Beginner Gardening Tips Blog

The first garden that was truly my own was a postage stamp city townhouse garden. It was slightly bigger than I could reach from fence to fence, but it was all mine. Of course, being the plantaholic that I am, I wanted to put all my choice plants in it. So it ended up having native wildflowers, perennials, spring bulbs, a rhubarb clump (from a previous owner), pots on the patio and a token lawn mower-wide circle of lawn. When every speck of soil was planted I went up the fence with an espalier linden tree and clematis. Thankfully I moved to suburbia before the neighbours started asking about the milkweed at my front doorstep.

The next garden, although a nice new bare slate, was on heavy clay. So in sculpting a patio, dry river bed and three large planting areas (sans back lawn), new, improved soil was brought in and the clay left alone deep down below. Once this garden was filled and starting to take shape with another set of favourite plants, it was time to move again.

My current garden has the challenge of taming rambunctious, drought-tolerant shrubs planted by the builder that have overgrown their space. To liven up these shrubs, hardy perennials have been tucked into the front garden and lots of colourful containers of annuals, perennials and shrubs have taken up residence on the front porch.

My mostly empty suburban backyard is on limestone and has a negligible amount of useful soil mixed with gravel. The plans for the back garden are in flux at the moment, waiting to see who (my husband or I) will have the final say on what shape and size of water feature goes in it. And since the pond or pool is the key to the entire plan, nothing else can be finalized on paper until our conflict of styles is resolved!

Anyway, I have been involved with two excellent Master Gardener groups that have helped me immensely. I highly recommend joining a master gardener group, taking the training and learning about new plants or gardening techniques through shared knowledge with other Master Gardeners or public presentations. The program is very rewarding in many ways.

Lastly, I love gardening in containers – luckily this addiction could be done in all of my gardens. So at present I have annuals, perennials, shrubs, vegetables, vines and herbs in containers. There are even two galvanized metal washtubs on the back patio filled with water for my lotus sitting on my back patio. With containers there’s no excuse not to create a garden anywhere.

Anne Marie is the horticultural editor at Canadian Gardening magazine.