Master Gardeners

Now is a great time to think about your property, which changes can you do this coming season, to enhance it? Just as an architect use geometric forms to build a house, such as triangles for roofs and dormers, rectangles for windows, columns for...

Here is an activity you can try while kids are home waiting for covid19 to subside. Try growing some easy vegetables/fruits from scraps. This activity and may spark your child’s interest in gardening. Some of the easier vegetables you try from...

A rose is one of the most beautiful flowers in the garden and in bouquets. It is also one of the oldest plant species with fossil remains that indicate it was around in primitive form over 32 million years. The best time to plant roses is in the...

My seed orders have arrived and some seeds are already growing , but as I wait impatiently for the real spring to arrive I have browsed once more through seed catalogues and realized just how much information is in them. Not only do seed companies...

Late January through early March is a great time to take branches from your favorite flowering trees or shrubs to force blooms indoors, as they have by now been through the required cold dormancy of six weeks or more. This is also a good time to go...

June and July have been extremely hot and dry months. In almost all areas across Ontario, our gardens are crying out for water. Many of our edible crops are drying up or producing extremely small crops. Rural gardeners are afraid to water too much...

As you walk around your yard and look at the beautiful buds on your apple and cherry trees, you notice what looks like a tent made from cobwebs. Guess what? You have a nest of Eastern Tent Caterpillars. And, if you have one nest, you likely have...

What do Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving, Cinderella, Jack-o-lanterns and pumpkin pie have in common? Why pumpkins of course. Pumpkins  originated in Central America and have been grown there for thousands of years. In early times, they were baked or...

Early spring is a great time to plant trees. With that in mind, you might consider planting a windbreak. Rows of trees and shrubs can shelter your house and garden from winter winds and summer sun. Early settlers knew the value of dense wind-busting...

The orchid family of plants is the largest in the world with over 30,000 species with thousands of hybrids and varieties. Ontario has its fair share. We have, what are called terrestrial orchids. One of the best shows of these terrestrial orchids...

When is a bulb not a bulb? Quite often. The term bulb, in every day vernacular, includes corms, tubers, tuberous roots, rhizomes and stolons. I think I have them all. Except for tuberous roots which the name suggests is a root, all of them are...

By Ankaret Dean, Lanark Master Gardeners Ever since I moved into the hamlet of McDonalds Corners five years ago and walked down to the shop, there opposite it, is a tiny house with two gigantic tubs of bright red geraniums; Every year they are...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

By Ankaret Dean, Lanark Master Gardeners So far this year has not been an easy growing year for gardeners, especially those on a well with a limited amount of watering potential. However here are a few ideas which will be useful, perhaps a little...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

By Helen Halpenny, Lanark Master Gardeners Now that the early vegetables are being harvested it is time to plant again. Lettuce, radish and spinach have probably bolted in the extreme heat in recent weeks. Green onions are developing their bulbs and...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

Today I went to a nursery and saw a herbaceous peony priced at $99. Yes, it was rather a rare plant. That made me remember my visit to a lovely garden a couple of years ago, whose owner told me she had a $200 budget for the entire gardening year. I...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

By Robert Pavlis, Master Gardener Grass is found in almost every garden and lawn care is part of a gardener’s job. What should you do, and not do, to your grass in spring? In this post I will look at lawn maintenance for temperate climates that...

For more information, including articles on Dethatching Lawn Thatch; Using Lawn Rollers; Fertilizers; and more, visit Robert Pavlis’s website: www.gardenfundamentals.com

For some time now, you have been dreaming about vegetables grown, harvested and eaten from your own little plot of land. To make this happen, first think site selection. To be productive, most vegetables require lots of sun, a minimum of six hours...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

Gardeners know the benefits of using compost in their gardens. It improves the soil tilth and adds nutrients to help plants grow and thrive. Gardeners also know that the best compost is made at home, using kitchen and garden organic waste, which...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

Lanark County Master Gardeners No, I am not going to teach you how to grow lasagna. I am going to talk about a “no-dig” method to use to grow the vegetables you love and use to make lasagna. Lasagna gardening refers to the method of building the...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

Lanark County Master Gardeners I wonder how many people have met the comparatively new shrub called Honeyberry.  The University of Saskatchewan began breeding Honeyberries in 2002 using the line from Russia, Japan and the Kuril Islands, and they...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

Lanark County Master Gardeners Fresh cut flowers, whether picked from our gardens or purchased from a store or Farmers Market, add beauty and bring the outdoors into our rooms. We often wonder if there is anything we can do to extend the life of...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website  www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com  or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

For plants to reproduce, they need pollinators. These include insect species such as bees, butterflies, beetles, flies and thousands of other insects, as well as hummingbirds. Unwittingly, while searching for nectar, pollinators move pollen from the...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

I realize this is rather a morbid title for an article about gardening. However if you would like your perennials and annuals to keep flowering for as long as possible, cutting off the flowers and seed heads often means that they will keep blooming...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners It is the time of year to start thinking about Christmas Dinner. When family gathers, we always like to enjoy our garden’s harvest. For our family, the star of the show is a golden roasted turkey....

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners The Azalea is a small woody shrub that is covered in beautiful double blooms of red, pink, white or bicolour. If you keep the soil moist and the pot in a room with indirect light and an average...

