In Memory of Rick Berry

Flowers are usually the first things that grab our attention when we are selecting plants to add to our landscapes. However, most plants only flower for a short period of time, so it behooves us to consider plants’ other attributes—and there are many! Sometimes the same flowers that seduced us into opening our wallets are replaced with an amazing fruit display. Colorful fruits of all shapes and sizes can add drama to our landscapes throughout the year. In addition to their visual beauty, many fruits are important sources of nutrition for wildlife, particularly birds. Here are a few examples of awesome plants whose fruit shines in the garden in summer, fall, and winter.

Can I grow acai berry trees? Often compared to the blueberry for its similar nutritional benefits, acai products made from this trendy superfood have been finding their way onto grocery store shelves. But due to their short shelf life, fresh berries are difficult to purchase outside acai berry growing zones. Learn all about how to grow acai berries at home.

Read this Boysenberry vs. Blackberry guide to find differences and similarities between the two and get a clarity once and for all!

I am not suggesting you want to keep your neighbours out of your garden but there are some circumstances where a Prickly Shrub is just what the doctor ordered.

There are many gardens and monuments dedicated to Peace and they are worth seeking out when you are on your travels.

Every winter I am on the Oregon trail for garden scent. My best hope is the Mahonia (aka Oregon grape) which grows very well in various shady parts of my garden and flowers profusely in winter. Regrettably I find the much acclaimed scent is hard to detect but smell is not the only thing that gets up my nose! The rigid leaves have several vicious points on  the arrayed leaves and catch me out many times a year. This is partly due to a 6 foot shrub near my Japanese garden path. I don’t know what made me think Mahonia was suitable in a Japanese garden but there you go. As a deterrent to uninvited visitors the prickles make it as good as Holly and a close second to Berberis.

Fresh berries taste great straight off the bush; however, sometimes we just need variety. The following recipe for cheesecake bites makes an exciting base for berries of all sorts. They are no-bake, quick, and super tasty!

If you visit your favorite garden center in late February or early March, you’ll likely find shamrock plants to coincide with the St. Patrick’s Day holiday. The myths and folklore surrounding St. Patrick are quite fascinating, although perhaps not factual.

Lily of the Nile or agapanthus (Agapanthus africanus and hybrids with this species) is a blue-flowered perennial that grows from a rhizome (fleshy root). Each rhizome sends up several shoots. Rhizomes also reproduce, so over time, a one-gallon plant of a vigorous cultivar like ‘Blue Storm’ will make a clump 2.5 feet wide. One of my large-leaved, unnamed cultivars has spread 3.5 feet in all directions.

October 31, 2022“Soul, Soul, a soul cake!I pray thee, good missus, a soul cake!One for Peter, two for Paul,Three for Him what made us all!Soul Cake, soul cake, please good missus, a soul cake.An apple, a pear, a plum, or a cherry, any good thing to make us all merry.One for Peter, two for Paul, and three for Him who made us all!”

Don’t let its relatives mislead you. Garlic’s close cousin, the onion (Allium cepa), is more adaptable about its ideal moment to be lifted and cured. You can simply let the tops (leaves) die down right in place, delaying digging a bit to when it’s convenient. Or if you’re in a rush, move things along (assuming the bulbs are well-formed) by knocking over the foliage to urge the plants toward their finale.With garlic, though, waiting until all the leaves go brown will promote overripe bulbs whose cloves are starting to separate from one another, and the resulting un-tight heads won’t store as long. Each leaf that browns is one fewer potential wrapper to protect the bulb. (Counterpoint: Harvesting too soon can also diminish the bulbs’ shelf life in storage, and may limit the bulbs r

THOUGH I WON’T START TOMATO SEEDS HERE UNTIL MID-APRIL, I know from looking at my WordPress dashboard—the administrative screen I use to create and run this blog—that many of you are already looking around for the tomato-growing how-to’s. To make the searching easier, a roundup of links to my best tomato-growing tips and tricks:Tips for growing a better tomato yourself from seed.