Dear Helen: It seems I cannot grow rosemary. My neighbour’s plants, just across the street, flourish all year. My plants turn dull and brittle. Please tell me what I am doing wrong. My partner, who loves rosemary, is becoming cranky over my lack of skill at cultivating this herb.
R.D.
Rosemary is native to summer-dry hills around the Mediterranean, where soils are slightly alkaline and well drained. The plants do not react well to wet, acidic soils. Lime the soil well for rosemary plants and locate them in sunny sites that drain quickly of excess moisture. Avoid over-watering.
Probably the toughest variety and the easiest to grow is Arp. That’s the one I use to create short rosemary “hedges” in the garden. I’ve also enjoyed creeping rosemary in clay pots on the patio. For the winter, I settle the plants on a bench against the patio’s south-facing house wall, where they are protected from heavy winter rains.
Dear Helen: How much damage do you think the recent cold snap will have done to our gardens?
W.I.
The amount of damage from cold depends on the degree of frost, the presence, or not, of snow cover, and the types of plants involved. All these factors vary from area to area on the Island and from garden to garden.
Most of the shrubs, trees, perennials and spring flowering bulbs we grow withstand the few degrees of frost we usually get.
The timing of this cold snap, after mid-February, was unusual and unexpected, especially after the freezing weather predicted in a warning earlier in the month never materialized. For winter food growers, it was unfortunate, because leafy greens such as kale were producing fresh, tender greenery and over-wintered cauliflower and sprouting broccoli were at the harvesting or pre-harvesting stage.
Most plants in the winter food garden are safe or recoverable down to -5 C. If temperatures colder than that are predicted, it’s best to throw covers over the plantings. I use several layers of well-used floating row covers or old, lightweight curtaining.
At mid-month, on the Saturday before an overnight snowfall and following freezing temperatures, I also dug the remaining leeks and picked the last of the brussels sprouts.
Dear Helen: I’m puzzled over my complete inability to grow spinach. Germination is always poor, and seeds that do sprout grow into miserably stubby little disappointments that are entirely unusable.
T.M.
This is a common frustration, often voiced by home gardeners who have moved here from Interior locations where the soils tend to be alkaline. Our rainy climate washes alkaline elements from most soils, leaving them acidic. Spinach needs a neutral to slightly alkaline soil to grow into lush and robust leafiness.
When I moved back to Vancouver Island from the Okanagan a few decades ago, I, too, wondered why spinach (and beets) did not grow properly, despite a light liming with fine dolomite lime prior to seeding. When I began using Dolopril, a faster-acting, prilled (granulated) dolomite lime, in preparing a plot for seeding, my spinach plantings started producing beautifully.
Garden Events
View Royal meeting: The View Royal Garden Club will meet this evening at 7:30 in Wheeley Hall, 500 Admirals Rd. in Esquimalt. Carol Dancer, former head of volunteer gardeners at Government House, will speak about creating winter interest in gardens. A judged mini-show will feature exhibits from members’ gardens and there will be a sale of plants and garden items. Visitor drop-in fee $5.
Seedy in Courtenay: The Comox Valley Growers and Seed Savers will host a Seedy Saturday on March 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Florence Filberg Centre, 411 Anderton Ave. in Courtenay. The event’s theme, Local Seed = Bountiful Harvest, will be highlighted in a presentation by Des Kennedy on “Becoming a Seed Extremist” at 10:30 a.m. Elodie Roger will speak at 12:30 and 1:30 p.m. on seed saving and locally adapted seed. For a list of vendors, visit cvgss.org/seed-saturday-2018. Admission $5.
Orchid show and sale. “Orchids in Nature” is the theme of Victoria Orchid Society’s annual Orchid Show and Sale on Saturday, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., in Our Lady of Fatima Hall, 4635 Elk Lake Dr., across from the Commonwealth Pool. Featured will be orchid displays, a wide range of orchids for sale and a silent auction (ending 3:30 Sunday). Admission $7 adults, students and seniors $6.
