All of the predictors including the Farmer’s Almanac are saying the summer ahead of us is going to be a dry one. That means we are going to have to look after watering our outdoor spaces. When it comes to watering the lawn and the garden, there are some many myths and facts floating around (pun intended) that I thought it might be time for a refresher for all of the homeowners and gardeners out there. 

The best time to water your plants and the lawn is not at dusk, it’s only at dawn. When we water at night, the leaves of the plants have less opportunity to dry off fast, promoting fungal growth in our plants. The worst offenders include powdery mildew and anthracnose, which both need damp leaves and warm temperatures to invade a garden.

The proper amount to water the yard varies because your plants all have different needs. During the cooler months, your lawn needs approximately 1” of water per week. The best way to measure this is with a rain gauge, but if you don’t have one, 20 minutes of watering from the sprinkler 3 times a week is about right. During the hot summer months, your lawn needs twice as much water. 2 inches per week in July and August is the best way to ensure your lawn stays as green as possible. There are a few plants that flower all summer, but you’ve probably noticed that you get more flowers early and again heading into fall. This is because these tend to be cooler months and there is more moisture available to the plants.

When your plants are in bloom, they often need more water, which is partly why most of our gardens are in flower in May. When it comes to the plants, most of your garden perennials need 2 inches per week. This is a general rule of thumb only! There are hundreds of varieties of plants that do very well with less water and many that require more. Your vegetable garden is a perfect example. Veggies need the most amount of water in the yard, coming in at 2.5 inches. To be successful with your tomatoes and peppers, be diligent and water often in the early morning and keep the moisture on the roots instead of the leaves.

There is one more myth I want to address. I promise, there is no such thing as sunburnt grass or plants. Watering in the full sun has been shown to have no impact on your plants. Growing up I was taught that the water droplets would act as little magnifying glasses and scorch the lawn. Even though this is a complete myth, it does serve a great purpose. We should never be watering in the full sun because it’s a waste of water. More water is evaporated when exposed to sunlight before it gets to the roots and on hot and sunny days, you need twice as much to water to care for your plants. 

The best answer, water your plants when they need it. They will give you signs of stress like brown patches, wilted leaves, and drooping flower stems. The better you pay attention…the happier your garden will be.

Its officially time to prune your fruit trees! I know it seems like an odd time to be pruning your apple, pear, plum, peaches, cherries (and any fruit trees I may have missed) but the deep part of winter is the perfect time to start trimming. The reason...if you prune a fruit bearing tree when it's not dormant, the tree immediately sends growth hormones to that area to replace what was lost. Unfortunately, the new growth is in the form of suckers which are canes that grow straight up and rarely produce any fruit.

This year I have to take it one step further than just a little trim on my own trees. I unfortunately have lost a leader on one of my dwarf Empire apples. There is an incorrect belief that if you cut the tree’s central vertical stem, called the leader, the tree will stay small and more easily managed. Unfortunately, this not true. You will however end up with a poorly shaped tree that will struggle throughout its growing period to re-establish a new leader! In my case, I had the central leader of my tree split due to some severe freezing temperatures followed by unseasonably warm temperatures. There are some rules when pruning an apple tree, especially when you are doing some damage repair like I have to.

Start by removing all of the dead, damaged and diseased wood. Another benefit of pruning in the winter is that all of the trees sap, the fluid that transports nutrients from the roots to the shoots, is safely protected in the ground. If you prune in spring or even in summer, some of this sap would be lost before the tree can naturally form a scab over the cut wood.

The above-ground parts of a tree are broken down into three main components.  The trunk of the tree is the part that connects the leafy greens to the roots. Much of a tree’s stability comes from the trunk. As a tree grows and ages, the trunk gets thicker, making it structurally stronger. The leader of the tree is the top part of the trunk that grows vertically. In my case, I have to train a new branch to take over this role. Luckily, I have a branch that is already growing somewhat vertically near the centre of the tree that I am able to train into a new leader.

