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Stories Tagged - Donna Balzer

News

Sept. 22, 2016 | Donna Balzer

No regrets

Don't make the mistake; plant your bulbs now

newDonnawebIt's simple garden envy, but there is a cure.

And it doesn't matter if your patch is just a tiny spot beside a townhome or a broad sweeping patch in a big country acreage.

If you are in a new garden and don't add bulbs now, you will regret it next spring. There is no shortcut to the blooming beauty we welcome with spring bulbs.

Here are some further tips:
News

Sept. 07, 2016 | Donna Balzer

Seeding into fall

Try a last-minute salad crop

newDonnawebIt was well after her neighbour had finished their veggie harvest and late into November last year when my daughter, Chelsie, allowed her son, Cohen, to fulfill his final garden wish of the season.

First, she asked eight-year old Cohen to fill eight more bags of Kale from their patch.

The next morning, when the temperatures crashed and the remaining crop was crisply covered with frosty icing, Chelsie gave Cohen the go-ahead. He bounced high on his trampoline and lept off into the frozen kale patch. The kale cracked into shards on impact, and the still-soft soil broke his fall as he tumbled like a gymnast down the row. You couldn't imagine a bigger smile and a better way to say goodbye to summer.

Deadheading involves cutting flowers off after they fade to encourage more flowers. Photo by Donna Balzer/For CREB®Now
News

Aug. 26, 2016 | Donna Balzer

Deadheading boosts blooms

But beware of Calgary's famous hail belt

newDonnawebWhat's with crazy gardening terms like "deadheading?" It sounds like something done in a dark alley, in private, after midnight.

Patrick Horner, a reader and fairly new gardener, wasn't sure at first, but he figured out from an online search that it meant cutting flowers off after they fade to encourage more flowers. He sent me an email: "If I am deadheading [my dianthus], what do I remove?"

Horner's plant in question is a perennial dianthus – a hardy dwarf relative of the common-cut flower the carnation. If he deadheads it, it may bloom again a bit this season, and will certainly bloom more heavily next year because it won't use up its energy making seeds this year.

The usual definition of a weed is a plant growing where you don’t want it.   Identifying what's a weed, however, takes a bit more effort. Photo courtesy Donna Balzer/For CREB®Now
News

Aug. 08, 2016 | Donna Balzer

Crazy weeds

When you know it's too good to be true

newDonnaweb"Help! This plant is growing behind my office in Calgary and I can't identify it" tweeted Christene.

Gloria had some "wonderful old flowers" suddenly appear in her Canmore yard, so she sent photos by email. Mehran fell in love with a beautiful plant he saw in a Springbank ditch. He texted me a photo. Pretty and mysterious plants were suddenly on all my media.

"Our office building is about two blocks west of the Bow River. There's always a bunch of interesting plants growing out back behind the warehouse loading dock so I'm always trying to identify them, see if there are any plants I can steal to put in my garden. I had never seen anything like this one before and probably spent a good hour trying to figure out what it was," said Christene by follow-up email. But of course anything this exotic and pretty and springing out of nowhere could only be one thing. Christene and Gloria and Mehran all had or wanted to know more about weeds. Pretty, vigorous weeds.

Curb Appeal will be based on feedback from real estate professionals and house stagers on how and why landscape influences home sales. Photo courtesy Donna Balzer/For CREB®Now.
News

July 25, 2016 | Donna Balzer

Curb Appeal in Calgary

Your chance to get involved in new local book

newDonnawebCalgary real estate professional Lori Olijnyk remembers a particular home home in Calgary's hot inner city: "It had a large 50-foot lot with a dilapidated picket fence that might have been white at one time. Rolls of chicken wire actually had a bird in it. [The] grass was overgrown and the walkway was crumbling."

In other words, it was a mess, and it failed the curb appeal test. The curb appeal was so bad it was hard to get prospective buyers out of the car and into the home.

