Our Backyard
I am a member of the Royal Horticultural Society as well as the Garden Writers Association and in 2003 hosted the GWA Region 7 program in Edmonton, Alberta. I am also an Affiliate Member Canadian Institute of Travel Counsellors and Member North American Travel Journalists Association. In 2004 we launched our brand new www.gardeningtours.com website devoted entirely to the tours that we put together for each year.
I hope you enjoyed this tour of our old garden and that you become a regular visitor to the site and find a warm and inviting garden community thriving on the Internet!
In 2001 we added
a new cedar fence ... what a job that was ... Tom took down all the old fence
himself while I was in England, so it could be ready for the crew. This fence
will never fall over ... it has 6 x 4 posts filled with 3 bags of concrete in
each hole! I am very pleased with it, I didn't want anything fancy, just a
private and high fence where I could let my plants grow on. I want my garden to
be a place of peace and solitude. (If you want to see what the old fence looked
like, just click on the picture showing the center urn in the springtime and
also go down to the very bottom of this page and click on the picture showing
snow in the back garden)
2003 was the
year we decided to remove the old cedar deck and put in a slate patio...now that
was some job! We did the whole thing ourselves and are very proud of the result.
With having to remove so much soil for the gravel and sand bed, we found we had
enough to put some more beds out front. I planted them with daylilies on the
boulevard bed and with hostas on the bed close to the sidewalk. Everything in
our garden was done by us, except of course the fence and all the wood has been
left natural cedar, to weather on it's own. I think now the garden has its own
microclimate because of the fence completely surrounding the garden...time will
tell. We moved our roses closer to the house in their own bed. The fence closest
to the driveway was also replaced at this time, so now the entire garden is a
secret garden and can only be entered through a double gate from the drive. I
also have three beautiful little lilac shrubs here in purple and white down the
other side of the driveway and the bed is full of annuals during the spring,
summer and fall.
a bit about me...
In 1995 I
achieved my Master Gardener certificate through the University of Alberta
Devonian Botanic Garden. The garden won first prize in Canadian Gardening
magazine for Cold Climate Gardens (and was on the cover) and also won first
prize in the EHS garden competition for two years in Ecoscaping and first prize
in Perennials. I am a past director on the board of the Edmonton Horticultural
Society. My area was Speakers and Programs and I was in charge of the EHS Garden
Gala... under awards you will see some our awards received for the site and also
a press release. In 1999 I was very fortunate to be a finalist for Alberta in
the Canadian Women Entrepreneur Of The Year Awards in Start Up. in 2004 our site
received the Applied Technology Award through the Chamber of Commerce here in
St. Albert.
Through
gardening and our garden, we have had the opportunity to host many open gardens
and tours and welcome you if you should ever be in our area! Some of these
photographs were taken by Marilynn McAra, who also took the photos for Canadian
Gardening and numerous other publications...
Articles done by
others on either ICanGarden.com or our garden have appeared in numerous garden
magazines. I have contributed articles to magazines such as Homemaker's, Alberta
Views, Gardener for the Prairies and Gardening Life as well as Familywave.com
and IParenting. I have also had the opportunity to provide photographs that I
have taken to European Homes & Gardens, BCAA and Doctor's Review. I am currently
part of the HomeStyle Today Expert Q & A team at IParenting.com. I have spoken
at various events including Canada Blooms, Art in Bloom and local garden clubs.
In April 2005 our garden was featured in Gardens West Magazine and there also
received a cover shot using our pond.
Through the
site, we have had many opportunities to speak about gardening on the internet -
my husband Tom, is the webmaster so we are very much in tune with gardening and
with the internet! We began hosting garden tours in 1998 and we are able to
speak on that as well with a presentation entitled Great Gardens of Europe and
England that continues to be updated with all the trips and tours I take.
I am a member of
the Royal Horticultural Society as well as the Garden Writers Association and in
2003 hosted the GWA Region 7 program in Edmonton, Alberta. I am also an
Affiliate Member Canadian Institute of Travel Counsellors and in 2204 we
launched our brand new
www.gardeningtours.com website devoted entirely to the tours that we put
together for each year.
I hope you enjoy
this tour of our garden and that you become a regular visitor to the site and
find a warm and inviting garden community thriving on the Internet!
Donna...
2003 Spring
2002 Spring
2001 Update
2000 update
I was very pleased with the garden this year...minimal worries about the bad
bugs, although I had my share of whitefly on the virginia creeper and aphids on
the honeysuckle. The bed off the deck was completely emptied and filled with
soil to make it higher, then I put back everything. That was a chore, but it
gave me a chance to space the iris better for future blooming. We lost our
beautiful Russian Olive this year - a wind split it and thankfully it fell on
the very sturdy concrete urn you see in the picture, saving the rose and peony
bed and the pond. The area looked very flat after loosing the tree so we put in
a three piece lattice work screen and have 3 brand new clematis growing
there...all New Eden introductions.
I have gotten rid of all of the terra cotta in favour of something that will
withstand our winters. So far we have a new concrete birdbath and two other urns
sitting on either side of the teak bench (from White Rock, BC)
Never did get the fence put in this year, but are gearing up for next spring.
I have tons of bulbs coming this fall, some more peonies, and the new Plum
Poppy.
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Some photos's of our yard, click on the image to see
a full size picture
I wanted to show you
what some of my irises looked like this year...many were given to me
by a good friend named Ginny! Thanks Ginny - they live on in my
garden... |
Two new peonies
that started blooming this year...the one with the yellow center is
a tree peony and the other is a regular peony - the blooms on both
were simply gorgeous! |
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Tom took this of Liz
and I in our backyard... |
One of my roses - each
one that blooms is different...
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This is our pond...before our bronze
crane was installed. |
Another perennial closeup of Winnipeg
Parks and Fishermans Friend roses, liatris, lupin, lilies, and
monkshood. |
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Closeup of iris, lamium, forget me not
and some yellow flower that I don't particularly like! but it looks
nice. |
Closeup of forget me not and
driftwood.. |
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This is a picture at the top of the
pond with siberian iris and bearded iris on either side.. |
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Photo courtesy of Edmonton
Horticultural Society |
Photo courtesy of Edmonton
Horticultural Society |
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Photo courtesy of Edmonton
Horticultural Society |
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This is a wonderful new daylily
addition to our garden. Hope Pam at Erikson's remembers the name! |
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Some of the great photos
by:
Marilynn McAra
Edmonton photographer/writer
Phone/fax: (780) 423-0238
E-mail:
mcara@shaw.ca
web-site: www.ab-photo.com |
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