Gardening Workshops

Hello fellow gardeners and friends! Karin here.
It’s that time of year when we want to get outside to plant our gardens but don’t feel good about setting our tiny baby seedlings outside just yet. It’s ok to be a little bit cautious….after all we havehad a bit of frost in several areas of Niagara over the past weekend. My gut instinct is to wait to plant my veggies until the beginning of June, mind you, there are lots of cold crop vegetable plants that you could get into the ground now. Tomatoes, peppers, and all of the cucumber family will grow best if you wait until the soil is nice and warm….they will thank you by having an amazing yield!
If any of you want to get your hands dirty and plant your own gorgeous spring container, join me this Thursday May 19 at 2 pmat the Welland Public Library. Next Thursday May 26th, we will be planting a herb planter together. You can find details by going to the Welland Public Library website!

Foundation plantings. What is it and why is it important?

So often when I visit gardens, homeowners will ask me why their garden doesn’t look good until the middle of summer when the perennials and annuals have come into full glory. As a garden coach, my goal is to make your garden look good in all seasons. Yes, even in the winter! The way we can achieve this is by planting foundation plantings. We need to plant shrubs and trees (especially evergreens) to give us structure in the garden. These shrubs act as an attractive cover for features that may look better concealed such as the gas meter, or the air conditioner unit, and they are a beautiful green backdrop for the perennials/annuals you may plant in front of them!

See the example below of my home that is under extensive renos right now. There are no existing gardens yet so it’s easy to pop it into my virtual garden program and play with the placing of plant material using a variety of colours, textures, and leaf shapes! Enjoy….I can’t wait to make it happen for real.