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ARTICLE: Keeping an Edge
Posted on by ridgetownrick
Last month I wrote about preparing your lawn for a new garden. In that article I discussed some of the strategies I’ve tried (and a few I haven’t) for removing the sod. This month I’m going to look at a few techniques for making your garden edges look more formal so that your lawn doesn’t look like it’s simply being neglected. This is partly because on social media there have been a number of postings recently about “tidy” gardens (and the issues that arise when neighbours think your garden isn’t tidy enough). I have used most of these techniques or have friends who have used them. Hopefully this month’s article will give you some useful ideas to try.
In the Beginning
In my early gardening days with native plants, I had a couple of relatively small flower beds. Using plastic garden edging was both affordable and easy. The nice thing about the plastic edging is that it provides a nice, clean edge with virtually no maintenance after it’s installed.
But all plastic edging is not created equal. The small (usually 3-4”) lightweight stuff is, in my opinion, a waste of money as it will work out of the soil with frost heave in only a couple of years. Go for the heavy duty stuff – 5” or more – and you should be good for years to come.
PLANT OF THE MONTH: Large Leaf Aster
Posted on by ridgetownrick
Fall is the time for asters and goldenrods. One of the first asters to bloom in my garden each autumn is Eurybia macrophylla – the Large Leaf Aster. It flowers range from pale blue to pink to white, depending (it seems) on its growing conditions. In my garden, they’re mostly pale pink to white.
This flower is quite the trooper – loving it in full to part shade and dry to fairly moist sandy soils. (A friend grows it in heavy clay soil where it does OK – it just doesn’t flourish as well as it does in my sandy loam soil.)
Blooms start in August and often keep going till the first good frost.
NATIVE PLANT NURSERY: Heavenly Earth
Posted on by ridgetownrick
Owner/Proprietor: Elizabeth Marshall
Address: 29816 Zone Road 4, RR3, Bothwell, ON N0P 1C0
Web Site: https://heavenlyearth.ca/
Phone Number: (519) 692-4714
Email: heavenlyearthca@gmail.com
Liz Marshall opened Heavenly Earth 25 years ago (1999) and I started buying plants from her just a few years later. Most of my trees and shrubs (at least in the beginning) came from Heavenly Earth. She originally started with primarily Carolinian species of trees and shrubs, but has expanded to add perennials and, recently, more ferns. NATIVE PLANT NURSERY: Prairie Song
BOOK REVIEW
Native Plants for the Short Season Yard: Best Picks for the Chinook and Canadian Prairie Zones
By Lyndon Penner
- Publisher: Brush Education, (2016)
- Paperback: 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 155059640
- Dimensions: 6” X 9”
- Price: $9.99 (Amazon.ca – Kindle Edition); $10.49 (Amazon.com – Kindle Edition)
– note: at the time of writing, this book appears to be no longer available in print form except as atrociously priced used copies, though you may be able to find it cheaper somewhere other than Amazon.
Note: This review is adapted and expanded from the one I posted to Amazon after purchasing the book in 2022. I subsequently returned the book as it did not meet my expectations.
Other Random Stuff
Check out the October Jigsaw Puzzle!
