Toward a green thumb

Moving day!

2010-06-16T15:17:00.003-04:00

Hi folks -- I've combined my three blogs and moved them over to my own website. So if you want to keep up on what I've discovered in urban nature, gardening, field-to-table food, come to my writing & photos over at patanderson.net .

More stuff from Veseys!

2010-05-23T22:10:00.001-04:00

I've got 3 blue sea holly, which I'm going to plant in among my roses in the front garden for contrast,
2 bleeding hearts for the back garden,
and the following ferns:
Hay scented - can grow up to 24 or 36" high, and will take any amount of light. They recommend putting it near a pathway so its fronds can be bruised and crushed, releasing the scent.
Ostrich hardy - 24-60". Might be aggressive. Might be what I already have in the back yard!
Christmas - 24-36" high, does well in full to partial shade.
Maidenhair - 12-24", black stems, medium shade
Sensitive - 12-18", sunshine or shade.
Lady -- 24-36", partial shade
Cinnamon - 24-36", can go from wet, swampy to dry shade.
Toothed wood - 12-24", really lacy, semi evergreen!
Leatherwood - 24-36" semi evergreen, often used by florists, they say.
Royal fern - 36-48" -- this is a tall one! I will probably place it between some of the hostas to add some height.

Tonight I'll use my indelible marker on popsicle sticks so I know what is planted where, and tomorrow I will plant and water. Have only had about a millimeter of water in the last week.

2010-05-18T21:50:00.001-04:00

My last Estella Rijnvelt

I used to have a number of these parrot tulips -- oh, gosh, probably 10 years ago. This is the last one that blooms. I love the streaks, I love the colors, I love the edges.

I may have to buy some more, even though it's difficult to keep them safe from the squirrels.

2010-05-18T21:48:00.000-04:00

That's NOT pollen!

While I was weeding my front garden on Sunday, I noticed what seemed to be a patch of pollen caught in a spider web at the front corner of the porch. I looked closer.

Look at it full size.
It's baby spiders!

I left them there. I hope they'll migrate to the garden, not the house!

2010-05-18T20:19:00.000-04:00

Birdy weather!

Along with sunny days come migratory birds! My backyard is certainly attracting them.

They like to have places to perch. In addition to the fence, they've got the sand cherry standard and the elderberry.

They like to scratch the soil for insects. They've got a garden free of pesticides for that.

They like to have baths and drinks of water. My water cascade definitely provides that! I had three species of warblers at the same time in it on the weekend: it looked like a bird convention (hmm... a parliament of fowls?).

Lots of pictures over in my Backyard Birds folder on Flickr.

2010-05-14T16:19:00.000-04:00

Warmer, drier weather arrived today

So into the ground went the 10 hostas (oooh, some of them were looking long and white: I hope they'll be OK) and the 10 astilbe roots. All of them labelled, sprinkled with blood & bone meal, and watered. I did that work in the afternoon, when birds usually make themselves scarce. It means that, with my recharged battery on my camera, I'm good to go again. It was a very birdy morning. I'll be updating my Flickr account tonight with the results.

2010-05-09T11:31:00.000-04:00

Waiting for warmer, drier weather

Ugh! Didn't get the hostas in the ground, and that may be a good thing. It rained Thursday afternoon, Friday, and yesterday, and there's a frost warning for tonight. I hope the roots will be OK in their little plastic bags in the dark. Maybe tomorrow will be a planting day: it's supposed to be sunny and 13.

The one good thing is that all this rain should have pushed some of the nutrients from the compost down into the soil.

2010-05-06T18:39:00.003-04:00

Feeding the garden

Today started with a trip to Home Depot to get some hardware cloth. 1/4 inch square galvanized hardware cloth, to be exact.

I needed the hardware cloth to sift the compost that has been sitting at the bottom of my composter for a few years. It had lots of time to decompose, and it did it quite well. There were still some pieces of eggshell, some big hunks of bark, a few pebbles (must have come from previous garden waste, or the detritus at the bottom of flower pots) and the like. So in order to have just the good stuff, I needed to sift it through the hardware cloth.

Dump a few trowels' worth on the hardware cloth (positioned above a bucket), and move it around with my gloved hands or the edge of the trowel until only the big bits are left on top. Discard big bits; repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. I would have worn my iPod, except I wanted to be listening for migrators while I was doing it. Didn't see any new birds.

Have a nice even layer of compost over everything in the big north bed in the back yard. Need to sift some more for the south bed, the triangle bed, and the front garden.

The north and south beds are the priorities, because I need to get the hostas in the ground tomorrow, so I've been doing prepwork. Yesterday I pulled daffodils and bluebells. I would have raked them out, but discovered that the elderberry has very shallow roots! I'm afraid I broke a couple of them. So I've got a few daffodil bulbs left in the ground, but I pulled their leaves off and I'm not sure if they'll even sprout next year.

I'm almost all set for tomorrow. I found my permanent aluminum plant markers, and have written the names on them, and have drawn up a cheat sheet on a filing card so I remember where to plant things. I need to go to East End Gardens before I plant, though, and buy some blood meal to sprinkle around each hosta after planting, with the hopes that the squirrels won't dig up the hostas because they smell like wet dog. Give them a chance to get established and for the squirrels to forget that the soil had been dug up.

On another note, when I was cleaning leaf and flower junk out of the water thingie, I discovered that a young European sparrow drowned today. The corners of its mouth were still quite yellow. I was surprised: I didn't realize that sparrow families were that far along this year.

I'll have to see if I can rig something up so a bird that falls in the pond can recover and fly off.

2010-05-03T20:17:00.003-04:00

A box from Veseys' has arrived in the mail today.

It contains 10 hosta roots!

Medio variegata
Aureomarginata
Albomarginata
Hyacinthina
Sieboldiana Elegans

(oooh! Had to get out my Lee Valley credit card magnifier to read the labels)

So what does this mean?

I need to come up with an arrangement and decide which ones are going in which bed.

Most of them will go in the right-handed bed, and a few in the left. The triangle I'm going to leave for herbs.

What are their colors and sizes?

Medio variegata: medium green leaf with a white flame down the centre. Can get up to 36" around, about 18" high.

Aureomarginata: heart-shaped glossy medium green leaves with yellow edges. Height of 18-28", spread 36-48".

Albomarginata: how's your Latin? This one's got white edges on deep green leaves, and can eventually spread to 36" or more (about 18" high).

Hyacinthina: Loosely grouped, heavily quilted non-lustrous bluish-green leaves. Really textural. It can grow up to 24" tall and about 36" in diameter.

Sieboldiana Elegans: Now this one can get big! up to 30" tall and 48" in diameter. Large, heart shaped thick bluish-grey leaves, heavily quilted. Slow grower. (Thank goodness. I'd hate to have to divide that every couple of years!)

I need to remove my daffodils and put down a good layer of compost, and scratch that into the soil a little. They recommend Sieboldiana Elegans as a background plant, so I'll probably put one by the back of the water thingie, and the other near the north fence, about 4 feet from the elderberry -- its chartreuse leaves should set off the blue-grey nicely.

In the north bed, I want to put two albomarginatas and one aureomarginata near the Sieboldiana, and one aureomarginata next to the one by the water thingie. I'll combine the Medio variegata with one Hyacinthina where the scentimental rose is (dead looking), and that leaves me one Hyacinthina to put somewhere, which I'll figure out once I get the others in the ground. I have to leave room for ferns, astilbe and bleeding hearts!

Ooooh, I'm really going to have to watch out for slugs now. I think it was Martin Galloway who called hostas a salad for slugs!

2010-04-28T20:13:00.002-04:00

Current state of gardens

Here we go. I spent the afternoon clearing the back yard of goutweed... it was all through the bed on the right side of the image. Required a lot of care to try to pull all the stolons without killing the daffodils (so few of them are in bloom that I'd like to enjoy them this one last time before I yank them in a couple of weeks).

When I get the astilbes, ferns, and hostas from Vesey's, I'll be filling things in. I'm also going to get a few plants from East End Gardens.

There are three roses in this yard, and I'm not sure if they've really survived winter. I'll give them a couple of weeks to prove themselves. If they've survived, I'll move them to the front garden. If not... well, compost time.

It looks like some of the roses in the front garden are also a bit slow or haven't made it. I'll have to give them some time to see how they do:

There's a clump of grass growing in the lavender bed that I have to get rid of, and some perennials that materialized from nowhere in the raised bed that I'm not fond of and am thinking of destroying. Going to get rid of the pots of sedum (plant the sedum in the back yard). Might ditch the two half-barrels: after 14 years, they're looking more than a little tired. The alliums should be flowering within a few weeks, by the looks of it. What an early spring!

2010-04-22T10:06:00.002-04:00

Shade plants ordered!

Just went on Veseys' website and placed an order for

10 hostas
10 astilbes
2 bleeding hearts
10 ferns

for my shady backyard.
I'm also buying 3 blue sea holly for the front garden: the blue will be a nice cool contrast to all the warm colors of the roses. I thought of buying some foxgloves, too, but I think I prefer the foxgloves at East End Garden Centre, so I've got to hop on my bike and make a trip over there.

I've reconciled myself to pulling up the daffodils in the back yard: I've got lots of greenery, but only 4 flowers this year, and because there are so many of them, it's difficult to (a) plant around them (b) get rid of the goutweed that has spread among them.

2010-04-04T18:24:00.001-04:00

Springtime 2010

It's so early in the season, and yet, gardening is based on what the plants are doing, not what the calendar shows. The forsythia two yards away is yellow and almost in full bloom!

I've got most of the front garden cleaned up, all the roses and shrubs pruned, and started pruning in the back today. I'll take pictures once I've got them both all cleaned up.

One of my first tasks after that will be to move three of the roses to the front garden: it's getting too shady in the back. I need to get some more shade-loving plants, like hostas, ferns, and astilbe (after I kill all the goutweed).

2008-10-11T19:47:00.003-04:00

8 lbs of green San Marzano tomatoes

It hasn't been a good year for tomatoes: long, slow cool spring, lots of rain. Actually, wasn't a good year for jalapenos, either. They just disappeared.

There just isn't enough time for my heirloom San Marzano tomatoes to ripen before we get frost. I haven't seen any turn red: I think they've been taken when they turn orange. It's not the rodents, because they just eat things in situ, and the stem end of the tomato remains on the plant.

So this weekend I decided it was time to harvest what is out there, and decide which ones I'm going to try to ripen indoors, and which ones I'll turn into some green tomato recipe. I've got 8 lbs of them, so I have lots of room to experiment.

My front garden didn't develop many weeds this summer: the 4 tomato plants pretty much overran the garden. Pulling the plants out today has left my garden much emptier! I still have a few rosebuds that may bloom.

Anybody have a favorite recipe for green paste tomatoes?

2008-05-11T18:15:00.002-04:00

Now I've done it

I took a little walk to East End Garden centre yesterday to buy plants for the two planters (front living room window, front of porch) that are sitting completely empty. Bought some lovely plants (potato vines, double impatiens, petunias). Also saw some other plants that I couldn't quite resist, because I had such luck last summer.

I bought 4 San Marzano tomato plants.

