Planting Tip of the Month:

October is the time to plant your garlic. Aim to plant your garlic as close to thanksgiving as possible. The weather should be cool and your soil moist but not saturated. If your soil is really dry, water your bulbs in. Ideal spacing for garlic cloves is at least 6 inches apart and 2 inches deep. You can option to spread a light coat of straw over your planted bed to act as a weed control and prevent soil erosion. Don’t forget to scape them in June and harvest time is dependent on variety.

Happy gardening!
Cassandra

Our Annual Tree Sale

Our annual tree sale begins October 1! Buy two Deciduous Trees and get your third tree free. This includes all remaining Fruit Trees, Japanese Maples, Norway Maples, Flowering Cherries, Magnolias, Dogwoods, so many to choose from!

(Please note that hedging and conifers are excluded from the sale.)

Buy 2 and get the 3rd Free

First Ever Statuary Sale !

30% off selected statuary and ornaments !

Sale begins October 1 !
Great Christmas planning for the gardeners on your list !

Summer in the Garden

Take advantage of the warm days, cool evenings and ample morning dew to complete your late summer plantings. With two strong growing months ahead to root out, mid to late August is a very successful time to plant your gardens.

Ornamental Grasses

Ornamental grasses are low-maintenance plants that every garden should have. Largely drought resistant once established, ornamental grasses are available in a wide variety of sizes, colours and many are evergreen.

Pruning

The pruning of grasses is simple.  For deciduous grasses prune to within 18″ of the ground in early spring once new growth is starting to emerge.   Evergreen grasses do not require such aggressive pruning. In the spring simply pull the dead grass out with gloved hands. If individual stems or tips become damaged, simple remove them with a pair of shears/snips/secateurs, at any point in the year.

Fertilizing your ornamental grasses is easy. A bi-weekly application of 20-20-20 and a six week application of granular 18-4-8 will give you grasses that are healthy and quickly drought tolerant.

Japanese Forest Grass

Our Beautiful Blues

What a Season!

High yields, fantastic flavours, this has been a stand out year for our u-pick blueberries. There is still a bumper crop of berries left to pick!   Our mixed variety fields will be producing into September this year and thanks to the blistering past couple of weeks the berries are sweeter than normal.   Our field is open Daily 9 – 5 but we will be closed this holiday Monday to celebrate the day with our families.

August Recipe

Paradise Blueberry Cinnamon Buns:

1 (1/4 ounce) package dry yeast – 21/4 tsp
1 cup warm milk
½ cup sugar
1/3 cup butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
4 cups flour

Filling
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 ½ tablespoons cinnamon
1/3 cup butter
¾ cup Paradise Blueberries

Icing
8 tablespoons butter
1 ½ cup icing sugar
¼ cup cream cheese
½ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt

Dissolve Yeast in warm Milk
Add sugar, butter, eggs and flour, mix well.
Knead into a large ball using flour to dust your hands.
Let rise in a covered bowl until double in size, about an hour.

Roll out onto a lightly floured surface until it is 12” long by 16” wide
Should be ¼” thick.

Combine filling – sugar and butter and sprinkle evenly over surface.
Sprinkle with berries.   Don’t use too many or it will get soggy.

From the long edge, roll the dough down to the bottom edge.
Cut the dough into 1 ¾” slices and place in a lightly buttered 9×13 pan.

Cover with a damp towel and let rise until double – about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes or until light brown.
When cool, blend icing and beat until fluffy – spread all over the rolls.
Share the beautiful Paradise Buns you have created (or eat them all yourself…)

A week of hot weather has snapped our fields into ripening mode.   Our berries are huge this year, and easy picking.  $3/pound   Open daily 9-5.   Bring your buckets, hats and a friend !   For our Facebook followers, our free berry picking contest starts today!

May Gardening News



April Showers certainly have brought May flowers! We have had a long, cool spring which extends flowering time on many species. In this edition we’ll talk to you about hanging baskets, spring tips on how to deal with dandelions and of course share another one of our favourite recipes.

For the May long weekend we hope that you all get to relax in your gardens, put your feet up, and enjoy your families and friends. May long is that magical weekend that typically signals that we are frost free, and you have the all clear to plant your annual crops, seed your veggie gardens, and basically work yourself from dawn till dusk. Like I always say, you can either buy a gym membership, or just get out and garden!

Just don’t forget to stretch first 🙂
Cassandra

Hanging Baskets



It’s full on spring in the Garden Centre, and lots to celebrate in May! Mother’s Day is only a few days away, and a great excuse to spoil those special Mum, Mom, Mother, Madre, Maman  in your life. Just remember not to leave it too long, as popular items always go fast; this is our main rose selling week of the year!   Other popular items are  our beautiful hanging baskets! No, you are not too late to order! We do lots, and lots, and lots of custom baskets, and take orders throughout the year.

Caring for your baskets is essential to performance. Always keep them well watered but also stay vigilant with your fertilizing.  Hanging baskets require a weekly fertilizing regimen to stay in top shape, promote exceptional foliage and to keep blooming all season long. Each week alternate between 20-20-20 and 10-40-25 (Super Bloom),  to get the most out of your basket. An additional monthly application of liquid seaweed will give you over-the-top quality and longevity of your hanging baskets and summer annuals.

Happy gardening!

