The Craft of Perennial Gardening

"Gardening is how I relax. It's another form of creating and playing with colors."— Oscar de la Renta

I don't have a green thumb, but find that a perennial garden is easy to create and maintain in Calgary, Canada. It satisfies that human need to create, but doesn't tie me to a weekend of weeding throughout the growing season. Each spring, my plants emerge and paint my yard with colourful forms, textures and flowers.

Calgary is an amazing place to live, despite our relatively a harsh climate: cold and snow in winter, hot and dry during our brief summer. Plants such as roses, cedars, and petunias don't thrive (without a lot of human help) in local gardens. Yet the pilgrimage to purchase beds of colourful annual flowers occurs after May 24th, a Canadian long weekend; even though snow may fall in every month in Zone 3 Calgary. Dry warm winds can sweep over the Rocky Mountains at any time in the form of Chinooks.

Calgarians, including myself, are embracing the ease, beauty and sustainability of native plants and perennial gardens.