End of September 2014

End of September

September just flew by! I guess part of the reason was that I was away in Manitoba for 10 days. We had a wicked frost for 5 nights in a row while I was gone!

Cleaned up the greenhouse cucumber vines that were mostly dried up. Took the last 2 cucumbers into the house.  Looks like the vines had a fungus again this year, but it appeared only towards the end of the growing season this time, thankfully. We got a couple of dozen English cucumbers off the vines and they were delicious! We ended up giving quite a number away to family, friends and neighbours. 

Tomatoes and cucumbers

Tomato News

I composted the 3 smaller potted tomato plants from the deck. We got a bit of fruit off them, but they did not do really well. I think the trees surrounding the deck are so tall now that they block a lot of the sun that we used to get there.  

The big tumbler was amazing, though! It had tiny tomatoes on it continuously for over 3 months! It was great to pick a few to pop into my mouth each time I walked by! :)

We had lots of the huge pale red New Zealand tomatoes ripening on the vines. Once we brought them into the house they ripened very quickly though and they go bad fast. 

The heirloom Purple Russian tomato plants were tall and leggy, but had quite a lot of tomatoes on them once they got going. Many of them were splitting, though. I think that is due to either too much water (not likely!) or not enough. Maybe we are not watering the big pots deeply enough. Something to note for next year*

Our Early Girls did the best and the tomatoes are always delicious. 

The Star of the tomato Season was the Patio Tomato plant that I got at Tail Creek Greenhouse! The plant has a nice compact way of growing and the red tomatoes are delicious. 

I saved tomato seeds from The Early Girls this year, as well as the Patios, a few from the Lemon Boy, some New Zealand seeds and a few Purple Russian seeds.  

Purple Russian heirloom tomato and giant acorn squash

We were impressed with the squash plants, too. We had 3 of our own spaghetti squashes grow and gave 2 more away. We also had 5 or 6 acorn squashes produced on the vies as well. 

The two Zucchini plants (store bought) did well; not an excessive amount of fruit which is good.  Made some muffins and two quiches, and gave a few zucchinis to friends.

We truly feel blessed by all this abundance and are very thankful for all that we have, not only now at Thanksgiving, but also during the rest of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Blue campanula end of season

Fall 2014 Peony Transplanting/ Dahlia digging

Calendulas still blooming

September 23rd- I transplanted my little red Memorial Day peony which has never bloomed in the 5 years since I planted it.  I think I have been patient enough, so now it was time for a drastic change!

I dug it out of my 'wild bed' where it was just existing, not thriving at all. Too little sunshine there now that the surrounding trees have grown so tall. Maybe too deeply planted as well???  (Who knows!?)

I made a fresh little flower bed for it at the east side of the deck stairs next to my big tub.  Diligent Husband helped me to dig up patch of lawn there (in spite of his sore back. Thanks, Sweetie!)
Next I dug out a bunch of overgrown bearded irises, long in need of attention, as well as a huge nest of quack grass (which seemed never ending…). I added some good humus and peat plus a little of the original clayish soil. I tried to set the peony into the ground so the little white eye was about 1 to 1 1/2 inches below the surface. That is supposedly the optimum growing depth of a peony.  Now it's up to Mother Nature to help it grow leaves and hopefully blossoms as well.

I added a few of the original irises back in (not too close to the peony) and planted 3 or 4 in the old peony hole in my 'wild bed' at the end of the yard.

I also dug my red Thompson dahlia tubers out of my Angel bed. It is still sitting on the deck drying off  (I have been away for a few days), but it's time now to put it in a bag with peat and bring it inside.  Two down and one more to go! There's still a lot of dahlia tubers in one of my yard tubs that need to be rescued as well as 3 tuberous begonia tubers.

Black eyed Susand display their fall colours

The little 2 tone pink dahlia that I bought new this year is still alive in its pot on the deck (only because I brought it inside the house for a week during our ugly frost week earlier in September- 9th - 12th) ) and it still has a few flowers.  The poor bees are finding less and less flowers to collect nectar from. I wonder what the bees do in October when ALL the flowers are gone?  Hopefully they have a big stockpile in their hives then…

The tumbler tomato plant on the deck still has fruit ripening daily, although the plant itself is pretty much dried up.

