HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2011-05-05, Page 21THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 5, 2011. PAGE 21.
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accessible starter’s garden, Nonkes
says, is four or five feet squared, or
four feet by five feet. With
dimensions like these, she says, the
garden would be accessible by the
gardener from all sides.
Once you start going bigger than
that, plants in the middle of the
garden that need to be accessed will
require some sort of path or stepping
stones through the garden, which can
be overly complicated for a gardener
who is just starting out.
Nonkes says that there are simple
levelling options that can be
achieved using top soil. For
example, in a backyard garden,
raising it slightly can make it easier
to see from a backyard patio or a
kitchen or dining room at the back of
the house, something that can be
achieved simply enough.
When you’re ready to move onto
populating your garden with plants,
there is a slightly higher amount of
choices that need to be made,
including the location you’ve chosen
and what plants would work best
with that chosen location.
Nonkes says that if you have
chosen to place your garden in a
sunny location, you have to choose
plants that will thrive in a sunny
location, as opposed to a garden in a
shady location, which calls for
completely different plants.
Another decision that needs to be
made is if the gardener wants annual
plants or perennial plants. Both have
their advantages and disadvantages.
Annual plants need to be re-
planted every spring after the winter,
while perennial plants, while they
may not be in bloom year round, will
grow back year after year without
the burden or replanting.
Nonkes says that the choice is up
to the gardener, but she has always
suggested a healthy supply of annual
near the front of the garden for
colour, and perennials throughout
the body of the garden to fill it in.
With perennials, Nonkes says,
there are advantages to speaking
with someone from a garden centre.
She says that in a single garden,
several kinds of perennials can be
planted throughout the garden to
ensure colour throughout the season,
as some perennials bloom early in
the spring, while others bloom later
in the year.
For a garden in a sunny location,
Nonkes suggests wave petunias or
Victoria blue salvia in the way of
annuals.
“The annuals give you a lot of
colour and they’re very rewarding,”
Nonkes says.
If constructing a garden in the
shade, Nonkes says that impatiens or
fibrous begonias are good annual
choices. She says that both plants are
very easy to grow and that a new
gardener would be “bound for
success” with any of those choices.
Nonkes says of perennials that
while they are largely a low-
maintenance effort, they can’t just be
planted and forgotten. She says that
on average, perennials are hassle-
free for the first three years or so.
They may be slightly more
expensive at first, but there are no
replanting costs year after year.
After the three-year window that
Nonkes discusses, perennial plants
tend to expand, and if they’re planted
too close together, they can become
root-bound and they may need to be
divided a few years down the road.
Once gardeners are comfortable
with what they’ve crafted for
themselves and they’re ready to take
the beginner tag off, Nonkes says it’s
easy to expand and it really just
includes more of the same.
If a second garden is in your
future, all you have to do is follow
the same steps at a different location.
Nonkes also says that if you allowed
room for expansion in your first
garden, all that’s required is more
digging to double the size of your
garden, while at the same time
taking accessibility concerns into
account.
Another way to approach a larger
garden, Nonkes says, is to plan to
have a large garden in, say, four or
five years.
If the garden is planned in stages,
purchases can be spread out and the
proper time and care can be taken,
all while following the plan you’ve
laid out for yourself.
Home Garden
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Construction
Modest-sized garden allows for planter accessibility
Minor renos to refresh, save
Within the last month I’ve
become the proud new co-owner of
a home and a mortgage and with
that sort of major purchase, a re-
evaluation of spending happens.
One of the major things that my
girlfriend Ashleigh and I discovered
at our new home was that we could
save a lot of money with some
minor home improvements that we
could do ourselves.
Whether it was a “green”
appliance choice, installing energy-
saving devices or thinking outside
the box to save money and energy,
we found that there were many
things we could do to spruce up our
home and our budget.
• Energy-saving devices
Energy-saving devices can take
the form of a new water fixture,
light fixture or thermostat, and
many of them can be done quick
and easily with minimal tools and a
basic understanding of home
renovations.
The first change we decided to
make was to go with a digital,
programmable thermostat.
With minimal wiring changes
from our existing digital thermostat
we were able to install a new
thermostat that we could use to heat
our house when we needed to and
save money when we didn’t.
With the switch over to summer
peak hours for Hydro One
customers having happened earlier
this week, only running appliances
like a furnace, when necessary, is
definitely a priority.
By having our heat off between 7
a.m. and 7 p.m. we can cut down on
electrical and gas usage and save on
our bills.
Another minor home
improvement we made was to
replace our showerhead with one
with a reduced flow option.
Requiring nothing more than
some elbow grease, silicone tape
and knowing what to look for we
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 22