Minter Country Garden Blog
Hanging Basket Care
Mother’s Day is right around the corner, and you know what that means—hanging baskets! Keep yours looking their best throughout the season with these expert tips.
April Lawn Care
Every lawn has its own unique needs in the spring – from eliminating moss to controlling weeds, improving drainage to just giving it a boost with fertilizer. Whatever the situation may be, it’s important to remember to tackle your lawn’s challenges one at a time. Learn how, in this week’s article on early spring lawn care.
Plant Some Privacy
In today’s stressful and more crowded living spaces, the need to create more privacy has become an important element of garden design. Without the blocking effect of dense hedging, vines and climbers can shelter back gardens and patios, making even the plainest privacy screen more attractive. Walls and unsightly chain-link fences can virtually disappear, and old rundown buildings can be transformed by the creative use of these plants. In addition to screening, vines and climbers can also provide shade, perfume and even tasty fruit! For centuries, Europeans have been using grape vines to cover patios and enjoying the fruits each fall.
Small Fruits, Big Flavour
Many folks are under the impression that perennial vegetables and small fruits are difficult to grow and require a great deal of maintenance. Well, compared to fruit trees, they actually take amazingly little care! Here are some of our favourites.
Early Spring Planting
This will be a winter to remember as it seems to be one that is determined to keep going and going…and going. Many folks are understandably anxious to get back in their garden and begin planting early vegetables, including perennial veggies, fruit trees and, of...
Success with Seeds
It’s around this time of year when millions of Canadians are leafing through seed catalogues or browsing through seed racks in garden centres. They are imagining all sorts of wonderful colour schemes for their garden and anticipating baskets of fresh produce, most of which are going to come from seeds. And while it all seems fairly easy, in reality, I would guess that less than 50% of all the seeds purchased actually grow to maturity. This is not because the seeds are defective, even though we like to blame them for our bad luck. It’s most often because we need a little more information on how to have success with seeds.
Valentine’s Flowers (& Plants!) to Make People Happy
There’s been an enormous change in public perception of Valentine’s Day in recent years. It’s become less about romantic relationships and more about showing appreciation of friends, family, and loved ones. It is also less about spending a lot of money, and more about being thoughtful of what might make someone happy!
Indoor Plant Care for Winter
This is one of the hardest times of the year for our indoor plants due to the extra warmth from heaters and fireplaces and the low humidity inside our homes. The short daylight hours aren’t much help either! Things do get better, though, as we inch along with increasing daylight, but there are a number of important things we can do now to keep our plants back in good shape.
Winter Flowering Shrubs
Now that we’re officially in winter, any outside colour is a real treat. Believe it or not, though, a wealth of flowering shrubs have been blooming in many gardens since late November!
Gifts for the Gardener (or the Gardener at Heart)
When it comes to gift giving, they say it’s the thought that counts, and it’s true! Should you be stuck for ideas, however, we are happy to offer you several. No matter what kind of gardener is on your list – from ‘The Pro’ to ‘They Kill Plastic Plants’ – we have a plethora of beautiful, practical, fun, long lasting and/or tasty gifts to shop from!