Archives for The Garden 2018

Closing out November

November 21, 2018 9 Comments
Categories: Birds, The Garden 2018, and What's Been Happening?.
Tags: red bellied woodpecker, Stumpy Family, and winter 2018-2019.

~ It is lovely and sunny today but the wind is very strong and cold.  We had some snow this morning and at times it was like being in a snow globe.  The wind was blowing the snow around and around.  It’s the perfect day to stay inside.  November is coming to an end and winter is still making an appearance even though there is a month to go before it officially starts. I recently made another batch of the all season suet I use.  This time I used cardboard tubes cut about 6 cm or 2.5 inches high and
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Winter is Knocking

November 16, 2018 7 Comments
Categories: The Garden 2018 and What's Been Happening?.
Tags: winter 2018-2019.

~ Winter is knocking at the door.  We had a couple of brief snow showers a few days ago but that only lasted a few hours.  Last night a huge system moved into southern Ontario and left a thick coating of snow.  Thank goodness for the Canadian flag and the blue bottle tree else there would be no colour at all. Here are both bottle trees coated in snow.  Did I mention it is only mid November and technically it is still Fall. Yesterday we had the red bellied woodpecker visiting the peanut feeder.  I’m sure he knew more than
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Changing the Bottle Tree

September 16, 2018 2 Comments
Categories: The Garden 2018 and Whimsy.
Tags: bottle tree.

~ I have had a whimsical bottle tree in the garden since 2014 and it has gone through a few changes.  The original was a lilac tree that just decided to stop growing, so I trimmed it to become the first bottle tree.  I loved it but eventually the bush rotted out at the base and it fell down.  I had grown beans and morning glories up the frame as well and it looked so pretty. I tried a couple of ideas when relocating the tree and finally settled on the corner of the fence garden.  We had used branches
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Green Zebra Tomatoes

September 9, 2018 10 Comments
Categories: The Garden 2018 and Vegetables.
Tags: garden journal 2018 and tomatoes.

~ Each year in my kitchen garden I like to try to grow a different variety of vegetable.  This year I chose to try out green zebra tomatoes.  As well as going through a really hot and humid summer, my garden went through a lot of neglect this year.  I had knee replacement surgery at the beginning of July so basically the plants were left to grow on their own.  My husband did the watering, but I rarely got down the deck stairs to tend to the weeds or the thinning out or the snipping away of dead leaves etc.
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Rose of Sharon

August 9, 2018 7 Comments
Categories: Plants and The Garden 2018.
Tags: garden journal 2018 and rose of sharon.

~ A few years ago I was given a cutting from a Rose of Sharon bush and this year it is finally big enough to bloom.  And not just one or two blooms but it is going to have lots of blooms.  The photo on the left was taken at the beginning of the growing season in 2017 and the one beside it was taken in August 2018.         Now in 2018 it is taller and fuller and has buds on it. It blooms on growth of the current year.  Pruning is done in late fall after
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Venidium and Violets

June 5, 2018 11 Comments
Categories: Alphabetical Gardening and The Garden 2018.
Tags: garden journal 2018, V, and venidium.

~ Venidium is a wonderful annual that was native to South America.  They aren’t the biggest blooms in the garden and don’t be fooled into thinking they are big by the macro photos of them. The first venidium variety is orange prince. And the next venidium variety is zulu warrior.  I received some seeds several years ago in a seed swap and grew them for the first time. I’ve also bought a packet of seeds from the garden centre.  If you are looking for an unusual plant you should give venidium a try, they certainly have been a favourite of mine.
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Umbrellas, Umbrels, Unique and Unusual

May 28, 2018 7 Comments
Categories: Alphabetical Gardening and The Garden 2018.
Tags: bumbershoot, garden journal 2018, U, and umbrellas.

~ U for umbrellas and unique.  It’s the time of year when we hope we don’t need to use rain umbrellas but I do use umbrellas a lot in the garden. One year I turned an umbrella into a display for the spring.  The old saying April showers bring May flowers was the theme for this unusual wreath/display. Did you know an old fashioned word for umbrella is bumbershoot?  I love unusual and unique words. But I do have rain umbrellas.  My fun umbrellas are from my teaching days.  It was important to cheer things up on rainy days when meeting
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Plant Saucers

May 19, 2018 3 Comments
Categories: The Garden 2018.
Tags: garden journal 2018, pansies, and plant saucers.

~ Finally the weather has warmed up enough this May to start working in the garden, and by working I mean adding plants and sowing seeds.  The odd night is dropping down to single digit temperatures, about 7 Celsius, but the days are lovely and warming to 20 Celsius or a bit more. The spring blooms are plentiful.  The lilacs just opened and you can get their wonderful scent while sitting on the deck. I purchased a gorgeous pot of pansies on the Easter weekend from our local flower farm. They are hardy plants that bloom in the really cool
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Rhubarb

May 8, 2018 12 Comments
Categories: Plants and The Garden 2018.
Tags: garden journal 2018, R, and rhubarb.

Seeing the rhubarb poke through the ground on a chilly day is always a good sign that the garden is awakening after the long winter.  Technically rhubarb is a vegetable but we tend to treat it as being in the fruit category. On April 20, 2018 you can see the rhubarb crowns just poking through the ground after a wicked ice storm late in the season.  The crowns and first leaves are red, but quickly turn to green. And here it is on May 3, 2018, growing quickly with lots of new shoots under those big leaves.  Growing rhubarb doesn’t
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Egyptian Walking Onions

April 17, 2018 14 Comments
Categories: The Garden 2018 and Vegetables.
Tags: E, Egyptian Walking Onions, garden journal 2018, O, onions, and veggies.

~ Egyptian walking onions, also called tree onions, perennial onions, winter onions, or just walking onions belong to the allium genus.  They prefer growing in full sun, are extremely hardy and easy to grow.  I find these onions are fascinating to grow in the garden. They are one of the first plants to poke through the ground in the spring.  At the top of each stem a small bulb starts to grow. From this develops the onion for next year. When the plant gets top heavy the stem bends over and the little onions plant themselves into the ground. After several
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