Gardening is Cheaper than Therapy

Hibiscus

Veggies from our Garden -beets, green bans and zucchini 

Cucumbers from our greenhouse

August Seems So Long Ago/ Fall Update

Fall Update

In August my Cosmos were really growing like gangbusters and blooming grandly. The prettiest flower though was the lavatara which always grows well and blooms profusely right up until Jack Frost comes along.
My Dahlias were also looking lovely as they usually do at this time  of year. The Firebird tubers especially( which I had overwintered in the house and and potted up in March ) were tall, with huge orange and yellow blossoms, one bunch was in the yard tub by the driveway and the other was in a deck pot for the longest time.
Eventually I planted it in in Round bed on the south east side  (the usual stack stone bed spot was grown in by the Turbo Rose bush).
The Red "Thompson" dahlia was also still in a pot on the deck, but I transplanted it to the spot at the end of my long perennial bed facing the house. It stopped blooming there at first but the got another set of buds, ( but did not bloom as profusely as usual as it really didn't get the sunlight there that it deserved. ) :)

NOTE to Self: Next spring plant a dahlia in the stackstone bed again, if possible, in a sunnier location.

Poppies:  I threw a bunch of loose poppy seeds on the soil in my stackstone bed behind my Morden belle rose bush. They eventually sprouted and grew quite thickly. Once they started to bloom, (mostly single orange or red petals) they continued right up until the frost killed them on Thanksgiving weekend (Oct 8/9)  I left the stems there so that some seeds will hopefully reseed in the same spot.

We left for 4 weeks vacation on Sept 10 and missed most of the September garden season. Before we left we picked all the tomatoes and as many squashes and cucumbers that were ready. I dug up or took slips from some of the pink zonal geraniums and one of the regal geraniums that I wanted to keep over winter.  Sadly we missed our crop of plums this year. We had not had any Hyer apples AT ALL on our tree and no crab apples either which was a first!

We arrived home a few days before Thanksgiving and the weather was cool. We thought we would still have a couple of weeks to do the flower bed winterizing and get the goldfish out of the pond for the winter but were we wrong about October!
In started to snow suddenly on the Thanksgiving weekend, October 8 and 9th and the weather stayed cold for about 2 weeks. The snow slowly melted and was mostly gone by Hallowe'en, thankfully.

 We  had unseasonably sunny warm weather in November which was lovely! The days were short, especially after the time change on Nov 3, but I managed to get outside, clip off most of my day lily leaves and use them as mulch around my Morden rose bushes. I managed to get them all wrapped in burlap and strangely enough, I found 2 stems of roses that were still blooming, one Morden Ruby stem and one Morden Centennial. Somehow Jack Frost had missed them :)

I spent a few afternoons clipping down more perennials in the bed at the side of the house, the stack stone bed and the round "Angel " bed. The Cosmos had grown into giants in Sept while we were away and had been frozen in mid bloom! Sadly there were hardly any seeds to collect for next year. I think I may still have a few from 2015 though which I could use.  Many of the cosmos had such a firm grip in the ground that I had to just trim all the side branches off and leave a stump of the main stem behind.

I also left a few stems of Lavatara seeds in the stack stone bed for the birds to eat. :) I wonder if they would be viable next spring if they are left out all winter?  Not wanting to take that chance, I collected some to keep in the laundry room till spring.

I left some of my calendulas in the flower tub and sprinkled a few of the seeds there. Let's see if they sprout like they used to do in my flower beds in Thompson. (Most likely will get eaten though….)

I chopped off the tall False dragonhead stems which had all fallen over in my stackstone bed and also cleaned up my long perennial bed. The only flower bed that I didn't cleaned up was my triangle bed. Most of the long leaves on the day lilies were all wet and mushy. :(
Oh well, one job  that will need to be done in spring.

