Gilli's Profile

About me

"I appreciate the misunderstanding I have had with Nature over my perennial border. I think it is a flower garden; she thinks it is a meadow lacking grass, and tries to correct the error". ~ Sara Stein, My Weeds, 1988

Born in Yorkshire, England, I now live in Kamloops, a city in the interior of British Columbia, Canada. We have lived in this house since May 2005 and we have just under 1/3 acre to play in.

When we moved here about 1/2 of the back garden was taken up with a huge vegetable patch. Great to have but we didn't need a veggie plot that large. Over the past three years I've been slowly changing the large plot to lawn and flower beds.

Kamloops is a very arid place. Cactus and sagebrush are two of our indigenous plants. We have some extremes of temperatures. Winter cold can drop as low as -28C (-18F) and summer temps can reach over 40C (104F). Growing plants here can sometimes be a challenge.

Some of the challenge is trying to improve the soil here. It is naturally full of clay and is very heavy. I am adding organic matter every chance I get and seem to be slowly making a difference.

Roses are my passion. At the moment I have about 50 different roses in various stages of maturity planted in the garden. Some are climbers, some shrubs, some miniatures. Now it is time to branch out and add different perennials to compliment the roses.

I really have no idea what I'm doing so I make many mistakes but that's part of the fun.

I am looking forward to chatting with and learning from other people on the site.

USDA cold hardiness zone: 4b - 5a
Heat zone: 5