garden Archives - Page 2 of 5

Studio Sessions At The Eastside Culture Crawl

November 4, 2012/1 Comment/in CANADIAN CONTENT, Culture & Leisure /by Editor

Doing the Eastside Culture Crawl, Vancouver’s longest-standing open studio event, calls for getting strategic.

SHOPPING AROUND | With 427 artists showing their artworks and wares at 82 different locations, it’s hard to know how to attack Vancouver’s 15th annual Eastside Culture Crawl, which starts November 16 at 5 p.m. and continues through Sunday.

If you’re like me, there’s no way you have more than an afternoon to spare gallivanting around these studios so you’ll need to get strategic. Read more

Chinese Lanterns On Mini'lights - Martin Tessler

Make A Lantern Plant & Mini-Light Display

October 24, 2012/0 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Harvest Chinese lantern plant pods to create the perfect, illuminated holiday display.

CREATIVE SOLUTION | I first spotted brilliant orange Chinese lanterns fitted over mini-lights on an organically decorated Christmas tree. This is one way to use them for sure, though I like them better when they are used to create an original Thanksgiving or Halloween display. I love them threaded through a tangle of branches on the front porch or on top of the mantel or on a dinner table. I also love mini-lanterns strung around doorways for a punch of spot-on seasonal colour. Read more

Make Your Garden Both Modern & Romantic

October 19, 2012/0 Comments/in Design, GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

Learn the secrets of making a garden that is both modern and romantic from international superstar garden designer Andrea Cochran.

Design Wise | If you love beautiful gardens and find yourself near Robson and Georgia this evening with an hour so to spare, you might want to walk over to UBC Robson Square where international superstar garden designer Andrea Cochran will give a free lecture at 7 p.m. Read more

Make These Window Screen Candleholders

August 29, 2012/6 Comments/in Columns, D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, HOME, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Sure it’s great for keeping out bugs, but metal window screen also shines as a candleholder.

Regular hardware store metal window screening, with its nostalgic cottage connotations, has obvious uses—and some that are less apparent. Here I’ve folded it into holders for votive candles that are straightforward to make. Read more

How To Get Edges Right In Your Garden

August 24, 2012/0 Comments/in Design, GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

Garden boundaries always stand out—the trick is weaving them gracefully into the style of your garden.

DESIGN RIGHT | Of all the important elements of garden design, edges receive the least amount of attention in print. “Since edges are drawn wherever contrasting materials meet, almost anything you do in the garden results in an edge,” wrote James Van Sweden in his worthwhile pictorial how-to Architecture in the Garden. “If you build a fence, lay a terrace, dig a pool or erect a retaining wall, you create edges.” Edges make inadvertent, dramatic statements. The eye is automatically drawn to the places in a garden where change occurs, the point of transition from one level to another, for example, or the spot where one material is replaced by something different. Read more

The Perfect Planter Box For Wee Gardeners

July 10, 2012/0 Comments/in GARDEN, Gardening How-To, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

On sale right now at Pottery Barn Kids, this planter is perfect for wee gardeners or patio gardens.

SUPER VALUE | If you want your kids to fall in love with gardening, it’s a good idea to get them digging early. To very young children, popping their first seeds in soil, watching them come up and then harvesting the fruits of their labour is powerful magic.

When I was in Pottery Barn Kids a few weeks ago, I spotted the rectangular galvanized planter shown in the photo above (on the left) and thought finally a decent-size soil receptacle raised to just the right height so little people can easily tend and keep an eye on seeds they’ve sowed (it’s also the perfect size for adults wanting to grow herbs or a small crop of salad vegetables). Read more

Can House Cleaning Make You Happier?

June 11, 2012/2 Comments/in Fitness & Health, HEALTH, View All Health Stories, Well Being /by Editor

Get out the squeegee, Margie—doing housework may well be the way to improve your state of mind.

HAPPY TALK | We don’t need social scientists or surveys to confirm that having a clean house is a natural mood booster. But did you know that actually doing the cleaning may improve your mood as much as having a house that’s clean? In her new book, The First 20 Minutes: Surprising science reveals how we can exercise better, train smarter, live longer, author Gretchen Reynolds reports that a recent large-scale survey done in Europe found an “inverse association between housework and distress.”

Use Mass Planting To Create Great Effects

May 28, 2012/0 Comments/in Design, GARDEN, Home & Garden, View All Garden Stories /by Editor

Simple does not mean stupid. Don’t underestimate the intelligence behind the less complicated look for gardens.

DESIGN WISE | It’s been two decades since gardening became a fashionable endeavor in North America. If we’ve learned anything during this time, over and above garden history and plant vocabulary, it’s that maintaining a garden is damn hard work. Only those who love mucking about in the dirt survive and thrive in the trenches.

This knowledge, plus a fascination with mid-20th-century modernist architecture and the gardens that went along with them, has lead to the pursuit of simple, (and hopefully) low maintenance planting schemes. Read more

What A Small Patch Of Lawn Can Do For You

May 10, 2012/0 Comments/in Home & Garden /by Editor

A small patch of the green stuff may be just the sort of versatile ingredient your garden needs.

DESIGN WISE | If you want to get maximum mileage from your outdoor space for physical play or entertaining, the most versatile garden surface I know of is good old-fashioned lawn. Lawn is a four-letter among guerilla gardeners who see it as an ecological disaster and a colossal waste of energy, and I do agree that a large area is imprudent. But a small patch can be a godsend. Read more

Use Outdoor Plants For Indoor Arrangements

April 25, 2012/3 Comments/in D.I.Y., DECOR & DESIGN, DIY, GARDEN, HOME, Home & Garden, HOW-TO KNOW-HOW, View All DIY Stories, View All Garden Stories, View All Home Stories, View All How-To Stories /by Editor

Some outdoor plants look spectacular potted up for the house before they’re turned loose in the garden.

THE CREATIVE SOLUTION | Cut flowers straight from the garden or the corner store are a fine if conventional way to bring spring indoors. But bedding plants, which are becoming more plentiful everywhere as the gardening season takes hold, make equally attractive, arguably more novel and definitely cost-effective arrangements.
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