Meredith Nelson's Garden

June 07, 2025

Waterwise Gardening - a book review

Waterwise Gardening: Everything You Need To Know About Efficient Watering to Grow a Healthy Yard by Richard Restuccia Published by Rizzoli, 2025 I would guess that watering is the major issue that most gardeners grapple with, especially novice gardeners. I know from working at the nursery that the majority of questions and issues we get stem from either watering too much or not watering enough. Many people in our area have sprinkler systems and I'm sure that can be a good thing if used properly but I feel that they primarily keep the lawns green but fall short for landscape plants. Especially when it comes to trees and larger plants, the timing and amounts are not satisfactory for many plants. I often hear people say that their sprinklers are set to come on every day - yikes! And there are those who did not water because it "rained" when it actually drizzled. The best thing to do in this situation is to have a xeric garden but that would mean sacrificing favorite plant...

Another garden on the East Vancouver Mini-Tour a few weeks ago was Meredith Nelson's five-acre garden in Battleground. This is a cottage garden filled with perennials and clematis. It is also filled with wonderful iron-work decorative objects made by her husband Jeff. Check out the gate below!

I don't know how many clematis Meredith has but it a large number. I saw many varieties that I had never heard of.

I thought this was Sweet Autumn Clematis (Clematis terniflora) at first but knew that it was too early for it to bloom. It is in fact a clematis but a different one and I have forgotten the name.

A very creative fence around the vegetable garden made of wheels (not sure what they are exactly) -

This is such a peaceful setting and so quiet. It makes me long for the country. Thank you, Meredith, for opening your garden. It is fun and very inspiring.