From the leader/trunk of the tree are the scaffold branches. These are the primary branches that form a trees canopy. When pruning these branches look to remove crossing and rubbing branches then identify the best shape for your tree and remove the small branches that form on the trunk around the desired scaffold branches. The strongest scaffold branches grow at between 45 and 60 degrees from the trunk

From the scaffold branches are the lateral branches. These are the secondary branches that grow out from the scaffold branches. Sometimes called twigs, the lateral branches of a tree support much of the leaf and fruit development.  REMEMBER!!! It is important to never remove more than 30 percent of these branches per year otherwise it will hinder the tree’s ability to replenish sap and food stores via photosynthesis.

Pruning your apple trees is never a one-and-done situation. It takes time, done over many years so be patient. As long as you give your tree time to grow in between trimmings, you can always avoid doing any serious damage. 

We are quickly heading into my favourite time of the year! While some may look at autumn as the last chance to get yard work done before winter, I prefer to focus on the rewards of all of the effort that I put in throughout spring and summer. This is the time of year best known for the harvest, and my vegetable garden is bursting with all of the proverbial ‘fruits of my labour’. This is also the time of year when I need to start filling the freezer, can and preserve all of the food that I grew for my family to eat. I really focus on three methods of food preservation: canning, freezing and dehydrating.

When it comes to canning, the technique is pretty simple. Put food into a jar and seal the jar so that no bacteria can attack your food. Obviously there are more steps involved, but from a basic perspective, this is what canning is. I do a lot of my canning of items like carrots, cucumbers and beans by incorporating a brine; a solution of salt and vinegar. (The salt is really just there for flavour). This simple liquid, mixed with herbs, garlic, chilies or even spices not only preserves the food; it also imparts flavour into it. For foods like jams and sauces that can be poured into a jar without a lot of air pockets, adding brine isn’t necessary. 

Filling the freezer full of produce and meats is something that I picked up from my mother and her mother before that. Buying in bulk or growing and harvesting food to put away for when you need it is not only rewarding, it’s an amazing way to feed your family healthy food and save money at the same time. I often incorporate a sheet pan when I am freezing ‘juicy’ foods like strawberries or blueberries because they tend to stick together. By spreading the food across the sheet pan, you can ensure that each piece freezes individually. The other big challenge with the use of the freezer is the damage from air in the bag or container. Called ‘freezer burn’, it is one of the most common ways that food is damaged through dehydration and oxidation. I use a vacuum sealing system to extend the life of my fresh AND frozen foods because it effectively removes the oxygen from their specially designed bags and containers that I freezing in. Studies have shown that your food will last up to 5 times longer by using a vacuum sealing system versus Tupperware or plastic resealable bags. 

Finally, I often will dehydrate a lot of my foods to preserve them, especially the juicy ones like tomatoes and apples. Dehydration has some great benefits over canning and freezing. This process of drying out food removes more of the risk of botulism, requires less room for storage and is relatively inexpensive to do. The key to dehydrating food is to prepare it the way you plan on consuming it before you dry it out because it is often very difficult to work with once preserved. 

Whether you have a garden or just visit the local farmers market, get out this fall and stock up on all the best and freshest fruits, meats and vegetables that your community has to offer. Just make sure that you are preserving them so that you can feed your family through the entire winter.

I was recently asked at a presentation why the ‘G’ in HGTV has almost completely disappeared. If you didn’t know, the G stands for gardening and at one time there were plenty of television shows about planting, horticulture and design. Now they are all gone. Even the current series, Backyard Builds really doesn’t talk about gardening although they do outdoor makeovers on it. It’s a bit of a challenge because as a hobby, gardening had been in decline for the last 10 years. A decade ago, gardening was listed as the top hobby in Canada right next to bird watching. So what happened? Did that demographic die off? Why has gardening become hot again and how do we keep it that way?

Back in its prime, anything with the word ‘garden’ in it was an instant moneymaker and we all know that money is what drives trends. Gardening doesn’t make money anymore. Gardening has been replaced with this concept of outdoor living. It all started with the introduction of the ‘low maintenance’ backyard. Homeowners began to realize that they could have beautiful outdoor spaces without having to put a lot of work into them. It’s a bit sad, but many homeowners would rather pay to get exercise at the gym wearing fashionable work-out wear than get sweaty in their own backyards creating something beautiful. The media has definitely helped this shift as commercials and advertisers make more money when homeowners pay for products or services instead of doing the work themselves.

