Durham Master Gardeners

10/21/2026

This is a reminder to remove stakes and ties within one year of planting. This poor tree will die if not addressed. The supports are there to make sure the tree grows straight but once the tree is well established, leaving the wires can result in tree girdling (the complete, circumferential removal or cutting of the bark, phloem, and cambium layers around a tree trunk or branch). You don't want to girdle your new tree.

10/20/2026

This native aster is absolutely covered in pollinators. This monarch butterfly and bee stood out as they shared the buffet right beside each other. Don’t be afraid to fill your garden with native asters - they are glorious in the fall and so beneficial to our beleaguered pollinators.

10/20/2026

When you plant or use English ivy in your garden, there is a chance it will escape into the forest. Here's English Ivy in the forest near Harmony Creek. As English ivy is invasive in Ontario, it out competes many of our native plants, leading to a lack of biodiversity. Please pay attention to which plants are invasive in Ontario. https://www.invasivespeciescentre.ca/

10/17/2026

Creating habitat for insects is an important part of your gardenscape

10/14/2026

Green manure is a simple, relatively labour-free way to add nutrients back into your soil.

This sounds too good to be true, but it's real: there are seeds you can scatter over your bare fall beds that quietly pull fertilizer out of the air all winter and feed it straight into your soil, for free, while you do absolutely nothing.

Here's the science that makes it work. Certain cover crops team up with beneficial bacteria at their roots to capture nitrogen, the single nutrient your plants crave most, right out of thin air and lock it into the ground. By spring, that empty bed you would've left bare and depleted is instead loaded with free, natural fertilizer, plus looser texture, fewer weeds, and protection from the erosion winter rain causes. Come planting time, you chop the crop down, let it break down into the soil, and plant straight into ground that's richer than money can easily buy. There are a few of these to choose from depending on your conditions, and a couple of simple rules to get right.

Grow your own fertilizer, it's all in the first comment.

10/14/2026

Planting native shrubs are a great way to add habitat to your gardens!

10/14/2026

Take a task off your list- leave your stems and dead heads for insects and birds!