Pig's Squeak! Blooming Now!

Bergenia cordifolia

Pig's Squeak, or Bergenia cordifolia, is a fun plant for the garden.  Its big, leathery leaves provide a wonderful contrast to almost every other foliage in the garden.  If you are going for a tropical look, these leaves have a tropical look, yet the plants are super tough.

Bergenia can be grown in any type of soil, from full sun to part shade, and under most any water conditions. Does it get any better?

Why, yes.  Bergenia are also evergreen.  For another bonus, the leaves of Bergenia cordifolia 'Bressingham Ruby' turn burgundy in autumn.


In spring, long lasting stalks of flowers pop up above the leaves.  The flowers are usually a shade of pink, but there are some varieties with white flowers.

Bergenia divide easily, and will spread by root without being a pest.

If you want to know how Bergenia got its common name, rub one of the leaves between your finger and thumb.

Prune roses when Forsythia are blooming

Forsythia in bloom now

The rule of green thumbs is to prune your roses when the Forsythia are in bloom.  This climate specific advice is much more useful than stating a particular week or month to prune or plant something.  We need to look for signals in our own gardens for when to care for our plants.

Throughout Metro Vancouver we have many climate variances.  For instance, one of our garden sites is at the top of Mountain Hwy in North Vancouver.  This garden is usually a full month behind our Vancouver gardens in spring.

Even within Vancouver there are many different climates.  Oceans moderate temperatures.  Both of us Cultivated Gardeners live by the ocean.  Sometimes we set off for an autumn garden clean in Kerrisdale or South Cambie, only to discover those gardens are covered in a new snowfall;  yet where we live, there wasn't even frost.

Leaving the leaves in spring

Every autumn, we cover the garden beds with leaves to protect the soil.  Keeping the leaves on site has many advantages.  

1.  Plants take up nutrients, and when the plants die back for the year, if left on site, the nutrients will go back into the soil.

2.  The average rainfall in Vancouver between October 1st and April 30th is 1150 mm or 3.75 feet for the seven months.  The average raindrop hits the ground at 24 kph or 15 mph.  This amount of water hitting the soil creates a tremendous amount of compaction.  An inch of mulch on top of the soil absorbs the impact of this much water on the soil.

3.  If the soil is protected from rain, and does not get compacted, all the useful little critters and microbes stay alive to do their good work for another season.

Often, we are asked when we will be removing the leaves in the spring.  The answer is usually, we won't remove the leaves.  An ecologically designed garden has many tiers of plants covering the soil.  In the spring, as the deciduous plants rise from the soil, they cover the decomposing leaves.  By summer, the leaves have decomposed back into the soil to provide nutrients for the earth again.

The only time we remove leaves is if they are so filled with tannins (i.e. oak, beech), that they will blow all over before they ever decompose.  These leaves go into the compost where their decomposition is accelerated.  These leaves can stay at the back of beds behind or beneath plants, but we do remove them from front entrance or feature beds.

Whenever we can, the autumn leaves get mowed up before being applied to garden beds.  Mowing the leaves speeds up decomposition, and makes the leaves small enough to provide a mulch and allows moisture to penetrate to the soil.

Chaefer Beetles in Vancouver

Once again, crows and raccoons are dining on delicious Chaefer Beetle larvae.  These larvae are living under lawns.  The crows and raccoons dig up lawns to get to the larvae.

Why are some lawns affected and not others?  The lawn has to be easy to dig.  Crows only use their beaks, and raccoons their paws.   I have dug up lawns with deep roots, and the Chaefer Beetle larvae are under the roots, but they are safe from crows and raccoons.

Lawns that are easy to dig have shallow roots.  A lawn should not have shallow roots.  A lawn gets shallow roots from being cut too short, and not getting watered effectively.  Generally, the roots of a lawn are as long as the blades of grass.  So if the lawn is only 1" high, chances are, the roots are only 1" deep.

If a lawn is watered at short intervals, the water cannot penetrate very deeply into the soil.  If the water is not penetrating into the soil, the grass roots come to the surface looking for moisture, and again, this leads to shallow roots.

You have probably heard this before:  raise the mower blade so the lawnmower is cutting the lawn at least 2" high.  When the grass is growing quickly in the spring, 2" is a good height.  As the grass growing slows down when the weather gets hotter, lawns can be 2.5-3.0" high.