Tulips Daffodils And Hyacinths

Tulips Daffodils and Hyacinths are some of the stalwarts of the early spring garden. The melting snow and the early spring sunshine start to show their little heads popping up out of the ground it is a sure sign that Spring is arriving shortly and nature is about to paint the garden with some of the most wonderful colors in her pallet. The explosion of colors that spring holds is like a fireworks show to get you excited about the upcoming growing season.

Truly every garden should have a display bed of early spring flowering bulbs. Now is the time to get them in the ground. There are few more short weeks but you must plant them now in order for the bulbs to get established before the freezing weather comes.

Planting is very easy simply dig holes about 2 1/2 times the size of the bulbs then drop them in cover over. We plant thousands each fall at the urban garden so we use a small auger attached to the power drill and can plant dozens in just a few minutes . Some people like to plant in large beds of mass plantings. I prefer smaller groups. We will drill between 8 and 14 holes in an irregular shape and plant the bulbs there. It is like having dozens of bouquets of flowers each a bit different and can be a very dramatic effect. If you prefer a larger bed like arrangement mark out an area and dig out the soil to about 8″ place all the bulbs in the hole and then replace the soil. You can easily plant several hundred bulbs this way in less than a half an hour.

What ever method is your choice the main thing is you need to get started and you should get started this weekend the weather is going to be against you soon and remember to get a beautiful display in spring you need to get them in the ground this fall.

Incarvillea mairei

UBC Botanical Garden started in 1916 with 900 species. By the late 1930s, the Botanical Garden included significant collections of British Columbia natives, willows, alpines, aquatics and medicinal plants, as well as native and exotic trees in the campus arboretum. Unfortunately, much of the old collections were lost or integrated with the campus plantings. The only remnants visible today are some very fine trees in the original arboretum.

Today, the University of British Columbia Botanical Garden collections include those of the main garden, the Botanical Garden Nursery and Nitobe Memorial Garden. Nitobe Memorial Garden is an authentic Japanese tea and stroll garden, but is also a documented collection of Japanese and British Columbia native plants.

Collections policy at UBC Botanical Garden follows a number of important criteria. These include providing plants and plant materials for academic study and research (based primarily on germplasm of documented wild origin), using plants to create attractive public displays, and providing the public with new plants through partnerships with local horticulture industry.

University of British Columbia Botanical Garden houses a number of significant plant group collections, these include: Acer, Clematis, Cornus, Epimedium, hardy Eucalyptus, Hebe, Lardizabalaceae, Lindera, Magnolia, Rhododendron, Sorbus, Styracaceae, BC native flora, alpines and Chinese flora.

Some Facts About Canada's Oldest Continuously Operating University Botanical Garden

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Important Dates

1916 UBC Botanical Garden founded by John Davidson

1968 Garden established at present site

1976 UBC Friends of the Garden program initiated

1985 Garden becomes a department of the UBC Faculty of Agricultural Sciences

2002 Renamed to UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research

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Quick Facts

Area Approximately 44 hectares (110 acres)

Main Gardens Alpine, Asian, Native, Food, Physic, Winter and Nitobe Memorial Garden (Japanese garden)

Facilities Botanical and Nitobe gardens, nursery, greenhouses, research plots (Totem Field), research laboratories

Collections Over 8000 different plants in roughly 12 000 living accessions

Latitude 49° 15' 29" N

Longitude 123° 14' 58" W

Elevation 104.42m (342.6 feet)

Tools and Equipment to Encourage Children to Garden

The best way to encourage children in the garden is to let them help and to give them their own tools to use. Expecting them to dig proper soil with a spade designed for filling a bucket at the sea side hardly helps them!

Children's Gardening Tools

A selection of Tools specifically designed for Children

Children's Gardening Equipment

Gardening Equipment for Children

Children's Gardening Accessories

Gardening Accessories for Children

Herbs In The Garden

The idea of fresh herbs right from the garden intrigues a lot of people especially those who enjoy cooking. There really is no other taste like sweet basil freshly picked. or the tangy taste of tarragon. The best part of all is that you can grow your own parsley, rosemary, thyme, or just about any other fresh herb without even having a yard or garden. In fact you can even raise them on a balcony. It is really easy to grow herbs.
Tarragon Parsley Rosemary And Basil Herb garden In A Container

Tarragon Parsley Rosemary And Basil Herb garden In A Container

A simple container like the one above can be put together in 15 or 20 minutes but provide you with fresh herbs the whole summer long. Below is another arrangement.
Basil Dill And Thyme Planter

Basil Dill And Thyme Planter

Not only do these containers provide you with fresh picked herbs they look nice out on a patio or deck. There are so many different ways to grow fresh vegetables fruits and herbs in your own garden. If you would like to read some more ideas use this link gardening

More and more people every year are venturing into gardening and enjoying the fruits of a little time and healthy exercise. If you would like to learn more or are seeking additional information

Gardens A Retreat From The Grind

With all the stress of daily life it is important to be able to get away for a little bit and to stabilize yourself . Gardening has become a major stress reliever for millions of people. You may not think of gardening as relaxing when you think of digging and pulling weeds but it really is. When you are gardening you are out in the fresh air and exercising. This alone will make you feel better. It is amazing how a little work can pay such benefit to your body and soul.

