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Gardening in Calgary is not for the faint of heart!

Calgary experiences all four seasons in full force. Our Springs are wet, our summers scorching, our falls blistery, and our winters freezing. In the regular gardening season that spans from Spring-early Fall, we often experience every single type of weather: heat waves, snowstorms, hail and more. Frankly, we can experience all those types of weather in just one day! These conditions make gardening challenging; but not impossible. 

So, how can you successfully garden in Calgary? Here are the steps:

1. Invest in good soil. Kath Smyth, a horticulturist with the Calgary Horticultural Society, tells Avenue Calgary, "Soil is the foundation of any good garden. Compost to create soil that is…

Don't forget: Mother's Day is this weekend on Sunday! Mother's Day is a great opportunity to spend some time showing appreciation for your Mother, or Mother-Figure. Moms do so much for all of us, so it's important to give back every opportunity that we have. You never know how much time you have with your Mom, so make the most of it and treat her to some quality one-on-one time. 

Not sure what to do with Mom this Mother's Day? We recommend getting out the city for a fun day in the mountains! Here are some of our mountain getaway recommendations:

1). Drinks for the Road: Kick off your road trip with Mom by picking up a drink from your favourite local cafe! There are tons of independent coffee shops in Calgary, such as Monogram, Good Trade Co,…

Decorating Easter eggs is such a fun tradition. It's a great way to sit down together with loved ones (or peacefully by yourself) and indulge in your creative side. Whether you're a skilled egg decorator, or a first-timer, egg decorating is all about being present and having some Easter fun. Have you ever wondered where this tradition began? Read on!

Egg decorating has been around for a very long time. Sorcha McCrory writes for Scandinavia Standard, "the practice of decorating eggshells itself is quite ancient, with decorated, engraved ostrich eggs found in Africa that are 60,000 years old. Representations of ostrich eggs in gold and silver were often placed in graves of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians."

Quickly adopted by the Christians,…

This weekend is Easter Long Weekend!

We hope you use the extra day this weekend to spend time doing something you love with the people you love. One popular activity during the may long weekend is to do some spring cleaning. This may not be something you love, but it is important to keep your home in tip-top condition!

We have written many articles in the past about spring cleaning, so we are confident that by now you are well-versed in it. However, one aspect of spring cleaning that often gets overlooked or is handled without care is the waste side of it. Once you have your pile of throw away (you remember the three piles to make while spring cleaning: keep, donate, throw away), it can be tempting to throw it all in the landfill and be done…

This weekend is daylight savings and to say we are looking forward to it would be a lie. Falling back one hour we can 100% get on board with, but springing forward one hour and losing that hour of sleep? Not our most favourite yearly event. 

While springing forward means less sleep the night of, it does mean that our mornings get a little brighter. Has anyone else noticed the birds singing before your alarm clock goes off, or the warm forecast for next week? Apparently nature is ready to spring forward, and for that we cannot complain. 

Not everyone recognizes Daylight Savings. Just ask our neighbours to the east; Saskatchewan has chosen to forego all recognition of daylight savings. They're already teasing us about our short night on…

Happy Easter Long Weekend!

This weekend may not feel like a long weekend since most of us have been stuck at home due to COVID-19 social distancing protocals, but Easter is definitely still worth celebrating! This is a holiday that represents new life and springtime, two things we could use these days. Here are some creative ways you can celebrate Easter from home this year:

1.  Attend Church from Home: "Many churches have now made their services available online, either through a live stream or through a recorded podcast. If your own place of worship doesn’t have streaming capabilities, 'visit' another church instead. Furthermore, you may not be passing around the offering plate at church, but consider making an Easter-inspired donation to an…

Spring Break is next week for many students in the Calgary public school system. While some have already been working from home as they attend school virtually, starting next week children everywhere are going to have a lot more free time on their hands! Since traveling somewhere exotic for Spring break is not an option this year, we've rounded up some Staycation ideas for your kids this spring break. Read on for details!

DIY Olympics: Each day of spring break have a different competition for your kids to compete in. Events can range from an obstacle course in the house to a puzzle competition. Craft little medals for them and then do a big winners banquet of their favourite treats and meal at the end of the week. This will give them something to…

Daylight Savings is this weekend, and we are springing forward! We may be losing an hour of sleep, but it means we’re one hour closer to spring blossoms and summer nights.

While most clocks will automatically spring forward these days, be sure to check items such as kitchen appliances and older vehicles. It’s always worth the small inconvenience to figure out how to change the time on these clocks—don’t be one of those people who leave it until autumn when we gain the hour back.

Why do we practice daylight savings? The main reason is to conserve energy. By setting our clocks ahead we gain more daylight hours in the spring and summer, which means less artificial light is needed during waking hours. To offset this adjustment, we lose an hour of…

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! We could all use a bit o' Irish luck these days. Here are some fun facts about everyone's favourite green holiday:

1. St. Patrick's Day is an official holiday in Ireland! Banks, schools and businesses all shut down so they can celebrate this fun holiday.
2. "Though we've come to associate kelly green with the Irish and the holiday, the 5th-century saint's official color was "Saint Patrick's blue," a light shade of sky blue. The color green only became associated with the big day after it was linked to the Irish independence movement in the late 18th century" (Mental Floss).
3. "Guinness sales soar on St. Patrick's Day. Recent figures show that 5.5 million pints of the black stuff are downed around the world every…

Soil: it is everywhere. It on the backroads we drive, it is what your home was built on, and it is what brings life to the land surrounding us. It is not dirt, grimy and useless. It is rich with minerals, nutrients, and everything needed to grow grass, plants and trees. Soil like planet Earth has is rare and extremely valuable.

If you are fond of gardening, you know how important soil is. It is most particularly important this time of year as farmers and gardeners begin to access the quality of their soil in order to decide what it needs to be as healthy as possible. After all, if you do not have healthy soil, you will not have healthy plants.

During the wintertime, soil freezes into a crust. Thousands of micro-organisms still flourish inside…