91Ô­´´

Dear Helen: I am confused by the concept of mulching. When should I apply it? How much? What types are best? How are ground covers mulched? Will a mulch smother them if applied on top? T.D.

Although they have lived in many places around the world, from Indonesia to Korea to Czechoslovakia, when it came time to retire, Lisa Rogers and husband Hazen Gauthier knew the only place they wanted to be was Victoria.

Dear Helen: Can coffee grounds be used safely in the garden? I’ve been told they are too acidic and should not be put in the compost. R.S.

Dear Tony: What are the limitations that we can impose on an owner who is wanting to undertake alterations to their strata lot? We have an owner who has purchased a penthouse unit and has submitted a request to renovate the space, including the remov

Gardeners continue to voice a sense of jubilation this spring. Here’s an email that came in on the morning of my writing this: “The rain was great. My seeds are germinating. Yahoo! I’m finding my garden so exciting this year — Lots of fun.

Who would ever have thought we’d be in the middle of a second spring, and spending a second Mother’s Day weekend, amid significant restrictions made necessary by a pandemic? What to do? How to mitigate the sadness of isolation and lift the spirits of

Dear Tony: At a recent general meeting, our strata had a lengthy dispute over how quorum was calculated and whether we could continue our meeting near the end, as more than half the registrants had left the meeting and, including proxies, we were wel

Sometimes the most difficult lot can lead to special features that make a house unique. This was certainly the case for a modern, three-level, 2,700-square-foot home recently built by homeowners Elizabeth and Cole Skelly and designed by Zebra Group.

Dear Helen: My wife, a superb cook, is wanting a herb garden. She would like to have fresh chives, parsley, basil, rosemary, sage and thyme. Will these do well in a bed together? F.L.

Dear Tony: Our strata is a typical older three-floor walk-up in North 91Ô­´´. There is no elevator, and we have a common laundry on the ground floor. In many ways, it is a simple apartment-style building with few problems.