Gardening That Grows With Me
While we have not had a lot of snow this winter it was a real treat to wake up to a bright blue sky highlighting a fresh snow fall over the gardens this morning. I am still thrilled, and … Read More
It seems that every year I have a major garden design project or two under way, and despite my many good intentions, garden maintenance seems to fall to the back burner. Well, I’ve promised myself that 2010 will, for me, … Read More
It’s been a busy summer what with putting in the new pool, a new garage and landscaping around the new areas. In addition, I took the opportunity to widen some other gardens while I was at it. View of Garden … Read More
I’ve been busy in the garden this past week pruning some shrubs and trees. Most of my summer blooming spirea have finished blooming and this year I gave them quite a severe pruning to control their size and encourage nice … Read More
What a thrill it was to watch what I think is a house wren make a home in one of my birdhouse gourds a couple of weeks ago. This gourd is right outside our kitchen, adjacent to the kitchen patio, … Read More
Every year it’s the same question — what is the best way to stake up our tomatoes? While you can grow tomatoes on the ground, I prefer them staked up for several reasons. I think they produce more good tomatoes … Read More
Despite a couple days of rain, the peonies are stilling blooming well. Peonies are my favourite garden perennial. I mean, what more could you ask for — fantastic enormous blooms, easy care once established, fairly disease resistant and a green … Read More
In the science fiction book ‘The Day Of The Triffids’ plants eat meat, walk around and end up attacking everyone. Well I wish the plants in my garden could do something similar to the aphids attacking them this year. Populations … Read More
Fighting pests in a pesticide free Ontario can certainly be a challenge. I have found that one of the key solutions is to know your pest, learn it’s life cyle and investigate which organic solution might work. It certainly does … Read More
I was thrilled to see this Red-bellied Woodpecker at our feeder this winter. I’ve had a challenge getting a picture of him as he stays for only a short period of time each visit. The Red-bellied Woodpecker is one of … Read More
Growing The Gourds Growing your own ornamental gourds and making a birdhouse gourd is great fun and surprisingly easy. And it makes a great natural addition to a bird garden. I grew our own birdhouse gourds from seed very easily. … Read More
It seems we wait a long time for spring to arrive and when it finally does there’s just not enough of it to accomplish all of our spring gardening tasks. We’ve had some good weather of late so I’ve been … Read More
I’m please to say the construction of our new garage – barn is proceeding nicely. We’ve had good weather this week and it looks like they will have all the framing finished. You can really see the building taking shape. … Read More
Effective April 22, 2009, Earth Day, Ontario banned the sale and use of chemical pesticides for cosmetic use. This ban was predicted in early 2008 and legislation was brought in during the fall. Anticipating the ban, I decided to convert … Read More
Despite the rain and cold, construction has finally begun on our second garage. This is step one in our plans for this summer which include building a second garage for my tractor and all the garden equipment I seem to … Read More
I’m am fortunate to have two areas in our house with corner windows facing both south and west. This means almost all day sun for my vegetable garden seedlings. While it’s not necessary to start all plants indoors (I don’t … Read More
I went to a garden seminar today where a guest speaker introduced the ‘newest’ and ‘hottest’ perennials to be introduced this year. Each one was touted to be better than a previous cultivar, which amazingly to me, was the hottest … Read More
After ordering my vegetable garden seeds last week, I spent this past weekend planning our vegetable garden. We have a large fenced in garden about 35 feet by 35 feet and use my ornamental gardens as overflow. The plan for … Read More
Some warm weather over the past few days and I’m starting to think of gardening. So it was time to sit down, order my vegetable seeds and plan my vegetable garden. Last summer was our first real serious year of … Read More
It’s the middle of winter, my garden is under a blanket of snow, and what else do I have to do except browse through gardening books. Always a dangerous occupation for a confirmed tree and shrub addict like myself. I … Read More