Public service announcement: Don't buy this plant

Whatever you do, don't buy this plant—no matter how pretty one of its names (snow in the mountain) is. It's goutweed, plain and simple, which really doesn't sound like something you'd want in your backyard, right?

Don't believe me? Read what others have to say:
• UBC Botanical Gardens Forums
• Northscaping.com forum

After digging up as much as possible (even the tiniest bit of root will generate new growth), I've decided to remove much of the soil from the roughly 2' by 2' patch, cover the area with plastic (and let it sit for a year or so), and burn the bits of root that I've already dug up (along with a few neighbouring plants whose root balls have been infiltrated by goutweed rhizomes).

I can't believe it's legal to sell this highly invasive, non-native plant in Canada. There is apparently one sure way to avoid having to deal with it: move to a goutweed-free location.

Here's an interesting fact sheet on goutweed.

Still here, almost a year later

Okay, I have an excuse for not blogging: lousy weather and little to no motivation. But now that summer is officially here and we've had a few nice days, I'll show you what's new in the garden. Check out this slideshow of some of the flowers in our front yard.


Garden 2011 - Images by Barbara K. Adamski

This week's bargain

This week I picked up beautiful impatiens for only $1.95 a container at one of the dollar stores in uptown New Westminster. I bought two plants the first time, then went back the following day to buy four more.



This is how they look in the side yard. (To truly appreciate how far we've come, check out this blog's first entry.)

Lawn-free in New West, BC

This is it. We no longer have a front lawn. No more mowing! Of course, what we have now is a bunch of dirt, but we're working on that.

This evening, the plan is to cover the front boulevard with seeds for Easy Care Groundcover from West Coast Seeds. According to their catalogue, it's a "perennial mix of slow-growing grasses and drought-tolerant flowers." That means no watering either! The mix contains fescues, ryegrass, clover, English daisies, white yarrow, baby blue eyes, and white alyssum.

I'm a bit nervous about it all. I don't do well with seeds, but I suppose that's just the way it is for people with brown thumbs.

Long-overdue update

Well, it turns out that I have been too busy writing and gardening to be writing about gardening. Here are some photos show how far we've come (and to remind us how far we still have to go!).

First, some "before" shots, taken last summer. Pretty ugly, eh?




And now a couple of more recent pictures:




Our plan is to have creeping thyme fill in much of that empty space, but the thyme is creeping along ever so slowly.

Random flower

From the front garden. More photos and a bit of commentary coming soon.

Ta da!

So, we've finally completed the fence, gate, and arbour. We're still debating what to do with the open spaces we have on both sides of the arbour, however. We might fill them in with lattice so that the honeysuckle we've planted has a place to go when it gets tall enough. We're also contemplating putting a hummingbird feeder on one side and a wind chime on the other side (there's a nice breeze that blows through that part of the yard). What do you think?


There are, however, two catches. One, hummingbirds hate us. Seriously. In the ten years that we've had a hummingbird feeder or two in the yard, we've had only one hummingbird visit. And when was that? Last year, when we'd forgotten to put sugared water in the feeder. So much for that.

And two, we can't seem to find a wind chime that we like. And looking for one is a bit frustrating. Have you ever noticed that when you go shopping for a wind chime, the wind-chime section will be absolutely deserted until you go there and start testing out the chimes. Then, out of nowhere, streams of people answer the call of the wind chimes, head over to the wind-chime section, and start testing them out as well. Drives me nuts. Like I want to listen to several other people testing out chimes. Don't believe me? Try it yourself. Go on. Do it.