Dandelion Pro-Tip:



Dandelions are an important source of pollen for our bee friends.  If you drive past our farm we have left as many as possible as our eighteen hives require a lot of flowers to stay content.   If you decide to remove Dandelions from your gardens and lawns aim to do so without herbicides.  Herbicides are not only linked to the collapse of bee colonies but are not permitted for use in many areas of the Comox Valley.    Instead of chemicals, use a little ol’ fashioned elbow grease.   May is ideal for digging out the tap root, removing the entire plant in-tact. If you simply pull off the top, the tap root will remain and re-grow.   Dandelions close up at night so weeding in the evening or early in the morning is more productive as you won’t be spreading seeds.

May Recipe



Use up the last of your frozen BLUEBERRIES !   A new crop is on its way 🙂

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Put the blueberries, sugar and water in the pan. Heat gently until the berries begin to release their juices then turn the heat up slightly. Cook until the berries have popped and you have a lovely deep purple compote then continue to simmer until the compote turns syrupy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice and leave to cool.
2. In a large bowl, using an electric whisk, beat the cream cheese and icing sugar together until smooth and lump free. In another bowl whisk the double cream and caster sugar until it just stands in soft peaks. Add the cream to the cream cheese and, using a metal spoon, fold the two together. Drizzle ⅓ of the cooled compote over the cream mixture then fold the mixture over just twice taking care not to overmix.

Spring at Paradise



Yes friends, it has been a while! What a great winter we had here in the Comox Valley, at least compared to the winter before. Our plants suffered very little damage, and our weeds all thrived so make sure to get on that weeding task as soon as possible.

Garden Centre News

Our container from Bali arrived late March. Filled with all sorts of new garden pieces we work hard to keep our business unique and independent. As most of you know we travel to Bali our selves and work with a Balinese company that connects us to all of our suppliers. They probably have guessed that our agenda at this point is to ensure that the craftspeople in Bali are provided with safe and clean work conditions, that women are treated equally and that there are no children or adolescents working on our products. Everything that we import is hand made and increasingly we are able to bring in items that are mostly of recycled product. Not quite fair trade but much better than the options that we have been given within our local supply chain.

April Sale:

Our annual ‘Ugly Plant’ sale starts up this week and will last until we are cleaned out. Ugly plants to us are items that are pruned weird, need more root space, have decided not to bloom…you get the idea. Feedback every year is that our ugly plants turn into beauties in gardens so well worth the 50% off regular pricing! This year we are including some metal and chipped pieces of art work that need to move into gardens as well. Note that there are many beauties in the sale so come early to avoid disappointment.

Plant pick of the Month:

This year April is Magnolia. The Magnolia family comes in a rainbow of white, pink, yellow, purple, and our recent additions of red to black. The deciduous Magnolias are all getting ready to perform hard for us this month and are a welcome addition to the Forsythias and Camelias in a garden.   Magnolias with the names Betty, Alex, Susan are all little beauties that don’t take up much space.
Notes for cultivation is to keep them out of a South facing location as a warm January day can create a freezing opportunity for the sensitive buds. Lastly, avoid planting Magnolias (or any flowering tree for that matter) during its flowering phase. If you plant it you are asking it to work on rooting, this will confuse a flowering tree, and they can sometimes be set back considerably enough to die.

Gardening Tip:

Rhododendrons. Rhodos come in many sizes, colours and tolerances. Criticized for their shorter bloom cycle, Rhodos are a great addition of evergreen architecture to a balanced all season garden.   With good planning, you could have Rhodos bloom ten months of the year but the challenge is finding the right varieties. Within the Horticulture industry it is my observation that we do a terrible job of labeling Rhodos. The tags are often incorrect and the colours easily washed out or completely different from the true flower colour. For this reason my big tip of the month is to buy Rhodos for 1. Their leaf quality and or 2. Only in bloom. This might mean popping in and checking on colours over a series of visits. Make sure that you are getting that right fuchsia or orange or lemon colour that you love.

Rhubarb:

Our u-pick rhubarb is only week’s away! Call for availability. $3/LB

Our team of horticulturalists are here working every day  9 – 5.
We look forward to seeing you!
Cassandra

Recipe of the Month

 Ingredients

• 2 large stalks rhubarb, sliced 1/2″ thick (about 2 cups)
• 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
• 8 Tablespoons frozen unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup cup granulated sugar (plus extra for sprinkling)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup white chocolate chips or chunks

      Instructions

1. Heat oven to 400°F and move rack to lower middle position. Toss sliced rhubarb with 1 Tablespoon of sugar. Spread evenly over a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper and roast for 15-20 minutes, stirring halfway through. Set aside to cool. (Keep oven on to cook the scones)
2. Grate the frozen butter using the large holes of a box grater. Transfer butter to a plate and place in the freezer to keep cold.
3. Whisk together all purpose flour, whole wheat flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl.
4. Whisk together yogurt, egg and vanilla in a medium bowl.
5. Stir grated butter into flour mixture until well incorporated. Stir in the yogurt mixture with a spoon or spatula. When most of the flour has been incorporated, transfer to a clean countertop and gently knead until no floury bits are left. Form into a 6×4″ rectangle and place in the freezer on a plate for 10 minutes, until slightly chilled.
6. Place the dough on a lightly floured countertop, and lightly dust the top with flour. Roll into a 12″ square. Spread the roasted rhubarb and white chocolate evenly over the dough. Using a dough scraper to help remove the dough from the counter, roll the dough into a log (as if you were making cinnamon buns). Press the log into a 4×12″ rectangle and cut into 8 triangles (cut in half, then cut each half in half to form squares, then cut each square in half on the diagonal to form triangles).
7. Place the triangles on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper, and sprinkle lightly with sugar (use about 1 teaspoon total).  Bake for 15-17 minutes, until golden brown on top.

Recipe and image sourced from omesticdreamboat.com