When you are out in the garden your mind tends to wander away from the day to day worries and you get involved in what you are doing. Your problems and cares are still there but they are put on the back burner for a little while. While you are busy working on the garden you are able to slow down and relax not be under pressure to get to the next appointment or to finish an assignment you are there to enjoy a little time away from all the rush.

You may not be doing a whole days worth of work in the garden it may only be a 15 minute get away to snip a few branches or to just loo around. But even a 15 minute break can help clear your mind and relieve some stress. The real secret is in letting your self be able to enjoy the time away from everything else.

Yesterday I was wandering around spraying weeds at the urban garden in the sidewalks and curbs. As I was passing by some of the beds I noticed some cone flowers coming up. This was not an earth shattering thing but even to this day I am amazed at how this fascinates me. You see these were volunteers and they must have come from seeds from a bed several hundred feet away. As I was investigating I found that the cone flower bed had also gotten a few new residents from the Coreopsis bed a few dozen feet away. It was like I said not earth shattering but it was a diversion that took me away from what I was doing and a little break that took me to a different thought from the weed spraying . It is just something about being in the garden that makes you spend a little time seeing things that are there but that you may pass by a dozen times without really seeing it.

As I get older it seems like I really am getting worse about my time management. I was never really great at being right on time and now I tend to still resist a ridged schedule. When I am involved in something it is a little hard for me to walk away from it until I have completion. I do have a tendency to go back to what I was doing the previous day and finish before I tackle the next group of work orders that come in. This is not maybe a flaw but maybe a way of being brought up. The bosses always walk by and if they see something like some weeds in a bed they fire off a work order. Well yes there was some weeds they saw but also a lot they did not see. They would have been satisfied if I would have pulled the 6 or 8 weeds out they saw and then thought the work was done but of course I wanted the 40 small weeds gone then I need to edge the bed and re-mulch it to make it look fresh and well tended. It is just they way I was trained that if you are going to do something then invest the time and do it right. Three weeks from now the 40 small weeds would have grown up and I would have gotten a new work order. Course the 5 minutes to pull a couple of weeds turned into an hour and a half to really clean up the bed but it felt like I had accomplished something and in the long run would not go back and redo the same work in a couple of weeks. While I am working on the bed I tend to forget about the other work orders and I am concentrating on what I am doing that is a stress reliever .

So while you may not disappear in the garden for an hour and a half even 15 minutes away from what you were doing is certainly a break from what you were doing. When you go back you will feel a bit more refreshed and relaxed. That is what can happen when you let yourself just wander for a few minutes each day.

The Fall Season Approaches

The approach of fall is on us here at the urban garden. I like to start my fall lawn renovations by the last week of August in order to have plenty of time for new seeded lawn areas to take hold by the beginning of winter. Also I am busy with ordering bulbs for fall planting. This year we will also be doing the landscape renovation on the south parking lot. So with all that happening I am busy ordering supplies and scheduling vendors.

It may seem a bit early to be talking fall but believe me before you know it you will be wearing hoodies and sweat shirts. It is always a good idea to plan your projects ahead of time. Get all your materials and supplies on hand so that when you are ready to start you will not be delayed by late shipments or material shortages.

It never fails that something will come up just as a project is underway so be sure and plan accordingly. Giving yourself plenty of time will make sure you finish the project and your work is not rushed.

Starting The Parking Lot Landscape Upgrade

Well this week we will be starting the upgrade of the parking lot where the new addition is being built. The landscaper is waiting for the city to mark utilities amd then can start demolition of the parkway. I will try and update as the work progresses. It should not take more than two weeks dependent upon the amount of time it will take for the fence company to make the wrouht iron fence panels.

In the means time we will be continuing with the tree trimming and other late summer work.

Why Hire A Landscaper If You Are A Groundskeeper?

Some people have asked me why I am hiring a landscaper if we do the groundskeeping and gardening here at the urban garden. Yes it is true that we do the groundskeeping at the urban garden but when it comes to larger projects we hire at the tasks. The type of equipment and the manpower to do some of the larger projects would be cost prohibitive to do in house. The equipment alone is very expensive if you are not using it every day . The landscaper is responsible for getting materials to and from the site and guaranteeing the plant material as well. Also the landscaper will be dealing with all of the site issues as well as scheduling.

Even though there is a big landscape or construction project going on daily work and routines need to be maintained. The trash cans need to be emptied, the grounds need to be policed, sidewalks need to be powerwashed, weeds need to be pulled and so on. Hiring the landscaping out allows us to continue are work without taking away from our routines.

Although a great deal of my time is spent enjoying working in the garden the above tasks also need to get done. There are potholes to be filled even if I would rather be pruning a shrub. This is the job of groundskeeping. You need to make sure that everything outside the building looks it’s best at all times. A very small percentage of the people passing by ever see the inside of the building but 100% of then see the outside.