Advice Category
Learn to Urn
Rice Road had a large assortment of natural decorative materials to help you get your home looking wonderfully festive. Design your own displays or pick up one of our many arrangements that are ready to go.
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Attract Butterflies
You can find so many interesting plants at Rice Road including flowering bushes that attract butterflies.
Santana Butterfly Bush
(magenta-red flower)
Honeycomb Butterfly Bush
(creamy yellow flower)
Royal Red Butterfly Bush
(red-purple flower)
Do-It-Yourself Planters and Flower Boxes
Create spectacular results with these stunning designs for flower boxes and planters. All the plants that go into each design are conveniently displayed together in our greenhouses.
We provide a simple instruction sheet for planting and you can do the rest. For more information and samples you can visit the Botanix website at www.botanix.ca .
Try to plant your own!
All of our seeds have come in waiting on the racks for you. It’s a very easy process to plant your seeds and grow your own plants. Whether its flowers or vegetables. It’s also cost effective for you. Here’s an easy step by step process from Jerry Moes:
- Buy your preferred seeds, along with our soil and containers that help keep the moisture in.
- Determine when to seed, some can be seeded now while other varieties need to be seeded later. Ask us if you’re not sure.
- Place seeds on the soil or just under the surface.
- Water lightly with a fine nozzle or mist bottle (you don’t want to wash out the seeds).
- Most important is lighting. If using grow lights, they must be 8″ from plants, that’s why I prefer a window. It’s natural and leaves you enough room to work with plants (seedlings will stretch if not enough light!).
- Seedlings must remain moist at all times until they have emerged from soil. Using our trays with their plastic lids will act like a terrarium for better growing conditions.
- Once the seedling has grown its true leaves (usually the second set of leaves) you may start to fertilize with a water soluble fertilizer very lightly.
- Transplant seedlings before they stretch or crowd each other. We carry many different inexpensive grower pots or transplant in some of your own pots at home (Don’t plant in any oversized or dirty pots).
- Make sure they are spaced enough and when ready to put outside, make sure it is not too cold and don’t place young plants in hot direct sun until a day or 2 of cloudy weather. They need to be slowly introduced to the sun to prevent burning.
All of our seeds have come in waiting on the racks for you. It’s a very easy process to plant your seeds and grow your own plants. Whether its flowers or vegetables. It’s also cost effective for you. Here’s an easy step by step process from Jerry Moes:
- Buy your preferred seeds, along with our soil and containers that help keep the moisture in.
- Determine when to seed, some can be seeded now while other varieties need to be seeded later. Ask us if you’re not sure.
- Place seeds on the soil or just under the surface.
- Water lightly with a fine nozzle or mist bottle (you don’t want to wash out the seeds).
- Most important is lighting. If using grow lights, they must be 8″ from plants, that’s why I prefer a window. It’s natural and leaves you enough room to work with plants (seedlings will stretch if not enough light!).
- Seedlings must remain moist at all times until they have emerged from soil. Using our trays with their plastic lids will act like a terrarium for better growing conditions.
- Once the seedling has grown its true leaves (usually the second set of leaves) you may start to fertilize with a water soluble fertilizer very lightly.
- Transplant seedlings before they stretch or crowd each other. We carry many different inexpensive grower pots or transplant in some of your own pots at home (Don’t plant in any oversized or dirty pots).
- Make sure they are spaced enough and when ready to put outside, make sure it is not too cold and don’t place young plants in hot direct sun until a day or 2 of cloudy weather. They need to be slowly introduced to the sun to prevent burning.
Mulch
The Largest Bulk Yard in the Niagara Region.
Largest Selection in Stone, Mulch and Soil.
Now is a good time to top up or apply mulch to your beds to prevent moisture loss this summer. This will also prevent the weeds from growing in your garden this summer.
Thirty one different varieties available
Available by the bag or in bulk.
If you already know what you want, you can call in your order to be delivered usually with in 24 hours of your call.
Perennial Planters
The patio planter has always been the domain of annuals but many perennials make excellent container plants. Dress up a shady corner with a pot containing Vinca ‘Illumination’, Pachysandra ‘Green Sheen’, Hosta ‘Halcyon’ and Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina).
For a more exotic look combine Carex ‘Island Brocade’, Persicarta ‘Red Dragon’ and Japanese Painted Fern (Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum’). Long planters are perfect for an alpine trough garden. Cover the bottom with gravel for drainage, fill with soil and plant with dwarf Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium alpinum), Edelweiss (Leontopodium), Sedumspath. ‘Purpureum’ and Campanula ‘Dickson’s Gold’, or choose your own combination.
Finish the planter with a thin layer of pea-gravel. Come in and select your own plants and containers and pot them at our potting bench. Zone five or hardier perennials will survive in planters with minimal winter care. Make sure they are moist going into the winter and don’t be embarrassed to water in January if needed.
