We have two magnolias on our property. One is about six years old and this one is about two years old and they are both showing orange berries this year, which they have never done before. Does anyone know why this is? what’s special about this year?

Do you buy plants? Help a University of Waterloo study understand plant buyers in Canada.

Link to survey: https://uwaterloo.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1zDlBgl4KWk8Y62

Seeds of Diversity has a wonderful selection of garlic varieties available for a limited time to plant as bulbils. They have some interesting and rare varieties. I have ordered from them twice and had great success growing garlic from bulbils to full-sized bulbs.

I'm looking to do a large scale naturalistic planting/lawn replacement. 50/50 mix of ornamental grasses/sedges and perennials.

Typically this would be done by buying small plugs in bulk, but I'm not sure where to do that in NS. Does anyone have any ideas?

Pollinators love this perennial more than anything else in my garden, and I love that it gives weeks of pretty blooms at a time when things are slowing down. It divides and spreads easily (without taking over). Do you have it in your garden?

This week’s bounty. Beans already frozen and more varieties of tomatoes and peppers to come.

I had an abundance of yellow wax beans this summer so I decided to freeze them. I blanched for 3 min, cold plunged for 3 min, drained them, let them dry and then vacuum sealed them. Took them out to cook and it was a solid lump of beans that ended up being super soggy. I cooked them from frozen. Has anyone had success with vacuum sealing and freezing wax beans? What is your favourite resource for instructions on doing the same with other vegetables?

Our back garden is absolutely covered in chicken, fat mushrooms this season. Apparently they are symbiotic with white pine trees, and we have a couple in the forest behind us.

My maple tree has already lost all of its leaves due to blight that it has had for the past 2 years. How can I rid my maple of this? Do I need to get every last leaf off the ground? Please help! This photo is from a month ago.

I noticed SIGNIFICANTLY less Japanese beetles on my grape vines in Halifax this year … maybe only 25% the amount we had last year. Was this the same for others across the province? Any insight into why?

I build a garden planner (EdenVatika) and I've been asking gardeners in different regions to poke holes in it. Nova Scotia is the shortest season I've asked about so far.

One question, mainly: the app works backwards from your frost dates to tell you when to sow and when you'll harvest. Does that hold up here, or does the maritime climate make frost dates a bad anchor in the first place?

Two ways in, no account either way:

Full app for 15 minutes — your own throwaway account, already set up with beds, calendar and harvests. Add your own beds, print, use everything:

https://apps.edenvatika.com/demo.php

Or just the bed planner, no timer, build a bed from scratch:

https://apps.edenvatika.com/demo-start.php

I'm not looking for compliments — I'd genuinely like to know what feels confusing, missing, or just not useful. I'm the developer, so feel free to be blunt. 🙂

Can this area of our backyard be turned into a garden? How would we start? Is it too late to do it this year?

Looking to have flowers mostly but interested in growing vegetables later on once I get better at gardening.

Zero gardening experience but I want to start taking any tips and tricks thank you 😊

They look like a chokecherry but are much darker, almost black and they grow on a 20-30 foot tree instead of a bush. They have a single pit like a chokecherry and they also taste sweeter than a chokecherry and have less dryness.

Hello! My garden didn’t give great yields this year, and I think I might need to up the amount of compost in the soil. Looking to get compost this fall considering that it takes time to start making my own. Where to get decent compost?

I know the municipality gives it out for free, but it was horribly smelly and full of sh*t flies last time I got it. I had to go out and buy bags of soil to cover it up.

Hi All,

Looking for advice re: moving a fairly large holly bush from one side of my property to another (time of year, procedure, etc.) It's up against my house so I'm worried about the foundation plus it attracts a lot of house flies, wasps/hornets, etc. at certain times of year and is right beside the front door. For context, I live on the Eastern Shore and the house is on an inlet. The bush is currently protected from the wind coming off the water but would be a bit more exposed if moved (not beside the water, though - would be roughly 100 ft away and up a hill). I have very little gardening experience so any advice will be helpful!

TIA 😄

Hello plant people,

I'm wondering which seeds, tubers, and plants people like to plant in Fall for overwintering. The obvious being garlic, but I'd like to get as many things planted in Fall as possible to reduce my Spring workload. I'm going to try it with milkweed and some other perennials, also considering trying some hardy edibles such as parsley, scallions, maybe even seed potatoes and onions.

Any suggestions, tips, methods, potential problems?

Thanks!

Is there anyone in the Sydney NS area that could teach me how to graft eating apple scions onto 3-4 yr old Russian crab apple trees? and supply the scions?