Gardening

Now

See below for this year's tulip display.

In summer 2001, we set out to do battle with the white grubs infesting our front lawn. While neighbours and other Ottawans lugged home gallons of pesticides, we bought $40 worth of nematodes. The white grubs must have been hiding when we applied the nematodes, because at the end of the summer we had as many white grubs as when we started.

In 2002, we bought more nematodes. Another $40. This time the grubs must have been carrying little umbrellas because again, the only beneficiaries of the application were the crows who were telling their friends about Elliotts All-You-Can-Eat White Grub al Fresco.

By Summer 2003, neighbours were crying into their diazinon and tearing their hair out. I had a better idea. Tear the turf out. If grubs eat grass, we'd starve the buggers.

To make a long story short and certainly less boring, our lawn has been transformed into a real garden. I still have to work on the original flower beds but the new part of the garden is doing fine. I'm adding plants from friends or when there's a sale at the garden centre. I've made a plant book with pictures of the garden and the names of each of the plants written in. Okay, so I'm a little fastidious (a more polite word than the one you're thinking).

Last fall, I added about 150 tulip and daffodil bulbs to the 100 or so that we already had and was rewarded with a glorious spring garden.

Tulips 2004