Wildflower Farm is a source for nursery-grown native North American wildflowers and grasses.  Located in Ontario, they have a great online store so you can order them regardless of your location!

Wildflower Farm’s website (http://www.wildflowerfarm.com) is loaded with information on how to assess your soil type, which is essential for identifying which wildflowers and grasses you can grow!

I’m looking forward to trying their Moss Milkshake!  Because of its low profile growth habit, moss makes an excellent alternative groundcover for areas of your yard that are shaded, or pathways where it is difficult to grow grass. Moss thrives in shade! The neatly tailored look that moss provides is perfect for accentuating and showcasing other, smaller woodland shade gardening plants and ferns!

I recently saw this landscape in upscale La Jolla, California.  I really like the way this designer combined the plants!

The groundcover forms a tightly-woven carpet between the articulated succulents that are graphically arranged.

The landscape is terraced, with the upper level highlighted by Cordyline australis 'Red Sensation' underplanted with Senecio mandraliscae. An Equisetum hedge provides a backdrop while screening residences from the street.

The many layers of this landscape come together magically!

En route to Palm Springs, I had to stop and fill-up in Pasadena.  To my delight, we happened across an incredible garden centre before we found a gas station.  I suggested “I bet the garden centre can tell us where to find a gas station” (with an ‘oh please, oh please…  let’s stop just for a minute’ undertone to my voice).  Joey had had a piddle break in hours, so we decided to stop.  Check-out my visit in a separate post here.

Perhaps my best find was Tony Kienitz’s book The Year I Ate My Yard.  It’s a must-read for anyone interested in growing their own food!  Kienitz’s humor is warm and welcoming while his gardening tips are full of insight and common sense.

Look for it at your local garden centre or book store.  You’ll be glad you did!

Combining various foliage colours is a way of making a dull part of your garden more vibrant!

At this Palm Springs residence, privacy is ensured with a lush Ficus hedge; but the hedge lacked punch! I installed a tall ceramic planter to punctuate the space. I chose a blue ice plant that picks-up on the blue glaze in the predominantly brown pot.

I surrounded the pot with light-coloured river rock, which adds a textural extention to the concrete pool deck.

Now we’ve gone from simply ‘a hedge’ to a dynamic focal point!

Gardenology.org is a complete plant and garden wiki encyclopedia with over 18,000 plant entries and articles written and edited by gardeners from around the globe!

An upright planter is a nice way to accentuate an entry.  This 30″ tall ceramic pot places a succulent an arm’s length away as you approach the door.

The play of shadows add to the beauty of this entrance.

When choosing a planter for your entry, consider the scale of the entrance and select plants that are well-suited to the exposure.  For sunny locations, it helps to use drought-tolerant plants or use a planter, such as Lechuza, that has a built-in reservoir!

Increasingly, we’re using our landscape for productive, edible gardening! Incorporating vegetable plants and herbs is a great way to grow your own!

This year, I’m using heirloom lettuces as ground covers in planters. You will find their beautiful, unusual foliage unlike any ornamental!

Check out these recommendations:

• Gentilina is a Italian lettuce, with light green ruffled leafy heads.
• Mignonette Bronze is an heirloom lettuce that dates back to the 1800s. Its bronze/green colour adds a punch of colour to planters!
• Cowlick is one of my personal favourites – because of its name, but also for its spiky leaf habit. It is from the Czech Republic.
• Sunfire has a narrow, branching oakleaf shape. Medium green leaves have red and green veining underneath a red surface blush.
• From the Italian Alps, Rossa Di Trento is a broad, savoyed cutting lettuce with exquisite wine red margins
• Another heirloom lettuce is called Ears of the Devil. It has large tapered leaves that are beautifully burgundy and bronze-coloured.

Many of these fabulous heirloom seeds are from a living gene bank called The Seed and Plant Sanctuary for Canada. They are a charitable organization dedicated to the health and vitality of the earth through the preservation and promotion of heritage seeds. The Sanctuary is committed to maintaining, evaluating and keeping records for all the edible, medicinal and useful crops that can be grown in Canada.

The lettuces I have recommended become very different when they flower and go to seed. Leaves change shape, stalks shoot skyward, flowers contrast with foliage, and seedheads pop into reality! This all adds an exciting dimension to your garden design!