If you know my house and its situation, you know that my back yard has become almost completely shaded over the last eleven years. So it's definitely not a place to grow tomatoes.

So I will be planting them in the front garden. Among the roses. Heck, flower and vegetable gardens were never separate things in the middle ages to Renaissance. The French called them potagers.

Why not? Maybe the thorns will help protect them from raccoons and other thieves. If not, I bought another set of four plants to serve as centurions guarding the tomatoes.

Jalapeno peppers.

I chortle with glee. We'll see if I'm successful. My front yard, although it gets more sun than my back yard, doesn't get any where near as much sun as the allotment gardens at the base of Leslie Street get.

Cross your fingers for me!

2008-04-05T18:16:00.002-04:00

Pruning time!

Pruned:

Honeysuckle vine (leaves were already budding out)
Potentilla
Euonymous

so I can paint the wrought-iron fence next weekend.

Cut back the Japanese Anemones to the ground (they're herbaceous, and will reappear from under the earth).

Also grossly pruned the roses. Will do a fine pruning in a few weeks, when I see which canes survived the winter. I had a few really big hips on some of them, swollen with seeds. I saved a few, and brought them in the house to dry out. I may try planting the seeds to see what I get!

2008-04-04T19:06:00.002-04:00

Spring!

On my way over to the grocery store this evening, I

heard a male cardinal singing his territorial song
saw two robins
saw two male grackles.

OK, the cardinal is here all winter, and the robins may have been, too, but the grackles are definitely a sign of spring!

This weekend it's supposed to reach 13C each day. I think I'll be doing some garden clean up!

2008-03-09T13:34:00.002-04:00

Enjoying last summer's bounty

Just felt like taking a picture of some of my tomatoes thawing. I liked the frosted look.

It's a mix of Romas and San Marzanos. Thaw them, slip the skins off and cut them in bits, then turn them into to pasta sauce. Memories of summer!

2007-09-11T20:06:00.000-04:00

2.5 kilos (just over 5 lbs)

More tomatoes.
I think, however, that this is the last of the Caspian pinks for the season.

There are still many more Black Cherries, San Marzanos, and Romas to come.

Several of the birdhouse gourds have serious munches on them, and are not likely to be useful. I've left them on the vine, hoping (maybe against hope) that this will persuade the beasties not to munch the other ones, because they're obviously not tasty.

We'll see if there are any harvestable ones by the middle of October.

2007-09-02T18:55:00.001-04:00

More tomatoes!

Last week, I got about 7 lbs of tomatoes. About the same the week before. This week I harvested some that are not quite ripe as well as the ripe ones. 10 lbs worth!

I'm freezing the paste tomatoes as they ripen, and I'll make a big batch or two of tomato sauce one of these days (with lots of my basil in it).

I've also got about 10 birdhouse gourds growing: let's hope they continue to grow, and ripen before the garden gets closed for the winter.

It's been an exceedingly dry summer. I've been watering on a weekly basis, because there just hasn't been any rain to talk about.

It's been fun having a garden plot, but I'm not likely to renew it for next year. I've got enough with my front and back gardens at home, and really want to devote some time to photography.

2007-08-11T20:25:00.000-04:00

Ripening is happening.

I went out to my plot today to water... there hasn't been any significant rainfall in well over a week. But because I've been putting a gallon of water on each plant when I water, their roots are probably deep (because I only water once every week to ten days).

My plants look as tall and healthy as anyone else's, so I credit Marjory Mason with the story of her father's vegetable garden, and how she planted tomatoes.
She said that, when planting, she and her father would dig a hole; fill the hole with a bucketfull of water; plant the tomato and fill the hole in; put another bucketfull of water on the tomato. And didn't water for the rest of the season. Now, we've had an extremely dry summer, so I've watered once a week to ten days.

The tomatoes are growing, as is the basil, and as are the two birdhouse gourd plants. Here's what the garden looks like now. You can hardly tell there are tomato cages... the tomatoes are growing wildly out of them, and some are crawling along the ground, like vines.

I picked some. Here are a couple of photos before I picked. First, the San Marzanos. They're an heirloom variety of paste tomato.

And some Caspian Pinks! Warning: I used Autofocus (it was getting dark) and so the vine is in focus, not the tomatoes.

So how many tomatoes did I pick today? About 1.8 kilos worth!

I didn't pick any of the black cherries today, because I think they need a few more days of ripening on the vine. I'll have to go down to the garden mid-week to check on them.

Cheers!

p.s.: I just ate one of the Caspian Pinks as a Caprese salad (tomato, basil, bocconcini, drizzles of olive oil and Basalmic vinegar). 'Twas yummy!

2007-07-28T22:23:00.000-04:00

First harvest

Another week, another trip to the allotment garden. What luck!~ some tomatoes were ripe this time!

Heirloom variety "Black Cherry" -- nice and small, so they're the first ones ripe. Caspian pinks and paste tomatoes are getting larger and more numerous, but are still all green.

So here's a picture of my first tomatoes, paired with some fresh basil (also from my garden).

2007-07-07T13:44:00.000-04:00

Another weekend, another trip to the allotment garden

Just a short trip this time; did some weeding using my awesome Lee Valley loop hoe (yippee... kill weeds without bending and squatting).

Also watered.

And I'm now looking at the sky (on what Environment Canada assures me is a full-sun day) and wondering if it's going to rain.

One thing I did notice today that I hadn't felt on earlier trips: mosquitoes! Must remember to wear mosquito repellant as well as sun block.

Which one does one apply first?

Or are there any non-paba 40+ sunblocks with mosquito repellant in them?

Today's Toronto Star has an article about the increasing number of people who are growing their own veggies. For more details, see Urban Gardeners are Growing Local ... the article is by Sonia Day, a gardening writer with a couple of books under her belt, Master Gardener, and artist.

Grow green! Eat local!

2007-07-02T17:21:00.000-04:00

I have tomatoes on my tomato plants!

It's true.

I've been watering them once a week since I planted them.

I went down to the garden today to put cages around them for support (before they get too big, or the cages wouldn't fit around them then: I'd be breaking stems off).

Just about every tomato plant has tomatoes already -- and lots more flowers, indicating tomatoes to come.
Here is a picture of some of the black cherry tomatoes,

as well as a shot of the eight plants (plus two basil).

I planted three birdhouse gourd plants today (they take a lot of space). 120 days to ripen. I should be able to harvest them around Thanksgiving, and then dry them out and drill openings in them.

2007-05-28T08:24:00.000-04:00

Don't give up on plants too soon!

Saturday afternoon I did indeed go down to the spit, to clear out some weeds and plant my tomatoes and basil. No bike this time: would have been too much jostling of the plants. I took a cab.

I walked past my garden the first time. I didn't recognize it! Two things happened since I last went there on September 10th last year:

The weeds kept growing. Oh my, how they kept growing. They're mostly at ankle height or slightly taller, but they are abundant.
My garden was full of these bleached-gray hollow sticks, all about knee height, all with a slight angle to the east.
I asked one of my gardening neighbours what the heck it was that came up, and she replied that it was the soybeans I had planted. They hadn't died when all their leaves were cropped off by rabbits! They grew more leaves, and goodness knows how long they lived. I expect they didn't produce any beans, because I didn't see anything that looked like bean pods around.
I just hope they added some nitrogen to the soil.

I need to go back several times this week to clear out the raspberry canes and the rest of the weeds. I have some seeds to plant (some decorative gourds, squash, asparagus peas, and more.

Somewhere, over the winter, I have misplaced my two weeding tools. I need to take another look around for them. The garden claw will do the trick for tonight.

I'll have to see if my tomato plants survived the heavy rain that fell yesterday.

I'm wishing the Canadian Tire at the corner of Lakeshore and Leslie would hurry up and be finished... it's a mch closer place to buy tomato cages than anywhere else. Alas, if it doesn't hurry up, I'll be carting cages from up on the Danforth, likely.

That's it for today. Happy gardening!

2007-05-26T10:40:00.000-04:00

Tomatoes and basil

Withrow Park, a breezy walk from home, is starting an organic farmers' market today. It will be held weekly throughout the summer.

I went first thing this morning (hmm... I thought they might open before the advertised time of 10am... nope).

I could have made some purchases there that I made at the St. Lawrence market on Friday. There were beautiful bunches of basil, fresh local organic lettuce, and fresh local organic asparagus from Kerr Farms.

I bought some rhubarb to stew up, and a spicy sundried tomato pesto made with hemp seed instead of pine nuts (it tasted good on a little piece of cornbread). Also got some organic green tea (can't believe that was locally grown, somehow).

There was lots of other produce, fresh bread from several sources, and fruit and veggie and herb plants, and some flowering annuals, too.

I bought 4 different types of tomatoes, since I didn't get seeds started this year:

two San Marzano plants (it's a paste-type tomato, used for sauces)
two Roma (another sauce-type tomato)
two Black Cherry
two Caspian Pink

and I got two basil plants. So this afternoon (after 3pm) I'll grab a cab down to the spit with some tools, my plants, and some seeds, and get things in the ground.

2007-04-26T08:53:00.000-04:00

It's spring!

Finally.

Last weekend, I got most of the gardens cleaned up. Still have one bed to do. Got the pond set up for the summer (and the birds flocked to it immediately).

Looks like most things made it through the winter, although I may have lost a few roses. Or maybe they're just slow waking up. I won't give up on Scentimental, Angel Face, and Love yet.

The elderberry and saskatoon berry shrubs look like they will burst into flower within a few weeks.

Heucheras don't look happy, but we'll see.

King Alfred daffodils are open, and I've got about another 6 species of daffs to come, plus the Estella Rijnveldt tulips I planted in the fall.

Migratory birds are starting to pass through. This week, I've seen both golden-crowned and ruby-crowned kinglets, a song sparrow, white-throated sparrows, and the goldfinches have returned. The dark-eyed juncos haven't left yet, although I've heard they've started arriving in Nova Scotia, so some of them have moved on to summer homes.

I really have to get my seeds started for the allotment garden!

2006-12-11T01:05:00.000-05:00

Truly goodnight, now

OK, so I planted a couple of dozen Estella Rijnveld tulips in my front garden today. I had to chip at the first 2" of soil to get down below the frost.

It's raining out right now, and we're supposed to get more rain over the next few days, so I hope this gives them a chance to establish.

I noticed that some of my daffodils have sprouted already: most are still below soil level (I inadvertently dug a few up) but some of them have tiny nubs of green breaking the surface of the soil. Good thing they're frost-hardy.

2006-12-03T18:27:00.000-05:00

Time to say "goodnight" to the garden

Time to admit it: summer and fall are over. We've had some light frosts (my Persian Shield plants are crispy dead). My roses are still blooming (see if I can grab a shot tomorrow) but we're supposed to have temperatures in the negative zone for the next five days.

So today was "do things before they freeze" day.

Emptied the pond, brought in the pump, emptied the hose and brought it in, turned the water off from inside the house and drained the pipe, and raked some more leaves (of course, there are many more I could rake).

Also harvested some sage from two different sage plants I have. Brought some leaves indoors, washed, and put them on paper towel to dry off.

