Q: Could you tell me if the compost for my lawn and gardens sold by the City of Vancouver is good? If not, what would you suggest?
Bill Stott,
Vancouver
A: Compost from the City of Vancouver is an excellent material. Its big advantage is that the process used to make it develops more heat than most gardeners can achieve with home composting. This means city compost is well broken down and weed-free.
But it's not 100 per cent organic. City compost is made out of green waste from city streets and gardens where not all gardeners are organic. Another point is that the process can't separate out very small pieces of extraneous material. So you may find a few tiny pieces of plastic, landscape fabric and so on.
If you need completely organic compost in your garden, consider Sea Soil. This is a nutritious fish and compost mix that's available by the bag at most garden centres. Organic manure is also available at some garden centres.
Q: Can I plant garlic cloves (to become garlic bulbs) next to strawberry, green beans, tomatoes, roses, primulas, daylilies, cornflowers, irises, oriental poppies or chives?
K.,
Coquitlam
A: Garlic cloves will fit in well with all the plants you mention and may pro-tect some against aphids and slugs. The garlic bed in my garden is the only place where slugs never venture!
But garlic needs a sunny spot to produce well. If it's barely surviving in semishade, it can still deter pests from attacking neighbouring plants. But if you want to harvest really good, large garlic clusters, it should be planted in a sunny spot.
I might mention I've found garlic a good companion for carrots. They don't shade or crowd each other's space and the garlic smell seems to deter the carrot rust fly.
