combination with flowers, or even shrubs, is clearly an attractive proposition: one example is the North American “Three Sisters” - the combination of corn (maize), beans and squash.
Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 18:33
The Scarboro Garden Scene
Trees: past and future pleasures
We can look at Sharon Avenue and Shelbourne Street to reflect on planning – and tree planting. On these boulevards William Reader’s influence is still apparent. He was in charge of parks and other city projects a century ago when the boulevard plantings of poplars and lilac bushes were designed in 1929 and 1930. Shelbourne is also home to some fine old birch trees.
Eventually the favourite trees in our gardens, parks and boulevards pass on -
Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 03/14/2018 - 17:45
Submitted by thegardener on Mon, 03/12/2018 - 17:05
Clearly weather averages are useful statistically, but we have to expect the unexpected. Environment Canada uses thirty year averages from specific weather stations.
Submitted by thegardener on Tue, 03/28/2017 - 14:57
Taste in fashion combines our experience (and genetics / instincts, probably) with historical trends to determine what is attractive. In designing gardens, factors to be considered include the growing and dormant season colour, and the demands of Calgary’s growing conditions. We can choose colours that contrast greatly with one another, or colours that are similar - or we can contrast plant colour with adjacent house, fence, hedge or path colour, and the surrounding relaxing green of foliage.
The Scarboro Garden Scene
Submitted by thegardener on Wed, 02/15/2017 - 23:00
March is a good time for pruning fruit trees – the trees are dormant, the leaves have been
put to use in compost piles or bins, apples have been eaten, canned, given away or left for
squirrels, so for these reasons we can now see if any branches should be removed. The
main question is … do I need to prune?
The normal rules of pruning apply – the three “D”s: branches should be removed if they
are dead, diseased, or damaged, and preferably never remove more than 20% of the
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