garden therapy » 2010

Up Close with the European Chafer Beetle

Wondering what has been destroying lawns around Vancouver, Burnaby, New Westminster? It’s the European Chafer Turf Pest or Chafer Beetle.

This time of year these ugly suckers can be seen mating in the trees at dusk and each one can lay up to 50 eggs in the surrounding lawn. Those eggs turn into grubs (ick) that feed on the roots of grass until they get ripped out and munched on by crows, raccoons, or skunks.

Since this introduced pest has limited natural predators (besides the aforementioned grub-snackers) we are seeing turf around the GVRD is being destroyed in a street-by-street wave all by a beetle no bigger than a penny.

What can you do to about it? In my opinion, replacing and reseeding your lawn every year is futile and expensive – you are really just planting gourmet micro-greens for grubs. Why not take the hint and get rid of that thirsty high-maintenance patch of grass and replace it with a vegetable garden or some ground covers? Here are some lovely ideas of lawn-free landscaping that look better without grass – and never need mowing.

Landscaping with rocks, water features, and flowering ground covers is an attractive and environmentally-friendly grass lawn alternative.

Low growing flowering perennials also make great groundcover - try Heather, Snow In Summer, and Lamb's Ear for different texture and colour options.

So far my lawn hasn’t been too badly damaged but I leave the grass long and full of clover, speedwell, and moss. I think it looks festive with various flowers in bloom and full of bees. And if what lawn I do have can’t withstand the grubs in the future, it’s just an excuse for more garden. It’s a hard thing to say goodbye to an old friend, but if change is forced upon us, perhaps it isn’t worth the fight but instead is opportunity for something new. Like a water feature or a heirloom tomato garden or a herb wheel or a rockery or….

If you’d like to learn more about Chafer Beetles then check out the Vancouver Park Board’s brochure. And stay tuned because over the next few months I’ll be posting more on Chafer Beetles (read: future studio shots of the grubs) as well as ideas on how to deal with our changing landscape.

June 30 2010 | Gardening and Photography and Vancouver | 14 Comments »

Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for Junuary

Yes, that’s right, Junuary, aka cold like January in the month of June. Well not quite as chilly as January temps but the daily cloud cover makes it FEEL colder (even though the weather guy says that we are just slightly below normal). I’ll blame Junuary depression for not posting GBBD on the 15th this month. Yes, in protest of the ugly weather and sheer lack of light in the sky, I’m posting a good 14 days late.

At very least there are some nice bloomers in my garden and many of the wee vegetable flowers have burst into food I can soon eat (or have eaten in the case of peas that don’t ever make it into the house). So here’s my long overdue Bloom Day photos which I post in hopes of some long-needed sunshiny days to tease more blooms out for July.

PS: Hover to see the names / click to see a larger photo.

June 29 2010 | Flowers and Photography | 8 Comments »

Don’t Call it a Comeback

There was much support, and some skepticism, but in the end I have an an abundance of perfect strawberries from my hanging strawberry planter project. Pow! These are knock-outs.

I’m also harvesting many not-so-perfect ones from the community garden plot. Or should I say perfect to me / only a mother can love / Don’t u call this a regular jam?

However you put it, I have lots of tasty red berries so I’m pretty happy.

For more of what I’m harvesting click here. And check out what others are harvesting on Daphne’s page.

June 21 2010 | Growing Food and Projects | 16 Comments »

Keeping the Peas

Last January I went around the garden and poked in some pea seeds then promptly forgot about them. In February they sprouted. In March and April they looked sad and spindly but I continued to ignore them as I didn’t have anything to plant in those spots anyhow. Then in May they got big and leafy and became unruly masses of pea shoots. Whoops. And Yay!

I activated my memory banks for a soultion and remembered that a few months ago I read a post by Dan at Urban Veggie Garden Blog where he mentioned Pea Brush. Pea Brush, he kindly explained to me, was a structure using a bunch of branches as a netting system to stake up peas. So I got a bunch of lovely water sprouts from my smoke bush that I had been saving (for some reason) (and luckily) and turned the pea brambles in to these pea-ceful displays:

I think they look great and it sure fit into my budget well. I’m getting lots of peas now and I’m in no hurry to replace them with other veg. Give peas a chance, I say.

OK, sorry, that’s the last pea pun for the day. Happy Harvest Monday, everyone.

June 14 2010 | Growing Food and Projects | 20 Comments »

Harvest Monday No. 1

Again this year I’ve planted wayyy too many vegetables, fruits, herbs, and other edibles in my wee garden. Those who pop by for a visit get something to take away and many times it’s something they haven’t tried before. What drives this lunacy?

Biological curiosity? Yep.

Culinary experimentation? Check.

And maybe a little bit of an addiction?

Ahem, well, “Harvest Monday” seems to be a good time to begin cataloging the craziness so here we go with what I’m harvesting now in my urban yards, container gardens and community garden plots. The links will lead to more information, whether it be a project I’ve been working on or the seeds that I used (almost always from West Coast Seeds):

June-bearing strawberries

Shiitake Mushrooms

Rouge d’Hiver Lettuce