Now I don’t believe that this is the only reason for the change in our outdoor habits, but it is definitely a big one. I actually feel bad because I’ve been a part of it for so long. Creating the perfect backyards for magazines and television shows has been my life for the last 20years. So how do I help you get back to basics in your outdoor space?

The good news is that the move is already on. Thanks to the Millennials and to some industrious Gen X’ers, the idea of healthy food is driving a new movement called GIY (Grow It Yourself). Now homeowners are growing food in containers, starting vegetable gardens and paying attention to what is going on in the backyard. We are also seeing a major move away from urban centres. This is in part to the pandemic, but also a desire to have space. Today's new homers list having a yard as a big reason to move away from condos, townhomes and urban houses. As of today, gardening is back on top in North America and if you include caring for houseplants, there are now more than 12,000,000 blog sites on horticulture in some form

It also doesn’t hurt that scientists have found that inhaling the naturally occurring bacteria in soil has similar effects to taking Prozac. 

 After a long absence in the media, who knew that gardening would be the new fix!

Its that time of year when the gardeners all start sending in their vegetable questions. This year there seems to be a theme around 3 specific problems that home growers are having with their favourite tomatoes, lettuces, kale and flowering cucurbits.

Aphids and Ants.

A good Aphid infestation often comes with a colony of ants to look after them. Think of aphids as garden cows, eating all of the greens while the ants are the farmers, harvesting the secretions from the aphids. Sounds gross right! Well, it kind of is! Aphids are one of my nemeses because not only do they go after my veggies, they invade my hibiscus blooms as well. I’ve tried several different solutions including store-bought insecticidal soap, a high pressure hose and even removing hem by hand. So far, the best and cheapest solution has been to save the water from my morning shower and spray this on the plants every day. The average amount of soap and shampoo that you use each day is the perfect solution to make your flowers less tasty to the bugs, without doing damage to the plant.

Flea Beetles.

I have to admit, these little chewers have made lovely lacework out of my mustards, arugula and kale this year. Flea beetles tend to move into an area like a little swarm and chew perfect little holes into all the best leaves of your salad greens. There are several methods to catching them including sticky traps and beneficial nematodes. I usually default to Diatomaceous earth, which is a powder made from grinding up fossilized hard shell algae. This usually does the trick of removing the beetles in about 48 hours and its safe for human consumption. Once you know the beetles have been eradicated, then prune off any of the damaged leaves so that your plants will start to sprout new healthy growth.

Earwigs!

Earwigs are everywhere in the garden (and the house this year)...and they are hunger than ever!  Thankfully, there are a few ways to deal with these voracious invaders.  As Earwigs have exoskeletons, they are very susceptible to Diatomaceous powder, much like the flea beetles. Another great way to catch these insects is by trapping them in a roll of newspaper.  Take a section of the paper that is at least 5-6 pages thick and roll it to create a tube. Use a simple elastic band to keep the shape.  Next, soak the paper so that it is wet, but not limp.  Place this wet tube in the area with earwig activity and leave overnight.  Each morning, shake the tube into a bucket of soapy water.  Any earwigs that crawled in are easily dealt with

Hope this helps with some of your garden questions. If not, please don’t hesitate to send me your outdoor problems. Chances are, if you are having them…someone else is as well!

This is the perfect time of year to be thinking about the soil in your beds and around your home.  Many gardeners are starting to move away from chemical fertilizers and are moving toward ecological choices, such as organic soils or composting as a way to reduce waste and make the garden greener. 

Composting is a natural way of recycling. The process decomposes and transforms organic material into nutrient rich soil. A perfectly good compost pile can be built out of nothing fancier than the leaves and grass clippings you are taking off of the lawn right now. Other “ingredients” can include: fruit and vegetable scraps, yard trimmings, paper, wood and organic kitchen waste that are not protein based. 

