Just your average Garden Variety

The New Place

2007-03-24T13:59:00.000-04:00

With the move, selling of the house, and the gruelling work schedule I have decided to rid my clutter.
My blog has been moved to http://pavementtoprairie.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there.

Spring Fever!

2007-03-23T20:12:00.000-04:00

I can feel the rush begin as soon as the sun hits my face and I feel warmth on my cheeks instead of the bitter cold of winter.

Today was 15 degrees and I began to itch to get my hands dirty. The snow has almost all melted, and I was able to better asses the vole damage. what appeared as a maze of a million tunnels criss crossing the lawn and a small square inch of bark missing from my tree. I knew they were there, as I was greeted at the front door by one of these little vermits a few weeks ago. I could only cross my fingers and pray for the 200 or so bulbs that I planted in the garden. Thankfully, it appears as though there was not a piled of bulbs found as it was at my neighbours house, where the voles decided to make a pantry out of their bulb collection and keep them in one place.

I began the tomato and pepper plants indoors a few weeks ago, and while the tomato plants have flourished, I am still waiting on many peppers to poke.

We have more news, we are looking at moving, so my little garden might be passed to another novice or even an expert that will see my baby flourish.

First Snow in the Garden

2006-10-24T23:46:00.000-04:00

200 bulbs

2006-10-23T16:55:00.000-04:00

Wow what a long garden blogging break.. I can't believe many people still checked in on me. I want to thank everyone for the compliments on my photos over the year, I am currently taking my digital photography designation and have decided to incorporate my photos with this blog.

I am afraid that with my mother fighting breast cancer, 2 deaths in the family, the IVF that forced me into bedrest due to ovarian hyperstimulation the garden has been last on the agenda. Most of the plants fended for themselves and thrived, others did not fair so well. I fear my peonys might have gotten brown spot, pouted and are not speaking to me anymore. My roses surprisingly have thrived and love their home. There were soo many tomatoes, that the neighbours were over daily picking their fill.

It seems like the entire month of October has been raining and cold. What happened to our Ontario Indian summer? Finally Saturday morning brought a break in the clouds for the morning hours and I was able to clean out the garden of unwanted plants and get everything ready for winter. Then I looked at the amount of bulbs C had purchased for me.. 200, tulips, hyacinths, alliums.. I had 2 dilemmas, 1 where was I going to plant all of these, and how badly was my back going to hurt after planting all these bulbs. I managed to dig the last hole just as the skies opened and the rain returned.

I am confused about the lavender though, if anyone has ideas on how I am to overwinter lavender, then I will gladly follow it.

White Cosmo

2006-08-04T20:54:00.000-04:00

Through a new lens

2006-08-04T20:42:00.000-04:00

Some photos from my walk this evening I thought I would share.

Prince Charming

2006-08-03T19:02:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had some serious weather here in Ontario.. this cloud took over in less than 5 minutes everything went pitch black... seconds later we lost power, and the neighbours outdoor dining canopies flew around smacking into walls and I was not sticking around to see them smash into windows too.. we retreated to the basement.. Where we found....

Prince charming!!!! my little toad and tomato gaurd!!! He had saught shelter from the storm too in my basement window well. He looked so desperate to come in, but I couldn't risk letting in his friend the mouse too so we just made faces to one another and kissed through the glass while the storm went on..

Prior to the rain I took my new Nikon D70 out for a test spin in the field, actually in search of a butterfly, which I never seem to fidn when my cameras are cocked locked and loaded. (why is it that the second I put them down a Monarch appears, fluttering aimlessly and precariously close to me). I did find Thistle in fields of milk weed.

Blame it on the heat..

2006-08-03T04:09:00.000-04:00

I have been flipping terrible at keeping up on here. Everything is moving soo fast right now.
I will catch up later this week but I got my new Nikon D70..
Here are the first pics taken with it.

Friend or Foe?

2006-07-13T20:25:00.000-04:00

It was such a killer hot day today, I decided to let the plants suffer through the extreme heat and then give them a good drench this evening. I am glad I did, because had I wasted water and done the watering this morning I would have missed this. The catepillars must have just hatched for I caught them feeding on one rose leaf and the egg sacs are at the tip. You can actually see the eggs in the upper left hand corner (looks slightly shimmery) anyhow, I have no idea what they are, although I have a sneaking suspicion that they are fall web worms, and they can cause a lot of damage ( a lot more than what they already did to one single leaf in a few hours). I put them in a mason jar, then I clipped the stem around this leaf just in case one of them was fast to leap to another feed source.
Anyone know what they may be?