"A bad first impression is difficult to overcome," said Olijnyk.

Hiring a gardener is not the same as hiring a house cleaner, says 'No Guff Gardener' Donna Balzer.
News

June 30, 2016 | Donna Balzer

Get the right help in your garden

Finding a gardener that matches your mindset

newDonnawebMaybe you are getting your house ready for sale, expecting the in-laws to visit or you just brought home a new baby and now the shrubs are threatening to eat the front door. Either way, you need a gardener.

Hiring a gardener is not the same as hiring a house cleaner. Most indoor cleaning jobs follow an accepted system for removing dirt and fluffing pillows. They leave the home the same, but cleaner than before.

Outdoors, your personal style and sensitivity have to match the person you hire as a gardener because a garden evolves and changes over time. Your gardener has to be going in the same direction as you.

Gardening guru Donna Balzer suggests, If permitted, adding containers to the edge of the balcony rail to give more planting space.
News

June 22, 2016 | CREBNow

Beauty on the balcony

Five tips on how to add some wow factor to your outdoor space

newDonnawebIt is possible to plant your balcony using leftover plastic containers and old grocery bags. That said, it is also possible to wear old coffee sacks as clothing.

If you want beauty on your balcony or your body, plan ahead and look for the right pieces to make a statement because even a small space deserves to be beautiful.

Here are five tips to boost your balcony's beauty this spring:

1. Cover the balcony floor

If you have old, tired outdoor rugs or a concrete balcony, laying outdoor floor decking can quickly change the ambiance. Outdoor floor decking can be cut to size to fit your space. It doesn't need to be glued down, so it is easily lifted for winter or when you move. If your balcony is the same size of a woven plastic rug, skip the wood floor and buy a new area rug to cover the existing surface.

News

May 27, 2016 | Donna Balzer

Fools rush in

Create a back-up plan with insulating fleece

newDonnawebIt's early spring and it seems like time to plant.

Well go ahead and shop 'till you drop. But consider holding back on planting the tender plants such as Hosta, Begonias and even Marigolds unless you have a backup plan this spring.

I'm not talking a big plan like a home greenhouse or sturdy cold-frame. The backup plan can be as simple as a few meters of insulating fleece, also sold as Reemay or spunbond polyester. This light fabric is sold in packages at hardware stores and by the meter from rolls in garden centres.

It is sold in different thickness levels and is good for different degrees of frost. Even the thinnest, lightest fleece materials will give a few degrees of frost protection, and that is what we need in May in Calgary.

News

April 11, 2016 | Donna Balzer

First signs of spring

Plants may not wear a watch, but they know what time it is

newDonnawebIt's March and days are ripe and sunny enough for a patio lunch downtown. Other days bring wind and snow and winter boots out of the closet. Seriously, is there really anything a newbie gardener can do outside this early in the season?

Sarah found out by accident that there is plenty you can do early. She attempted to plant her spinach in May with her other garden crops a couple of years ago and then found out, by surprise, that spinach could tell time. Perhaps not time the way people measure minutes but certainly plant time, as dictated by the sun and the moon.

When the days got longer close to summer solstice on June 21, Sarah's spinach, barely four leaves old, suddenly bloomed and went to seed. She was devastated because spinach is one of her favorite foods and it was finished for the season before July.

Homes and gardens alike require updating.  Donna Balzer, guest columnist offers  advice on keeping the garden relevant to the modern home.
News

March 24, 2016 | Donna Balzer

What is your garden style?

Not everything is timeless when it comes to outdoor design
Do you have a high-end ultra-modern home with striking features that looks like it came out of a recent copy of Architectural Digest?


What about your yard? Does it look like it came from a Home and Garden magazine circa 1985?


This jarring contrast of cottage-style garden with modern home seems hard to understand until you think of the process. Homeowners do not design homes – builders and architects do. Yet homeowners are the ones often design their own gardens.


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