Margo Westaway

Survival tips for the grey days of winter

Here are a few survival tips and suggestions to get us gardeners through until springtime.

How gardeners can survive the winter months

Aahh…. we can finally breathe again, now that the holidays are over and everyone has gone home and the kids are back in school

Hunkering down for Christmas holiday

Great things to see, do and read during the holiday season.

Fall leaves invaluable for soil

Colourful fall leaves a wonder of nature and invaluable for healthy garden.

Journey makes gardener a bit squirrelly

After 16 years of creative impulses, I have created a maintenance monster. And now this place makes me feel like I’m going a bit squirrelly.

A gardener going a bit squirrelly

It seems like it was just the other day when I was putting out the garden ornaments and the stinkbugs were moving out of the house

The battle of the blackberry patch

One of the many pleasures of the growing season is to munch on the wide variety of both garden and wild berries.

The battle of the blackberry patch

One of the many pleasures of the growing season is to munch on the wide variety of both garden and wild berries

More tips to maintain healthy garden

It’s odds ‘n sods this column, because there’s a few things I want to yak about, rather than something in particular.

How to weather your watering woes in the garden

Tricks to maintain, rich, moist, healthy garden soil.

Weathering the watering woes

In Des Kennedy’s funny book called Crazy About Gardening, his chapter on water begins like this…

Gardening columnist stands her ground

This winter I wrote about how trees have evolved to survive cold climates, which inadvertently stirred up a rat’s nest…

Benefits of being food secure

Listen to the people who have known the value of growing their own food all along.

Tapping into how trees adapt to the cold

To ward off the cold of winter, us humans bundle up with warm coats and hats, the birds puff out their feathers for thicker insulation

Tapping into how trees adapt to the cold

Trees have adapted to cold climates since they rose up from the ground millions of years ago to a warm and tropical environment.

A gardener’s resolution for the new year

The word “heart” and “earth” are interchangeable and perhaps there’s a reason for it, or at least a message in it.

A gardener’s resolution for 2014

The word “heart” and “earth” are interchangeable and perhaps there’s a reason for it, or at least a message in it.

Flowers and plants colour our lives on many different levels

A Chinese proverb says: ‘When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.’

A gift of beauty and balance

Well, I guess winter has finally arrived and we can call it a wrap for the year

Gardens offer gifts of beauty and balance

Knowledge of certain plants and how to use them has been around for almost 35,000 years.