It usually takes six months to a year to get soil from the composting process. A good way to speed up this process is to regularly mix your compost to allow air into the pile.  Here are three ingredients that always work well in your mix:

1) Eggshells: As a natural form of calcium, eggshells are perfect in your compost mix. Don’t be worried if they don’t completely break down by the time you spread the soil under your plants. My grandmother has told me that putting eggshells around the hostas helps to prevent slugs because they avoid crawling over sharp edges. I’m not sure I buy this, but she’s been doing it for years and the garden looks great.

2) Coffee Grounds: Used coffee grounds add acidity to the compost. This acidity is perfect for hydrangeas, which rely on a higher acid level in the soil to produce the blue blooms instead of the pink ones.

3) Organic soil or bagged manure. Now this may sound a little odd to be adding soil to create soil. It’s really the organisms that naturally occur in the soil that you want in your composter. This is even more important if the composter is placed on concrete or has a base preventing your mix from contacting the ground below because the organisms won’t be able to start the decomposition process. Make sure you choose a sterilized version if you are going with manure. Cows and sheep eat grass. Their stomachs don’t breakdown the seeds from the weeds. This means that you are spreading whatever they ate directly on your garden in a ready-to-grow form.

Going organic with your soil choices is an important first step in growing and feeding you plants with all of the healthy nutrients that Mother Nature provides. If you can’t compost your own ingredients, buy products that are clearly labelled organic so that you can grow with confidence that you plants are getting the best

As an allergy sufferer, I understand how hard it is to maintain a beautiful outdoor space when every time you go outside, you body lets you down. Allergies are the body’s natural defense to things it doesn’t like, in this case ‘allergens’. For me, that includes pollens and molds. When I come into contact with one of these allergens by inhaling or against my skin, my body produces histamines, a defense mechanism that works to stop the access of whatever it is reacting to. If you are an allergy sufferer and a gardener like me, here are a few tips to help make your summer a little more enjoyable.

There are definitely some plants, trees and types of lawn that you should avoid. Daisies, sunflowers and mums are at the top of most peoples allergen lists because they are closely related to ragweed. I learned this when I invested in some huge potted mums and placed them at the front door in my planters. I had horrible watery eyes for weeks and couldn’t figure out what was setting them of. If you love these blooms, keep them to the back of the yard and away from the front door so that the pollen isn’t getting into the house. Instead, plant roses or hydrangeas. Both of these flowering options have low pollen counts. When it comes to trees, avoid the birches, poplars, willows and even cedars! All of these options are high offenders as are any trees that are male. Male trees (non-fruit-producing) like holly; pump out large amounts of pollen as they are trying to fertilize the females of their species. Even your lawn can produce allergies, especially rye and fescue blends. 

There are also some ideal times of day to be outside to avoid having an allergic reaction to your plants. Gardening in the morning while it is cool outside without any wind is the best time for low pollen counts. As the day warms up, or a breeze starts, the plants start to release pollen into the air and into your lungs. Unfortunately, the best time to be in the garden also happens to be the exact same conditions that mosquitos love. In fact, mosquitos are the perfect indicator of low pollen counts. Unfortunately, I haven’t decided if they are a lesser evil than my stuffy nose and watery eyes.

Always make sure to remove the pollen before you go indoors. Pollen sticks to hair, clothes, and even skin. Wearing a removable light jacket, clothes and a hat will allow you to leave the pollen at the door when you come in. Alternatively, have a shower after gardening to ensure that the pollen isn’t being spread to the carpet of the fabric furniture. Pet owners should also know that pollen will attach to your pets coat so even if you don’t have an allergy to cats or dogs, you might have a reaction to the allergens that they are bringing in from the garden.

The best line of defense for allergy sufferers, start taking an anti-histamine BEFORE you go out to do your garden chores. The bodies' reaction to allergens is to produce histamines, so by taking allergy pills which prevent their production, you can alleviate some of the symptoms before they even happen.

With busier schedules and changing priorities, today’s homeowner wants to be able to maximize their available time and minimize the time spent on household chores.