Garden Clippings for May 23, 2026 Everybody’s grandmother grew Peonies. Monster flowers, up to 20 cm across, are multi-petalled and available in many colours. Peonies’ bold blooms appear in late spring to early summer. Even after flowers fade, Peonies remain a handsome plant, with heavily textured leaves that stand proud in the mixed perennial garden. The reason why everyone’s grandmother grew peonies is that they live forever. While most perennials like to be split and/or mo

Garden Clippings for May 17, 2026 Queen Victoria must have been a wicked gardener. She chose the Monday preceding May 24 as a national holiday to celebrate the last day that frost might fall on Southwestern Ontario soil. Wrong on all counts. Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901. She is credited with shaping Canadian Federation and naming Ottawa as our Capital. In 1845 we officially honoured the Queen by choosing her birthday as a national holiday. But since Canadians pref

Ferns, indoor Garden Clippings for May 9, 2026 Ferns are a staple for the shade garden. If given a woodland setting with rich soil and ample moisture, Ferns will thrive and grow to become a lovely blanket groundcover of lush foliage. Ostrich, Maidenhair, and Marginal Sheild Ferns are among the list of native Ontario Ferns. If you plant these in your shade garden, you will appreciate their steady growth that some might find too invasive. Ferns with a more obedient growth habit

Garden Clippings for May 2, 2026 “I want a zero-maintenance garden.” Landscape architects and garden designers do not want to hear these words from their clients. The response we return with will go something like “there is no such thing as a zero-maintenance garden. But we can design a garden that is low on maintenance.” We start with dwarf plants. Most flowering shrubs such as Weigela, Viburnum, Spirea and Lilac will need to be pruned annually or biennially to keep their sh

Garden Clippings for April 25th It was overdue. We hadn’t put down a layer of fresh mulch since the backyard wedding in 2022, and the landscape was looking tired. Through the past 4 years, much of the original mulch has disappeared, perhaps blown away, but more likely decomposed, adding nutrients to our sandy soil. So far, we have spread 11 cubic yards. I figure we will need 2 more yards before we put away the pitchfork, wheelbarrow and rake. Admittedly, our landscaped areas

Grass seed explained Garden Clippings for April 18, 2026 It is time to look after up a few weak or dead patches of grass. Do you know which grass seed to select that will grow best in your yard and blend with your existing lawn? Most good quality lawn seed will contain a blend of seed varieties. Once you’ve sown the seed and it begins to grow, the varieties will jockey for position and depending on your soil and environment, eventually one will dominate while the others will

Lawn Repair Garden Clippings for April 11, 2026 Snow plough damage at the road. Grub damage. Mice or rodent trails. Fungus. A layer of leaves that smother the turf. Cavities caused by fallen limbs. Weak grass. Every spring I find it necessary to do a little lawn repair, a task I find less rewarding than planting, transplanting, pruning or anything more creative than grass work. The easiest way to deal with small patches of damaged turf is with a few bags of topsoil and a bag

Why is my grass brown? Garden Clippings for April 4, 2026 Please don’t drive by my house and take notice of the grass. It looks awful. Our front yard grass normally looks just fine. In fact, it looks better than most in our neighbourhood. I fertilize faithfully and add water only when needed. The mower is set at its highest setting, helping to keep the ground shaded, cooler, and preventing the soil from drying out too quickly. Weeds in our summer lawn are few and far

Early spring garden checklist Garden Clippings for March 28, 2026 This March will not go down in the record books as the most pleasant. We’ve had a few days of warm sunshine, but mostly, we have seen one cold day followed by the next. And the wind has been relentless. For gardeners, the bright spot has been a few days of heavy rain to help get rid of the snow. Rain also percolated through the deep freeze so there is no more frost in the ground-not even on the north side of