Victoria Master Gardener Association

It’s pretty dry out there. Remember to give your garden a little extra this weekend. Enjoy your gardens!

Spotted something that looks like a tiny bee hovering over your flowers? 🌼🐝 It might actually be a Hoverfly—one of your garden's best hidden heroes!

While they look like bees to ward off predators, their larvae are actually voracious aphid-eaters, making them perfect sustainable pest control for your Victoria / Gulf Islands garden. Have you seen these 'news bees' in your yard lately? Post a photo below and let's identify your garden visitors! 🔍

Image from gardenia.net

Is it just us? Or can y’all relate to this? 🤣🤣🤣

Happy Friday everyone! Enjoy your gardens this weekend.

Weeding tips! 💪

Chances are high you have some of this in your garden right now. It’s common clover (Trifolium repens). But before you yank it out … some important info about clover you need to know.

Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant. Nitrogen is one of the most important nutrients your plants need and most cannot make their own so they rely on nitrogen-fixers like clover and other soil microbes that convert nitrogen into usable forms to grow. Or we buy fertilizer with nitrogen (“N”) in it.

But if you have clover you have free fertilizer! So instead of yanking it, cut it at the base. That will get rid of the clover growth but leave the nitrogen-fixing nodules in place (they are in the roots) and release that lovely nitrogen for your surrounding plants.

For extra mulch, just chop the green parts into pieces and leave on top of your soil.

Informed gardeners grow better gardens!

A hot tip from one of our Master Gardener interns:

My european paper wasps, and their new nest and last year’s nest.

I have grown to love them. They make a small (several nests here) nest each year, are not aggressive — and they are keeping my garden largely damage free. My citrus trees no longer have scale, for example!

I often see them at the water dish in my garden.

Just another example of the beneficial insects in your garden.

What a huge loss to our Vancouver Island gardening community. Bob will be very missed. Condolences to Vera and family.

Robert William Patrick “Bob” Duncan | Obituaries | McCall Gardens Funeral and Cremation Service | Victoria BC Bob’s final days were unexpectedly short. They were spent surrounded by his children, grandchildren, and beloved Verna holding his hands and filling his room with love. At 78 years of age, he passed into the arms of Jesus on 20 July 2026 at Victoria General Hospital, Victoria BC. Robert William Pa...