Cut up a couple of leaves and made some sage butter to go with my egg noodles under my left-over stroganoff for dinner.

Started wondering why sage also means wisdom and calm judgement... I'll have to go to the reference library and look it up in the good old Oxford, I think.

Anyways, here's a picture of some sage: two varieties.

2006-09-10T16:56:00.000-04:00

I'm not going to be eating any home-grown edamame this year

Although it hasn't died, having all its leaves eaten has certainly slowed its growth. The weeds are doing much better! The edamame are the two fuzzy green stalks.

Here's the soybean plant that I shot last week.... no leaves here (well, some are starting at the top). It's the fuzzy green stalk. All the lovely leaves belong to weeds. Rabbits with good taste.

And after a few gardeners told me about how invasive Jerusalem artichokes are, and how difficult it is to get rid of them, I decided to rip them all out.

They're listed in the Ontario weeds section on the gov't website. One thing they say is:

Viable tubers formed during the preceding year will produce shoots during the current growing season. Tillage in late June, after tubers have exhausted their food supply but before new tubers begin for form, will retard the spread of an infestation. Usually two to three tillage operations will be required to significantly reduce a well established population.

I was definitely pulling up small tubers. I should take my garden claw down there next weekend to make sure I pull out any remaining tubers, so they don't grow and multiply next year.

At least, that gave me a sense of accomplishment.

I really do need a rabbit fence.

2006-09-01T15:24:00.000-04:00

I need a rabbit fence

This is what the edamame plants look like. All of them. All 10 of them. I'm hoping, because they're all showing signs of new leaves, that they might recover. Maybe, maybe not. We'll see.

Some of the soybeans haven't been eaten: here's one that looks OK, so far. I'm afraid to weed around them: it's like pointing out where dinner is! I'm just glad that Rabbits don't read blogs.

At least, I hope they don't. Memo for next spring: put in chicken wire.

2006-08-24T09:22:00.000-04:00

Weeding, Watering, and Wandering

Spent yesterday morning over at the allotment garden. As you can see, the weeds have been enjoying the waterings, too, so it was time.

Time for the tools of mass destruction.

They made short work of the weeds, after which the edamame was a lot more visible.

As you can see, they've each got two round true leaves, and are starting to develop their sets of three leaflets. From what I've read, I think I can expect all the rest of the leaves to be compound triplets.

After weeding and watering, I wandered around the whole garden, admiring what people have done on their plots. I'll put up a bunch of pictures shortly on Flickr. Until then, here's a sample -- a bumblebee on a hollyhock.

2006-08-12T21:00:00.000-04:00

Sprouts!

So now I've got sprouts happening.
I checked the glass at home, and 5 out of 7 soybeans have sprouted. OK, they're viable. That means that, in addition to watering the edamame today, I've got to plant the soybeans that I started soaking last night (just to give them a start on growing.

On my way out to the garden, I stopped by East End Garden Centre, and bought myself a watering can and a bag of vermiculite. More on the vermiculite later.

Here's what I was met with at the garden plot -- edamame sprouts! The cotyledons are above ground for more than half of them. I can guess at which of the little plantlets are the edamame based on the spacing.

I should have used the technique from "Square Foot Gardening" that really helps identify sown seed. Where you want to plant a seed, partially fill the hole with vermiculite. Water it. Plant the seed. Fill the rest of the hole with vermiculite. Water again.

Vermiculite gives the seed a good growing medium to start in, and it's *really* obvious compared to the soil. The plants should be easily identified: they're the ones in the middle of the pile of vermiculite! As you can see, I used that technique today when I planted the soybeans. A few rows here, a couple over here, one long one in the middle... lots of walking space around the plants.

48 plants of soybeans in all -- dunno what I'll do with the beans, if they actually grow! I want them mostly for their nitrogen-fixing ability.

That's it for today -- time to go eat some dinner (hmm... boiled and salted edamame? Nah, think I'll go for gourmet pizza tonight).

2006-08-07T20:17:00.000-04:00

Finished weeding!

Excuse my hand acting as a lens hood -- one day I'll buy a for-real one (shows, though, that the look through my SLR is smaller than the actual image shot. I was really careful to keep my hand out of the viewfinder's frame).

So now that I'm done weeding, I've started an experiment. I've taken some soy beans that I bought for eating, and am testing if they're viable for growing. I'm doing this by putting 7 beans between a glass and a cylinder of paper towel kept moist. If they sprout, I've got seeds that might grow. If I've got seeds that might grow, I'll plant them in the rest of my plot, just to improve the nitrogen in the soil for next year.

I was finished by about 11am this morning: I've got an evening shot because I forgot to put the card back in my camera when I went out to the spit this morning!

Time for a glass of wine to celebrate

2006-08-06T12:08:00.000-04:00

One row of edamame planted

So here we are: it's Sunday, and I spent a couple of hours weeding today, and got accomplished what I thought I'd get accomplished. Tomorrow I'll tackle the Queen Anne's Lace.

Now you can see all the way back to the corner of my plot -- and I measured today, and it's 20 feet square.
The raspberry canes are more obvious now -- they're not lost among the weeds. Not sure if I'll keep them. They don't look too healthy. Maybe they just need pruning or thinning. I'll have to read up on them.

The one wet row of soil is where I planted the edamame seeds -- that was sooooo easy after doing all the weeding.
I'm not sure if the hose at the back of my plot is mine or not -- I'll have towait until I meet that neighbour. It would save me from either (a) buying a hose or (b) dragging my watering can down with me, which is what I did today.

So I'll be back out there tomorrow, finishing things off, and maybe watering the soybeans. And I might yank up one jerusalem artichoke, just to see how they're doing.

2006-08-05T12:13:00.000-04:00

My own private bed of weeds.

Here are a couple of before shots. I've annotated one so you can get an idea of how many weeds there are. I think the garden plot measures 18 feet square.

And the romantic weed close-up (oooh, doncha love the lens flare)... there's Jerusalem artichokes, which I may leave until after frost to harvest, Queen Anne's lace, purple vetch, rudbeckia, plantain, and other assorted things that have to come out of the ground for me to plant some edamame.

Thank goodness for my Garden Claw. That tool's really doing the job for me. Although I probably looked strange biking over here, with big shears sticking out of my backpack and my Garden Claw balanced across my handlebars, I was able to get down here with the tools I needed under my own steam.

Here's after two hours of weeding. Progress has been made, but I think I've got two more weeding sessions like this one ahead of me. By tomorrow noon I should be able to plant the edamame in this section (which will be larger, and be pushed back to the raspberry canes).

Then on Monday morning I'll wear a long-sleeved shirt as well as my gloves to tackle the big Queen Anne's Lace patch on the west side: the sap can cause photosensitivity, so it's important to cover up when removing it. Notice the garden off to the right (it's fenced in). That's one of my neighbours, obviously.

Here's a better look at my neighbour's xeriscape. Creative, inventive, and I suspect (but I'll ask if/when I see them) low maintenance, now that it's installed.

I've got to go around and take some pictures of the different types of garden here: it's really everything, from herbs and vegetables to beautiful flower gardens of many different types.

2006-08-04T18:20:00.000-04:00

Time to do some weeding!

I acquired (well, I'm renting) a garden plot in one of the community gardens in Toronto. I looked at it about a month ago , when I acquired it, and it's got 5' high weeds in it.

Since then, temperatures have been either intolerable, or the risk of thunderstorms has been great (and it's a wide open space, near the Leslie St. Spit). So the weeds have continued to grow -- I've probably ticked off all the neighbouring gardeners.

This weekend I'm going to clear the weeds out, and try growing edamame. I know that it's considered a spring planting item, and I'm running risks planting something with a 75 day maturity at this point in the summer... but, what the heck? If I fail, it's $5 worth of seeds.

If I succeed, I'll be able to freeze lots of edamame for tasty snacks through the late fall and winter.

I'll take before and after pictures tomorrow!

...pat.

2006-06-18T21:58:00.000-04:00

Back after a week: most roses in full bloom

My gardens look lovely -- except for all the cotton from the local cottonwood tree! Most of my roses are in full bloom now: Angel Face has only opened one blossom, though, and Hans Christian Andersen (in the back yard) has lots of buds but no blooms.

Meanwhile, in the front yard, Ingrid Bergman is showing large beautiful roses; Lily Marlene is starting to open up; one magnificent Chicago Peace bloom is finishing; the Flame patio rose has a few flowers and many buds. Also, the astilbe is starting to get its white blossoms, and the foxgloves are in full glory. Gawd, it's a beautiful season. The deep red clematis in the front is also in bloom.

In the back, Abraham Darby and Brother Caedfile (both David Austin roses) are in lovely bloom and smelling beautiful; Scentimental has a half-dozen open flowers, too. Just waiting on Hans Christian.

The elderberry is threatening to take over: one young green branch was broken over, however, so I've pruned it. May have to do a bit more pruning. It seems very happy in the backyard, and its pale green leaves contrast nicely with the sand cherry.

The buddleia and Saskatoon berry are doing well, too.

Just gotta get out there and trim back the last of the daffodil leaves, and uproot the darned goutweed that's still sprouting out of nowhere.

That's it from this hot small garden for today!

2006-05-08T21:40:00.000-04:00

Yellow Things

Ah! The weekend of yellow things arrived. Many of my daffodils are open, and some migrating birds returned.

This is the Poet's Narcissus, in front of a lot of King Alfred daffodils.

This is "Chromacolor" -- its cup is more peach than yellow, and its petals are pale cream. It provides a good contrast to all the yellow daffs I have.

This beauty is Double Tahiti.

And this is one of my favorite yellows in the garden -- they always seem to come back while the forsythia and daffodils are in bloom.

Also planted this weekend: a viburnum "snowball" bush, a white single Rose of Sharon, and a new rose! I'll post pictures as they flower.

2006-04-23T22:12:00.000-04:00

King Alfred daffodils are in bloom.
So is forsythia.
And my early season species tulips.

Migratory birds are returning.
Seen so far: Ruby crowned and Golden crowned kinglets; yellow-bellied sapsuckers; Common grackles; Red-winged blackbirds; Robins (dunno if they left). White-breasted nuthatches, too.

2006-03-22T20:30:00.000-05:00

Where did spring go?

Got my seeds , books, and compost activator and neem oil, but where the heck did spring go?

It's been around freezing mark every day... every night, it's been below -5C.

Oh well. That's early spring in southern Ontario for you: Gets you all relaxed and happy, then *SLAP*s you across the face with icy winds.

I'm going to go buy some peat pots and vermiculite and sterile potting mix this weekend anyway, and start my tomato, asparagus peas, and okra. And then pray that I get my allotment garden, because they're not giving away any secrets at city hall about my chances of getting one.

From Highrise to Haystack was a fun read. I think the author's self-publishing the book. It's available through Vesey's website, under books. If you're thinking of pleasant bucolic autumn afternoons away from the rat race, read her book.

2006-03-12T16:24:00.000-05:00

OK, it feels like spring

Maybe it isn't yet, but with the temperatures up to 16 today, it definitely felt like the middle of spring. I st I started to uncover my back garden, and found that some of my daffodils are over an inch high, my buddleia has buds, as do my roses, and that things seem to generally be growing the way one would hope.

I started to uncover some things -- not most things, just things like daffodils that I know will be able to handle it if we get a hard freeze between now and the end of the month.

Big optimism

At the beginning of February, I stuck it out through 25 minutes of being on hold to get on the waiting list for an allotment garden near Leslie Spit. They look like fair-sized gardens -- about 20 x 20 feet. I was told that I'm in the top ten on the waiting list, and that I'd find out by the end of April if I get a garden this year.

Well, heck, I can't wait that long. Especially when Vesey's sends me an email message that they've got free shipping until March 20th.

So last night I ordered seeds. Lots of seeds. Lots of seeds with hopes of using a few of each kind for a vegetable garden on Leslie Street. Wherever possible, if they offered a choice, I've bought organic seed:

Food items

Sweet Slice Cucumber
Mei Qing Choi -- these are the "baby bok choi" that you see in the markets and supermarkets these days.
Eight Ball Zucchini -- hey, they look fun. Round zucchini. And if you're getting too many of them, start harvesting the blossoms to stuff.
Sunburst Squash -- these are the little "patty pan" type of summer squash. Harvest them before they get to 2" in diameter, and just saute them (or I want to try putting them on the barbecue with a brush of olive oil) Yum yum.
Brandywine Organic Tomato -- kinda ugly. Large, needs to be staked, and won't necessarily give you a lot of tomatoes. But damn, they are tasty. One of these, a buffalo mozzarella, and some fresh basil like we could grow in last summer's dry heat, and you've got one tasty salad for two.
Cherry Fox Organic Tomato -- because sometimes you just want little tomatoes. And they're cute.
San Marzano Organic Tomato -- I tried making tomato paste/sauce this summer using ordinary field tomatoes. That takes a lot of boiling to bring them down. So now I want to grow my own paste tomatoes for sauce.
Asparagus Peas -- strange thing I've never heard of before. Ridged peas that you harvest when they're about an inch and a half long. Saute with butter, the copy says they taste like asparagus. Hey, I love asparagus and don't want to wait 3 years (at this point) to be able to harvest something tasty. So I'll try the peas.
Rainbow Organic Swiss Chard -- I love beautiful food on my plate. And if you keep harvesting the outer leaves, it should continue to grow for a long time.
Cajun Delight Okra -- I love the hibiscus-like flowers. And okra's great for thickening any kind of soup or stew. Needs a long time to grow, so I'll be starting seeds indoors.
Baby Leaf Blend Organic Lettuce -- my own mesclun mix!
Sweet Basil Organic Herb -- if we have a summer like last summer, I want to make a whackload of pesto.
Italian Organic Parsley -- must have.
Organic German Thyme -- Ash's favorite herb.

Flowers

I thought I could use the lot as a cutting garden, too.....

"Queen" Series Cleome -- I want a few of these for the back yard. I don't know if they'd work as a cutting.
Mont Blanc Lavatera -- a few for the back yard, some more for cuttings. We had them the first or second year of living here, and they were really hardy -- quite beautiful, too.
Royale Mix Salpiglossis -- one of my favorites. They look illuminated from within.
Little Darling Snapdragon -- want to scatter some seeds in the front garden, among all the roses, and put the rest in a cutting garden in the allotment, if I get it.

Non-edibles

Birdhouse Gourds -- just because, OK? Maybe I'll make birdhouses and give them to all the neighbours. Just have to figure out the right diameter for things that are native and won't allow nesting of starlings, european sparrows, or even the native house wren, which tends to dominate its territory.
Neem Oil -- dormant oil. To apply to the garden before it wakes up (hope it gets here soon). This can help reduce nasty buggers like the rose sawfly (Ash's bane) and I'll use some at work, too, to try to get rid of the pine scale attacking our little mugo pine in the roof garden. It's supposed to have good antiseptic properties -- also known as tea-tree oil I think..
Compost Accelerator -- because we've got a little composter, so it doesn't build up the heat to have an effective pile. Hope this will increase the speed of degeneration!

Books

Can never have enough books

Square Foot Gardening -- a revision on the original book about getting the most bang for your buck from a little garden.
From Highrise to Haystack -- tale of a couple who moved from the city to the country. Let that be a warning to you.

So keep your fingers crossed that I get my garden, or else I'm going to be giving seedlings away at work.

Also went to Canada Blooms

My fifth (I think) Canada Blooms. Wasn't so thrilled this year: didn't feel like I was learning much from the display gardens. Some silly things, like painted stripped dead trees with big black umbrellas hung in them (get it? umbrella trees - ar, ar, ar). Felt that the plant material from one garden to the next was too similar -- I know that all the plant material is ordered from one woman, and distributed to the different garden-makers, but I wish that there wasn't the feeling that they each got a piece of each pie -- it would have been more interesting to see some variation, rather than the same repetition of plants. Oh well. .. Maybe I'm just getting jaded. Maybe I should have spent more time in the education section, or the retail section. I was expecting to be gob-smackedd by at least one garden, and came away feeling like that Peggy Lee song -- "is that all there is?"

So hey -- it's March 12! Go out, have a look at your garden, and tell me what you've found growing!

2005-08-15T18:06:00.000-04:00

Mid-August

Not much to do in the garden but admire it.
Well, some weeding, some watering, some deadheading, I suppose.

Here are some of the flowers and green things growing.

Brother Cadfael rose. A David Austin, and one of my favorites. Big pink scented blossoms, and we've got it trained as a climber. It is one one side of an arbour we have in the garden; the other side, a couple of different clematis.

In the southmost border, against the north side of a fence, I've got a shade garden with Astilbe, bleeding heart, foxgloves, and a number of ferns. This is the Japanese painted fern. Quite blue, with a thin thread of red down the spine.

More flowers. I need to go check the label on this one! It was hiding underneath the delphiniums until I cut them back. Solomon's Seal?

My favorite new rose. Scentimental. Not as big a fragrance as I had hoped, but the roses are pretty.

This is the new growth on the Elder I planted in June. Nice, pale yellow leaves, contrasts well with the Sandcherry.

And here's an interesting bug I saw on my basil. Don't know who it is yet, but I'll find out.

2005-08-06T20:42:00.000-04:00

Middle of summer. Need more flowers, I think

Went on a lovely trip this spring for three weeks with Sandy (pics at her website) instead of planting things like tender annuals. Now I'm noticing it.

Things to plant next spring that I'm missing this year:

salpiglossis

4o'clock flowers

Both are annuals. I love the colors in salpiglossis, and love the fresh lemony scent of 4 o'clocks.

Ah well, next year.

This year, there's still weeding to be done, plants to smell, and flowers to take pictures of. Today I went in into the gardens and did all three. I just wish my lavender would bloom!

I missed lavender season in Provence (just a bit too early) and would like mine to flower.

In the front garden, we have roses, Japanese anemones, and phlox in bloom.

This is one of the smaller roses, a "patio rose" variety called 'Flame'.

The anemones are interesting: some have four petals, some have five. I have a plant of double blossoms, but that opens later in the season.

Both of the Japanese anemones I have are purple. I've seen some stunning white ones lately, and would like to add one to the back garden for late-autumn color. I might have to restrain it, though: I gather they can really run amok in the right circumstances.

In the back yard, the shade garden is doing well. Lots of ferns, the foxglove is blooming (sorry, out of camera range), the bleeding heart is blooming again, and the toad lily has flower buds. This is one section of the back garden, against the north side of a fence: also under a huge cottonwood tree and a few maple weed trees, so it's getting pretty shady here.

Close-up of the bleeding heart. I love the leaves: they remind me of a William Morris design.

One thing I've been trying to put into place from the courses I'm taking is the need for similarity and variety... so I've got similarities of color range this year (from whites through to purplish pinks) and I've got contrasts in leaf shape and color. I still need to work on it some more, although things are starting to get interesting. I added a golden elderberry bush, which is still showing lovely pale leaves in the middle of the summer.
It contrasts well with the sand cherry (deep burgundy leaves, and trained as a standard) and in years to come, the two berry trees (did I tell you I also got a Saskatoon berry shrub?) should grow in height to provide some needed vertical movement.

Among the other lovelies in the back yard this year are Echinacea purpurea (oh, how I love those bristly cones!)

I have a white echinacea -- I think. I hope it survived the winter. I see that I have one plant that looks a lot like the Echinacea purpurea, but it has tight little flower buds: maybe it's just a slow bloomer.

Also in flower in the back yard is a centaurea I bought last year... pure white (I think it's centaurea montana alba).

I've grown batchelor's buttons in the past (too long and leggy); also centaurea moschata (truly, my favorite... alas, also leggy, but what a wonderful smell!)

This one is compact and stays close to the ground... the eye just "happens" upon it when travelling from one plant to the next.

Another favorite in my back garden is Heuchera 'Marmalade' -- it's very pink and pale orange in the spring time, and seems to come out of winter with just a little bit of frost damage, like it continues to live underneath the ice -- the leaves provide wonderful color in those weeks before any bulbs are pushing their way up. By midsummer, the color mutes, but (if I recall correctly) gets vivid again in the fall. A wonderful plant for a shady area!

Also providing attraction is the seed heads of a Jackmanii clematis: they turn into tightly twirled tassels as the summer progresses. Right now, they're about half-way tied up and will get woolier looking as time goes on.

That's about all the news from these small gardens today.

Grow green!

...pat.

2005-07-11T10:32:00.000-04:00

OK, finally did it

Finally got the Scentimental rose and Elder berry planted this weekend. It was over 30 degrees out when I planted them (although I did wait for the garden to be in the shade) so I'll have to keep careful watch over them this week (no rain in the forecast until mid-week, when the tail end of the hurricane might pass through).

2005-06-23T18:17:00.000-04:00

Home again

Just back home from 3 weeks travelling in France and Italy. I was too early in Provence for the lavender (guess I'll have to go back there!) but the wild poppies were in bloom, and the air was fragrant with broom and its forsythia-colored flowers.

Back on the home front, all the spring bulbs finished while I was away: I completely missed the alliums. Pansies growing in the two urns by the front steps had enough time to get long and leggy, and the irises (both bearded and Siberian) -- which I also missed their blooms -- needed a haircut.

About the weeds: ugh. 3 weeks is enough time for weeds to go from "not there" to "taking over the garden." Spent many hours weeding yesterday, and got about half done.

Went to Humber Nurseries today to get some more plants. I gave away my Othello rose, Annabelle Hydrangea, and Weigela early in the spring: they just weren't flowering in the back yard. Picked up a Sutherland Golden Cutleaf Elder (beautiful pale chartreuse leaves, flowers in the summer, and has berries in the fall) and -- I couldn't resist it: a Scentimental rose. We'll see if it flowers.

Also got some vinca, hedera helix ivy, chartreuse sweet potato vines, and petunias, and repotted the two urns. Moved the leggy pansies into the front rose garden bed, and after they get established, I'll cut them back.

Oh -- the seeds I planted for the annual plant sale grew. I had no problems with damping off this time. I grew the seeds in peat pots with a sterile mix. Although some of them were a bit leggy due to less-than-optimal light, I was able to get about 50 plants to the sale.