Goldfish retrieval

We finally had warm enough weather to go out and retrieve that goldfish from the pond on October 15

Diligent Husband drained the freezing cold water out of the pond and we started to net as many goldfish as we could. We had lost a few of the bigger goldfish over the summer (to the dog who kept jumping in and catching fish!) but we managed to retrieve quite a few large ones and far too many babies!  (Over 40 in all.)

I listed some goldfish to give away on 2 local internet site and I gave some away to 3 different people.

Thanksgiving Weekend Snow

October 10 2016

Snowy Walk 

Snow Walk Oct 10

July Jewels

July Jewels

The Hollyhocks just started blooming against the house on either July 1 or 2. They are so pretty!

The one in the stackstone bed is huge but hasn't popped any flowers out of all those buds yet.

Daylilies such sunny pleasers!

My yellow day lily clumps are huge again this year even the one that I took a digging from in May. The first one (bottom of rock garden) started blooming on July 2. They are such sunny looking pleasers.

I am so pleased with my morning garden walks now. The eye gets assaulted by glorious colours and forms that bring such pleasure to my heart. July is when all my hours and days of hard work are paying off! 

Pink peony transplanted into triangle bed has 7 flowers.

 Peonies:   The pale pink Peony in the triangle bed (which I had transplanted 2 years ago from the wild bed where it was getting too much shade) had 7 blossoms on it this year! It is looking so gorgeous! 
My newest Peony (planted last year) Julia Rose peony only had 1 flower, (and 3 duds.)  It was the most gorgeous huge flower!  I will have to do some research to find out why some peony buds don't develop….

Wild Bed Peony 

There are still 2 peonies in that wild bed, one at each end. They are tough survivors! The Peony at far side of the wild bed has 3 blossoms this year! It hardly gets any sun there, so I am so impressed. The driveway side peony has some leaves but no flowers for about 4years now. I wish I had some great spots to move them to….

My Tiger lilies started blooming in late June. They were quite abundant but are almost finished blooming already. We have been watering the beds, but what we lack is a good rain, not just the daily showers we have been getting. The lawn is starting to go yellow and look sparse in places.

The orange striped lily at the top of the rock garden is gorgeous! I cut it off and put it in a vase in the house.

Red Pot Lilies and Morden Ruby Rose bush 

The red pot lilies in my stack stone bed are  quite short this year,  (due to digging them up and moving them a bit further away from the Morden Ruby rose last fall), but they are blooming nicely.  The white lilies in my Round Angel bed have a similar problem. They are slow in coming up and are few compared to last year's abundance. I'm hoping that next year my lilies will all do well again. Maybe it's time to buy some new bulbs?

Earlier in June: my oriental poppies were magnificent however ! 

Perennial Phlox 

The Phlox that I had rescued from WalMart is blooming well and adding so much colour to my Long Perennial Bed.

This year I had bought Lavatara from Tail Creek Nursery as my own seedlings had died due to lack of watering when I was away. The Lavatara plants that I put in my Round Bed are growing, but the flowers are tiny and looking strange. I wonder if that plant is a similar looking weed?? Will have to wait and see how the other Lavas in my Stackstone bed turn out. 

July 5: I dug up and moved my Sleeping Beauty hosta from the spruce tree spot to my Stackstone bed at the shady end. Then I planted the day lily from Wendy W in the Spruce spot. That hardy lily had been sitting in a pot on the deck stairs since mid May and it ben put out a flower sprout so I will soon be able to see what colour it blooms. 

In that tiny Spruce bed there are also a Shasta daisy, a tall "floppy orange" lily, a small perennial geranium and some calendulas that I had started from seed earlier. 

Morden Ruby- such a stunner!

My Lupins are doing a great job of competing with the roses for finery.  The Dark purple one in the Round Bed was the first to bloom, then the pink one. I also have a third colour, more of a magenta . 

The ones in the Triangle Bed were not far behind in popping open. Now I have to go around and cut off the spent sterns so that I don't have too many baby Lupines next year. Right now I have one Lupine that self seeded in the middle of a clump of bearded irises in my Triangle bed. It will have  to come out though, since it is too close to my Julia Rose Peony. 

