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Growing

Beating the August Slump: Reviving Tired Perennial Beds in Kingston
Six weeks ago that bed by the driveway was full of colour and life. Now the coneflowers have gone brown and papery, the catmint has flopped sideways onto the lawn, and things just aren't looking as vibrant as they once did. That's the August garden slump, and every perennial garden across Kingston hits this same wall around the same time each year. Early bloomers are finished, the July heat has stressed everything else, and the whole bed just looks worn …
Growing

Shade-Loving Plants for Kingston’s Shadiest Yards
That patch under the silver maple has been bare dirt for three summers running. You've tried top of the line grass seed and shade tolerant plants from the store but nothing seems to be working. Kingston has no shortage of yards like this featuring large trees shading a portion of the lot, north facing yards that don't see much sun to begin with, and fences lined with hedges. This doesn't have to mean bare dirt. It simply means selecting the …
Fall

When To Start Thinking About Spring Bulbs
Every year some folks walk into the garden centre describing beautiful tulips in the neighbors flower bed and asks the same question: When is the best time for me to plant my bulbs? Spring flowering bulbs are one of the few garden purchases where the timing is reversed from what feels natural. Planting in the fall pays off in a big way five to six months later while missing the window can mean waiting the full year. Why Fall Is the …
Summer

How to Keep Hanging Baskets Alive During Summer Heat
Your basket looked incredible in June, full and bright, spilling over the edges of the pot the way it did on the tag photo. Then July hit, the heat settled in over Kingston, and by the second week you're pulling crispy leaves off a plant that's clearly struggling. Baskets dry out faster than almost anything else you grow, and once they fall behind on water, everything else, the blooms, the colour, the shape, starts to slide with them. Why Hanging Baskets …
Growing

How to Keep Your Vegetable Garden Thriving Through the Summer Heat
Your veggies were doing fine, then the heat waves arrived. It's one of the most common things we hear at the garden centre by mid-summer: plants that looked great in June are wilting daily, fruit is dropping before it matures, and nothing seems to be working. Ontario summers can be genuinely hard on a vegetable garden, and Kingston's July heat is no exception. The combination of heat, humidity, and stretches without rain pushes plants past what they can handle on …
Growing

How to Identify and Fix Bare Spots in Your Lawn
You noticed it sometime in May. A rough patch by the fence, or along the path you take to the back garden every morning. By June it's worse, and now it's July and it's still there. Bare spots don't fix themselves. Fixing them well isn't complicated, but it mostly comes down to knowing what caused the spot in the first place, because that changes everything about how you approach the repair. Throw seed down without that step and you'll likely …
Summer

Seeding vs. Sodding: Which Is Right For You?
Two approaches, one result. But the path you take shapes how much you spend and how that lawn performs five seasons from now. Kingston homeowners arrive at this decision from different directions. A new build where the contractor left the site graded down to bare clay. A renovation stripped the turf. A dry summer that wiped out half an established lawn and left you starting over. Whatever the reason, the question is the same one that comes up on most …
Growing

Drought-Resistant Gardening in Ontario: Plants, Mulch, and Watering Strategies That Work
Every summer, Kingston homeowners face the same conversation with their gardens. The weather turns dry, the city's odd/even watering schedule goes into effect, and a yard that looked healthy in May starts showing stress by mid-July. A garden that handles drought isn't about accepting a patchy yard that barely survives July. It's about choosing plants that don't demand constant water and managing your soil so each application goes further. What Kingston's Water Restrictions Actually Mean Kingston's seasonal watering rules are based on …
All Seasons

Mulch 101
Six bags, four colours, and two types of bark can leave you wondering if you're buying the right one. Mulch gets treated like a commodity purchase where most people just grab something, dump it in the bed, move on. There's a real difference between the right mulch and just something on the ground, and since you're spending the money either way, you might as well land on the one that actually works for your yard. Here's a breakdown of every …
Growing

Give Your Tree a Fighting Chance: How to Plant a Tree Correctly
There are trees in Kingston that have been standing for sixty years and then there are trees that don't make it past their second spring. The difference usually isn't the tree, it's how you put it in the ground. Most homeowners treat planting like a one-step process: dig a hole, drop the tree, go inside. That works about as well as you'd expect, because trees planted wrong struggle from day one and a struggling new tree is basically an open …
Summer

Summer Lawn Care Tips Every Kingston Homeowner Should Know
Summer rolls in and Kingston lawns hit a turning point. The lush growth of May slows and the soil starts drying out faster than it did all spring. Foot traffic from kids, dogs, and backyard life starts to take a toll. Somewhere around the second week of July, many homeowners reach the same conclusion: the lawn is struggling, so it must need more water and more fertilizer. Summer lawn maintenance is less about doing more and more about doing the …
Summer

How to Keep Your Lawn and Garden Weed Free All Season Long
Weeds don't wait for you to be ready. Come early May in Kingston, dandelions are already setting roots while your lawn is still shaking off winter. Pull one on the weekend, find three more by Tuesday. The problem is timing, not effort. Good weed prevention tips start before the first weed appears, and that's exactly where we'll begin, along with what to do when they show up anyway. Why Weeds Keep Winning Weeds are opportunistic. A thin patch of grass after a …
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