Happy gardening!

2005-01-29T13:14:00.000-05:00

I can scarce remember...

How that summertime used to make me smile....
But I'm seeing finches, sparrows, and chickadees (and the occasional downy woodpecker) out back, so that's nice.

Soon I will start planting seeds: not just for me, but for a seed sale. ah, I shall have to take care that I don't end up with the usual seed wilt&die: I've been told that a dusting of cinnamon or a spritz or two of chamomile tea can help reduce the dreaded die-off after the plants get their first real leaves.

I'll let you know if it works!

2004-07-11T17:45:00.000-04:00

Oh, my back

Yes, I've been delinquent writing here.
I've been delinquent weeding, too.
Initially, my excuse was that I needed to wait for all my bulbs I planted last fall to be finished.
That happened several weeks ago (it's been a long cool spring)

It also became evident by the middle of June that a whole whack of roses didn't make it through the winter. Sigh.

This past weekend I made up for the weeding problem, and spent 4 hours weeding the back yard yesterday.. That wasn't too bad, actually, but when I completed the weeding by plucking out yellowed leaves from daffodils, and cut the rest backk the garden looked really desolate. So Ash and I went out to Humber Nurseries to buy yet more plants.

First, before I describe them, I should really tell you what else I've already put in this spring....
In window boxes and urns, we've got petunias, 'Mont Blanc' nierembergia (lovely little white star-shaped flowers) nasturtiums, geraniums (Patriot -- bright red), four different types of sweet potato vine (ace of spades, Marguerite, tricolor (which has some pink edging in it), and a variegated one), licorice vines, heliotrope, torenia, and some annual salvia.

Now to the perennials.
I bought one pot of Saxifraga 'Apple Blossom' which is out beside the Othello rose. It's finished blooming for the season, and is now just a tight little cushion of green.

Near it is a Marble-leaf Sea Holly (Eryngium variifolium) which must be one fo the strangest plants I've ever purchased. It's prickly like a thistle, but is developing flower heads... It seems to be in some strange land between thistle and holly, in terms of looks. I'll take pictures when it matures.

Over in the shady garden (the south little bed against the fence) I bought a Heuchera vesuvius (Coral bells with mahogany colored leaves), which was mature enough that I split it into two before planting it> It's in flower now, and is lovely.
It works really well with a couple of foxgloves I put in (no flowers yet: maybe next year), a bleeding heart, and a lovely white astilbe that has finally come into its own. I've also put in a Heucher 'marmelade', which is an interesting color, and two ferns: a Japanese and korean fern. I have another Japanese fern the other side of the pond, which I thought had died, but showed itself in June.

In the sunny north garden, I planted three Persian Sheids (Strobilanthes) which have the most wonderful colors of green and fuchsia. Very metallic looking leaves: I'm waiting for them to get some height (they're still only about 3" tall, and should grow to 24-36" in height, according to the tags... I want some lovely photos of this trio of plants.

Also, at the west edge of the north garden I planted 3 rose mallows. One died; one is in blossom, and one yet to come into flower. They're a lovely, easy-to-care-for flower, as long as you stake them.

By the edge of the north garden, I planted a trio ofWolly lamb's ear, within easy touching distance. One must hit all the senses in a garden, after all :-D

In the herb garden, I planted a trio of rosemaries, two more lavender varieties, two sages (one purple sage, on large leaf variety), two oregano types, and a tarragon. I think I might pull up the bloody dock (lovely colors, but it does bolt, and we don't eat it) and replace it with a couple of basils.

Then yesterday, Ash and I bought more perennials.
All for the north garden, to fill the holes from the bulbs.

A couple of pale pink primroses
A trio of nicotiana, from deep red, through pale pink, to white
A couple of phlox panniculata in a color that works well with the primroses
Two more astilbes: one pink, one raspberry
A pink baby's breath
Two perennial salvias (deep blue/violet)
One perennial hibiscus (this should be a treat: lovely flowers, and we don't have to bring it indoors over the winter)
and probably some other plants that I'll only remember after I file this and wander in the garden.

Anyways, that's just about it for today...
except to say: I GOT 85% ON MY FIRST TEST in Horticulture I! WWoooooo hooooo!
I'll save information about what we did about the dead roses for my next posting.
Until then, grow green!
...pat.

2004-05-09T22:22:00.001-04:00

Gardening in small spaces

Sonya Day gave a great talk to the Master Gardeners to get us all warmed up! Here's a summary. Any errors are mine.

It's spring, and the gardening magazines tempt us with the promises of beauty, fragrance, and novelty. But -- alas! We turn the cover to see huge greenswards, lengthy vistas, interminable flower beds, and despair of being able to create anything as enticing on our apartment balcony, condo courtyard, or postage-stamp city lot. What's a person to do?

Lots! First, like any other gardener, you need to know your microclimate. Which direction does your gardening space point? Are there any large trees or buildings shading your space? The amount of light you get will play a huge role in the range of plants from which you can choose to personalize your space.

How high are you?

Gardening space on a balcony above the 8th floor is going to be windier than at ground level, and it is likely to get windier the higher you go. This also influences your plant choice, in terms of height (is that clematis going to be able to twine around the trellis in constant gale-force winds?) and drought resistance (evaporation rates on leaves and on the soil's surface increase with temperature and wind speed).

How much effort are you willing to put into it?

For example, don't buy cacti if you want something to tend to daily, and don't plant roses if you believe in benign neglect.

If you're at ground level, what's your soil like? Sand, loam, or potter's clay? Are you willing to amend it or build raised beds on top of it, if need be? Or do you want plants that do well, thank you, in the type of soil you naturally have?

Next, what do *you* want? What sort of atmosphere do you want to create? Hot, lush tropicals (you'll have to either bring them indoors in the winter or treat them like annuals)? Cool forest greens? English country garden, Zen garden, xeriscape, native plants only?

Armed with answers to these questions, you should be able to approach any knowledgeable garden centre employee and come away with a list (and maybe a basket) of plants tailored to your environment and temperament.

Some quick tips for a successful gardening season:

Don't plant tender plants until later in May. If you like herbs, you can plant parsley now, but leave the basil indoors until mid or late May, depending on how the season develops.

Plant trees and other woody-stemmed plants when it's cool, preferably before the buds break (so the plant can initially concentrate on root growth), and water carefully for the first year, according to instructions that come with your tree or shrub.

If you're moving tropical plants outdoors, move them into the sun gradually (leaves can and will get sunburned if you transition them too quickly).

If you're container gardening, be aware that clay pots are going to allow the soil to dry out faster, so you'll have to water more often.
Hydrogel crystals can help soil in containers retain moisture (they're available at Sheridan Nurseries in Toronto, and probably at other gardening centres).

Follow instructions. If a plant's tag says it requires full sun, it won't give you the results in the picture if you sit it in your north-facing window.

Projections on what's hot this year

Tropicals. Banana trees! Of course, you'd want to have enough space indoors to overwinter them.
Mixes of food and flowers. Plant a grape tomato variety among the sweetpeas.
Elephant ears. Start them indoors, move them outdoors, and harvest the bulbs in the fall for next year.
For more news about what's hot, see Canadian Gardening's website.

Looking for more information? You may want to get one of the following books, written by Toronto gardening writers:
The Urban Gardener - How to Grow Things Successfully on Balconies, Terraces, Decks and Rooftop, by Sonia Day. Key Porter Books
The Urban Gardener Indoors - How to Grow Things Successfully in Your House, Apartment or Condo, by Sonia Day. Key Porter Books.

For information about creating a small garden in the city, check out Marjorie Harris' website, or get her book "Pocket Gardening" published by Harpercollins Canada. Marjory also has a new book out on native plants, "Botanica North America: the guide to our Native plants, Their Botany, History, and How They Have Shaped Our World" published by Harper Collins, and has gardened organically in Toronto for the last 30 years. It sounds like a great book. I'm ordering it.

Also, during May, members of the Master Gardeners of Ontario will be available to talk to (for free) about your garden at all Toronto-area Sheridan Nurseries.

Have fun, and grow green!

2004-04-01T13:55:00.000-05:00

Growing Green in Toronto

In 1962, Rachel Carson published "Silent Spring" about environmental
damage caused by DDT and chemical pesticides, and predicted a desolate
future caused by the poorly-tested chemicals used to grow our food and
keep the golf greens putt-perfect. Her book shot to the top of the
best-seller list, she was on the cover of Time magazine, and people
listened. This was the effective start of the environmental protection
movement.

The City of Toronto will become more envlronmentally sensitive by
implementing the first stage of a new pesticide bylaw. Starting on
April 1st, many insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides may no longer
be used on your lawn or in your garden as a matter of course.

Why is the city doing this?

In part, because we don't know what the
long-term effect is of the chemicals used in combination -- their use is
pretty recent, dating only as far back as the 20th century, with most
having been developed after World War II.

Toronto's pesticides frequently travel from lawns and gardens when
heavy rains wash them into the storm sewer system. These chemicals end
up in Lake Ontario, the source of Toronto's drinking water. The city
filtration systems simply aren't capable of removing all chemicals from
our drinking water.

How does this new bylaw affect you?

For starters, it's time to take any leftover Round-Up to your closest
hazardous materials drop site. Weed & Feed is also prohibited, as are
chemical weedkillers that rely on surface-coating broad-leafed
weeds. Most spraying to kill insects is also forbidden, unless it's
city-directed to kill West Nile infected mosquitoes.

How will you adjust to this new way of gardening?

Consider your expectations: is it reasonable to expect an unvarying
green lawn, even in the height of a drought, when the plants are
stressed and less resistant to insects and disease? If you're willing to
be a bit less of a perfectionist, you'll have an easier time. There are a few areas to look at: soil, weeds, and bugs.

Good lawns and gardens all start with the same basic ingredient: soil.
If you have healthy, well-structured soil, you'll have an easier time
growing healthy plants.

What can you do to promote this type of soil?

If you don't already have
one going, now is the time to start a compost pile. Composting is easy,
benefits your soil, and reduces the garbage destined for landfill sites.
You can buy a composter from almost any hardware store or the City of
Toronto.

There are a few general principals for a healthy, sweet-smelling heap:

layer green (recently alive, like kitchen scraps, coffee grounds, or
freshly-killed weeds) and brown (shredded newsprint, dead leaves from
last year)

keep it moist, but not wet. The bacteria need moisture to do their
work, but if the pile starts smelling foul, that's a sign that you've
got an anaerobic bacteria take-over in progress: if it's smelling bad, turn the pile daily for a week to help it dry a little, and to bring some oxygen into it to help the good bacteria win the battle. A fistful of nitrogen fertilizer might
help, too.

no meat products or byproducts. No dairy products. Although these will
compost, you're likely to attract city-based vermin to your pile: rats, raccoons, even coyotes if you're near one of the city's ravines. They will make a mess, and your neighbours will hate you. You don't want that, now, do you?

After a couple of months, you should have rich, sweet, well-rotted
compost. Dig it into your gardens, or top dress your lawn and around
plants. You'll be rewarded with healthy plants that are more
disease-resistant and better able to cope with bugs and slugs.

How to deal with weeds?

A healthy thick lawn can keep many weeds at bay
by crowding them out. The best way to get rid of them once you have
them is to dig them up. Some can be easily pulled. Others require
assistance. A whole assortment of aids is available these days, from
tools like the garden claw and loop hoes, to water pressure-based tools
that liquify the soil around the weed so it can be pulled, and butane
torches for immediate destruction of weeds between paving stones. Check out your local hardware store or Lee Valley Tools.

If you're looking for an inexpensive, safe, and effective technique to spot-kill weeds, pour boiling water over them. In about 3-4 days they'll wither and be
very easy to remove, even from between interlocking brick.

But what about bugs?

Dealing with bugs can be very trying. There's nothing quite like checking up on some rose buds that are about to open, only to discover that a cane borer has turned the stem into a flute and all the buds are dying. Most bugs have natural predators, and if you make your garden safe for them, they'll help keep the population of the bad bugs down somewhat.

If you've got to get rid of bugs, the first and best way to kill them is to squash them (or kill them manually some other way). It leaves no environmental residue, but it does mean that you need to be eternally vigilant. The second route, for insects like aphids, is to spray them off with water. The third path of attack is insecticidal soap, which kills bugs on contact. Read the instructions first: it can't be used on all plants.

Some pesticides are still available if you need something stronger. These are more natural solutions than the outlawed chemicals, but can still be quite toxic. Natural methods for dealing with insects include nematodes to eat grubs, rotenone to control chewing insects, or pyrethrum to kill many sorts of bugs. Check with the experts at your local gardening centre: they should be able to point you in the right direction. One word of caution: you may still find some of the banned substances for sale in local hardware stores, where the owners may not be aware of the new bylaw. Compliance is your responsibility.

A good rule of thumb to use when taking care of a lawn or garden is to
start with the least harmful solution, and gradually work up through
more toxic solutions only if the environmentally friendly solution
didn't work. Strong insecticides kill the beneficial insects as well as the pests, so they should be avoided whenever possible.

For more information about growing green and the City of Toronto's new
bylaw, see the following files on the city website:

index file

Green guide to a healthy lawn

Reducing pesticide use

If you have any gardening questions, don't hesitate to ask the
Master Gardeners organization (throughout North America) -- the Toronto
group may be contacted at their gardening Q&A board or by phone at 416-397-1345..

There's also some good information on growing organic lawns
and on biological control out there.

Have fun, and grow green!

...pat.

2004-02-17T20:50:00.000-05:00

Seed Catalogue Time

Time to get some more catalogues in before I try to make final decisions.

I have Vesey's bulb catalogues, and now I've also placed orders for catalogues from the Halifax Seed Company and Ontario Seeds Company.

I'm trying to shop within Canada (limiting the possibility of bringing in exotics that are prohibited here), and also, wherever possible, helping out the local economy. For example, Ontario Seeds Company is about 100 kilometers from here. I must confess, I also ordered from Stokes, which I think is an American company.

My next step should be to plant only plants native to this region of Ontario.

Maybe I'll get there after I retire, and have a large property. It's so difficult to restrict oneself to such plants when you've got a total of about 300 square feet!

...pat.

2004-02-05T08:57:00.000-05:00

Starting plants indoors

I've purchased different sorts of contained, lidded plant-starting contraptions and used them in the past, but never with satisfactory results.

I always ended up with the cotyledons, and, if I was lucky, one or two pairs of real leaves before the seedlings got too leggy to support themselves, fell over, and died. Some of the deaths may have been caused by damping off, but I usually worked with sterilized potting soil in a sterilized container, which should eliminate that problem.

Yet, undaunted, I think I'll try again this year. I may start the seeds in vermiculite instead of soil, but I think the biggest change I can make is a stronger light source.

Instead of starting plants in the third-floor east-facing bedroom, I'll use my office at work. Although located on the west side of the building, its aspect is more west-south-west than true west. I hope that will spell the difference between success and failure. I have many plants in my office that seem to be thriving (although they are pretty undemanding in terms of sunlight required: 2 spider plants, 5 ferns, and an African violet; they made it through the dark days of winter). I hope it will be a good spot to start seeds.

I think I'll try two types: sweet peas and foxgloves. I want both in the back yard and they are supposed to be pretty easy to grow from seed. One for sun, one for shade: if nothing else, they should help me determine the sun tolerance extremes of my window sills.

One piece of gardening myth/trivia: plant your seeds before the morning of St. Patrick's Day for best results (this tidbit came from Birds & Blooms Magazine -- it's completely ad-free, and they're on the web at www.birdsandblooms.com.

...pat.

2004-02-02T20:01:00.000-05:00

Dreaming of green things

Things I'd like to grow in my garden this year:

Lady's mantle (again). I really like the ruffled velvet look of the leaves, and the way water beads on them.
Sweet peas. Joanne grew them on the roof deck at work, and they look very pretty in a Victorian way with their loosely-ruffled blossoms in faded pastel colors, and they smell wonderful.
Acidantheras (again). Yes it's a PITA having to plant and dig them up each year, and they need to have support, but I love those six-pointed white flowers with the aubergine touches in the throat, the way they bob in a breeze, and the delicate vanilla fragrance.
Salpiglossis, another Victorian flower. It comes in many colors, reminds me of stained glass, and with its yellow throat, looks illuminated from within. Very photogenic.
Trilliums. I'm sure there must be a mail-order garden store in Ontario that has cultivated trilliums. I used to bring home bouquets of them for my mother when I was a child in the 'burbs of Montreal. Maybe they could be the spring flower to come up every year along the south fence. Hmmmm.
FOXGLOVES!! I don't think I had any last year, and they are one of my favorite flowers. I saved some seed from two years ago, so I'll have to see if it is still viable. It likes shade, so it should do well along the south fence.
Okra. Because the flowers are beautiful pale purple hibiscus-like blossoms.
Alyssum. White and deep amethyst-colored alyssum to grow between the slates on the path in the back yard. I saw a yard that used it this way in a gardening magazine, and I think it might work nicely in our little yard.
We have white alyssum self-seeding every year in the front garden, so I might be able to grab some of last fall's seed and shake it around out back. Between alyssum, thyme, moss, and pennyroyal (I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that it will come back) we'll have a fragrant green walkway punctuated with slate stepping stones.
Herbs: the sage, parsley, lavender, and bloody dock should all survive the winter, and I'll have to see if the oregano survives. I'd like to plant tarragon again, because ours died last winter; also want marjoram again, because it just gives me a great rush to muss it up and then smell the essential oils that are released; basil, because nothing tastes more like summer than basil, boccancini, tomato slices, a drizzle of good olive oil and a splash of basalmic vineger.
Something to attract fall migrating birds and winter visitors (other than the three bird feeders, one suet feeder, and water cascade). The thought of a berry-bearing bush appeals to me: there's a mountain ash in the alleyway behind our yard, and I enjoy watching the robins eat the fruit. A local organization called LEAF (Local Enhancement and Appreciation of Forests) is willing to advise, dig a hole and subsidize the cost of planting a suitable native fruiting tree.
Replace the thread-leafed Japanese maple with a Japanese maple species that is sturdier, taller, and has more mass to the leaves. Maybe I'll donate ours to the office rooftop garden.

Things to remember that I don't want to grow again:

Lamium. Too invasive for a garden that is 17ft by 20ft.
Creeping myrtle/perriwinkle. Ditto
Icelandic/Welsh poppies. Unless I want to faithfully deadhead so I don't have volunteers everywhere.
Yellow flowers. Dunno -- yellow just doesn't turn my crank at this point.

...pat.

2004-01-24T22:40:00.000-05:00

No, it's not a warm winter!

Looking back, I can't believe I wrote that.

Just after New Year's, the temperature plummeted. It's been below freezing ever since: frequently below -10. So it's not the time to go out in the garden, but it is time to catch up on garden reading, my coursework for the horticulture courses I'm taking, and reading through catalogs and dreaming of spring.

Vesey's spring bulb catalog arrived in the mail on Friday, and calladiums are starting to appeal to me, even though they're high maintenance (requiring starting indoors, then move them outdoors in June, then pull up the bulbs in October). But the colors are lovely, and they work in the shade, which we've got more and more of, as the years go by and the neighboring trees continue to grow. Don't you think a bunch of these would look lovely beside a little splashing water cascade?

I'll have to finish up my garden map and post a link here so you can see what I need to replant next year. I'm also thinking of enlarging the water garden, but it could be challenging to do that without making it really attractive to the raccoons! As it is, we have been covering both front and back water gardens every night (during growing weather, when the goldfish are in the ponds)... making the pond larger could make that task more difficult. We caught a raccoon at the back pond one evening--he was just reclining beside the pond with one paw stuck in the water (well, up to his shoulder) -- gently waving his arm back and forth, looking to catch a goldfish. Very nervy, these urban raccoons!

Looking for more information about gardening? Here are two places to go: if you're in a northern clime, wander over to Kathleen Purdy's web site. For a list of blogs about gardening, check out Sheila Lennon's list of links -- lots of great information!

That's about it for tonight -- take care!

...pat.

2003-12-26T21:02:00.000-05:00

Warm winter?

Here it is, December 26, and I'm sitting on the back deck in my jeans, a t-shirt, and a fleece pull-over. The thermometer is reading 8 degrees.

It's so warm that one of our indoor cats, Jimmy, decided to escape, and ran out the back door while I was bringing bags of birdseed back indoors after filling the feeders. I got him back inside, but only after he heard a neighbour's voice, which frightened him, and after I grabbed him and suffered two tooth puncture wounds to my left hand, a scratch on my chin, and another scratch on my right ear (I bled like a stuck pig, and am not happy about the scratches, because we're hosting a dinner party tomorrow night).

Returning the cat indoors was a good thing. The birds need to feed in the few daylight hours we get. They will need the calories tonight that they can gather from the suet, sunflower, safflower, and niger seeds -- the temperature's supposed to drop to -5 overnight. But then it will warm up: tomorrow night's low will be above freezing, and ddaytime high for Sunday is expected to be around 10 Celsius.

What does this mean for my garden? Well, the chives, which I had cut down almost to ground level a month ago, are now about 8 cm high; there are fresh new leaves on the parsley, and we've still got a few live purple sage leaves.

Even the buddleia, which I transplanted late in the season, continues to put forth new clusters of leaves.

Rose leaves, on the other hand, while still green on the canes, are crisp to the touch. There will be no more rose buds until spring.

Everything else in the backyard looks dead for the rest of winter; most deciduous woody plants have lost their leaves, except for the Pee-Gee hydrangea, which is holding tight to them, even though the leaves hang straight down on either side of the central vein.

I may yet get a soil sample this next week that I can analyse: we'll see how the weather unfolds. Right now, the prediction for Sunday is a mix of sun and clouds, and a high of 9.

What does all this teach me? You can't always plan everything according to some averaged schedule of when events should occur... sometimes you've just got to play it by ear, and work the occasional green Christmas into the plans.

...pat.

