Grafting apple and pear trees

January - Registered the business name “ABC Garden Services”  

February - Advertised fruit tree pruning services online, and received lots of interest right away. Soon our calendar was filled with bookings. We started working on a wide range of trees for all kinds of different clients. Bought a bigger ladder and more hand tools. Started a Facebook page. 

March - Pruning fruit trees from Mesachie Lake to Chemainus to Shawnigan. Got hired to do a couple educational “prune alongs” with homeowners who want to learn how to care for their own trees.

- Table at Duncan Seedy Sunday, selling plants and handing out business cards. Met lots of friends, new and old!

- Rented a room in The Hub at Cowichan Station to host a free No-Dig Gardening session. 17 attendees, lots of great questions, not enough time to cover everything. Click here to access the full slidedeck from the presentation

Watch this space for a full Q&A from this session, coming soon!

April - First install of the year at Cowichan Professional Building, Duncan.

This project was an interesting challenge because the garden is located in a shady area between buildings and under a group of well-established Cedar trees. New plantings included Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea 'Gentry' (Royal Burgundy), Gaultheria shallon (Salal), Vaccinium ovatum (Evergreen Huckleberry), and three different types of Hostas. There were already some Chinese berberis and Oregon grapes from a previous planting. The client requested stone mulch. We added a lot of Sea Soil compost to the soil before planting, and amended each planting hole with a generous scoop of Gaia Green 4-4-4. There is drip irrigation installed underneath the pebbles. The result is a hybrid of classic urban “crackscaping” and a coastal rainforest-inspired garden with three different native edible berries, plenty of spiky plants to discourage intruders, bright colours year-round, and an overall clean aesthetic.

May -

Invasive removal day for a client whose entire yard was overgrown with tough old blackberry vines.

June - A front yard transformation for Cathy, who requested a low-maintenance design that her 2 young boys and their friends could enjoy - she wanted to nurture their love of growing food, and we were happy to help!!

This was a big install, and a major highlight of our Summer season. It took 4 full days from beginning to end. Cathy had an awesome collection of flat stones for us to work with, so we had a lot of fun creating the curving stone pathway. We cleared a lot of things out and planted strawberries, rhubarb, and red currants. The raised bed is a Sproutbox kit product, which was super easy to build, and much more accessible for both Cathy and the kids to use when growing their tomatoes, peppers, and salad greens.

-More invasive removals, this time digging Yellow Flag Iris out of a creek on a client’s acreage: