Spring 2008

DEPARTMENTS

• Editor’s Message
• Garden Post: Province-wide feedback from our readers

Stepping stones
What to do in the spring garden, green walls and squares with flair, seedling sense, high-powered arugula, our garden makeover, more on beneficial bugs, plant posts, a misty monochrome container recipe, and the goods on the garden event of the season

The Organic Gardener
Rise to the challenge of growing your own gourmet food with these 20 incredible climbing edibles, plant a salad garden in a recycled plastic bucket, and the latest on three new water-wise wizards and a new drought- and deer-hardy showpiece
By Sheena Adams

Friendly Natives
Add a charming note to your garden with B.C.’s own mountain daisies
By Richard Hebda

Northen Exposure
Following months of winter white, the resolute gardeners of Mackenzie coddle seedlings and shuffle containers in a bid for a burst of blossom
By Barbara Rayment

Ask the professionals
How to combat aphid angst and vole vexation, protect your peonies, rev up your rhodo, enliven your magnolia tree and make a checkerboard path or herbal carpet
What's Up
Gardening events across B.C. and beyond

EarthWords
This time of year, it’s in the greenhouse that the gardener longs to be – preferably with a pair of comfortable chairs, a reading light and perhaps a little bistro-style table
By Des Kennedy

FEATURES

Old favourites
From climbing roses to peonies to forget-me-nots, here are 20-plus captivating picks from the gardens of yesteryear.
By David Tarrant

A gardener’s path
Victoria’s organic sage Carolyn Herriot has spent close to a decade growing a four-season feast of edibles as beautiful as it is bountiful.
By Carolyn Herriot

Bed time
Portable and perfect for small spots, raised beds make planting, tending and harvesting a breeze – and here’s how you can whip one up in no time flat.
By Christina Symons

Super Structure
From uniform pavers for walls and patios, to zigzag pebble paths, adding hardscape to your garden enables you to articulate edges and define space.
By Sharon Hanna

Black Beauty
Since “tulipomania” – the bulb buying-and-selling frenzy of 400 years ago – there has been a passionate pursuit of the perfect black tulip.
By Helena Zukowski

Remembering Rhubarb
Tough against the cold and deer, this garden legend is a cinch to grow, a breeze to freeze and a classic in the kitchen.
By Sharon Hanna

Waterlily Reflections
The sheer elegance of waterlilies defies description – yet unlike most refined things in life, they are not hard to care for.
By Michael Lascelle

Cover photo: Janet Seaton/photolibrary
Our cover features Scilla siberica ‘Spring Beauty’, an early-spring bloomer hardy to zone 4.
Below the urn is Myosotis sylvatica (forget-me-not), hardy to zone 3.