2003-12-08T00:44:00.000-05:00

Baby, it's cold outside

This past week, just before the big freeze was due to hit, I went out in the garden and collected some soil to do some soil tests.
The pH test results were fast... within an hour. All I had to do was dump a clump of soil in the bottom of the container, add a capsule of reactant, and fill with water to the fill line. Result: Slightly acid soil (6.5).

Now, for the other three tests, I had to take a larger clump of soil, put it in a jar with five times the amount of water as soil, and shake it up really well. I waited for the soil to settle out (hmm, lots of clay... about 1/3) and ... oops, forgot about it for another day an a half. So it sat for about 3.5 days before I did anything with it. Well, potassium and phosphates looked reasonable, but the nitrogen reading came out as... *there's no nitrogen in this soil!!!*
I suspect that maybe that's because I left it too long.

I went out this weekend to get some more soil... the rain gauge, which had been filled with water, was now filled with ice.

The ground was hard.

It's supposed to warm up this week, so I'll try later in the week to get a fresh sample.

Only other news: Ash put collars around all the rose bushes and filled them with a combination of peat moss, soil, and compost this weekend. I hope that will reduce the risk of damage due to freeze/thaw cycles.

That's it for today. Take care, and I'll let you know what the results are of the soil tests, if I can take them this year.

...pat.

2003-11-26T22:14:00.000-05:00

First touch of winter

I woke several times during the night on Tuesday. By Wednesday morning, we had two to three centimeters (about an inch) of snow on the ground. It has all melted now, but it took a day. Last evening I still saw snow on the back yard, atop the cedar mulch I laid on the weekend.

Ash has bagged the leaves; they'll go to the city composting site on Friday.

Meanwhile, I investigate ponds and plants for next year :-)

...pat.

2003-11-23T22:19:00.000-05:00

Put to bed

Today was another warm day, but overcast. I used the weather to get all the leaves up from the other two flower beds in the back yard, put mulch down on them, and raked all the leaves up into two piles (Ash will bag them -- or rent a weed whacker and chop them to bite-sized bits so they'll decompose nicely in our little composter).

Although it is certainly the end of the growing season, some of my herbs are still doing well -- notably the oregano, chives, purple sage, parsley (can anything kill parsley?) and bloody dock, which I must confess, I haven't actually used, but just enjoy for its colors.

The lavender looks well and truly done for the year, though. I trimmed it back. And the marjoram looks like it gave up the ghost. I never did see much of the two basils I planted this year... I may have been a bit early.

Well, on to dream of next year's gardens. I've been researching some larger molded ponds: I've found a manufacturer who creates one in a size and shape I like, but it's located in England. I hope they have an Ontario-based retailer.

I've started on a vector-based drawing (which will probably end up in Flash) to design the back yard. I'll post a link when it's at a stage where it makes sense.

Oh yeah -- Sympatico messed up, forgot (!) to send me a modem, so I'm on dial-up for at least another 3 days. Sigh.

...pat.

2003-11-21T20:49:00.000-05:00

Bulb time!

The weather forecast was for a mix of sun and cloud, with a high of about 12C.

I'm sitting outside right now... it's 15, and the few tiny puffs of cloud barely count. I took the day off work. Who knows if or when we'll get another beautiful day this year?

I got out the bulbs I bought about a month ago...hmm, maybe under the powder room sink isn't the best place to store them. Some of the bulbs (the blue bells especially) are a bit soft. I expected the blue bells to feel more like pearl onions.

I spread them out in the garden bed (still in their bags) and moved them here and there until I was happy with the arrangement of height and color. I've already got some King Alfred bulbs in the garden from about 5years ago... they've naturalized well. After the color arrangement worked, I removed them from their bags and positioned the individual bulbs, then went around and planted.

Most of the tulips I planted with the Alfreds have finished their lifespan - and those that strive valiantly each year to bloom almost inevitably get decapitated by squirrels.

I hope I have outfoxed the squirrels this year... I constrained my purchases to alliums and daffodils. This year, I planted

Narcissus double Tahiti - 16" high, yellow with orange frond-like petals (sepals?)at the center

Narcissus Barrett Browning - 16", white with a bright orange cup

Narcissus Chromacolor - 14-16", white with peach cup

Narcissus Tazetta Geranium - 16", white with smaller ruffled orange cup

Narcissus double Flower drift - 16", double white petals with yellow-to-orange inner petals

Narcissus Tazetta Tripartite - 16", three lemon-yellow flowers on each stem

Allium nigrum... 28" tall, white balls of flowerets with green centers

Bluebells - Hyacinthoides non-scripta - 8" high, delicate blue-striped flowers... I've run 30 of them in a little rivulet in the flower bed, and I hope they naturalize well.

Then I spread more blood and bone meal around, in the perhaps-feeble hope that the squirrels will leave them alone, and I topped it off with two inches of cedar mulch (the leaves from the cottonwood don't mulch nicely... They are very heavy and don't break down well, so I feel I have to remove them).

Final comments? That lovely new bulb planter wasn't worth the money. The soil was quite heavy from the November rains, and it stuck inside the planter very well... I had to poke numerous times with a bamboo stake to remove it from the cylinder. Someone should make a bulb planter with a "flush" mechanism on it that releases all the dirt. And the handle (bent over chromed metal into a triangle) wasn't sturdy. I over-bent it on the second bulb I was planting (hit a little stone). I think I spent as much time bobbing up and down as I did with my little green bulb planter that's only seven inches high, so I'll probably stick to using that in the future. Truly, this was a lovely looking planter, but not very efficient.

All that remains to be planted is the purple alliums in the bed in the front garden where the Japanese anemones have taken over. This will be an interesting challenge, and one I wasn't quite up to today.

I'm still stuck on dial-up. Until at least next Wednesday. May the top three echelons of workers at Bell Sympatico develop foot fungus. Blech.

Cheers!

...pat.

2003-11-19T20:54:00.000-05:00

Studying Soils

My high speed modem crashed, and now I'm reduced to dial-up *sob *. Until Sympatico sends me a new modem and installs a new line-card.
Anyways.
Sand > Silt > Clay
Okay?
...pat.

2003-11-12T23:52:00.000-05:00

Oh, I should have planted today

It was a beautiful morning, and even though it was heavily overcast this afternoon, I believe the temperature remained above 10C.

I should have taken the day off work.

I've shut my computer off, and am blogging on my Palm. Heavy thunderstorms are passing through right now... I'm seeing almost constant flashes in my peripheral vision, and hearing crashes (and sometimes, very heavy downpours).

At some point overnight, the wind will shift until it's coming from the north, wind speed will pick up to about 60kmh with gusts much higher, and the temperature will drop.

Tomorrow night, it will be around freezing, and... the possibility of snow flurries.

And my bulbs aren't in the ground yet.

Weather, and change of seasons, truly does inform the Canadian psyche. Where would we be without it?

All I can say is, the power better not fail while West Wing is on tonight.

OK, the storm is over; I can upload from my Palm and then from my Mac.

Good night!

...pat.

2003-11-08T15:15:00.000-05:00

That's chilly

Short one today. Went down to about -3 last night.

It's 4 degrees out right now, and it feels cold.

I inspected the backyard to see how my transplants are faring. All of the columbines look in good shape (heck, they look like they're enjoying the weather), and the buddleia is healthy. One of the delphiniums is still green; the other two have blackened leaves. I should have checked yesterday, before the cold weather. I don't know if they've got transplant shock or just frostbite.

An inspection of the front garden reveals not too much change from yesterday, except the lovely lavender-colored Japanese anemone flowers have turned beige from the cold, and the zinnias are all black.

Now I have to find out if it's too late to rescue the zinnias.

Still hoping to plant bulbs tomorrow. We'll see what the weather brings.

...pat.

2003-11-05T12:30:00.000-05:00

Last warm day of autumn

The temperature first thing this morning was 16C... And it's.supposed to drop down to about 3 tonight.
Possibility of snow flurries tomorrow and Friday. Ugh!

I think I'm going to have to put the bulbs in the ground this weekend.

I bought a nice bulb planter from Humber Nurseries... Instead of my current bulb planter (squat-dig-plant-stand-move...repeat 120 times) I'll be able to use it like a spade. That should save some back-and-thigh ache.

Last weekend I took a few digital shots from the roof at the back of the house. I'm going to correct the perspective on the best one and convert it to a drawing to use to develop a plan for what to plant where.

At this point, pretty much anything I've bought in the way of bulbs can go anywhere, except for the purple alliums, which will be interplanted wlth the Japanese anemones.

On to designing!

...pat.

2003-10-23T20:22:00.000-04:00

Got my course materials!

On Tuesday, Ash called me at work -- two hefty boxes arrived from Canada Post from The University of Guelph for me.

So here it is, Thursday noon, and I haven't opened them yet. I will tonight: Tuesday night I was dealing with the ticking clock of a one-week subscription to the Toronto Star archives running out; last night we had a late dinner, I called my sister to wish her a happy birthday, and West Wing was on :-)

I'll finish this blog after I unpack the boxes and see what I've let myself in for.

Two boxes. Unpacked, a total of three big binders.

I watched the video, and read the first two chapters. Hmm.

As I gaze into the crystal ball, I see a fair amount of memorizing in my future!

...pat.

2003-10-22T22:09:00.000-04:00

Indian Summer

Weather forecasts for the Thanksgiving weekend in Toronto were looking good, so I took a couple of days off work to stretch the holiday out.
One day of rest and.relaxation (a day trip to Elora Gorge for photography), followed by 3 partial days of gardening in 20 degree weather.

To gardening. First things first, I donned my new elbow-length gardening gloves, and tore out the rest of the lamium...funny, though, I didn't find any more ants. Maybe the previous episode of hacking and hewing was enough for them to decide to move along. If not, just to ensure their departure, I used THE GARDEN CLAW (sfx: thundering reverb) to break up all the soil, to a depth of about 10 cm.

I'm glad I got rid of the lamium...it had twined itself all through and around both my bleeding heart and astilbe, which were one or two feet away from the lamium when it first got planted, in Spring '02.

They are against the south fence in my back yard, the shadiest spot in what is rapidly turning into a shade garden (amazing how the trees in surrounding yards keep growing,and are choking out our patch of sunshine).

Next to go was the myrtle (periwinkle), Yes, I like the ever-greenness when I uncover the garden from fall leaves in April, and the small blue flowers in the spring are charming, but, like with the lamium, it's a maintenance issue.

We've got a small Japanese maple desparately trying to survive, and I don't think the competition's doing it any favors. Plus, myrtle everywhere makes planting spring bulbs such a bitch.

With all of the myrtle gone, I was able to stand back and look at the perennials without distraction.

The roses --Othello and Bro. Cadfael, two David Austin's--are healthy and fine where they are. As are the clematis that grow over the arch with Bro. Cadfael.

I'm not convinced I want to keep the weigela: it has nice greenery, grows vigorously (there's that word again) but it hasn't flowered in two years (garden keeps getting shadier). Plus, it's crowding the pee-gee hydrangia, which I do like. But I'll leave it for now -- I can make that decision another time.

