I'm moving to a new place and I'm happy that trees can be planted now on the island. What happens when bananas fight? Someone told me that you get a banana split. I have moved these tall boys (photo) as they were awakening. The flower stage cane was too big so I cut it down. These things can get heavy. Too big too move. It would have flowered without fronds. I know it sounds strange and looks even stranger. I've separated the rhyzome in many parts as a mature basjoo is way too heavy to handle in one piece. Canes under 8ft were transported. As the old house owners walked out, they were surpised to see bare root bananas being transplanted now. Some canes were planted so close that they will push each other. I must leave room for other species but did not want to dispose of extra canes. Bananas will be used in cereal. Most don't like this kind of tiny, non-commercial crop. Someone helped me move palms under 300 lbs. Palms like immediate plantings but bananas can wait a week on the ground and will feed on the root ball portion. Mature palms are great as the impress buyers from eastern Canada. I'll manicure them and grab the winter crop left by the birds. I have lots of rock in the new garden which can be used to contain bamboo. I've planted eucalyptus and my new neighbours will find out how fast theese can grow. I need less summer water with these. I've packed juvenile camellias together to create a cluster with multi-colour and multi-type flowers. White ones are nice but the flower's lifespsan is so short. Some pinks are also too fast. I like drooping specimens. I'll put in a fall specimen to bring out of season interest to the cluster. I've planted fremontia native to CA. We don't think of California as having full PNW flowers on a tree but their native Blue CA lilac is a nice evergreen tree that was planted by old owners. Poor guys, they planted pieris on rock with no summer irrigation. That thing looked crispy as if it had been in So Cal. It's amazing how some rhodos survived summer on the rocks. I'll move them into the shade. So many rhodos are destroyed in summer out here. Many gardeners don't water them and in dry continental outlows, they go crispy. The clay turns to rock and that doesn't help. The soil I now have is a bit red like a Maritime soil. I had to move away large stones to plant palms. We have to deal with lots of rock on the island. I've planted cordys making sure that I want them there as they cannot be moved once mature. I must leave mature specimens behind. New onwers will see them as pinnates and will probably not know that they are simply dracaena spikes gone big. I've planted an olive tree. They are not a common find but I think that they are interesting. My fiance wanted cherry trees so I got a garfted tree with 5 kinds. Amazing what you find out here. I'll plant ficus. Instead of being bordered by laurel a la Vancouver. I'll border with the use of Windmill palms. Let some light in with semi-privacy. I've visited Asia where they had groves of these things. They let a fair amount of sun through but enough shade to harbour large leaf rhodos and camellias from direct sun. I have palm pups but few have patience for tiny pups so I'll plant my extras under neighbours' palms. A mother plant with a pup or two looks nice. Problem with juveniles is that thieves like them. I planted an evergreen acacia and will add more. Back in Ontario, a lawn was a good idea but out here with dry summer lawns and a huge mix of trees and plants, I want the whole thing as a garden. And being like one of the Vancouver exotic plant maniacs, there will be a tight cluster of palms and exotics that will probably compress gardening space. I've got to go to Vancouver to get gardening ideas. Any big plans for your garden? Us ex-easterners, we move in not expecting such a range of plants that take years to learn. Then we want all kinds of things in the yard. Oh, and I'll plant kiwi vines. The local Saanich cultivar of Greater Victoria. Cheers Here is a link that might be useful: Basjoo Canes

Don't panic, patients is a virtue in gardening. Just make sure to keep everything moist enough (but not waterlogged) in the heat. You can always add organic matter on top of your soil as a mulch that will slowly break down and feed the soil microbes. Aged compost and worm castings are always safe to add and won't burn your plants. I like to fertilize using things like used coffee grounds or other seed meals since they are slow release fertilizers. If I have some greedy plants that like lots of nitrogen and phosphorus, I give them a small hand full of alfalfa pellets. Be careful with the blood meal as it is really strong and a little goes a very long way. Enjoy.

This is hard because my garden is so many things for me. Beauty, certainly. The beauty it brings to our yard and house, and the beauty of individual plants, flowers and the creatures that visit. A place to be in touch with the natural world, definitely. A place to run away from the everyday world, absolutely! Order? Not at all! LOL. Give me chaos and randomness and surprises at every turn. I want my garden to make me laugh or gasp and it does both often. Sometimes it makes me cry but I can live with that. I love everything about sharing my garden with others: pictures, plants, stories, vision. I want it to inspire others as much as it inspires me and I've had the extreme pleasure of having neighbors start gardening because of what they've seen at my house. Walkers turn into the cul-de-sac just to see what's blooming. I love that. So I guess I have to include pride as one of the feelings I get from the garden. (oh oh, Seven Deadly Sins warning!) I love having a place where I can be creative, but once I've done my part it takes over and changes in ways I couldn't expect. And when it gets out of control, I also like knowing that with just a little work (or maybe a lot of work) I can start it all over and make it something new. Surprise, delight, beauty, pride... my garden makes me laugh. Kate

I've been through the Master Gardener programs in several states, and ultimately opted out of ever bothering with it again. Largely because of the political aspect - as a "master gardener", you are not allowed to provide any information that doesn't toe whatever the current party line is. In one state, that was used to disallow ANY discussion whatsoever of any organic methods (granted this was about 30 years ago). Sure, there's a lot of misinformation possible re "organic methods" - but really no more than the usual gardening misinformation. In another state, it was the exact opposite - there was no discussion or mention by master gardeners allowed of any pesticide that was not approved organic. I briefly considered going through the MG program here, but ultimately decided against it, after having an extension agent tell me that as a master gardener, I was NOT ALLOWED to tell someone asking about vining plants that trumpet vine is extremely invasive and likely to become a nuisance to their neighbors. Apparently in this desert state no one has gotten around to officially designating it as a noxious weed. When I pushed to find out WHY this person had this opinion - it turned out that this ag extension agent had planted trumpet vine in her yard, and was upset that her neighbors had complained about it coming up in THEIR yards. Yeah. I need to be involved with somebody who ignores good horticultural practices and uses her personal life to inform her opinion of appropriate information to be given to people who, after all, ASKED first. And then there was the ag extension agent who allowed a "master gardener" of allegedly decades of experience to weed some of the university beds of native plants. That woman pulled up every native plant and left most of the actual weeds. The sad fact is that more and more extension agencies shove a "master gardener" at you rather than let you talk to an actual extension agent. These "master gardeners" then do google searches, and send that to you as if it is actual factual information. If I call an extension agency for help, its because I want a TRAINED response based on sound knowledge and scientific fact - not crap you find on the Internet. I know how to use Google - better than any "master gardener", in fact. If it is not the duty of a master gardener to provide answers - not "help researching" but actual answers - then the master gardener program is of little use. Which, over the years, is exactly what it has proven itself to be - of little use. The occasional highly competent gardener that you find in a "master gardener" program is the exception, and gets drowned out by the sea of people with 6 weeks of training in looking stuff up on the Internet who know little or nothing about actual gardening - or worse yet, THINK they do and pass along bad information.