Whenever I do a garden consult, I always end by showing homeowners the tools that I use to get the job done. I’ve tried a lot over the years and the ones I list below are some of the tools I cannot live without each season. I am still trying to find the perfect lopper (see #10) [...]
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One spring, I visited my mother’s garden in Montreal and was horrified that the lawn guy a.k.a. snow removal guy a.k.a gardener had pruned her hydrangea macrophyllas earlier that spring. These shrubs bloom on old wood so she had few, if any flowers that year. Prune Hydrangeas that Bloom on Old Wood Immediately After They [...]
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How many of us have driven by a Forsythia shrub gone wild? A popular hedge plant, forsythia is readily available in nurseries so it is used a lot in suburban gardens. Unfortunately, these shrubs are rarely maintained properly so they eventually become unsightly and out of control. Sadly, this gives the shrub a bad name! [...]
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Every season, we gather our leaves up, put them in bags and send them off to be composted. Then in the Spring, we pay to have mulch delivered. Often it is the dyed kind which is full of chemicals and not good for our gardens. There is nothing better than leaf mulch in terms of [...]
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My absolute favorite everyday garden tool for maintenance is this Hori Hori Knife. I found it at a trade show last year and have not been without one ever since. In fact, I owned two at the beginning of the season and have already lost one. I’ve been meaning to paint the handle a neon color [...]
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There are a few tools I cannot live without. One of them is my Cape Cod Weeder. I discovered this last year while helping to weed at a local farm. I use the point to dig out those weeds that are very stubborn – the ones with the taproots. I use the blade to loosen up [...]
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Here is what you can be doing in the garden in March, especially when it warms up. General maintenance: Clean up as much debris that was left over from last season including clumps of leaves that could suffocate perennials and harbor pests. This winter we got snow before we could clean up all the leaves [...]
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I hate mulch and I say that with all of my heart. I know that when properly applied it maintains moisture and suppresses weeds and when it breaks down it feeds the soil. But it is absolutely one of the most abused practices in this business and I cannot imagine how it got this bad [...]
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