Silver Grass
Everyone wants Pampas Grass, or do they? The tall grasses seen around town with fluffy plumes in late summer are not the true Pampas Grass (Cotaderia selloana) but a selection of Miscanthus sinensis. M. Sinensis or Silver Grass is a group of hardy, clump forming (non-invasive) grasses which bear tall plumes from late summer through fall and into winter. There are dozens of selections but among the nicest are M. sin. “Zebrinus” (Zebra Grass) which sports horizontal bands of gold across the green leaves, M. sin. “Gracillimus” (Maiden Grass) which is finely textured foliage and the early blooming M. sin. “Grosse Fontaine” with its pinkish plumes. These will all grow six feet or more. M. sin. “Yuka Jima” is perfect for smaller landscapes growing to about 4 feet while M. sin. “Puenktchen” has the same stripes as Zebra grass but at half the size. Since true Pampas grass rarely survives Niagara winters, Miscanthus sinensis is the grass to grow.
Yogurt For Your Pond?
There is good and bad bacteria everywhere. Many forms of beneficial bacteria break down waste. We put bacteria in compost piles and septic tanks. We eat yogurt! Bacteria is present in healthy lakes and ponds. It must live in our pond to create a natural balanced ecosystem. Beneficial bacteria removes algae. Without it, we are leaving out an extremely important part of the ecosystem. We must add beneficial bacteria and trace elements regularly because they die off and get eaten by the fish. We don’t have a natural stream as a constant supply. A biofilter houses billions of bacteria protected from the fish. Beneficial bacteria is the “Bio” in the biofilter. Otherwise it is just a mechanical filter removing solids but not cleansing the water of pollutants. Bacteria is the bottom of the food chain. It breaks down the waste, turning into harmless gasses. Consider bacteria to be “waste management” or “pollution control”. It is like “yogurt in your pond”. If your pond has a heavy layer of waste on the bottom, add Bacta-Pur, Nutripak and Sludgebusters to remove it. If the pond bottom is relatively clean, add Nutripak and the maintenance bacteria Bacta Pur Klear. Always add water conditioner or neutralizer when adding tap water or you will kill the good bacteria that keeps our pond healthy and clear.
Test Your Pond
The quality of pond water is vital to ensure healthy fish and plant life. Poor water conditions cause fish to lose their colour, behave unnaturally and become prone to disease. Plants will also discolour and show signs of stunted growth. Pond water should always be tested before fish are introduced and regularly monitored throughout the year. Any changes in water conditions can be quickly identified and remedied. pH is a way of expressing whether water is acid, alkaline or neutral. It is measured on a scale from 0 – 14 with pH 7 being the neutral point. Any level below pH 7 is acid and any level about pH 7 is alkaline. Pond fish prefer a pH range of 7.0 to 8.0 although they will survive in slightly acid conditions. Below pH 6.5, fish will show signs of irritation and discolouration. At extreme pH levels, fish and plants will not survive. Pond treatments and beneficial bacteria perform better with a neutral pH. The decomposition of fish waste, uneaten food and decomposing plant material by beneficial bacteria is a process referred to as the Nitrogen cycle.
The first stage of the breakdown results in the formation of toxic ammonia and ammonium. Both are easily converted into each other depending upon the pH i.e. above pH 8.5 – ammonia (toxic): below pH 7.5 – ammonium (non-toxic).
The second state of the breakdown results in the formulation of nitrite. It can be more toxic than ammonia. Nitrite level should not exceed 0.25 mg/l. Nitrite poisoning symptoms are listlessness, oxygen starvation and discolouration. The third stage of the breakdown results in the formation of nitrate. Nitrate is less harmful to fish than ammonia and nitrite. It’s lowest limit of lethal toxicity is 50 – 200 mg/liter. High concentrations of nitrate, in excess of 50 mg/liter, can be harmful to fish and cause unsightly algae growth. Pond test kits are important and easy to use.
Shady Characters
As landscapes mature, so do the number of shady corners where nothing seems to thrive. These underused perennials will brighten those low-light spots with foliage and bloom.
Brunnera macrophylla ‘Hadspen Cream’ features showy green and white leaves topped with blue flowers in spring. The red flowers of Helleborus orientalis emerge as early as February and no shade garden is complete without Dicentra spectabilis ‘Alba’ whose white blooms combine nicely with the fragrant white flowers of Galium odoratum. With tall stems of white flowers on dark purple foliage, Cimicifuga ramosa ‘Brunette’ is a spectacular late-summer bloomer. Autumn flowering Aconitum carmichaelii ‘Arendsii’ carries blue flowers well into fall. The uncommon Kirengeshoma palmata makes an interesting addition with nodding yellow flowers. The shade-loving golden grass Hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’ combines well with the bold blue leaves of Hosta ‘Halcyon’ or the lacy foliage of Athyrium filix-femina.
Since most shade-lovers are woodland natives, they benefit from the addition of rich soil such as 3 in 1 Mix, Black Earth or Topsoil. Planted right, these shady characters are guaranteed to brighten any dark corner of the garden.