Edited to Add: I also found a few green aphids on my roses, I transferred the ladybugs over to the rose bush and I set out yellow sticky notes covered in vaseline. If this doesn't work tomorrow I will look at other options.

My Confession..

2006-07-11T19:47:00.000-04:00

I grow weed. Lots of it, in fact if I don't harvest the weed soon, it will expose itself to the neighbours. This side section of my yard was completely ignored, not by choice, but because I was *told* by the builder that the swails were to be dug up and redone this spring. Apparently I misunderstood and I figured the swail that had craters from the poor soil and bad drainage job was to be the swail to be dug up and redone, apparently that was a misconception on my part, instead the swail that was redone was fine and had no erosion whatsoever (until they dug up the sod and left the exposed soil for a month). Is it the builder that has no common sense? Or is this supposed to be the case.

In other Garden news, I have ladybug babies! Well hey if I can't procreate at least something in my garden can. I hope these ladies bring me as much luck as they can muster.
I also caught site of this by the tomato plants. Now let me confess.. ... I Cannot stand spiders. Even after photographing this (I apologize for the poor quality, I was not sticking around to photo over and over again, besides I sent a branch in to help out the ladybug right after I shot the photo since I saw some leg movement) but even now an hour later I still feel itchy and tingly. I know there are lots of spiders in my garden, I keep a keen eye for them when I am rummaging about. I know they are beneficial and blah blah blah, they are creepy and scarey to me, they are lucky to be so beneficial, but I would rather do without them. Just to let you know the ladybug did escape, but I am unsure if the spider wounded her with venom. My clematis, oh my clematis, I understand you like to grow your vine so high, but one flower, show me one flower just to know you want to shine.

Clematis

2006-07-08T13:55:00.000-04:00

While enjoying a few drinks at a friends yesterday I couldn't help but admire the white clematis she has trailing along an arbor in the back of the property. Her purchase was $5 a pot (I shelled out $20.00 for mine) and hers are in beautiful bloom. I have height, but no flower to mine. I loved these, She said the sale was continuing for a while, I might find a plant or two left.

We have success!!!!

2006-07-08T13:49:00.000-04:00

How exciting!!! I checked on the tomatoes only to see a whack of fruit growing upon their vines. I must shield them from the corn child from here on in. Every plant has a few tomatoes growing on them, with all of our setbacks, to see them progress this far is soo exciting.

Wild Weather

2006-07-06T22:51:00.000-04:00

This week was an absoloute rollercoaster for the weather. Did I mention that if you didn't like the weather you should wait ten minutes? Well that saying was proven yet again as we experienced everything from hot muggy stifling temperatures to incredible lows, severe thunder, wicked winds and hail. The thunderstorms were so severe my two pupheads were found cowering in bed with C when I got home from work and normally they are not fraidy pups. The lightning was so distracting on my drive home I had to remind myself NOT to stare out my passenger window but to keep my eyes on the road itself. I lost a few plants to the wind, namely a blooming stalk of phlox and a few weak stems on the tomato plants. The poor tomato plants also took a major beating in the hail storm and have scars on the stems where the hail pelted at them, the Canna Lilly also has torn leafs where the hail ripped right through to the ground. The hydrangeas in the flower boxes wilted in the suffocating heat and I thought they were goners for sure. It does appear that all plants have however managed to continue to live and thrive in the garden, despite the wild weather and mounting odds against them. The storms have since parted (hopefully for a few days) and the weather has been a comfortable 20 - 25 degrees, absoloutely perfect for sharing a drink in the backyard with neighbours (all of whom are watching my tomato plants with a careful eye- remember no fence), or taking the doggies for a walk along the lakefront. Bryan and Kaycee normally suffer through the summer months with their hot black fur coats, and since Byran believes that it is unregal of him to have a wet coat, he suffers most. Yesterday the weather was a perfect sunny but bearable day for the doggies so I strutted out to the waterfront for a stroll. All three of us were very happy to meet Sammy, a fellow Berner sitting with his Mistress and keeping watch of the grandchildren playing in the park.

