Planting a tree is always a great moment – most trees have longer lives than we do, and although a newly-planted tree will be a beautiful addition to our gardens after just a few years of growth, we can expect most trees we plant to live longer than we do, reaching their full glory when we are gone, so tree planting is always a special…

Across most of the country, you will see, and probably have in your garden, cedar trees. The name ‘cedar’ was given by the early settlers to several tall evergreen trees they found in the new land. In the east we have ‘white cedar’, and out west there are two trees called ‘red cedar’, ‘Alaskan cedar’, and ‘incense cedar’. As well there is ‘eastern red cedar’,…

It has not been all that many years since grass had only one place in the garden – green and mowed weekly on the lawn. It took some adventurous growers and garden designers to open our eyes to the beauty of grass – not short and green, but tall and golden, ornamented with striking plumes flowers and seeds. The increased interested in grasses coincided with…

Shady parts of the garden are often welcome in the summer, as cool refuges from the heat. But most plants don’t find them so welcoming. When we put in a new garden it begins with almost everything growing in the sun, but as time passes and the trees and larger shrubs grow up, the areas beneath them become shadier and shadier. If you move into…

There is a big push these days to use less water on our gardens. Periods of drought, limitations on city water supplies, concerns about long-term freshwater availability, and increased costs to home-owners – all these things point in the direction of ‘water-wise’ gardening. There is also much more emphasis on growing trees suited for your local region, rather than struggling to grow plants from moister…

New gardeners quickly hear about this thing called ‘mulch’, but often all that hear is, ‘mulch regularly’, or ‘use mulch for weed control’ – without getting any real idea of what it is, what is so good about it, or the best ways to use it. Mulch, properly chosen and applied, is a substantial benefit to your garden, and can really deliver top results. So…