Pretty Lupines and white daisy, a few Jacob's ladder flowers are still blooming. 

 

Yesterday I dug up and moved one clump of Dianthus/ Pinks away from the edge of the rock garden bed where they were growing and blooming.  I had to dig out some of the Cosmos seedling that were in the way. (I had scattered some cosmos seeds in the top of that bed last October when I took out the dead ones, so there are a lot of little ones coming up.)  Right now those cosmos are mostly sitting in a pot of soil on the deck until I find a permanent spot. (I gave a pot of them away on the weekend). There is still one clump of Dianthus there to move, but right now I don't want to disturb anything else growing in that bed. 

Roses:

My Morden roses are growing huge this year. The Ruby is taller than ever and has tons of buds on it! All my rose bushes are blooming now and looking so fabulous! 

Morden Magic- Ruby Rose

I need to find a better location for my small Morden rose growing at the end of my Long Perennial bed. It is so crowded right now by my Spirea, but that being said, it does have one nice little rose bud on it. 

John Davis Climbing Rose.

My pink Mordens are all looking so fabulous right now! The Blush was the first one to open its blossoms , followed quickly by the Ruby, then the centennial. The Belle was a couple of days behind but they are all doing well. I guess the shot of blood and bone meal scratched into their soil in May really helped.  The John Davis Rose is covered in buds and started opening them at about the same time as the Mordens.

Tough Hansa Rose

I trimmed the wild rose bushes in the Side of House bed. I cut back the huge Hansa rose there a little but it is just starting to bloom so I want to enjoy the flowers first before I prune too much. I also cut off some wild golden rod at the far end which are shading the Bergenia there. (That Bergenia had belonged to my Grandmother in Germany.)

My garden flower beds are looking fabulous!!!!!

John Davis

Veggies and Other Good Things

  Veggies and Other Good Things June 6 to 10/2016

The tomatoes are doing well. The Early Girls did not thrive at first.  I’m wondering if I need to buy a new Early Girl tomatoe. Maybe keeping the seeds year after years from the same plants weakens the seeds??? I’m sure I read that somewhere. 

The Lemon Boy tomatoes grew the fastest. We also bought a new Beefsteak tomato this year. 

The tumblers were small and spindly this year and took their time to grow. They are doing ok but not thriving. The patio toamtoes are doing quite well.

We have 2 tomato plants in the veg garden (Purple Russian?) and 2 tomatoes on the deck, a patio and an early girl. A tumbler which I repotted yesterday is coming up on the deck too. Our dog, Brandy has been good about not bothering my plant pots. Thank you, my girl!

Along the outside wall of the greenhouse in the big pots we have :

1 pot of potatoes

2 Early girls, 

2 lemon boys, 

1 patio tomato, 

1 purple Russian

1 Beef Steak.

Looking forward to a good harvest.

The squashes were growing well in their little pots in the greenhouse so I planted them out into the veg garden a couple of days ago. (June 10) There are 2 zucchinis, 2 Spaghetti squashes, and 2 butternut squashes. There is also one small squash in the raised bed. (Spaghetti) So far so good.

The veggie seeds in the raised bed have sprouted quite well, Beets, radishes, dill, onion sets, peas lettuce and beans. 

We germinated the beans in a glass jar using a wet paper towel. Then we planted a few straight into the raised bed and a few into small pots in the greenhouse. The ones in the green house sprouted first and are about 5 inches tall. The ones in the raised bed only just broke the surface. Why: I think some seeds need warm soil so the greenhouse is good for that. 

One row of lettuce did not sprout at all. Old seeds maybe, or I planted them too deep? 

Might have to try again with a new batch of seed.

Oriental poppies are gorgeous! they popped open June 9.

