How Metro Vancouver Residents Can Protect Gardens and Lawns from Invasive Beetles
You’ve seen lawns around the region destroyed by animals and birds searching for a juicy chafer beetle snack. Now there’s a new beetle in town. And it’s even worse! The Japanese beetle (Popillia Japonica) is threatening lawns, gardens, and landscaped areas in a few Metro Vancouver municipalities. In response, steps…
Gardening with Native Plants
Submitted by: Douglas Justice, Associate Director, Horticulture & Collections & Christina Prehn, Education Assistant (UBC Botanical Garden) Did you know that British Columbia is home to 3,510 native plant species? This number includes both the conductive-tissued vascular plants and nonvascular, smaller-in-stature bryophytes, like mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Of these native plants,…
Why Are Crows Ruining My Lawn! (a.k.a. Living with European Chafer Beetle in Vancouver)
Submitted by Kerrie van Gaalen, UBC Botanical Garden Have you ever wondered why the crows have been so interested in tearing up your lawn recently? It turns out they are in search of the tasty grub snack known as the European chafer beetle (Rhizotrogus majalis). Working in a botanical garden,…
Home Grown Food: Growing in Containers
Submitted By: Egan Davis, Tara Moreau and Douglas Justice, UBC Botanical Garden Learning to grow food is a great way to connect to nature and to agriculture, all while spending time outdoors. With over 42 Grow Green food-plant garden designs there are plenty of options to choose from, whether you’re…
Improving Park Amenities for Six-legged Residents
Submitted by: Chris McKerracher, Trades II Gardener, City of Vancouver “Are you going to plant daffodils?” The words tumbled out of the mouth of a girl amongst a small group of kindergarten students watching us work. They were taking a break from their gym activity of jogging around the field…
April in the Neighbourhood
Submitted by: Douglas Justice, Associate Director, Horticulture and Collections Considering the restrictions around getting out and visiting public gardens, we thought it might be useful to highlight a few common plants that people are likely to encounter in their own neighbourhoods. We’ll be updating this feature as different plants come…
Why Plant Trees?
Submitted by: Douglas Justice, Associate Director, Horticulture & Collections (UBC Botanical Garden) Ecological services, aesthetics There is a lot of accumulated research that tells us that trees are valuable. Trees provide ecological services that include extracting carbon dioxide from the air and replacing that (minus the carbon that is sequestered…
Preserving Your Summer Harvest
Did you grow a bumper crop of tomatoes, squash or zucchini this year and are wondering what to do with it all? Check out Love Food Hate Waste Canada for guides and tips for preserving your summer produce.
Soils 102: Observing Soil Quality at Home – Article at a Glance
Submitted By: Egan Davis, Principal Instructor (UBC Botanical Garden) To learn more about soil quality, you need to use your senses by looking, touching and smelling it. This summary overviews some of the simple ways you can test the soil quality in your home garden. To read the full article,…
Soils 102: Observing Soil Quality at Home – Full Article
Submitted By: Egan Davis, Principal Instructor (UBC Botanical Garden) In a previous article, we discussed the importance of healthy soil. However, to learn more about soil, you need to use your senses by looking, touching and smelling it. Here is a good field test that you can easily do without specialized…