Some of the most creative and useful garden ideas come from home gardeners who problem-solve in their own gardens.
A small-space Vancouver gardener turned Romano pole bean plants into a decorative vegetable garden edge by growing them on low, horizontal strings that provided support without blocking sun from neighboring crops.
Another city gardener restrained the thuggish tendencies of golden oregano by growing it in tiny crevices between a wall of stacked rock and a rock path.
Gardening is always a dance between bringing some plants together and keeping others apart. A Surrey gardener places a border of colourful annuals, perennials and herbs around her vegetable garden. She chooses varieties that attract pollinating bees and other beneficial insects.
Meanwhile, another Surrey gardener shrugs off the advice of many arborists and rings his apple trees with deep bark mulch right out to the drip line.
He says the mulch holds extra moisture for the trees, keeps down weeds, shrinks down the size of the lawn making it easier to cut and stops the trees from sharing grass fertilizer.
Rural gardens are friendly places for of birds that are eager to have a feed at gardener's expense. Some are towhees eager to feast on corn and pea seed before it germinates. But other birds can be put to work.
A Maple Ridge gardener finds bantam chicken are great pest and weed controls and don't damage the garden like big hens. But she warns that bantams can only be let loose around established plants. They're not safe with tiny seedlings.
Another Maple Ridge gardener has Indian Runner ducks on slug patrol in her garden. She says this breed eats slugs, lays eggs, doesn't injure the vegetables and doesn't need water as much as other ducks.
People who garden on slopes sometimes like to place vegetable and fruit gardens near the foot of the slope where water running downhill nurtures the vegetables. But structures uphill can shade the sun-loving vegetables below.
A North Vancouver gardener gained height without shade by following the curve of her garden's slope with a line of heavy vertical timbers linked by horizontal beams like an airy Stonehenge.
Gardeners with imagination can introduce all the creativity of the flower garden into their vegetable patch. A Coquitlam gardener uses rustic artifacts such as antique wooden ladders and tripods for her climbing vegetables.