Clematises. My Durandii has big leaves and beautiful dark blue flowers on it now.  :)

The Nellie Moser clematis has tall stems, small leaves and not one flower bud! :(

It’s such a pleasure to go out and do a “garden tour” and see how everything is sprouting and growing bigger by the day. I love June!  :D

Mid May to June 10 Garden

Garden -May/ June 2016

Clematis- Integrifolia Durandii June 6/16

It has been such a very busy, busy time the last few weeks, Not only digging, weeding and planting in my garden, but also with our grandchildren, my quilt guild and with my new volunteer job with Animal haven Rescue.

We took over 30 perennial diggings out of my flower beds which all found new homes with friends, family and neighbours.

Potentilla shrub, Persian cornflowers and asiatic lilies coming up.

You would think my beds were bare after all that removal, but there are still many perennials left. Chris and I did dig out the helianthus at the centre of my round angel bed. It was so badly overgrown with long grass, (some quack grass and some from the Karl Forrester calamagrostis reed grass.) We removed maltese cross and also divided my big Monkshood into 2 chunks (and some was given away.)

 It opened up the centre of that bed and I planted a Hydrangea shrub called “Quick Fire” there (Planted a second Hydrangea bush in my long bed.) There, too, I dug out maltese cross, anemonies, daisies and even one of my three Sea Lavendars. (Gave to Chris W).

There is more room now for the delphiniums to grow and many more lilies.

Surprise this week: I thought my little Morden Centennial rose bush at the end of my long bed was dead but it has sprouted some leaves now. I guess I need to dig it up and put it in a more sunny spot. Where?????

Dominion Day red peony and bearded irises next to the steps

We dug up the white peony from the far end of the long bed where it was always too wet and not enough sun and replaced it with 2 bergenias I got from Wendy G.  I transplanted the white peony into the flower bed next to the house (where there used to be some Campanula bell flowers.) That spindly peony has 2 buds!  

The dark pink peony that I had transplanted from under the spruce tree 2 years ago has lots of fat growth this year but narry a bud! Boo hoo! My peony curse isn’t over. (I'm sure it did get a flower or two last spring, only  6 months after I moved it there. But I guess peonies set buds the  previous summer so maybe that's why. Perhaps I did end up planting it too deeply after all. Darn! )

Julia Rose peony planted last summer 2015

Wendy G had also given me 3 day lilies. It took a while to figure out where to plant them.

Two of the day lilies were planted in the flower bed at the front of our townhouse in Stettler. Our renter Alicia had complained that a neighborhood cat was using the flower bed as a litter box and it smelled. Chris dug all the soil out of that bed and we got rid of it. He bought bags of fresh dirt and shoveled it in. I planted the 2 day lilies and 2 pink geraniums there, and A said that she would also plant some daisies from her Dad.

I think I will plant the third daylily over by the pond next to the big yellow one there. (I wonder what colour the new one will be?)

Bleeding Heart. Came up early this year but the frost zapped it so I had to cut it back. It has made a nice come-back.

My Morden rose bushes and my Turbo are all leafing out beautifully in the stack-stone bed. The wild rose bushes are going, well, wild, there. My friend K said she wanted wild rose bushes for her yard, so when she came to the lake this week she helped me dig 4 of them out which really opens up that flower bed.

Clematis: my Integrifolia Durandii is growing beautifully and has lovely deep blue flowers. The Nellie Moser clematis has really tall stems and small leaves, but no flower buds at all, sadly.  

Poppies: I seem to be poppy challenged, too! I tried mixing poppy seeds with some sand and sprinkling it in my stack-stone bed and something is sprouted but I think it’s chickweed. :(

My big oriental poppies sure look great in my long bed! 

Oriental Poppy June 6/16

Dahlias:

Since me rose bushes and my Siberian iris have grown so much, there’s really no room for my Firebird dahlia in its usual spot in my stack-stone bed. Plus one of the Franklin ground squirrels (not marmots, I found out) have planted a stash of sunflower seeds there which have sprouted. Cute!

Siberian Irises

My Rocket ligularia is up and growing well as long as I keep my false Dragonhead in check. It loves to try and take over! 

Speaking of take over, I dug out most of my white daisies last year and planted 4 or 5 real shasta daisies. The white daises I left in are all blooming nicely right now along with my Siberian Iris. The real Shasta’s have only got foliage so far.... :/

This week I planted the tubs by the road. It’s all a bit of a mishmash this year, so we’ll see what grows and what it looks like when it blooms. I planted a red geranium ( which I had overwintered) and a purple wave petunia in each tub as well as a pink pansy and some licorice vine. I added a small white daisy in each tub as well. I’m thinking about planting either a cosmos or a dark snapdragon there too.  

Clematises: Nellie Moser on left, Durandii on left

Surprise :  The Eldorado reed grass that I had planted in those tubs last year all survived and started turning green again. (I thought they would die over winter.) Chris helped me to divide them since they took up half the tub. I planted a small chunk in the centre of each of the tubs at the bottom of the stairs, too. I had initially planted 2 expensive grasses there, which I had bought at Tail Creek greenhouse a month or so ago, but both of them died. (Did I forget to water them enough after planting?) 

Tiger lilies are sprouting up

 My lilies are all up and growing well. Time to get out and spray the new growth with Bobbex to deter the ground squirrels and the deer from having them for lunch.

Splendins is blooming now; Miss Kim lilac (behind) has many buds

 My Blue sage continues to amaze me at its abundance of deep purple/blue flower spikes. It seems to love the sunny dryish growing conditions at the top of my rock garden bed. The Creeping phlox, the blue flax and the pink dianthus are all so pretty in that bed as well.

Blue Sage is the bee favourite right now.

Last but not least, the white daisies ( which are impossible to totally get rid of) are blooming profusely now and looking really nice! 

Note to Self: Next week when the flowers are in the end stages, cut them all off ruthlessly!

Magnificent May Blossoms

May Blossoms

Brook Park Plum Blossoms

May has been a very productive warm month up until today. It is windy, overcast and cool with a slight bit of showers, but we could use far more than that! It has been very dry here. Everything still looks quite fresh and green though. Not sure how long that would continue without some help from Mother Nature in the way of precipitation.

The fruit trees all bloomed early and are so gorgeous it almost surpasses words!

Pembina plums almost finished blooming

The first of course was the pear tree, but the plums on both siders of the deck stairs were not far behind (Pembina plums on left, Brook Park plums on right). The crabapple tree  (Dologo Crab) as next and for a short while they were all blooming at once! The smell as you walked up and down the stairs was so heavenly!

The small Hyer apple tree has a few blossoms this year but not as much as last. We trimmed it last fall quite a lot.  This might be more of a "rest year" for the Hyre apple tree which is fine.

Our tiny 'Canadian Tire' apple three has flowers on it, too. This little tree has 5 different varieties of apples; the stems were grafted onto one trunk.  The bottom 3 stems have tags that say:
Rescue
Harcourt
Hardi-Mac
I don't know what type the other 2 branches are...

Interested to see if it will have any apples to speak of this fall. Last year it had a few crab apple sized ones but they were pretty sour.

Lazy felines lounging in the sun

Saskatoon tree is blooming in abundance

The saskatoon shrubs are starting to bloom here at the lake. Im curious to see the crop they will produce this year. Last year was so abundant it was almost unbelievable, the amount of fruit we had!

Ornamental cherry

My perennials are growing like gangbusters in all the heat that we had in April and early May.

Stack stone bed and pond

We cleaned out the pond last week and added fresh water.  I cleaned out the pond pots and put the ones showing growth back into the shallow end of the pond. The goldfish will be going out right away, but we have a bit of a set back in weather this week. The night time temperatures are forecast to be zero or minus digits!  I guess we are getting the April weather now that we had skipped in April. :(

I will have to cover my rose bushes for the next few nights. They have sprouted a lot of fresh leaves and I would hate for the frost to get them.

