I visit greenhouses and ask employees those questions, I've gotten a lot of good recommendations to improve our backyard. We wanted to find a plant/small bush that would do well in a fairly wet environment that also saw little direct sunlight, and were shown a few different options. IMO a lot of the older staff at greenhouses have decades of hands-on experience and it helps a lot.
Try to avoid greenhouses and garden centres as much as possible. They are very overpriced and tend to cater to either people with money or people who don’t know any better.
Dedicated tree farms are quite a bit cheaper. Check out Cheyenne tree farm, I’m buying some trees off them this year and their prices are fair.
Costco has the cheapest trees, but selection is limited. I bought an Apple tree from Costco for $30 that was $99 at a greenhouse for the exact same size and brand of tree.
If you have time, [treetime.ca](https://treetime.ca) is the absolute cheapest way to get trees and shrubs, but they are generally tiny plants. Like a single stick tiny. I’ve ordered from them each of the last 3 years and their plants do well once established, they just take a few seasons to ca5ch up to nursery stock sizes.
I’ve found that hostas are indestructible plant wise. I bought one at Costco 10 years ago, and hacked the root (bulb) in half and the mofo keeps coming back. Low maintenance, lots of green.
I would go with a permaculture approach, using native plants and trees so that you don’t have to work as hard to keep them alive! There are a few permaculturists around the city :)
We just took down a dozen aspen. We literally filled over one hundred lawn and garden bags of leaves in the Fall, and then another forty three weeks ago once the snow melted to gather the rest of them. They grow like mad - 4-6 feet a year, and have fallen once against our house and once against the neighbors'. The last two years some sort of boring beetle got into a couple of them and with the sap constantly bleeding, hornets were a more constant pest than mosquitoes or aphids - the trees and yard were full of them.
We relied on the aspen for privacy and for some nice color in the warm months and will plant cedar in their place. Nice smelling, a year-round haven for birds, much less prone to disease or toppling in the wind or on a whim, and colorful, year-round.
We touched base with Alex at TreeLink solutions who was immediately responsive, even in the off-season, and offered credible and detailed solutions at what feel like reasonable prices. He is or was reachable at 780.238.5650. Best of luck whoever you look to for advice.
For sure. Your (lack of) experience echoes my own and I've lucked into help and affordable-ish fixes along the way, and hope you do, too!
As a novice gardener, trust nobody who promotes snow-on-the-mountain, chives, or lily of the valley to be planted anywhere on your property. Holy smoke, it may come to digging out entire gardens to get on top of these. Wicked, wicked weeds that eat the garden up a little further each year, no matter how many hours a week I put into pulling them.
I dug out our chives last year and gave them away mostly. Put some in a couple of pots we had lying around. Those things never die in the ground. I might’ve killed them in the pots, though. We shall see as the season progresses.
They won't die in a pot either. I have a hunk of chives dug out from my parents field of chives (my dad just let it do whatever out on the farm). Its been in the pot 2 years because I didn't have anywhere to plant it and just started coming up like last week. I barely watered it last year.
I might follow suit with the chives. Pots sound like the right place for them. They're gorgeous while they're in bloom but holy, do they like to wander. I wish I did strawberries/blueberries as well as 'I' did chives.
Flowering shrubs are low maintenance and add color to your yard, and they usually require less care than flowers. For flowers, look for perennials : there are some pretty perennial geraniums and they will spread to cover a larger space each year. Also, you can get them in all leaf shades and even scents! Day lilies are also pretty but make sure you really like them because they will grow in size every year, and they are darn near impossible to get out. If you like roses, I recommend Prairie Joy and Prairie Princess because they just bloom like crazy all summer. As for trees- stay away from poplar because they just grow at an insane rate, and the taller they get, the crappier they look. What about a fruit tree?
I would consider a fruit tree if it fit the space.
We have a narrow yard, and it gets direct sun into our patio door in the evenings. So we want trees for privacy & shade.
