'What can I plant that won't die?': B.C. gardeners adjusting to climate change
It's the time of year when many turn their attention to their yards and other green spaces, but unpredictable winters and dry summers have local gardeners scrambling.
One Lower Mainland garden store manager says those cultivating their yard have to deal with multiple impacts, such as drought damage in the summer and cold damage in the winter.
"We're getting hotter summers, wetter springs and suddenly the tap gets turned off and there's no water whatsoever," Mike Lascelle, with Amsterdam Garden Centre in Pitt Meadows, told CTV News Vancouver. "We're also getting record-breaking cold for short spells in winter."
The garden centre has boosted its stock of drought-tolerant plants, with customers opting more for low-maintenance varieties. But even after choosing a hardier plant, timing is key.
"A lot of people are either getting them out too early because our springs have stayed cool for long periods of time, but then all of a sudden it's just blistering heat in June," Lascelle said. "So we're fighting both things – things rotting off in the rain, and things drying up or getting scorched in the heat."
With B.C.'s snowpack at the lowest it's been in more than 50 years, local gardeners are already planning which crops and flowers can make it through escalating water restrictions. Perennials may also need to survive devastating cold snaps, like the ones that devastated fruit crops in the Okanagan over the last two winters.
But navigating that balance is a challenge, Lascelle said, and has frustrated gardeners coming into their store to ask, "What can I plant that won't die?"
With files from CTV News Vancouver's Penny Daflos
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
NEW Is there a cost to convenience? Canada approves new cancer immunotherapy treatment
A new cancer treatment recently approved in Canada promises to cut treatment time down to just minutes, but experts have differing opinions on whether it's what's best for patients.
Air Canada walks back new seat selection policy change after backlash
Air Canada has paused a new seat selection fee for travellers booked on the lowest fares just days after implementing it.
Canada's new dental program offering hope of free care to millions but many dentists aren't signed up
A new Canadian dental care program is offering the hope of free care to millions, but while 1.7 million people have signed up for the plan, only about 5,000 dentists have done the same.
Province boots mayor and council in small northern Ont. town out of office
An ongoing municipal strike, court battles and revolt by half of council has prompted the province to oust the mayor and council in Black River-Matheson.
King Charles III returns to public duties with a trip to a cancer charity
King Charles III returned to public duties on Tuesday, visiting a cancer treatment charity and beginning his carefully managed comeback after the monarch's own cancer diagnosis sidelined him for three months.
NDP says Ottawa's new grocery task force isn't living up to government promises
The federal government says the task force it created to monitor and investigate grocery retailers' practices has not conducted any probes and doesn't have a mandate to take enforcement action.
A group of Toronto tenants have been on a rent strike for a year and say there's no resolution in sight
Dozens of tenants in Toronto's Thorncliffe Park area have now been withholding their rent for one year, and it’s unclear when the dispute will end.
U.K. police arrest man wielding a sword in east London, 5 people are taken to the hospital
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and two police officers on Tuesday in the east London community of Hainault before being arrested, police said.
Archeologists search for remnants of Halifax's 250-year-old wall that surrounded the city
Archeologist Jonathan Fowler is using ground-penetrating radar to search for historic evidence of the massive wall that surrounded Halifax more than 250 years ago.