Nahla- garden helper

Time to get outside and do some more flower bed clean up.

More September flowers

More September flowers, before the frost…

Sweet peas

Yes Jack Frost scheduled several unwanted visit  the second week of September. In anticipation of his arrival ( ugh!) we harvest most of the veggies out of the garden, the squashes, the last of the zucchinis,   any still fresh looking rhubarb, a feed of swiss chard and any tomatoes that were ripening. We left the root plants, the carrots, beets and potatoes. We cleaned up dying vines, lettuce gone to seed and overlooked weeds. 

Pink geraniums and mauve lobelia

I dug out some of my gorgeous geraniums and potted them to take into the house for the winter.

Angel bed with yellow helianthus and pink lavatara in bloom 

I clipped off a huge bunch of orange mint (its green in colour but smells like oranges) to dry for tea. (I just lay the leaves and stems on a cookie sheet for a couple of weeks, then take off the leaves, bag them and compost the stems.  I like to add the mint leaves to my other teas in the winter or crush them in my tea infuser and use them straight.

Ruby rudbeckia, 2nd year of growth

Jack did visit for 4 nights in a row, Sept. 9 -12. Unfortunately I was away for 10 days during that time period. Diligent husband covered some of the tomato plants next to the greenhouse, but due to a very bad back at that time, I think he missed a night or two, judging by the state of some of the tomato plants.  (The three smaller pots that he managed to drag into the greenhouse look fine.)

Most of the cosmos plants in the flower beds in the centre of the yard are black and dead. The ones close to the deck, lost the top half, but the bottom halves are still flowering and the ones next to the house are all fine.  My tall Firebird dahlias which were looking so absolutely gorgeous, are also black and dead, and most of the tops of the geraniums are toast.

To add insult to injury, this past week since I have been back Sept 17 to 14 the weather has been mostly sunny and hot. What little flowers are left after the frost are ironically trying to grow again, but there's too little time left for that now.

Autumn Joy sedum starting to bloom

Surprisingly, one of my  Morden rose bushes still has fresh looking pink blossoms on it. Somehow it managed to escape Jack's vengeance.  And of course my Autumn Joy sedum which shrugs off chilly weather is just starting to bloom and show its gorgeous colour!  The pansies that didn't dry out in our August-early Sept drought all survived as well. Snap dragons are very frost resistant, too, but most of mine were all bloomed out already.

Have been cleaning dead cosmos and other spent perennials out of the flower beds. Still lots of work to do in that regard.  Also made 'Garden maps" of 3 of my large flower beds with some notes about what to  remove and or divide, or switch around next spring.  Always something to do when you are a gardener. It's almost a relief that the winter is not far off, just to get a rest. :)

Cool September

Cosmos grown from seed and looking wonderful

I clipped down and cleaned up some of my spent perennials this week, especially the Monkshood (aconitum) which were going to seed (and I don't want little baby Monkshoods all over the flower bed again.)  As I was doing that, I heard a sound like a freight train approaching, and suddenly it got very windy! I was going to quickly finish the job, since I was close to being done, but I got bonked on the head from something that came flying out of a nearby spruce tree! (Probably a spruce cone, but that served as a reminder to get going into the house!)  It drizzled a bit after that, but then soon stopped.

Yesterday (Sept. 5) was a nice, warm sunny day +21C. A pleasant change from the cooler temperatures and overcast weather recently.  I moved one of my peonies, a pretty dark pink one which I think is a Sarah Burnhart.

In the last few years, it had not been blooming much at all where it was situated in a small bed under a spruce tree. Too much shade there now, I guess. 7 years ago it had bloomed really well there, but as the nearby trees and shrubs grow taller, the sun factor changes.  It's 'touch and go' with me transplanting peonies, though… I'm hoping I will be successful in getting it to bloom in its new location.

Tiny transplanted peony stems amongst bearded irises and hollyhocks

I dug put some of the bearded irises at my 'Side of the House' bed next to my Hansa rose. I dug a hole there and removed a lot of the clay soil, as well as 2 big rocks!  (I used  the clay soil to fill in a hole that a Marmot had dug next to my giant Juniper bush.)  Then I added half a bag of good soil to the hole.

Hansa rose at side of house

Next I dug up the peony in question, hosed the soil off the roots and checked for the little white 'eyes'.  I divided  the big root into 3 parts, and planted 2 parts in the prepared hole by the side of the house, trying to get it only 1 or 2 inches below the surface. (That seems to be the optimum height to produce flowers.)  After that I planted 2 of the irises back in that bed, then I watered the heck out of it!

"Sleeping Beauty" hosta

After that I dug up a small Hosta (called Sleeping beauty) growing feebly under my potentilla bush on the west side of my stack stone bed.  I planted Sleeping Beauty in the old peony spot under the spruce tree. I pulled out a lot of weeds and quack grass there and added a few of the irises around it, plus the rest of the good soil from the bag. Then I watered it all.

Tomatoes

We had frost warning for overnight on Sept 3rd and 4th so we covered the tomato plants next to the greenhouse as well as the Firebird dahlias, the red Thompson Dahlia and the orange tuberous begonia tub.  Luckily we got no frost and the flowers in my garden continue to look really pretty.

Back to tomatoes… The Early Girls have been producing a lot of ripe fruit for quite some time now! Yum, they taste so sweet!  The huge droopy "tumbler" on the deck and the smaller one next to the greenhouse have done well.  The New Zealand tomato that I started from seed has given us some huge pale red tomatoes, quite tasty and we've had some Purple Russians, too. Yesterday I picked 7 nice sized juicy red tomatoes off the 'Patio" tomato ( one of the plants from the Tail Creek greenhouse.)

We are 'rolling' in Cucumbers! The 3 plants inside the greenhouse have been producing fruit for about 6 weeks now and we have been enjoying the wonderful fresh taste and also sharing them with friends and family.

Acorn squash giant in same pot with New Zealand tomato

The spaghetti squash plants (that I started from seed) have given us 4 nice ones so far. But what happened to my Butternut squashes? Did I mislabel the seeds or the seedlings? Or did I give them all away inadvertently? I don't seem to have any…

The Acorn squash which I planted as an after thought in the pot with the New Zealand tomato next to the shed has grown like a giant beanstalk creeping across the lawn! It produced a lot of flowers, but the lazy bees seem to prefer my other flowers and the squash flowers weren't getting pollinated. (Then they just fall off and no fruit grows.)

We did eat one huge squash that it managed to produce, though. After that, when it produced more flowers,  Diligent Husband pollinated them, so now we have 3 or 4 small acorn squashes trying to ripen. Our friend Janet, who has one of my acorn squashes growing in her farm garden has out-produced us again, though! :)

Tomatoes growing next to greenhouse always do better than the ones inside…go figure!

More bad weather is forecast for next week…Frost 4 nights in a row! :(

I'm going to be away that week so DH will just cover the tomato plants next to the green house, maybe drag one or 2 pots right INTO the greenhouse, and cover the gigantic acorn squash to keep it alive. Everything else is on it's own, though..

Black-eyed Susans

I hate to think that I'm going to come home to mostly dead flowers.  The Firebird dahlias are looking so pretty and the Thompson dahlias still have a lot of buds…
My Black-eyed Susans at the side of the house are looking very cute! I should move some of them to my stack stone bed, dig up one of the big daisy plants there.

Pink lavatara

My pink lavatara is looking so gorgeous, (although not as huge as last year) and my Cosmos are gigantic and covered in pretty blooms. I had started them from seed and they are flourishing in the rock garden, the side of the house and the long perennial bed.  I'm hoping to collect some seeds to use next year, so Jack Frost please stay away until next month!

cosmos

I picked a good feed of swiss chard today, probably the last of the season,  since it won't taste very good after getting frost. Also want to go pick some last rhubarb stalks to put in the freezer.  The carrots and beets will be fine, but what about my 2 little red cabbages… Guess they need to be picked now, too.

