We all crave a little more colour in your lives, especially as summer approaches

Making the leap to adding colour in your home can be a small commitment or a fairly large one depending on your comfort level. I'm going to show you five great ways to add a pop of colour to your interior without painting the walls.

Hardy flowers for the cool spring season

A giant cardboard box of flowers arrived last week. Every plant was primly upright and not a drop of soil had escaped a single pot.

What?

Who gets their annuals shipped in?

Some garden tips for Calgary's spring season

Spring dashes in and out of Calgary like a mouse checking for crumbs at the cabin. Winter is gone and the earth is warming. Suddenly, winter is back again with flurries and frost.

As the snow melts, jobs in the garden include raking the lawn, cleaning leaves off outdoor beds and making compost. These jobs seem simple enough but wait —
not so fast. The surface of the lawn has to be thawed and that takes longer on
the shady side of the yard.

Living surfaces shouldn't be cause for a decor dilemma

My clients often agonize over the coffee table décor dilemma. It turns out it's not difficult at all to tablescape your coffee table and I'm here to show you how. As always,

I prefer a clean and simple look, even when it's jam-packed and eclectic. I've got three coffee table examples that run the gamut of decorating styles. A mid-century modern look, an electric traditional bohemian look and a clean contemporary bachelors coffee table.

Slithering serpents can be very helpful in the garden

My neighbour George, now in his late 80s, told me he had to tear down his old greenhouse because it was full of snakes.

His wife Barbara was very afraid of the small serpents. The only place I have seen an overabundance of garter snakes in Calgary is in a rock garden in Edgemont. The rocks, seemingly alive with slithering serpents, were a little unsettling.

Cats are different from dogs.

If you arrive home late, cats pretend they don't even remember you. They scoot under your bed, spill their water or mess with their cat box if you are late or even think of being late. Dogs however, are licking your face before the key is out of the lock and demanding to know if you want to go for a walk.

There is confusion among new gardeners when it comes to growing plants from seed. Can you really use toilet paper rolls to start seedlings? Sure – if you have a stack of them on hand and don't mind them falling apart just when you need them to hang together.

How about seeding into eggshells? Fine, if you buy jumbo free-range eggs. Some of the regular eggs are so fragile, it's difficult to get them out of the fridge without crumbling the shell. Free-range eggs are usually tough enough but are they big enough? A small container such as a tiny eggshell needs to be misted and watered continuously.

I am working on my garden and the soil is hitting the ground but I haven't left the kitchen. It's a Sunday morning in January and I am planting micro-greens. I am also wear my fuzzy slippers.

Sold at many markets, so called "baby" lettuce is also called microgreens and I am growing my own. From seed, they take a few weeks to mature and size up for eating. It doesn't really matter when you get started and I wouldn't plan a dinner party around it, but micro-greens grown indoors under lights germinate overnight and keep growing until cut.

It's not the busiest season in the garden but at the job site, one garden business is so busy right now no one is allowed to take a day off until after Christmas.

Despite their name, BC Greenhouse Builders Ltd. in Langley B.C. is a small family-owned greenhouse construction business. Selling home and commercial greenhouses right across North America, the company is shipping a huge greenhouse to Saskatchewan the day I arrive for my tour in early October.