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By Ankaret Dean, Lanark County Master Gardeners ln my opinion every household should have an Aloe Vera plant in the kitchen window, it is probably the easiest house plant to grow, and provides you immediately with an instant soothing remedy for a...

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by Helen Halpenny, Lanark County Master Gardeners It’s never too early to make plans for your 2015 garden. Already the seed companies have sent catalogues with beautiful pictures and glowing reviews to entice you to buy their regular and newly...

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by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners Nothing says a woodland garden better than a stand of beautiful, delicate and graceful ferns. Ferns are plants that produce evergreen or deciduous leaf-like structures called fronds. In our part of...

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by Dale Odorizzi, Master Gardener of Lanark County Have you ever gone out in the morning to admire the Beefsteak or Roma tomato plants that you planted the day before only to find one, two or more plants cut off at the soil line and lying flat on...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

by Helen Halpenny, Lanark Master Gardeners Fruit and vegetables grown in the home garden and picked at the peak of perfection taste the absolute best. Among the easiest fruits to grow are raspberries. Yes, you need space and good soil but the...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

By Dale Odorizzi Do you want to have fresh picked tasty vegetables but have a small lot with no room for a vegetable garden? If so, Square Foot Gardening may be for you. Square foot gardening is easy to do, easy to manage, very adaptable, and it...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

by Judy Wall Unlike the potato, which is grown from tubers, sweet potatoes are started from “slips.” To create slips, a sweet potato tuber is planted indoors in March. One tuber can produce several slips. To do so you will need to obtain a sweet...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

by Helen Halpenny, Lanark County Master Gardeners The snow may be piled high outside, but starting your garden indoors can happen right now. Come February, the light level begins to increase and a sunny windowsill can be the perfect place to get a...

Enjoy The Edible Garden Newsletter published monthly by Lanark County Master Gardeners and available on our website www.lanarkmg.blogspot.com   or follow us on Facebook or Twitter @lanarkmg.

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners All summer long, your flower garden has bloomed beautifully. As the days get shorter and cooler, many of our gardens are looking a little shaggy. What is a poor gardener to do? If you want colour in...

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners It is that time of year again. The days are getting shorter, the nights are long and cold. Many of us put our house plants outside for the summer or have purchased annuals to brighten up our...

by Gerda Franssen, Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners What are those strange curly green things growing from the top of my garlic? If you were one of the gardeners who planned ahead last October and planted a variety of hard-necked garlic...

By Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners Few subjects in gardening are as confusing or as frustrating as the proper pruning of Clematis. Most modern hybrid clematis have complex parentage with many combined strains that have contradictory...

By Margaret Inwood, Lanark County Master Gardeners Companion planting is the practice of planting certain plants with others in the hope of repelling bugs. Many gardeners swear by the power of garlic, marigold, onions, chives, and nicotiana in...

By Ankaret Dean, Lanark County Master Gardeners There is nothing like watching a few seeds popping up indoors when there is still snow on the ground. By starting seeds indoors they get a good head start on those planted outdoors. This means that you...

by Ankaret Dean, Lanark County Master Gardeners Although window boxes and hanging baskets have been in vogue for many years this year people are taking a new look at growing plants, such as vegetables in containers. With the renewed interest in...

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners Growing your own vegetables is the most rewarding form of gardening—the plants are beautiful and you can eat the results. Starting your vegetable transplants from seeds kicks all of these rewards up...

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners

It’s that time of year again—time to decide what type of tree should become the centrepiece of your Christmas decor! For the past decade, the question about the greenest Christmas tree has caused considerable debate among environmentally...

by Ankaret Dean, Lanark County Master Gardeners

  Both names are correct for this plant, which cats adore, and my column is for gardeners who want to give their cats a treat. This interesting plant is a type of herb belonging to the Nepata family. It grows 50-100 cm. tall, is a perennial and is...

Lanark County Master Gardeners

  Dill is a herb used for flavouring. It belongs to the Apiaceae family (formerly Umelliferae) as does fennel, queen ann’s lace (carrot), and parsnip. Its botanical name is Anethum gravcolens - not surprising, since the species name graveolens...

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners Cilantro is a wonderful herb to grow because you actually get two herbs in one. When it is young and fresh, you have delicate, lacy leaves with a pungent flavor. As it matures and goes to seed you...

by Kathleen Lang, Lanark Master Gardeners You would be hard pressed to find a child who doesn’t like digging in the dirt, so gardening has a built-in draw as a fun activity. To get young children excited about having their own garden, start small....

by Dale Odorizzi, Lanark County Master Gardeners

  We often think vegetables are for eating and flowers are for looking at. You can combine the two to add flair to your food with flowers. Make sure that your flowers are edible and that they have not been sprayed with chemicals. Home-grown,...

by  Ankaret Dean, Lanark Master Gardeners For centuries people have used fertilizers to increase their crops and encourage plant growth. Until the 20th century these consisted of organic material and inorganic mined mineral nutrients. It was not...

by  Ankaret Dean, Lanark Master Gardeners Tomatoes, we are told, are the most favourite vegetable grown by gardeners in North America. This is partly because our climate is ideally suited for their growth, lots of warm sunshine and a long...

By Ankaret Dean, Lanark County Master Gardeners At this time of the year, the flowers in the local grocery shops look so tempting. They make a perfect cheer-up gift for an ailing friend, a thank-you present or sometimes just to spoil yourself. A...