Home of "Gardening with Bugs" and "Spencer Brewing".
What’s Growing: Week 11, 2021 I just had a fantastic weekend! It actually felt - almost - like a non-covid weekend. We had an outdoor birthday to attend for our daughter, and an outdoor gathering with my family for some mutual birthdays. And for parts of Saturday and almost the entire day Sunday I spent... Continue Reading →
Lawns Lawn is a waste of space. I know, I know…I love it too. It’s green in the winter and cool in the summer it looks tidy and it keeps nature on the fringes. I grew up with a lawn for playing and sledding on. It is my dogs’ recreation space, and I intend on... Continue Reading →
Lesson Two: If you build it, will they come? This lesson will focus on structures that promote (or claim to promote) beneficial insects in your yard. Some structures in the garden have been proven to aid organic gardens in a variety of ways. Most notable and obvious is keeping honeybees to promote pollination of fruit... Continue Reading →
How to promote beneficial insects in your garden. Lesson 1: Flowers
What a weekend! Here on the Saanich Peninsula (just north of Victoria, BC), we enjoyed nearly full sun and a luxurious 12C. There is a pending cold-snap - in fact, it's here: woke-up to -2C. All that sun and the need to prep a few things for the cold meant that it was time to... Continue Reading →
It's going to be another difficult year for plant pests. It’s always a bit of a guess, and largely has to do with localized weather, but generally, those pests that develop chemical resistance are stronger every year. So, whenever you're reading this - it's going to be a bad pest year. But, before you head... Continue Reading →
Well, well; we meet again. As my blog is largely my own way of record keeping and of sharing of my garden adventures, I haven’t written much. This is also because I have rarely set-foot in the garden since then. We had a particularly dark December, and just before Christmas we had a fairly significant... Continue Reading →
You can grow coffee and get coffee beans. It's also a beautiful plant. Here's how I've grown mine:
When your final plants have been pulled and it’s time to sweep-up the leaves and dirt, you look forward to the month or two when you won’t be carefully tending to plants in your greenhouse. You tuck a ‘pet plant’ in a corner or two to keep it in a comfortable dormancy and you shut... Continue Reading →
It wasn't all doom and gloom! Funny to look back and think this year started normally here. Sure, there were rumours of a virus in the East, but it wasn’t enough to worry me. And I wasn’t alone. So I wan’t alone in being wrong, either. What a year! It’s been a rough year, of course.... Continue Reading →
