Botanical or public gardens are not just lovely places to visit. In this series of videos, Barbara gives Helen some lessons based on what they saw at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario. In this first video, they consider how to choose which roses to grow.

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This plant comes by its name of ‘Gateway’ honestly.  In dry, hot years, it has grown well over 2 meters (6-1/2 feet) high and 1.5 meters wide.  This year in the constant rain, it is a respectable 1.5 meters high and wide.  This big beefy plant is more colourful than its paler Joe Pyeweed cousin:  The [...]

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A few days ago this lush spot in Jim Dalziel’s garden didn’t look at all like this! By the way, when she’s talking about the mulch, the word Barbara is looking for is sawdust!

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Barbara’s friend and fellow Master Gardener, Jim Dalziel, has amassed over 1500 varieties of day lilies and a host of hosta in his wonderful garden. Watch the video first, and then have a look at the still photos of some of these amazing day lilies. Apparently they are quite easy to grow, so you might [...]

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We have some great videos coming up next week, and this is just to give you a little hint about what to look for.
First, Barbara talked in one of our videos about people who collect specific types of plants. We spent some time last week in the garden of Barbara’s friend Jim Dalziel, who specializes [...]

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I feel safe in saying that weeding is nobody’s favourite garden chore — and yes, this one really is a chore! Nevertheless, it has to be done if we want to keep the garden looking lovely. But how do you know what is a weed and what is a plant to be kept?

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Barbara has some lovely heirloom plants in her garden, including this peony. However, this year it has developed mildew. Barbara talks about what to do about it — if anything.

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Some plants inexplicably decide to lie on the ground instead of standing up. In this video, Barbara provides a “chair” for one plant, and illustrates how she has helped an Echium plant stand tall in the garden.

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Here, Bruce shows Helen how to revive a flagging flowerbed by removing old plants and replacing them with new ones he has started in his greenhouse. We also talk about a special pest issue around marigolds and how to deal with it.
Sorry about the noise on parts of this video — it’s the wind blowing [...]

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If you are very lucky when you move into your new home, the gardens will have been dug and will be to your liking. 
However, that usually isn’t the case.  Fortunately making a new garden bed is not that difficult.  The first step is to either draw your garden on a piece of paper, or to make a [...]

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