In our home garden, clematis climbs on trellises and up walls on two sides of the house. We provide support on the wall with a series of screws and wires. It climbs to about 10 feet on both sides. We had the first flowers in early June and we often see the last flowers in November. To … Continue reading →
We are out in the garden every day, maintaining the flower beds, borders, vegetable beds, shrubs, fruit trees, containers (weeding, harvesting, deadheading, cutting back, watering, fertilizing, recycling, and cleaning up). When it is hot, we look for shaded areas and we reduce the total time, especially since we are out hiking, paddling, or playing tennis every day too. … Continue reading →
Culinary herbs are planted in various locations in the home garden, many near vegetable beds, but some are also in borders and rock gardens. Most are grown for use in the kitchen, but some are supported for their decorative value. The word “herb” is used by botanists to refer to any plant with soft, succulent tissues, but gardeners … Continue reading →
We spend time every day in our garden beds and borders. The vegetable garden is full of produce for frequent harvest, but it also needs weeding and cleaning up. Rockeries and rock gardens tend to take care of themselves, but a little extra water in hot spells is needed. Perennial beds are full of blooming flowers and there … Continue reading →
We are in nature’s gardens every day, mostly hiking in the hills, paddling on lakes, and exploring the grasslands, forests, and ridges of the area. We also are in the garden every day, taking on the usual tasks of landscaping, weeding, deadheading, transplanting, harvesting, and whatever maintenance needs to be done. We take the time to appreciate the wide … Continue reading →
Every month brings new flowers, maturing vegetables, and herbs, and shrub growth. We go out every day to weed, deadhead, harvest, transplant, rebuild, clean up, and survey what needs to be done. But we also go out just to enjoy the beauty of the plants in the gardens. We often take photos, but only keep the best ones … Continue reading →
When we hiked the trails around the area in late March, we saw the first appearances of sagebrush buttercups and yellow bells. At the same time, early spring flowers started to bloom in our home garden. Most of these were bulbs we planted some years ago. The first leaves poke up in the third week of March and in … Continue reading →
Mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii sp.) is a native long-lived deciduous shrub that is an attractive addition to the home garden. It can be spotted more in the Okanagan Valley than in the drier grasslands of the Kamloops hills. Our home garden mock orange shrubs started as a purchased cultivar. It grew to about 3 m and produced beautiful and … Continue reading →