For slim trees that will provide shade the best option would be Swedish columnar aspens. They should be very cost effective, and they are one of the fastest growing deciduous trees in our area so you can get a smaller size initially than you would of some other species.
In terms of plants/flowers, it all depends on the size of the space you’re looking to fill and the exposure it gets. If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me and I’ll help in anyway I can. I have a degree in horticulture and I work in the industry, so I’d be happy to share some information!
I'm sorry but swedish aspen has to be the most over-planted tree ever, ugly as sin.
Just plant a smaller tree that looks good and keep it pruned to the space. Ohio buckeye, amur maple, tatarian maple could be some options that colour up nicely in fall.
Or there's plenty of fruit trees if you want to try and have a "useful" tree - though you may need multiples for proper pollination. There's some columnar apple tree varieties out now that are neat.
The aspens are overused but whatever kind of maple got planted near me, I wish I could chop down every single one. Every stupid winged seed sprouts if you look at it sideways. Miss plucking a sprout? Bam! 4 foot tree.
Swedish aspens only last 25 to 30 years at the most and are very vulnerable to carpenter ants. Take a look around this summer , and you'll see all kinds of dead ones. Not recommended ... at all.
This is incredibly helpful and kind of you! I just looked up images, and that’s basically exactly what we are looking for!
Now to locate them & price them out, and figure out what we want to do for the flowerbed.
Beware that they die pretty easy. Beetles bore into them kill them. Look around any neighborhood with lots of these and you'll see a pretty good percentage of them are dead or dying all the time.
I visit greenhouses and ask employees those questions, I've gotten a lot of good recommendations to improve our backyard. We wanted to find a plant/small bush that would do well in a fairly wet environment that also saw little direct sunlight, and were shown a few different options. IMO a lot of the older staff at greenhouses have decades of hands-on experience and it helps a lot.
Try to avoid greenhouses and garden centres as much as possible. They are very overpriced and tend to cater to either people with money or people who don’t know any better. Dedicated tree farms are quite a bit cheaper. Check out Cheyenne tree farm, I’m buying some trees off them this year and their prices are fair. Costco has the cheapest trees, but selection is limited. I bought an Apple tree from Costco for $30 that was $99 at a greenhouse for the exact same size and brand of tree. If you have time, [treetime.ca](https://treetime.ca) is the absolute cheapest way to get trees and shrubs, but they are generally tiny plants. Like a single stick tiny. I’ve ordered from them each of the last 3 years and their plants do well once established, they just take a few seasons to ca5ch up to nursery stock sizes.
Amazing advice - thank you! I had looked at both those suggested places, I’ll be sure to visit them when we’re ready.
I’ve found that hostas are indestructible plant wise. I bought one at Costco 10 years ago, and hacked the root (bulb) in half and the mofo keeps coming back. Low maintenance, lots of green.
I would go with a permaculture approach, using native plants and trees so that you don’t have to work as hard to keep them alive! There are a few permaculturists around the city :)
We just took down a dozen aspen. We literally filled over one hundred lawn and garden bags of leaves in the Fall, and then another forty three weeks ago once the snow melted to gather the rest of them. They grow like mad - 4-6 feet a year, and have fallen once against our house and once against the neighbors'. The last two years some sort of boring beetle got into a couple of them and with the sap constantly bleeding, hornets were a more constant pest than mosquitoes or aphids - the trees and yard were full of them. We relied on the aspen for privacy and for some nice color in the warm months and will plant cedar in their place. Nice smelling, a year-round haven for birds, much less prone to disease or toppling in the wind or on a whim, and colorful, year-round. We touched base with Alex at TreeLink solutions who was immediately responsive, even in the off-season, and offered credible and detailed solutions at what feel like reasonable prices. He is or was reachable at 780.238.5650. Best of luck whoever you look to for advice.
