Mussel mulch

Some clever gardeners on Lakes Ontario and Erie are using zebra mussels as mulch. The little creatures are just crunchy enough to discourage the movement of slugs. Zebra mussels are easy to scrape off docks and rocks when they are dead, now they are finding their way under hosta collections as barriers to the voracious slugs.

I learned this when I was supposed to be teaching at Niagara Learning Vacations (www.niagaralearningvacations.ca), at Niagara College. I had 18 students in my class, and I think they taught me more than I taught them.

One student reported on the great performance of her new 'Lady in Red' fern. I wrote about this two months ago and am happy to hear this fern with its stems as red as licorice whips is the real deal.

We spent some time in the classroom and then toured some of my favorite destinations in Niagara.

Enchantment hangs like ground fog at the Celtic Dream Garden of Bryce and Jennifer Weylie (www.celticdreamgarden.com), in Vinemount, near Stoney Creek.

Bryce's perennial gardens are like big, fat balloons puffed up with gorgeous plants. He is a passionate fan of perennial geraniums, and everywhere they mound along the ground, crowding out weeds and sending up winsome blue flowers. They take sun, they take shade, they are a calming influence on the garden.

There are many moments of magic, like a wand of white gas plant (Dictamnus albus) blooming in front of a pendulous false cypress. That darned gas plant, I've grown it, nursed it along without a flower for years, and then it blooms and dies the next year. But there it is in Weylie's garden looking like a million bucks.

Also looking perfectly refined and demure is the gorgeous masterwort or Astrantia major. The flowers open in lovely layers. The fully open ones look like exploded fireworks, half open they look like little tulips. They are very subtle and very alluring. Astrantia likes a bit of shade and for sure some moisture, but they are worth any amount of coddling for their heavenly presence.

Another blissful scene was created by a flowering sage called salvia 'Caradonna'. The stems were dark, and gleaming like a grape jawbreaker. The flowers are purple and spiky and about twenty inches tall. Salvia 'Caradonna' is loved by butterflies and bees, takes drought and is happy in the ground or in a container. Explore the Wayside Gardens website (www.waysidegardens.com) and you'll see this salvia along with suggestion on companion plants.

It was an off year for wisteria at Weylie's garden, as it seemed to be in all Southern Ontario. "I always tell my visitors about using the wisteria called 'Lawrence' because it blooms reliably in Ontario, but this year for the first time it made a liar of me," Weylie says.

But the clematis was glorious, snaking up all sorts of storybook structures in the Celtic Dream Garden. The roots were covered by wood mulch, and the flowers sucked up the sunshine just the way they like to grow. Along with the clematis, silverlace vine covered fantastic obelisks, towers, forts and fences made by Weylie. If you are an adult, this garden, open for tours, makes you feel like a kid, if you are a kid you feel at home.

While in Niagara I also spied a sparkling little dwarf sweet flag called Acorus gramineus 'Pusillus'. It nearly jumped out of its pot in all its lime green glory. This plant likes water, so I took the advice of nursery owner Marjorie Mason and put it in a container with no drainage holes. It looks like a punk haircut and I love it. It is available at Heritage Perennials (www.perennials.com).

I learned lots in those two days, like how to make mussel mulch, find bliss in a dream garden, and love a plant that looks like Bart Simpson's hair. Not bad for a learning vacation.