From the category archives:

Landscaping

How to Create a Step-Over Espalier Hedge

The ancient Romans were the first to espalier fruit trees, but the French really perfected the idea. The name, espalier, is from the French epaule, for shoulder. Why espalier? Well, it’s a challenge that any gardener would enjoy, first of all. Also, think of how much easier it is to harvest and maintain from a [...]

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7 Landscaping Mistakes

We all want to have a beautiful yard, with easy care landscaping that is the envy of our neighbors. And, being a nation of do-it-yourselfers, many of us create our home landscape design by looking at garden magazines with inspirational articles, plans and pictures.
But it takes more than photo inspiration to make a workable garden [...]

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5 Fast Growing Groundcovers for Difficult Spots

There are times when any gardener needs a quick growing type plant for fast covering of bare soil in beds or on a sloped bank. Perhaps you have just started a new perennial bed, and would like a way to fill in the bare spots until the perennials have reached their mature growth. Or you [...]

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Rhododendrons – My Favorite Flowering Shrub

Rhododendrons have become one of my favorite shrubs. These gloriously flowering evergreen shrubs come in colors and varieties to suit almost any region and any garden. They are quite hardy, but need to be placed properly in the garden . Like their relatives, azaleas, they are woodland plants, so must have particularly good drainage, an [...]

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How to Create a Butterfly Garden

People who love to garden also tend to enjoy watching butterflies flitting about. After all, butterflies are just as pretty to look at as the flowers that they visit. Gardeners can entice even more butterflies to visit their gardens by creating gardens specifically for butterflies.
It’s quite easy to create a butterfly garden. You may even [...]

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Photographs are Garden Memories

One of the most rewarding as well as most encompassing tasks I’ve faced as a gardener over the past 5 years has been the landscaping around our home here in BC’s Gulf Islands. These small but absolutely gorgeous islands are one of the best places in the world to live, in my opinion.
The islands are [...]

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Stop Deer Damage With Deer-Resistant Plants

Have you ever woken up to find that the neighborhood hungry deer have cut a wide swath through your beautiful gardens? After all your investment of time and money, this can be a devastating happening. How can you deter deer from destroying your gardens and landscaping?
You can find several different methods in books and on [...]

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Purple Foliage Plants

In ancient Rome, certain shades of purple were reserved for the rulers. Wearing purple by non-royals was punishable by death. This royal color in the plant kingdom can range from rich understated purples to warm burgundy and deep coppery reds, to a dark red-green that appears almost black. People tend to gravitate towards purple foliage [...]

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