Real Life Garden Solutions
6070 Irmin St v5j 1z1 Burnaby, BC, Canada

I follow a lot of garden and landscape design writers/websites, but few are as practical as eGardenGo, a Portland Oregon based site with a main purpose of demonstrating great plant combinations. Any site that has a Pacific Northwest focus gets extra points from me; it means I can assume a lot of applicability right off the bat. So, "plant combinations": that's what I've been meaning to write about since spring, and finally getting around to it now. [ 218 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2020/08/24/colour-combos/

In the past I've just nipped off Hellebore blossoms and floated them in a bowl. Pretty, but today I went foraging in my garden. (Can I call it "foraging" if I'm not collecting food?) http://reallifegardensolutions.com///08/first-of-the-year/

I can't go myself, but I highly recommend.

Wow, what a treasure!

"Link Love" I have a tendency to leave a ridiculous number of tabs open on my browser. I really can't be bothered keeping bookmarks, is that even done anymore? I'll pin relevant things to my many Pinterest boards, but some things just don't fit, or don't have a "pinable" picture. So I've decided to to use this space to solve my problem. [ 387 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2019/02/05/4282/

More Winter Interest This time of year there are lots of blog posts about having multi-season interest, and especially Winter interest, in your garden. I love THIS from The Gardener's Eden. Beautiful colour, strong contrast, everything you could want to take your mind off the bone shattering cold. Or from Monrovia's Top 7 Garden Trends for 2019: subtlety, wistfulness, peace. [ 306 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com///more-winter-interest/

Hummingbirds and Witch-hazel. I don't know how this escaped my notice all these years, but it appears that the hummingbirds LOVE Witch-hazel--Hamamelis. The boys and girls were out there this morning drinking to their hearts' content. I scoured Google images for one of a Hummingbird enjoying the nectar of the Hamamelis, without success. And try as I might, I couldn't get one myself. [ 310 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com//hamamelis-and-hummers/

Winter Projects Part 1 Those pictures are from a few years ago. I want to see the garden looking like above, but this is what it looks like now: I've written about pruning your Hellebores several times before, so now I just want to amend the suggestions. Specifically, leave the foliage if you don't need to cut it, and for some, cut the foliage before you think you need to. [ 240 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com//winter-projects-part-1/

Thanks for this article .

Last week Facebook kindly reminded me of pictures I posted that date nine years earlier. They were pics of my garden. So I went out that day--fortunately a nice day for taking pictures, unlike every day since--and tried to capture the same angles. I'm not the greatest photographer in the world, and with 9 years of growth I couldn't even get into all the same spots, but here's what things look like now. [ 311 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2018/09/13/4184/

This is a great opportunity, and now is an excellent time to buy trees and shrubs.

I had an inquiry the other day about a concrete patio--I was being asked to build one, which I don't do. But I did reply with questions she'd want to consider before committing to a design and a contractor. I've googled a bunch of images that illustrate dos and don'ts of concrete patios: Size One of your first and most important considerations has to be size. [ 1,918 more word ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com//a-word-about-concrete/

If you scroll down to the pictures of exterior lighting you'll assume that the reason any of us want lighting is to provide light--lots and lots of light. But as Richard V. Morse says in this article, light is a means to an end. You want to read, or you want to see the fish in the aquarium or you want to highlight the china in the cabinet, or you want to put on your makeup. [ 324 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com//25/a-word-about-light/

Pretty excited about my new Dynascape Colour! http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2018/03/16/colour/

Plentiful earthworms and water draws the thrushes and robins. http://reallifegardensolutions.com//14/wildlife-attraction/

It's almost always a dull day in Feb, but unlike many "northern" places, and unlike last year, this dull Monday is mild, as has been the whole winter season. Hence, spring-ish garden pics--same plants I show you most years!: You can imagine how adaptable Sarcococca is: it's growing in never-amended soil, between concrete and asphalt, in a bed that is 12" wide and about 9' long. [ 143 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com/20//05/dull-day-in-feb/

Autumn http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2017/11/11/autumn/

Thanks to Garden Design Magazine for this amazing tribute to the lowly pumpkin. Actually we'll thank the Dallas Arboretum first, for their creativity. Follow the link here to see more pictures of the Pumpkin Village. http://reallifegardensolutions.com///08/pumpkins-in-texas/

Everyone deserves a columnar tree or several in their gardens.

Somewhere I've got the tag for this but I'm not in the mood to search right now. (Maybe someone could help me with this??) For the meantime, just sit amazed at the perfection of these late season flowers! When planted, Aug 13: (you can tell the size of the plants by the size of the rain drops : ) Just starting to sprout, Aug 25: One week ago, Oct 22: http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2017/10/29/what-is-this/

There's a reason I like ornamental grasses:

Two years ago I harvested about 6 fruits --first harvest!--from my wonderful Persimmon (Fuyu-type) tree. Wonderful, not just because it produces exceptional fruit, but also because it's a beautiful tree at all times of the year--OK, maybe not so much in early spring before its late leaf-out, but every other time of the year. That is, until last year when two things happened. [ 166 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com///persimmon-protection/

Ornamental Grasses :-) https://reallifegardensolutions.com/designs/

Great Shrubs I'm a fan of shrubs. I love the layering that they provide. You can find these woody-not-trees-plants in all shapes and sizes, all colours--well, most colours--, evergreen, deciduous, in-between... One thing about most shrubs, is that altho' they may tolerate pruning, few of them will thrive if you try to fit too large a shrub into too small a space. [ 663 more words ] http://reallifegardensolutions.com/2017/07/18/great-shrubs/

It's been so long since I posted here, I'll have to ease back into it gently. So here's a little video of one of my favourite shrubs--Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'Victoria'. If you're looking for an evergreen, low-maintenance, honey bee and other pollinator attractor, you couldn't do better. http://reallifegardensolutions.com///17/pollinator-garden/