To do: Plant Turbo Rose into the flower bed where my little Morden Sunrise used to be…

Happy fall gardening!

Pepper plants and cucumbers inside the greenhouse

Awesome August

July is gone and August has sneaked in. The weather continues to be hot, dry and sunny, although I had hoped for a bit of a relief from that. I prefer the temps to stay at around 24C with a nice little breeze to keep down the mosquitos. Forecast for mid week is some much needed rain! Yay!
We had thunder clouds roll in the odd time recently, but no precipitation to speak of. We also, thankfully, did not get the vicious hail here at Buffalo Lake that Red Deer and parts west got!

Daylilies bloomed profusely in July and are just winding down now in August 

My garden continues to flourish. The veggies are at the harvesting stage. We had our first feed of new potatoes last week, one of our garden grown spaghetti squashes and even a small carrot or two!  We have been eating the garden lettuce and swiss chard for weeks now, as well as the cucumbers from our little greenhouse. They have been growing almost before our very eyes!

Morden Belle left corner and  Morden blush have finished blooming now in Aug. 

The flowers are winding down somewhat  and I have had to clip off many so they don't throw seeds everywhere.  One of the August beauties is my tall heliopsis with its abundance of yellow flowers in the centre of my angel bed.  The hollyhocks also continue to please, especially the dark pink ones in the stackstone bed by the birdhouse.

hollyhocks

The roses have pretty much finished blooming now, except for the Morden Ruby which continues to excel! It was the first rose bush to bloom in early June and has not stopped since !   The Tall John Davis climber in the Angel bed still has blossoms as well.  The Turbo rose which I bought this spring  had a massive amount of blossoms and has a lot of buds still to open! It is still in a pot outside the greenhouse door. Not the best location, but it does get a fair amount of sun. I need to figure out a permanent spot for it, by September though….

Morden Ruby rose, with Firebird dahlias on right, potentilla on left

The hosts are blooming nicely especially once I clipped down the tall maltese crosses that were squeezing them out.

Hostas

My flower tubs have all done well. The ones down by the road need constant watering because we have had to little rain in the past 4 weeks; just a sprinkle or two which only resulted in less than an eighth inch of precipitation. (3 mm?)  The hot weather continued into August with +30C sunny days almost too hot to be out in for the first 12 days! Any yard work had to be done in the morning before 10:30 am!

This past week it has cooled down and we have had some overcast days which is  a nice change. 

The bad news is that we may be in for some frost tonight (Aug 22) here at the lake, but hopefully not! 

Tangerine Begonias continue to please

Summer Pond Disasters

Flower bed and small pond

In mid July, we lost half of our pond goldfish! The weather had been brutally hot for almost 10 days  and the green algae in the pond went crazy!  The oxygen levels in the pond dropped due to those conditions and the goldfish were gasping for air!

The pond filter that we had bought last year was too small and couldn't do an adequate job, as we discovered. We had added water to the pond several times via the hose, but that was merely a bandaid.

Usually we have string algae in our pond, which I fish out with the net periodically. This summer we had none of that type, but lots of green algae instead which made the water look like pea soup!

We had had a lot of overnight visitors for 2 weeks and the pond filter did not get cleaned out as it should have.  That particular morning I saw some of the goldfish floating on the surface, not a good sign!
We quickly began to drain the whole pond and net the remaining fish. We put the goldfish into a large rubbermaid container on the covered deck and ran the air bubbler into it to give them lots of oxygen. We ended up losing almost half of the 14 goldfish though.  Only 8 fish remained.  We lost 2 of our biggest breeding goldfish.  :(

Blanket flowers, delphiniums, pink bee balm, red maltese cross, white baby's breath, blue monkshood and calico kitty, Lexy.