Keeping up with the Jones'

2006-07-06T15:53:00.000-04:00

I have been a terrible journaller as of late. Things have been just soo hectic around the house that I have not had a moment to myself to post the pics of the garden as it grows. Now that the weather is soo nice I want to spend all my time IN my garden and not writing about my garden. But I digress, there have been a few changes to my little front garden. The cabbage that was destroyed by the little white cabbage butterfly larvae was sent for compost, but today I saw this.. Laying more of her destructive uninsatiable babies again.

There are some other "pests" that have made my garden their home, for example, this petunia was never planted by me, but the seed (I suspect from my neighbour since she has a tonne of these) somehow ended up sowing in an empty container I had. Something told me not to bother pulling it as a weed. I am actually glad I didn't. now I have a free container!

Remember that hydrangea I thought I had killed? One of them has bloomed, the other is much slower, I have yet to see buds, but I will let it be. I remember from my mom's garden that it took several years for the hydrangea to blossom into this huge 6 foot tall bushy shrub. (I am not sure I want it that big)

The hosta has also began to bloom, I really adore these flowers. They have such a delicatness to them but hang on a sturdy stem.

He loves me, he loves me not..

2006-06-27T19:21:00.000-04:00

Boy this would take a while to play that game.

Total destruction

2006-06-27T19:12:00.000-04:00

My poor flowering cabbage.. those savages, the little green worms must be saught revenge. This feast literally occured overnight

Passion Flower

2006-06-22T20:23:00.000-04:00

When C thought he was helping out and watering the plants by leaving the sprinkler on to drown my roses and clematis (I think this was the last battle for the clematis and it is heading to a better place now) . I had no idea the sprinkler was left on. When C finally awoke and told me I jumped up and out the door to survey the damage. Any loose blooms on the roses were gone, a few leafs on the peonies, and clematis were completely water logged. Well if this did not open us to disease I thought. I was soaked by the time I reached the shut off, dripping and saddened. C bought me this passion flower plant as a truce, and a promise to not water the plants again.
I love the strange beauty to the passion flower.

"It is immortal, but keeps death within;
Nobody has ever seen the bloom of a greater flower,
And if you long to know its name,
As it resembles Jesus, the flower is Christ."- Flos Passions (Signor .F.B., In Jacomo Bosio, 1609)

The passion flower actually has no connotation of romance but instead of religious notion. The 'passion' of the passiflora is that of Passiontide (The last 2 weeks of Lent). When Jacomo Bosio was studying in Rome in the 17th century he was introduced to the drawing of this odd flower from Mexico, since nothing like it had been discovered in Europe he believed it to be unreal. After many confirmations of the flowers existence he believed that the flower represented the cross of cavalry, as well as past mysteries of the passion. The central colum represents the cross itself, and the corona gleaming from the base represented the plaited and twisted crown of thorns (there are 72 filaments, same number as thorns in Christ's crown) The filaments are slightly pink representing the beating that drew blood. The 3 stigmas topping the column represent the 3 nails driven into Christ's body. And 5 red blotches on the stamen were believed to be blood from his 5 wounds. Later , the story was to include the 10 outer petals to represent the 10 apostles present at crucifixion (Peter and Judas absent) And the 3 bracts were the trinity. The leaves are the hands of Jesus' prosecutors, and the tendrils are what bounds him.
In non Christian influenced cultures it has also been representing a clockface flower and most oddly a homosexual flower because it artistically represents the anus.
I think I will stick with Jacomo's depiction.

As a side note, I have discovered that my fairy roses are under nourished.. I put down some more compost, a few coffee grinds and some rose food. I hope that the blooms get fatter soon (I did not think this was a minature rose) SEE!! I jinxed myself, the moment I had said I always saw heartache with rose growers!!!

The legend of the Passiflora from Plant Discoveries, a botanists voyage through plant exploration, Sandra Knapp .

