What's Blooming?

After a winter hiatus, I am baaaack! I attended my local garden club meeting this past week, and was reminded of the importance of keeping a gardening journal.

I strolled through the gardens this morning and spotted a few things of interest.

What's Blooming

I counted two lonely crocuses and a few Siberian squill. However, the tulips and daffodils are well on their way.

What Needs Work

Winter wreaked havoc on my newly planted beds. The spruce tree bed suffered the most "damage" with lots of heaving. I planted this area last September so root systems only had a couple of months to settle in. And the snow and moisture compacted the soil around the plants so I am left with sprouting mounds of plants. It's amazing how little soil is left (or looks like is left). One of my first spring tasks will be to add more soil in this bed to protect the roots and even out this bed.

The back part of this bed is in the low-lying area of the yard. Heavy clay soils and poor draining create puddles and soggy soil for most of the spring season. With my rubber boots on, I tried stepping in this bed and nearly got stuck. I had visions of childhood and losing a rubber boot in the thick mud. Thankfully, I was able to pull out before getting sucked in. I planted water-loving plants in this area (Sweet Joe-Pye Weed eupatorium cannabinum 'Pkenum' and a dappled willow Salix integra shrub). Hopefully they will will appreciate the semi-lake conditions...?

Good Bones

While examining the shrubs to determine which ones I need to prune, I admired my front shrub combination. I planted these six or seven years ago, and I have to admit that I find the combination is quite pleasing.

Yummy Pancake Breakfast

Every once in a while, I get the mood to make pancakes for breakfast on the weekend. I make my own from scratch, and no longer use those pre-packaged mixed. I much prefer this recipe, which make a light, thin, and slightly eggy pancake, or crepe.

This recipe is from uncle Bob.

Ingredients
1 cup flour
4 eggs
1 cup milk
1 teaspon baking powder
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
salt to taste

Steps
1. In a medium bowl, wisk together the milk and eggs.
2. Blend together the flour and baking soda and gradually wisk into the egg mixture.
3. Heat a pan on the stovetop with a small dollop of butter. Add the batter to cover the pan and sprinkle with a few blueberries. Turn over when the crepe has set.

Serve with maple syrup and your favourite breakfast side dishes! You can also make savoury crepes by filling them with ham and cheese.

Bon appetit!

First Snowstorm of the Season

Last night, we were hit with the first snow storm of the season. We got about 10-15 cm (5 inches) of heavy, wet, and sticky snow and very high winds. I have not yet raked all the leaves. In fact, the two big maples still haven't shed half their leaves. It should warm up by Halloween, so I will be able to clean up this coming weekend. Here are a few pictures of the yard from early this morning.

My poor weeping willow is now more than weeping -- it's bawling its eyes out! I tried to knock off most of the snow, but it did not budge. I hope it will straighten up.

I braved the roads and made it in to work. However I'm always amazed at how lazy and stupid some people are. This person pulled out in front of me. His car was still completely covered and he only had a small area of windshield cleaned off. He kept rolling down his windows and picking at his windshield wipers. Who needs peripheral vision anyways ;-P

Bulbs Are All Planted

I finally finished planting my bulbs today. I've never planted this late before. I hope that they will have enough time to grow roots before hard frosts set in.


This year, I ordered bulbs from http://www.horticlub.com,/which is the francophone branch of http://www.donimion-seed-house.com/. They were having a 40% off bulbs sale and a friend and I couldn't resist so we placed a combined order. I really wanted to try Foxtail Lilly bulbs (Eremurus 'Shelford Hyb.') pictured in bloom on the right. Another friend told be about seeing these in a neighbour's garden and ever since, I've been looking for them.

The bulbs look rather strange. As you can see on the left, they have large tuberous roots. They prefer a sunny and dry location and do not like to be disturbed. I planted these in the new east border, between a miscanthus and a gaillardia. They should bloom in June.



I also ordered some 'Princess Irene' tulip bulbs. This is one of my favourite tulips. I love the variegated orange colour. In my garden, I treat tulips as annuals. I purchase and plant fresh ones each fall. I find that they never come back as nice and big as they are the first year. However my daffodils are great naturalizers and get better and bigger each year. And I bought Triumph tulips from a local garden centre. I planted both kinds of tulips against the back of the house, near the back door.

And finally, I ordered some 'Starburst' asiatic lilies. I only have one other lily, the beautiful and fragrant 'Stargazer' lily, which I planted late this summer. I hope that I won't have to deal with too many lily beetles next summer!

Finally, I ordered some lillys. I had tiger lilies many years ago and got rid of all of them after getting overwhelmed with a lily beetle infestation. I will try my trowel at them again this year.

Meet the Garden Help

Jazz, the golden retriever

Hi! My name is Jazz, I love people, and I just turned 6 years old last week!

I live with three cats who don't like me very much. But that's OK because I sometimes get back at them by eating their food. I have many talents that come in handy in the garden. I enjoy mulching branches, fertilizing the grass, and sometimes killing the grass. I'm also very good at aerating the lawn with my claws. I shed my fur to provide birds with soft bedding for their nests. That makes me happy because I love animals too!I can also cut a mean fart as I sleep on the hardwood floor!

"See" you later!

The Big Freeze

Last night was our first real freeze of the season. The temperature went down to -5 Celcius (24 F). Over the last few weeks, we had many mornings with light frosts here, but those frosts only affected the very tender plants (such as impatience). Last night's frost killed all the remaining annuals and tender perennials left outside.

Here you can see that my two large castor bean plants (Ricinus communis) finally bit the dust. To cut these monsters down, I have to use a hacksaw.

Castor bean in West border

Here is one of the leaves from just two days ago.

You can see the castor bean plant in the middle of the following wide view.

Wide view of island bed and West bed in back of property

This morning as I was outside taking these pictures, the Canada geese were flying south. Here is a small flock.

Flying south

And finally, here is a view of a new hosta border that I planted this September. I will spend today cutting down the dead and slimy foliage (to feed my compost pile!) and planting some spring-flowering bulbs.

Hosta bed, Oct 19, 2008

My Composting System

I compost! You compost! We all compost! How do you compost?

Because I have a large property, I use simple piles instead of the black compost bins. I don't even bother with building a container out of wood or chicken wire - I'm too lazy! My piles are hidden between a row of evergreens and the shed near the back of the yard.

I use a 2-pile system.

On the right pile is where I place my 2008 compostables (leaf waste, garden clippings, veggie kitchen waste, and so on). I keep throwing things on top of the pile and try to alternate between green and brown material. I will continue to use the right pile until spring of 2009. After then, I will leave this pile alone and let it cook next summer. In the winter, I still compost and access my piles with a path in the snow. The local wildlife really appreciates munching on my kitchen scraps in the dead of winter. The pile on the right will likely grow to about 8 feet high and just as wide.

The left pile is my 2007 pile. I let this pile cook all summer long and now it's ready to spread around the gardens. It shrunk down to about a foot or two high by four feet wide and I used the pitchfork to stir it maybe once or twice during the summer.

Ideally, a composting system should be in full sun and kept moist. However, even though my piles only receive a couple of hours of sunlight per day, I still get the end result - It just takes a little more time.

Some things simply won't decompose! Egg shell, peach pit, and plant tag.