After scrubbing the algae off the sides of the pond and off the rocks with the pressure washer and the push broom, we sucked the green water out with the shop vac.  Then we re-filled the pond with fresh water from the well pump via the hose.
We drove to the city the next day and bought a new pump system to work the filter. We now use both pumps, the old pump just to run the little fountain in the middle of the pond and the new pump runs the filter.
After letting the sun warm up the cold well water for a few hours we transferred the goldfish into the freshly cleaned pond.  I added some liquid Cycle to the pond water which contains millions of beneficial algae.

We also added a mesh bag of barley straw to the pond, which we had bought at the hardware store along with the pump.  Barley straw supposedly breaks down in about 2 weeks time and releases a natural chemical in the water which deters the growth of algae.
Problem solved!

Angel bed with monkshood, delphiniums, red maltese cross and yellow day lilies

Well, not quite! Three days ago I went to check the pond and there was barely 2 inches of water left in it! Oh no! … Did our pond membrane spring a leak!?!?!  The goldfish were all huddled at the bottom next to the pump with barely enough water to cover the big ones.  Turns out the little fountain in the centre of our narrow pond had tiled at a 45 degree angle and the water was fountaining right out of the pond and watering our very dry lawn! (Again we have had a very hot, sunny, dry spell of weather.)

Luckily we caught the problem before it completely drained the pond!  We fixed the little centre fountain and reduced its spray at the same time as we re-filled the pond once more.  Those poor goldfish seem to have suicidal tendencies!  There are at least 7 out of 8 left (it's difficult to see all of them and count them since they move so fast.)  I hope they all survive the summer. In these stressful conditions, they probably won't have any babies.



The little chickadees, finches, sparrows and other birds were having a heyday as the pond was filling up. They flitted around, having little drinks and bathing in the fresh water.  It was quite delightful to see them!

Hopefully we have no further pond issues this summer!

My beautiful Morden Ruby

Happy gardening!

Hot July Beauties

Peony and siberian iris blossoms

July has been very hot and dry which entails a great deal of watering. But in spite of all the work that requires, the blossoms busting out all over my garden make it all worthwhile. :)

Morden Centennial Rose and white daisies

My roses are looking gorgeous although they do have a touch of rose rust and need to be sprayed. They all had to start new branches from the roots as the winter cruelly killed off all their branches, except for the Ruby rose bush which somehow managed to fare better.

The John Davis climbing rose in my angel bed, which I though was dead in the spring has made a nice comeback. No flowers yet, but it does have buds.

New rosebush- Morden Belle 

My new Morden Belle rose is blooming a pretty medium pink, quite similar to the colour of my Morden Centennial rose (my personal favourite) which is looking fabulous right now!

Morden Blush Rose

I love this Morden Blush rose. It is so dependable and usually blooms twice a summer.  The blossoms start out as baby pink but soon bleach to white in the hot summer sun. Still very pretty, though.

Morden Ruby has numerous buds, more than ever before and they are just starting to open. The little Winnipeg Parks rose that I moved to the end of my long bed (to make room for Belle with the other Morden roses) is growing and has a few buds, but it is quite small.

Very hardy Hansa rose

I chopped back my hardy Hansa rose quite a lot about 10 days ago (rather late in the season) due to so much dead growth and leggy, droopy branches, but I'm pleased to see that it still has a lot of buds opening up on it.


 The smallest rose bush though is my pretty Morden Sunrise which has only 1 stem but it bravely produced a tiny flower earlier. I wonder if somehow I forgot to put the blood and bone meal around its soil in May. I think I will go out and apply some there today, just to give it a big boost.