So... what about the three west-coast giant delphiniums plonked in the middle of the north bed, the buddleia poked out in never-never-land and the row of columbines, planted at the back to help hide the car (which we decided not to park there, but erected a hammock instead)?

IT'S MOVING DAY!

I made sure the edge of the spade was sharp, then dug around the perimeter of each plant.

The delphiniums are now in a tight grouping against the north fence, which will give them the most light available for the next few years; the buddleia (after a big haircut) has been placed between the delphiniums and the hydrangea, and the columbines are in a very thin space at the foot of the hammock: likewise against the north fence.

Now I have an empty canvas upon which I may design at will for next year and beyond.

The remaining tasks for this year are to protect the roses for winter, plant the spring bulbs I bought, and mulch, to try to thwart the squirrels.

2003-10-05T14:42:00.000-04:00

Autumn blahs

Ugh. I sure hope it warms up a bit. Today's high is 10C. The temperature at night has been dropping to around 5C. No frost yet, fortunately, but it doesn't feel like it's far off.

Ash chose to bring the fish indoors last weekend (our little ponds aren't deep enough for them to survive outdoors over the winter). So we now have 6 goldfish, some reeds, and a papyrus plant in a tub upstairs until (probably) late April.

I bought some spring bulbs last weekend: Alliums, as promised, and many different types of daffodils. No tulips -- I didn't see any that really appealed to me. I think I was in more of a daffy mind set.

The weather is supposed to improve throughout this week, and be very nice by Thursday. I might take a couple of days off to finish the gardening tasks for the year... remove the rest of the lamium (yes, I finally bought some gardening gloves so I don't have to worry about the ants), move the delphiniums, uproot the periwinkle, divide the columbines and take a couple in to work.

Tuesday night there's a Toronto Master Gardeners' meeting. I think I'll get Ash to drive me there.

...pat.

2003-09-24T20:32:00.000-04:00

The cheque's in the mail

I've committed myself now: payment is in the mail for three horticulture courses at the University of Guelph. I'm looking forward to this -- it should be a great deal of fun.

The weather has taken a decidedly autumnal turn this week. Rain (about twice as much as we got from Isabel) and cooler temperatures. I haven't tackled the rest of the lamium, yet. I've just sat out back and looked sullenly at it. I keep forgetting to buy garden gloves at lunchtime. Web searching has turned up some very toxic ways to get rid of fire ants. Ugh. What else might I poison by accident? I think I might just try stirring them up on a daily basis until they leave.

The tuberose flowers keep opening. Here's another photo of it.

Not much else to report. It's getting dark before 7pm, which really doesn't leave much time for gardening in the evening.

I ordered spring bulbs for the rooftop garden at work; if I remember to bring the catalogue home, I'll order some for here, too. One big difference between the office garden and here: the office garden doesn't usually get squirrels chomping crocus heads off. I'm tempted to get some lovely globular tall alliums to plant in with the Japanese anemones, since those don't even start growing seriously until late July. A row of upright, tall, soldierly flowers will look pleasing at the back of the garden. And deep purple will contrast nicely with the green and white of the porch.

...pat.

2003-09-20T21:12:00.000-04:00

Ouch!

Got up, had a coffee and read the paper, went out for brunch, and then decided it was time to do some things in the garden. it was perfect weather for it today: a mix of sun and cloud, a little cool, no wind, and low humidity. Great day for bustling around and doing things.

First thing, Ash and I went to the local garden center and bought some icicle pansies, as I threatened to do yesterday. So now there are icicle pansies in the two urns at the foot of the front stairs, in the window box, and in some little trails through the rose garden in the front yard. They'll help provide good color after the roses pack it in, although I'm still expecting more blooms this fall.

After planting, I decided to check out the back yard for damage from the storm yesterday. Ash had already been out there, so the garden furniture and potted plants were all back in their proper places (the wind really hadn't been all that bad). Not much damage to report: a few twigs with leaves from the male cottonwood tree two yards over; a broken hibiscus flower, a bent rose blossom, and some Michaelmas daisies and obedience plants that need restaking.

The tuberose came through it unscathed. I managed to get a good shot of it today. Notice to photographers: I had to close it 1.5 stops to stop the flower from blowing out.
Have a look!

Photography over and done with, it was time to do some fall clean-up. I pulled some weeds, cut back the bergamot, gave the weigela a trimming, and then took a look at the lamium. Lamium maculatum is an attractive ground cover, with green and white leaves and little pink flowers. It does well in the shade, which is where I've got it planted. I should have read up on it before I bought it, however: "in ideal situations may be quite vigorous." It sure is.

I decided it was time to rip out a few sections of it before it took over and killed everything else in the garden (especially my bleeding heart plant, which just went in this spring). Grab, pull, and use the secaturs to snip at an appropriate place along the length of it.

Suddenly my left hand (that which was holding the plant bits, roots, and dirt) was stinging.

I have fire ants.

I've always hated wearing gloves while gardening (unless I was pruning roses, and even then, I took the gloves off as soon as I could). I think I need to buy a good pair of gardening gloves that come up to about my elbow, and seal around the arm, so I can finish removing the Lamium.

Any one know how to kill fire ants? The way they were moving around, I think I must have disturbed a nest when I uprooted some strands.

...pat.

2003-09-19T22:21:00.000-04:00

Weather forecast: sunny and mild

OK, the remainders of Hurricane Isabel have gone through: the air outside is calm and cool, and the rain has stopped, thank goodness. I didn't want to have to deal with a flooded basement this weekend.

Of course, it is thoroughly dark outside now, so I can't check everything, but (while it was still raining at 6:00) it seemed that everything had made it through the storm without any problems. Some of the roses that are getting long-of-cane got whipped around a bit, but I don't think anything broke.

I did take a few precautions:

All garden furniture was moved to the deck, stacked, and laid on the deck so it wouldn't blow over.
All potted plants were moved up against a wall, and away from steps and precipices.
The pot of tuberoses has been moved to a nice sheltered area so it won't fall over and have the flower stalk broken

There is still only one flower on the tuberose open, but the next two going up the stem are ready to open. I tried taking a picture of it two evenings ago, but the dimness of light lead me to overexpose, so I need to take another iimage, and this time -- compensate for the fact that I'm trying to take a picture of a white flower by dropping the exposure by half or a whole stop. If I take it in the morning with some indirect light, that might work. Then you'll be able to see it. I wish I could electronically transmit the smell of it: it really is wondrously fragrant.

More gardening to be done tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it. Maybe I should get some little icicle pansies to replace some woeful petunias, as Kathy Renwald recommended in her article in the Globe and Mail this week.

...pat.

2003-09-18T00:28:00.000-04:00

hooray. i have been accepted as a trainee to the Master Gardener program in Toronto. Now I have to successfully complete three courses (Horticulture 1, 2 and 3) at the University of Guelph by correspondence. I think I can do that :-D

2003-09-14T21:35:00.000-04:00

Intimations of things to come

I made the little fence for the Japanese anemones yesterday. I didn't verdigris it after all -- I read the instructions and cautions on the bottle of the verdigris solution, and wondered what the heck I was thinking when I bought it. Toxic! Watch out for splashes! Warning! I decided not to use a toxic solution to green the metal, since rain would wash the remnants of the solution into the soil, and possibly into the goldfish pond.

I brushed about a cup of vinegar on it to get it started -- nature will have to do the rest.

Didn't spend too much time outside today; had some indoor chores that needed to be done (like modifying and putting up a fireplace mantel).

I did go out and inspect things, however; and the tuberose is getting very close to opening its buds. I smelled it -- Ash smelled it. We agreed. It smelled, even in its bud state, like the gardenia we used to have.

It was a wonderful little gardenia -- we brought it indoors every winter, took it out again in late spring. Not winter hardy way up here, of course. It had very nicely glossy leaves, and white flowers, about the size of a toonie, that could provide fragrance for the whole back deck on a muggy summer night. Something made it unhappy last winter, and it died back from its roots on up. I'll have to see if I can get another one to replace it. We had it for about five years.

Well, time to do some research for fall bulbs, and to find out how to treat the tuberose over winter!
...pat.

2003-09-13T15:20:00.000-04:00

OK, I've been interviewed. The interviewing process continues until Monday night, and Tuesday morning they will mail out acceptances and rejections. With any luck, I should hear from them, one way or another, by the end of the week.

On the way home, Ash and I stopped at the brick yard, on Bayview Road. Some lovely wildflowers are in bloom, as are a couple of water lilies here and there.

Now that I'm home, it's time to do some work. I have some left-over 1/2 inch copper pipe from a trellis I made, so I'm going to make a little fence around the Japanese anemones in the front garden to keep them from falling over. I think the fence will be more attractive than tieing them up, which is what we usually do. Copper pipe, a T joint, two elbows, a pipe cutter, copper epoxy... and maybe I'll verdigris it before I put it up. Yes, that should be quite attractive with the dark green foliage and light purple flowers, I think :-D
...pat.

2003-09-13T10:06:00.000-04:00

Gardening at this time of year consists mostly of making sure the plants are watered, the weeds are pulled, and sitting back and enjoying. Some of my clematis are in bloom again, and the Brother Cadfael roses growing over the arbour in the back yard are doing much better than they were earlier in the season, when we had a heat wave. The poor things would get about half open, and then give up and shrivel, without dropping any petals. Mushy balled-up tissues is what they looked like. But that was back in July. Now they are beautiful, and getting very high on canes that are reaching 8 feet.

I planted pennyroyal between the slates on the back walkway this year. I tried doing it last year, too, but it all died. It may have been our unusually hard winter, which, once it was over, returned, double-shocking plants that had begun to grow, but the pennyroyal all died. So, never heeding a lesson, I bought more this spring, and replanted it with high hopes. Unlike last year, where it stayed close to the ground, it has grown vertically, to a height of about 4 inches, and how has small purple flowerets. It smells wonderful when walked on, releasing the most wonderful minty smells. I'll have to see in the spring if it survived, or if I need to switch to hardier plants, like some of the creeping thymes. I've got some lovely moss growing between the stones now, so if that continues, the combination of plantings and moss will look quite attractive.

Another purchase this year was some tuberose bulbs. Planted around May 20th, moved outside in June, two of the plants got fairly munched by either squirrels or raccoons. One survived intact, and now has a flower stalk forming. It's about 4 feet high. I'm looking forward to seeing (and smelling) it.

One task I must do within the next week is order spring bulbs so I can get them in the ground next month. I have left it, in the past, until late November or early December before I've planted, but that really doesn't give the bulbs a chance to develop any roots before frost hits hard. There are some types of bulbs that are just not going to get planted in my yard, however: no crocuses, even though I love them. Why? Because the darn squirrels love them, too! As fast as the flowers open, the squirrels come, spot them, think to themselves "ooooh, look! a crocus! I think I like the taste of crocus flowers!" and then they bite the flower head off, change their minds, and spit them out. Carnage, total carnage. They do the same with a tulip flower or two, but usually don't go after them with the same fervour as crocus.

Today I'm off to Edward's Gardens (The Toronto Botanical Gardens, it's called now). I've got an interview to become a master-gardener-in-training, which would then entail 3 courses from the University of Guelph. Wish me luck!
...pat.