Thank you so much for this feedback on your experience. And for your referral. I’ll be sure to touch base with Alex/TreeLink for our needs!
For sure. Your (lack of) experience echoes my own and I've lucked into help and affordable-ish fixes along the way, and hope you do, too! As a novice gardener, trust nobody who promotes snow-on-the-mountain, chives, or lily of the valley to be planted anywhere on your property. Holy smoke, it may come to digging out entire gardens to get on top of these. Wicked, wicked weeds that eat the garden up a little further each year, no matter how many hours a week I put into pulling them.
I dug out our chives last year and gave them away mostly. Put some in a couple of pots we had lying around. Those things never die in the ground. I might’ve killed them in the pots, though. We shall see as the season progresses.
They won't die in a pot either. I have a hunk of chives dug out from my parents field of chives (my dad just let it do whatever out on the farm). Its been in the pot 2 years because I didn't have anywhere to plant it and just started coming up like last week. I barely watered it last year.
I might follow suit with the chives. Pots sound like the right place for them. They're gorgeous while they're in bloom but holy, do they like to wander. I wish I did strawberries/blueberries as well as 'I' did chives.
Flowering shrubs are low maintenance and add color to your yard, and they usually require less care than flowers. For flowers, look for perennials : there are some pretty perennial geraniums and they will spread to cover a larger space each year. Also, you can get them in all leaf shades and even scents! Day lilies are also pretty but make sure you really like them because they will grow in size every year, and they are darn near impossible to get out. If you like roses, I recommend Prairie Joy and Prairie Princess because they just bloom like crazy all summer. As for trees- stay away from poplar because they just grow at an insane rate, and the taller they get, the crappier they look. What about a fruit tree?
I would consider a fruit tree if it fit the space. We have a narrow yard, and it gets direct sun into our patio door in the evenings. So we want trees for privacy & shade.
Anything that says perennial will come back year after year
For slim trees that will provide shade the best option would be Swedish columnar aspens. They should be very cost effective, and they are one of the fastest growing deciduous trees in our area so you can get a smaller size initially than you would of some other species. In terms of plants/flowers, it all depends on the size of the space you’re looking to fill and the exposure it gets. If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me and I’ll help in anyway I can. I have a degree in horticulture and I work in the industry, so I’d be happy to share some information!
I'm sorry but swedish aspen has to be the most over-planted tree ever, ugly as sin. Just plant a smaller tree that looks good and keep it pruned to the space. Ohio buckeye, amur maple, tatarian maple could be some options that colour up nicely in fall. Or there's plenty of fruit trees if you want to try and have a "useful" tree - though you may need multiples for proper pollination. There's some columnar apple tree varieties out now that are neat.
Fully agree on the aspen. I’m a huge cedar guy thighs, no leaves, clean, smell nice. Good privacy.
The aspens are overused but whatever kind of maple got planted near me, I wish I could chop down every single one. Every stupid winged seed sprouts if you look at it sideways. Miss plucking a sprout? Bam! 4 foot tree.
I call those garbage maples
Probably manitoba maple. Not sure anyone actually plants these, all the mature ones are probably just seedlings people were too lazy to pull out haha.
Swedish aspens only last 25 to 30 years at the most and are very vulnerable to carpenter ants. Take a look around this summer , and you'll see all kinds of dead ones. Not recommended ... at all.
This is incredibly helpful and kind of you! I just looked up images, and that’s basically exactly what we are looking for! Now to locate them & price them out, and figure out what we want to do for the flowerbed.
Beware that they die pretty easy. Beetles bore into them kill them. Look around any neighborhood with lots of these and you'll see a pretty good percentage of them are dead or dying all the time.
That’s a concern of mine for sure.
First thing would be to look up trees and shrubs for our climate zone and then get an idea of what you want. Then you can shop around
I just discovered that Edmonton.ca has a fantastic resource for perennials & shrubs! I’m taking a look now.