It is also time to chop off my white daisies. I always enjoy when they first bloom but the hot weather makes them go to seed so fast, then the seedling try and take over the flower beds the following spring.

daisies, delphiniums and self-seeded pansies

My day lilies are just beginning to bloom and the plants themselves are gigantic!  The yellow blossoms are very beautiful and, although they only last 1 day (hence their name), the buds are so numerous that they will be displaying their beauty continuously for the next 2 weeks or so. :)

Day lilies and Maltese Cross

 {Note to Self: divide daylily plants next spring in time for Stettler Plant Swap. }

Stone crop sedum 

Clematis:  My new Nellie Moser has 2 flowers open this morning. It doesn't have much growth yet since I only just planted it a few weeks ago to replace the General Sikorska clematis that sadly didn't make it this year.  (Old Man Winter has very harsh in 2013/24, plus I forgot to mulch them :(  )
There's a bare space where my Jackmanii usually grows. It fooled me into thinking it was sprouting this spring as something was trying to grow there….  Next year I think I will move "jack's" trellis next to the Hansa rose (more sun) and plant a new clematis there.

{Note to self: in early October, water the clematis deeply so the roots freeze in and mulch well! )

Red Dahlias are still blooming profusely

My red dahlia is outdoing itself this summer and still blooming profusely. The firebird orange and yellow dahlias are just starting to open now.  That may be because this red dahlia has such a sunny location, but also because I cut back the leggy stems on the Firebird dahlia.

I love pansies! Unassuming loyal bloomers :) 

My columbines are big and healthy this year.

My columbines are still blooming and have been for quite some time already. So far the caterpillars have left them alone instead of stripping them of leaves which usually happens.  I probably have the little wrens to thank for that! :)

Newest garden addition:

Love My Beautiful Garden! June 2014

June 8 -26, 2014

Wow! Am I far behind in my garden blog! I guess I have been doing so much gardening and no time for blogging! :)
 Everything is growing gangbusters now and looking quite fabulous, if I do say so myself…


June 8 -white anenomies blooming  in angel bed

angel bed perennials all growing well

 Bleeding heart- blooming quietly in triangle bed June 8.

June 9  Bearded irises blooming at side of house. Ones in the bottom of the Rock garden started blooming not long after, as well.

June 11  Peony in triangle bed- Lots of healthy looking buds!  White peony at the end of  my Long Perennial Bed has some rotted stems… must be too wet there. Must remember not to water as often in late spring next year. Only 1 bud still growing...

June 26 irises and peony showing off buds  Pict 17


June 22   Petunias in deck pots are blooming profusely

New Dahlia  in deck pot  Pict 10  2

Bought this cute little dahlia at Canadian Tire garden centre in Red Deer

Blue sage perennial "May Knight" The bees love this plant!

Pict 6  and 13    Daisies Blooming   June 24

The white daisies started popping open all over my stackstone bed and also a number of them in the long perennial bed and rock garden. The daises are quite tall and tend to fall over, so they need to be cut off regularly so that they don't shade the rose bushes and the tiny Lavatara that I had planted there.
(Lavatara was started from seed in our greenhouse in mid April.)

Stacksone bed and pond

June 24 - My tiger lilies started opening and are still looking fabulous now in early July.  So pleased to have these 'ordinary' lilies in my garden again!

 Red "Thompson" dahlia, first bud opened on June 24.  They are so huge and lovely! I have had these tubers for over 12 years and keep digging them up and re-starting them the following spring.

June 26  This year I planted a new clematis called  Nellie Moser.  It has pink and white blossoms and doesn't mind shade. That's a good thing as the trees nearby have grown so tall that this area doesn't get as much sun as it used to. My 6 year old clematis, General Sikorska secumbed to the battle with Old Man Winter, sadly.  My 4 year old Jackmani didn't grow this spring either.  Both clematises had been quite dependable, but we had had a really brutal winter.

Must remember to water the clematis well in late Oct./ early Nov. before the first snowfall and maybe add some mulch on top as well for added protection.


 Pink and yellow columbine starting to bloom, and looking great!

 Snow in Summer - This short perennial is growing well and blooming nicely. Had to dig some up and plant it at the shady end of the stack stone bed to keep it from taking over! Also gave a chunk away.

My creeping phlox in that same flower bed died except for the pink clump which, strangely enough, had never really grown well since I had planted it 5 or 6 years ago. Go figure!

Giant rhubarb plants June 8
Still hoping to get time to make some rhubarb jam. :)