Calgary's Cottage Gardener

06/23/2026

Besides the usual great reasons for using floating row cover in the garden …it makes for a great snuggle perch for my black cat, Maya, as she surveys the garden😀

06/21/2026

At Bluerock Canyon there is sunny scree slope and found this Stonecrop blooming in the sun.

06/20/2026

Went for a hike up Bluerock Canyon in Sheep River Kanaskis and spotted this shy Mountain Bluebell in the shade. Such a vivid blue!😀

06/20/2026

As part of my efforts to conserve moisture in the soil for my raised bed at Inglewood Community Garden I just mulched it with chopped wheat straw. It’s an effective and easy way to mulch a small space and at the end of the season the mulch can be incorporated into the soil to add organic matter to enrich the soil.

06/17/2026

Comfrey also called knitbone is blooming now…such a useful plant in the garden. Attracts pollinators, is a dynamic accumulator, and traditional medicinal. In the Altadore School garden it is planted under the apple trees as part of a plant guild. 😀

06/15/2026

A crab spider is just waiting on this rose for an unsuspecting bee to come by. It’s always sad to see bees captured and becoming breakfast for the spider…but a spider has to eat too!

06/15/2026

Fascinating to see the fruiting bodies of whatever fungus this is on these leaves!!!

06/11/2026

Coming up tonight (June 11th) is the 2nd talk in the Rooted Here: Growing Calgary's Climate series of talk for 2026. This year is all about edible gardening from the veggie garden to fruit to growing indoors.
Tonight we will talk the Edible Garden in Summer!
To Register: https://www.dalhousiecalgary.ca/gardening-calgary/ will take you to the DCA page to register!
I hope to see you on Thursday!
Janet:) See less See less

Join Janet Melrose, Calgary’s Cottage Gardener for a fun, interactive Calgary gardening series at the Dalhousie Community Association!

06/09/2026

Honeybees in the horseradish flowers this morning ❤️

06/07/2026

A great option for your beds in hail prone areas is hail netting. It is a woven plastic an looks almost like crocheted fabric…strong enough to withstand most hail storms yet is loose enough that light, air and moisture goes through the weave. I’ll be putting mine up shortly before we get too much severe weather 😀