Tag: Sheryl Normandeau

Prairie garden tips: use floating row cover.

On By Sheryl @ Flowery ProseIn Alberta, Botany, Calgary, Canada, Gardening, Horticulture, Plant, Plant diseases, Plant pests, Prairie, VegetableLeave a comment

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This stuff. Floating row cover is incredibly useful in regions where the weather is, at best, a little raunchy, and at worst, downright horrific.  Here on the prairies, we commonly face high winds, heat, drought, excessive moisture, hail, and freezing cold…often within a 24 hour period in the middle of July.  (I exaggerate, but only slightly).  Floating row cover, combined with a hoop tunnel, can be massively helpful when it comes to protecting your plants from all that wackiness.  It can also assist in a whole lot of other ways, including as a control for insects (buh-bye, flea beetles!).

One thing to know before you go out and buy floating row cover:  Don’t cheap out.  Trust me on this.  You think, oh I’m saving a few bucks, but you really can tell when you open the package that it is flimsy and a tad shoddy. You set it up at the community garden anyway, and that very night (of course), there is a thunderstorm. It’s not even a severe one.  Middling, actually.  No hail, either.  At any rate, you go in to check on the garden the next morning and your cheap floating row cover is completely ribboned, strips hanging like banners from your hoop tunnel and bits scattered all over the garden, confetti strewn in other garden plots and clinging damply to the fence.  So you spend the next half hour trying to find all the pieces of fabric and hoping that the garden leader isn’t going to show up to see what you’ve done. (Worse yet, you’re worried that she has already been and gone and is now drafting you a nasty email).

No, as with most things in life, get the good stuff.  In this case, it’s reusable for many, many years.

Do you use floating row cover in your garden?  (I know many of you who don’t live on the prairies use it, as well!).  

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No-beer slug bait recipe (yeast trap).

On By Sheryl @ Flowery ProseIn Alberta, Calgary, Canada, Garden Books, Gardening, Guides for the Prairie Gardener, Plant pests, Prairie, Prairie gardening, The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Pests and Diseases, The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Vegetables3 Comments

Beer traps have long been used for slug control but there is another way to trap them that doesn’t involve you sharing your precious brews (because, really, why should slugs get the good stuff?). Try this very basic yeast trap instead:

Ingredients: 

1 cup water

1 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp dry yeast

Instructions:

Throw everything into a jar and mix it together.  (You can double or triple this recipe if you are attending Slimapalooza and require lots of bait. It’s best to mix up a fresh batch each time you need it).

Raid your recycling bin for some shallow containers and sink whatever you scrounge up into your garden bed so that the tops of the containers are level with the surface of the soil. In effect, you’re creating a drop of doom/swimming pool sort of scenario.  Pour the bait mixture into the containers so that they are about 3/4 full.  Then go crack that beer and enjoy the rest of your evening.  Slugs come out at night so check your traps the next morning and dispose of the contents in the garbage.

What are your tried-and-true methods to combat slugs?

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The books are here!

On By Sheryl @ Flowery ProseIn Alberta, Book, Botany, Calgary, Canada, Garden Books, Gardening, Horticulture, Plant, Plant diseases, Plant pests, Prairie, Prairie gardening, The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Pests and Diseases, The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Vegetables, Writing7 Comments

Picking up today’s mail was a much more delightful experience than usual….

“Over the moon” pretty much describes the feeling.  ♥

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What hardy roses are good for a small garden bed?

On By Sheryl @ Flowery ProseIn Alberta, Botany, Calgary, Canada, Flower, Gardening, Horticulture, Plant, Prairie, Prairie gardening, The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Pests and Diseases, The Prairie Gardener's Go-To for Vegetables5 Comments

I do quite a bit of volunteering throughout the year, most of it fielding online questions about gardening.  I am always super busy at this point in the growing season – right when everything is just getting started here in Alberta – but this year it’s even more hectic.  Gardening is on everyone’s minds!  How awesome is that?

A couple of days ago, I was chatting online with a lovely lady, who mentioned that she had a nice, sunny flowerbed, but it had a width of only three feet.  She wanted hardy and compact roses for the site.  I came up with a list for her, then thought: Hey!  Maybe someone else wants to know this exact same thing and here I’ve made the list and all…so…I expanded it a little for you and here it is:

Seriously Hardy and Compact Roses for A Really Small Garden Bed

‘Adelaide Hoodless’ – zone 2 – 3 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Da Montarville’ – zone 2 – 2 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Frontenac’ – zone 2 – 3 feet x 3 feet – dark pink flowers

‘J.P. Connell’ – zone 2 – 2.5 feet x 2.5 feet – yellow (One of my personal favourites!)

‘Winnipeg Parks’ – zone 3 – 2.5 feet x 2.5 feet – dark red flowers

‘Nicolas’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Bill Reid’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – yellow flowers

‘Champlain’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Never Alone’ – zone 3 – 2 feet x 1 foot – red flowers with white centres

‘Cuthbert Grant’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Henry Hudson’ – zone 2 – 3 feet x 3 feet – pink/white flowers

‘George Vancouver’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Hope for Humanity’ – zone 2 – 2 feet x 3 feet – dark red flowers

‘Marie Bugnet’ – zone 2 – 3 feet x 3 feet – white flowers

‘Oscar Peterson’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 2 feet – white flowers

‘Snow Pavement’ – zone 2 – 30 inches x 30 inches – white/pink flowers

And, here are the Mordens:

‘Amorette’ – zone 3 – 2 feet x 2 feet – red flowers

‘Belle’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – pink flowers

‘Blush’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – light pink flowers

‘Cardinette’ – zone 3 – 1.5 feet x 1.5 feet – bright red flowers

‘Snow Beauty’ – zone 3 – 2.5 feet x 3.5 feet – white flowers

‘Fireglow’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – bright red flowers

‘Ruby’ – zone 2 – 3 feet x 3 feet – red flowers

‘Campfire’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet- pink/white/yellow flowers (Another of my favourites!)

‘Sunrise’ – zone 3 – 3 feet x 3 feet – yellow-orange flowers (This one takes my breath away – I’m a huge fan.  I mean, look at it!)

'Morden Sunrise' 2

Morden ‘Sunrise’ rose (my photo)

Further reading: Roses and Explorer, Parkland, and Canadian Artist (Roses)

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What are your favourite roses?  (They don’t have to be compact and they don’t have to be hardy to our crazy Canadian zones).  Go ahead and add links to photos, if you like!