Category: green garden

How to Create a Butterflyway

I am so excited to be a volunteer Butterfly Ranger with the David Suzuki Foundation! I’m creating a butterflyway in my own yard, and helping 5 other local people to do the same. Wild pollinators such as butterflies and bees are crucial to human survival. Climate change and widespread pesticide use are compromising their habitat and food sources. The Butterflyway...

GUEST POST: Bring New Life to Your Garden by Making it Bee-Friendly

Today I have a guest post from Budget Direct on how to bring new life to your garden by making it bee-friendly! The news is full every day with disturbing stories about how human interference is damaging our planet and jeopardizing our natural resources. On the grandest scale, it can be depressing and frustrating to see so much damage being...

Got Milkweed? How to Harvest Milkweed Seeds

By now, you’ve probably heard that milkweed planting is a thing – since the David Suzuki Foundation’s Got Milkweed campaign has been encouraging people to plant it and help improve the monarch butterfly population. Well, did you know that fall is the best time to plant milkweed seeds. Milkweed seeds sowed just before the ground freezes in late fall —...

5 Easy to Grow Perennials for Edmonton

Now that things in my garden are getting established, I thought it would be nice to share some of the perennials that are doing really well in our Edmonton climate (Zone 3a). I’m beginning to really love perennials because they come back every year and announce it’s time for spring! We did landscaping from scratch about 9 years ago, not...

5 Reasons to Grow Your Own Strawberries

Every year, Environmental Working Group (EWG) puts out their list of produce with most pesticides: the Dirty Dozen, along with their list of the Clean Fifteen (produce with least amounts of pesticides). For several years, apples have been the top offender. However, strawberries are also near the top of the list. So here are 5 reasons to grow your own strawberries,...

5 Tips For Planting Milkweed #gotmilkweed

It’s Spring!! Although there is usually still snow at this time of year in Edmonton, I am buzzing with excitement at how beautiful it is (even though it is a nasty sign of climate change). I started some seeds a few weeks ago and am super excited to see them starting to pop and I can’t wait to start putting...

5 Things to Do Before Spring Arrives

I’m trying to be proactive and think about what I need to do before spring arrives, so I’m sharing my list with you. Here are 5 things to do before spring arrives! 1 – Join a CSA. In Edmonton and other places where the growing season is short, now is the time to start looking into what options are available...

Why NOT to Buy Flowers for Valentine’s Day

Chocolate and flowers are the stereotypical gifts for Valentine’s Day, and I can understand why. I love chocolate (fair trade organic camino chocolate, to be exact). And I love flowers. But I no longer love to get a bouquet of cut flowers, for several reasons (which I first discovered when writing my wishlist for Mother’s Day last year). Here’s why...

How Bees Impact Our Food System: Infographic

I’ve posted about bees before and why the bee population is declining – and I think it’s important for all of us to understand why and how they are so critically linked to our own survival. My hope that we can all think about the issue before we start getting ready to grow in our own gardens. This infographic by Fix.com...

How to Start Seeds: Advice from Experienced Gardeners

After a lot of mistakes in my first year of planting my own vegetable garden, I decided to consult with some experienced gardeners this year before starting any seeds. How to start seeds has been a bit of a puzzle to me, likely because I’ve been on Pinterest too much and got confused by all the different information I was...