It pains me to see customers spending hundreds of dollars on new plants and simultaneously refusing to spend a few more on a bag or two of compost and a box of starter fertilizer. These two items are not unnecessary “add-ons” that the retailer is just trying to add to the sale, they are critical components of a successful transplanting process - or as I like to refer to them as “plant insurance”. Unless you have phenomenal soil, you should always add compost and starter fertilizers when you are planting new plants. Here is why…
In this last full week of January, when I can truthfully declare that our vacation from gardening is just about over, all around us nature is once again waking up and it is time to prepare for another gardening season. In my world, what always announces that event is the arrival of bare root fruit trees in the garden center…
It is finally time to get the new gardening season started… January is the perfect month to start shopping for roses, fruit trees, berries and grapes, along with other shrubs that are dormant this time of year. Most of these plants are sold as what is known in the nursery industry as “bare root”. Let me take a moment to explain…
The Golfing Gardener
Trevor Cameron
I often tell gardeners in our region to rediscover their “Evergreen State”, which (in a play on words) simply means to show some gardening style with the structure, texture and color of conifers. Around here nature has the many shades of green covered, but how about some bold blues and bright yellows? When all of the deciduous shrubs and trees have…