Let’s Talk Gardening

I first outlined our plans to grow celery in our garden in my Growing Celery in Ontario post in early May. Well I’m happy to say that the experiment in growing celery our first time has been a huge success. … Read More

Here’s one way to perhaps feed the rabbits and keep them out of the garden. I woke up one morning this week to find this fellow in a bucket that I use to collect pruned and deadheaded materials before taking … Read More

Every gardener knows that no matter how many gloves you buy and how careful you are about it, dirt ends up under and all over your fingernails and ground into your skin. I wear gloves for heavy work, but otherwise … Read More

Living in the country has its unique challenges and one of them is wind. Even on a rather normal summer day, gusty breezes come up quickly, making it almost impossible to maintain an umbrella in our wide open pool area. … Read More

I can’t believe it’s mid-July already. Yet here we are, already beginning the height of the season. Like most gardeners, I’ve been busy with spring planting, pruning, weeding and watering. It seems like there is something to do every day … Read More

I love my maple trees — whether the majestic red and sugar maples in our back woodland, our small hedge maple which provides shade near our patio garden or the even daintier red japanese maples that can survive the winds … Read More

We enjoyed our first snow peas today fresh from the garden but it was a close call. Two nights ago some deer climbed over our 3 foot fence and decided to have dinner. Their tasty meal consisted of just perfect, … Read More

I have been a little to busy to blog lately (busy gardening of course) but had to post a picture of the beautiful double rainbow we enjoyed after a brief rainstorm today. Happy to see the rain — and the … Read More

We are trying to get a head start on the garden this year since planting everything in a two week time frame can be a bit overwhelming. I purchased 8 small San Marzano Plum tomatoes Monday from a local garden … Read More

Unfortunately my coldframe was full of planted lettuce this spring so that meant no room to put my starter plants out to harden them off. Looking around I decided to use my window wells as cold frames and they worked … Read More

I planted my Cornus Florida ‘Rubra’, flowering pink dogwood, in 2009 and have been waiting, not always patiently, ever since for it to bloom. With all the cold weather this year many of our spring blooming trees and shrubs have … Read More

I’m starting to think perhaps I have too many garden beds. OK never mind, that’s just not possible but 83 yards of mulch does seem a little crazy. So we started out like this: 20 yards of mulch, delivered twice … Read More

The people friendly Red Admiral butterfly is back in Ontario.  I’ve seen quite a few in the garden since early April but several were out today, I guess enjoying the return to good weather as was I.  Red Admiral caterpillars … Read More

Always eager to try something new, I decided to try growing our own celery this year. I thought it would be nice to see if we could have our own fresh celery to add to potato salads during the summer … Read More

It’s getting a little bit crowded in the neighbourhood. While planting potatoes in the back vegetable garden today my husband spotted a rather lazy garter snake. Despite making noise the snake didn’t move so of course my husband had to … Read More

The time has arrived — we are now down to the last of our winter stores from last year’s harvest. This week we enjoyed the last white onion and it was still crisp and fresh. Pretty good for something harvested … Read More

Once again the rabbits enjoyed the tulips in my garden more than I did. In the past I’ve tried repellent and this year did drop a wire planter over a couple patches but with almost two acres to garden I … Read More

Well it has been a busy couple of weeks. The early arrival of spring in our area pushed many plants ahead at least three weeks pulling forward my spring pruning schedule. Then the cold weather returned which meant watching the … Read More

I like things to be as easy as possible when I garden and I’m always on the lookout for easier, and quicker, ways to do things. Right now high on my priority list is looking for better ways to protect … Read More

We are about to pay the piper. You just had to expect that the summer like weather wouldn’t stay and that we were likely in for a return to more normal temperatures and sure enough, here they come. Tonight they … Read More