Round angel bed/ early May

We dug out many of the perennials in my round bed and divided them. I completely removed the helianthus and cut back the Karl Forrester Calamagrostis reed grass. What a job getting all the quack grass roots out of that bed! There are still more roots sneaking to the surface, but the majority is done. I bagged a lot of diggings to take to my daughter's place for her new flower bed and we planted them this past weekend.

I dropped some perennial diggings off in town for the Plant Swap and I still have a bunch more to give away to friends.  Quite a variety:

Monkshood
Campanula cluster Bell flower
Campion/ Maltese cross
White daisies
Blue sage/ May Night Salvia
Purple/ white bearded irises
yellow day lily digging
Anemones
Blue Cornflowers
Helianthus
Reed grass

The centre of my round / angel bed is bare right now.   I have decided to try and reduce the amount of work in my big beds. I want to plant 2 or 3 shrubs in the centre, ideally something that blooms in spring and that I can much to keep down the weeds and seedlings. I have seen the most beautiful pink blossoms on some small trees in town and I wish I knew what they were! I'm thinking maybe flowering almond or something similar. Time to hit the big greenhouses and see what I can find!

Happy gardening!

April Garden Activity 2016

The plants in my garden are really starting to grow quickly now. The tulips are looking so colourful in my rock garden, next to the house and in the Stackstone bed. The few in my triangle bed have been chomped on. I added some Bobbex the other day but not till after I noticed the damage. 

I think I need some new Bobbex as well. The old stuff might be off, it really smells terrible!

Tiny Creeping Phlox

 The little blue variety of creeping Phlox has really flourished in my rock garden. I think I will divide it and put some back into my stackstone bed as most of it there has died out. I had little luck with getting the pink blooming variety to grow very well.

Earth Day brought a super surprise this year! The tree swallows which normally don't show up till about May 4th, made their first appearance
on April 22, almost 2 weeks early!

First swallow has returned to check out the accommodations Earth Day April 22

 The next day another pair of swallows showed up and claimed the house behind the house. They are smoking at the top of the tree snag and working on decimating our flying insect population.  :)

Grape Hyacinth

 The little grape hyacinths are so cute and looking quite healthy.
The day lilies at the bottom of my rock garden bed are thriving.  The one closest to the steps has to be divided in the next few days. They both get so huge and usually get covered in a mass of yellow lilies. These two plus the one by the pond were originally here when we moved in almost 10 years ago.
The 2 in my triangle bed are about 5 years old and the orange one in my stack stone bed is about 2 years old and still quite small.

Large daylily perennial in rock garden

 The Persian Cornflowers and the tiny Forget Me Nots in the stack stone bed are all growing well.  The Forget Me Nots usually bloom quite early. and the Cornflowers some time after that.

The peony on the east side of the main steps is up and hopefully it will bloom this year. Because it was so recently moved it might not happen yet. The peony next to the house was the first one up and has lots of healthy stems. Hopefully it will bloom again this year. I was amazed that it did bloom last year because I had just transplanted it the year before. Goes to show that my "peony Curse" is over!!

Daffodils are  blooming.





 

Today I cleaned up the rest of my lower rock garden bed. Had to dig out the rogue white daisy babies trying to grow at the lower edge on that bed, They were badly infiltrated with quack grass which I removed. I replanted the little sedums at the front of that bed and I dug up a mass of bearded irises at the front corner. The irises were so crowded and needed to be separated. I put them in a pail of peat moss for now and I'm going to give three quarters of them away.  Most of them probably won't bloom till next year, though.  

I have to dig up/divide a whole bunch of perennials early next week to donate to the Stettler Beautification Committees Mother's Day Plant Swap.  (Thanks Marilyn S for taking them there for me. :) )

Happy Gardening!