

Egg shells give you free calcium for your tomatoes
For all the tomato lovers out there, here’s a nifty little gardening tip. Tomatoes will be flowering soon. A critical mineral that tomatoes need to prevent blossom end rot is: calcium. If the soil that the tomatoes are growing in has insufficient calcium, your tomatoes will likely develop blossom end rot. This looks like black fungus at the blossom end of the tomato, but the tomato is fully formed and a good size, too. Blossom end rot prevents tomatoes from ripening. So, you’


A bird bath—the easiest water feature
Many people would like a water feature in their garden. Some opt to put in a garden pond or an infinity pool. Infinity pools are very popular in 2015. A pond, complete with fish and aquatic plants, is a complete ecosystem; as such, it needs careful maintenance to remain healthy and odour-free.
The easiest water feature is: a bird bath. Birds, like humans, need water to live. So water is even more important than food. A bird bath is easy to put up and it needs no plumbing


Be a good garden neighbour
As land developers build single family dwellings, semis, and freehold town houses on smaller and smaller plots of land, this also means that homeowners have smaller front gardens and smaller backyards. From a garden design standpoint, small plots present a different kind of design challenge. Wise homeowners do several things on small plots of land: First, they pick plants, shrubs and trees suitable to their smaller property. Second, if they want to plant a larger tree, they


Free clematis cocktail from over-ripe bananas
Stuck with over-ripe bananas on your kitchen counter? Rather than throwing them into your green cart for municipal (or backyard) composting, here’s a little trick that you can do to feed your clematis the organic way. Clematis will be flowering in June and this “banana cocktail” feeds them, for free. It’s like getting something for nothing.
So, shoo away all those fruit flies, peel an over-ripe banana, put it in a large bowl or Pyrex measuring cup with a handle (these can h


Invest in a quality watering can
We are officially done buying cheap, plastic “Made in China” watering cans that are available at all the big box stores. The "Curse of the Cheap Watering Can" is over.
We have gone through at least six watering cans in less than a decade. What was the problem? The watering can started to leak after less than two years of use, or the rose chipped and cracked, and it is impossible to find a replacement rose. Rather, the stores force you to buy a whole new watering can. At th