Gardening Life articles from January 2001

Gardening Life archives from January 2001

(Gardening research).
January 1, 2001... ONE OF THE MANY, MANY THINGS I LOVE ABOUT gardening is noodling around ideas all winter long. There is finally time to read piled-up research and pick through magazines and books looking for ideas. I do more renovating in my head at this time...

Making more plants.
January 1, 2001... Propagation never looked so good. Ken Druse's MAKING MORE PLANTS (Clarkson Potter Publishers, $65.95) is not only exceptionally practical--gathering together everything you ever wanted to know about plant propagation, bulb division, grafting...

Pink, pink grass of home?
January 1, 2001... American biotechnology labs with too much time on their hands are working on a genetic formula for bad taste. Within the next three years, look for the introduction of novelty grass in bright colours, turf that glows in the dark, and--even...

Little mower that could.
January 1, 2001... "It mows. You don't." Such is the promise of a spanking new robotic lawnmower that is not only as cute as... well... the new Volkswagen Beetle, but as smart as a dot-com teenager. Made by Friendly Robotics, the Robomower works on the same...

Hydro power: (hydroponic greenhouse from plastic cup).
January 1, 2001... Turn clear plastic cups into a hydroponic greenhouse suited for indoors. 1. To sprout seeds, carefully poke a hole in the bottom of a clear plastic cup. 2. Fill the cup halfway with vermiculite, perlite or peat moss, and set it in another...

Medium is the message: (potting soil).
January 1, 2001... When sowing seeds indoors, a light potting mixture is essential to allow for root growth and air penetration. VERMICULITE, small golden flecks derived from mica, is porous and sterile, making it a desired medium for retaining water and...

Rough with the smooth: (floral designs).
January 1, 2001... "Everything into the mix," we can imagine Vancouver floral designer Heather Cameron saying as she gathered disparate elements to create this witty arrangement--which balances the old (an antique terrarium) and the new (edible-looking green...

Pot luck: (clay pots).
January 1, 2001... Linda and Martin Dwyer, owners of Putti, a fab Toronto store full of fanciful stuff for the home, are lucky. They found a woman in Manchester, England, who makes it her business to attend clearance sales of items from French chateaux. That's...

To bead or not to bead: (medium for hydroponics).
January 1, 2001... Forget the fancy-shmancy name (Leca Mulch) and description ("fired clay pellets"). These little devils (pictured twice-life-sized above) are, quite simply, those terra-cotta beads that are used as a medium in hydroponics. The good folks at...

(Gardening questions).
January 1, 2001... IRIS INQUIRY I have had several beds of non-flowering irises. One year I spread Epsom salts on them. The flowers were great, but last year I added lime and there were no flowers at all. What are the effects of Epsom salts and lime on...

Courting the orchid; to keep this tender beauty happy, Tom Hobbs recommends tough love.
January 1, 2001... EVENTUALLY, ALL GARDENERS ARE bitten, however mildly, by the Orchid Bug. It's hard to avoid the sophisticated allure of the world's largest and most highly evolved plant family. What's surprising is that many orchids are tough houseplants and...

Affirmative action: in his approach to gardening, organic guru Eliot Coleman accentuates the "plant-positive: and eliminates the "pest-negative".
January 1, 2001... THE LAST TIME I USED A PESTICIDE WAS THE DAY I sprayed the hordes of Japanese beetles defoliating my roses and hedge cotoneasters. Once the beetles lay helpless on the ground, a flock of birds swooped in to devour them. "Fatal to bees," read...

Getting in shape: slim and trim: the amazing art of topiary allows you to exercise your creativity.
January 1, 2001... Hunting scenes and detailed ships clipped from cypress hedges, gigantic wedding cakes fashioned from yews--the Roman art of Opus Topiarium has influenced the world of garden design for over two millennia. It reached its zenith, perhaps, in...

Master class: Yvonne Cunnington, enrolled in a two-week workshop with renowned British garden designer John Brookes ...
January 1, 2001... IT WAS BILLED AS A RARE OPPORTUNITY TO PARTICIPATE IN A workshop with the internationally renowned British garden designer John Brookes. The two-week immersion into the principles and techniques of contemporary garden design would take place...

Master mind: John Brookes shares his design principles.
January 1, 2001... Let me say straight off that when I was asked to write an article for Canadian gardeners, my first impulse was to say no. I could almost hear you saying, "What does he know about Canadian gardens?" And truthfully, the answer is, in a word,...

Great white way: it's cool as ice and hot as a flame, simple yet sophisticated ... year-round in their Oakville, Ontario garden Heather Donaldson and Bob Kelly embrace the contradictions of white.
January 1, 2001... There's nothing like the prospect of guests to rouse homebodies to action. Light bulbs that have been dark for months finally get replaced, scrapes on the banister are sanded to look like new, the broadloom is vacuumed to kingdom come. But...

Rhododendrons: give 'em what they want - everything within moderation, and a lot of tender loving care - and these showgirls of the garden will shine.
January 1, 2001... Travelling by train through New Brunswick late one spring, I saw from my window great stretches of the landscape coloured pale magenta. The prolific rhodora (Rhododendron canadense) was in bloom. ("They come up in the roadside ditches like...

Family way: first comes love, then comes marriage. Then, in the case of Claire and Jamie Wright of Vancouver, comes a garden that grows with the family.
January 1, 2001... when claire and jamie wright moved into their 1908 Arts-and-Crafts house in Vancouver 20 years ago, the garden consisted of grass and three ferns. "We were so excited there was a birdbath, and we thought the garden was so elegant," Claire...

Top 20: our top-10 picks of hot new annuals and perennials.
January 1, 2001... perennials 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 annuals 1 2 3 4 CERINTHE MAJOR `PURPURASCENS' Easily grown from seed, this annual makes an attractive bedding plant in sun or part-shade....

In the pink: with a painter's eye (his) and a seasoned touch (hers), Steven and Gail Smith of New Brunswick have created a blushingly fresh, fragrant country garden.
January 1, 2001... "If you want a beautiful garden," says Gail Smith with a chuckle, "marry an artist." She should know. Her husband, Steven, is a well-known watercolour painter and sculptor--primarily of birds--in New Brunswick. Like many artists, he's...

Arugula: a.k.a. garden rocket, arugula deserves to fly solo.
January 1, 2001... The secrets to a successful salad are simplicity itself: freshness, balance and the ability (often rare in chefs) to restrain the creative impulse. Perfection, I would argue, is a plate of just-picked mesclun greens lightly dressed with a...

Memory and loss: though the house and the garden are no longer ours, my father and I remember them well.
January 1, 2001... ON HIS 84TH BIRTHDAY, MY FATHER AND I TALK ABOUT our old house on Brentwood Avenue. We don't miss it much. This ninth-floor apartment--near the invisible border where Kitchener meets Waterloo--is altogether brighter, airier and more...