Welcome to the Duchess of Dirt’s website and the venue for our show garden at
Growing Concern Cottage Garden!
February 2025
Thanks to the bountiful snowfall on the weekend of February 2 & 3, our garden is covered with snow. And as of Valentine’s Day, Canada Flag Day and Family Day weekend, most of the garden beds are still covered.
But that is a good thing! Last year we had the same amount of snow dumped on us over the weekend of March 2 & 3 and it lasted for quite a time. Long enough, and cold enough, to really put a dent on the expected change to spring weather. Especially since a few frost days crept into April and even May. Not a stellar start to Spring 2024, I must say.
The weather is forecasted to rise above 0 °C starting the middle of February with only a very few mixed rain-snow days on the horizon. I hope this bears out because I have had enough of winter. The few sunny days in January which allowed me to tackle the eradication of a patch of Omphalodes cappadoicata (navelwort) in my garden has me itching to get back to it as I see the snow disappearing.
Here is hoping the start to Spring 2025 will be much, much better than it was for Spring 2024!
In the meantime, don’t be a stranger! Drop by duchessofdirt.ca periodically to check out my blogs and see what we are up to. Or sign up to receive my (mostly) monthly Toil ‘n’ Trowel newsletter, if you haven’t already. (If you are not a newsletter subscriber, enter your name and email address in the sidebar on the right.) Both the website and my newsletter are excellent ways to find out when our Garden Open Days will begin in 2025. We can’t wait!
So, don’t be a stranger! Drop by duchessofdirt.ca periodically to see what we are up to.
Please note: I am the only “Duchess of Dirt” in British Columbia and there are only two of us in Canada.
I am a gardener, writer, and educator. “Duchess of Dirt” is my pen name.
Feel free to check out the items under the various Menu Buttons which will provide you with a more intimate peek at the plants and wildlife in our Zone 7a garden, located in the maritime Pacific Northwest. More specifically…we are nestled in rural Black Creek under the shadow of the renowned ski hill, Mt. Washington, within the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island in beautiful British Columbia, Canada.
Most of the photos on my website were taken by my photographer husband…John – the Duke of Compost…who is also a bona fide plant-aholic gardening nut same as me. The others… especially most of the insect ones…are mine.
We hope you enjoy the journey.
Leslie and John Cox
Growing Concern Cottage Garden
7896 Fairview Rd
Black Creek, BC V9J 1G5