Bontanical Painting by http://www.leadonvalefinearts.com/BotanicalVol1.htm

The Full Monty

2006-06-19T21:23:00.000-04:00

In the heat, the Ausblush rosebush has unwhirled some of its tight buds and is totally showing off. I love the smell, I love the colour and the pompom style heritage rose. I remember about 5 years ago my mother planted a heritage rose in her garden that blew me away, prior to this planting, I was naive. I thought that roses only came in the hybrid tea variety, red, pink, yellow, boy was I WRONG! When that first bloom opened up I was in love. The smell was so intoxicating I remember sticking my nose inside the bloom and inhaling the sweet fragrance. I was hooked.
I have always been intimated by roses. I always found many gardeners complaining about the hardships of raising and caring for their rose gardens to be such time money and heartbreak. I can recall a few times where my mother had given up on the bush and tossed it to the garbage heap. So when C's mother became treasurer of the Canadian Rose Society, she steered me towards the tips for Canadian Rose growers on the Rose society website. I have taken the advice to heart. I contacted the local chapter and heard which roses were best for my area, and I checked out a few local growers. I decided on the Ausblush rose for the cotton candy pale pink and citrus rose scent, as well as the fairy rose for the lower grown variety. These are the only 2 bushes I have planted in the garden, but wait until the back is ready.

On the tomato front, the plants have grown hog wild! I think I am going to have to sheild them from the wind if they pick up again though. I had a few broken limbs this morning after last nights thunder storms. I had to restake them as they have begun to outgrow their current supports. No sign of tomato yet, but lots of little yellow blooms about.

My Very First

2006-06-18T10:30:00.000-04:00

I am soo excited!!! I just want to sit outside and stare at it, and stick my nose in its beautiful blossoming face. This is the first rose I have ever grown on my own. This is the first bloom and I wish I could share its sweet smell with you.

Shaken not stirred

2006-06-18T00:07:00.000-04:00

Things EXPLODED in the heat we had today. Some plants relished the strong sun. The tomatoes, clematis and lambs ears I swear doubled in size today. The containers however withered and looked rather parched. True to their form however the cosmos went wild!

I am actually excited to come home from work tommorrow night to see if my rose has bloomed (it is just sooo close) this is the ausblush heritage rose that I adore.. such a pale pink with a wonderful fragrance.

Theraputic planting

2006-06-16T01:15:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was the worst day in memory. I found out my mom is not superhuman afterall, and our plans for a summer IVF have been pushed back. I was feeling pretty low. To try and get my mind straightened out I planted a few dozen cosmos under my little maple tree to cheer me up. It distracted me for a while and gave me solitude to put things into perspective. It is said that people make clearer and more correct decisions when they have had time for their subconsious mind to mull all the information over before acting on anything, for me its the distraction of planting, deadheading, feeding the plants that seems to ease the mind.

The Upside of Down

2006-06-12T22:33:00.000-04:00

Wow, What a week! I am soo glad my mom and I managed to make that trip out to Hockley before because I have barely sat down since.
I had work matters in court which is the pitfall of my employment, by the time I came home I barely made it in the yard to water, nevermind tend to the actual garden. Oh well. Now that my days off have come (and almost gone) I have still barely stepped foot in the garden! C and I have been working like mad to get the deck going and we are truckin right along! 3 more joists need to be hung, a post or two and then we are off for a finishing run of some skirting and the floor boards (looks like I may enjoy a deck this year afterall .. did I just JINX myself or what?). The builder that came about 3 weeks ago in the cold rain and dug up the sod between the house (on the best side.. they left the shitty side alone.. go figure) still have not returned to re-lay the sod so we are left with a mud swail next to the house (lovely).
Did I mention that if you did not like the weather you should wait 10 minutes? Was it just not a little over a week ago that I was complaining of heat stroke and shovelling 4 yards of gravel in 40 degree weather? Well now I am back to just a mere 10 degrees and the wind is furious. My poor tomato plants.. they are holding on for dear life in the back with no fences to protect them from all the wind (I am sure we have a few casualties).
On the upside it would appear that I have successfully moved the calla lilly that was being strangled by the flaming spirea a few feet to safety I hope it works.

Containers

2006-06-12T22:26:00.000-04:00

The containers have really made quite a show!

Creme Caramel

2006-06-12T22:18:00.000-04:00

Pink Lavender

2006-06-12T22:10:00.000-04:00