Category: Gardening

Isn't this pretty?

6/29/2016

A picture of an Iris from my mom-in-law's house. Isn't it so pretty? I just love the depth of the purple in this flower.

From My Flower Garden

6/1/2016

And so the Lord clothed the world in beauty...

I love the colour on these flowers. Most years I go to the town-wide yard sale in Hensall where a lady there sell perennials for $1 each. I go, tell her to pick out five good for sunny locations and she does that. I don't care about colour or style. Her plants almost always do well. This one is from last year. Isn't it pretty??? I just love the brilliance of the pink.. my camera simply doesn't do it justice.

2016 Gardening with my boy

5/24/2016

"Dad's away, so ... let's pretend that it's summer and you don't have to do much school, sound like a good plan son my heart?"

Son: "But mom, I want to veritas press and veritas bible and ESA.. can I do that?"

What does a mom say to that? "Sure lad, get 'er done."

Once the "I want to's" were done, my lad and I headed outside to get some work done. My goal, to get some gardening done before it got too hot.

Our biggest job was to put up the tomatoes. This involved the use of a simple machine... a pulley! Normally hubby helps as I simply don't have the arm strength to do it but he's not here, so I figured with some creative thinking and a lad's determination we could do the job. it worked SO WELL I was quite amazed. The lad was pleased as well, it took him a bit to figure out how to get the rope over the beam, I was so pleased he didn't get frustrated and stuck with it.

Watering the plants he just planted. Oregano, thyme and rosemary into our herb planter. The summer savoury and sage kept over from last year.

When gardening one meets all sorts of wee creatures, the lad thought he should catch some for "Columbus" his pet jumping spider. Columbus, was apparently quite pleased with selection chosen for him.

Dahlia's all planted (we'll be selling some once they come up better), peppers planted as well. The lad did one of the pepper bins by himself, he was pleased as he hadn't planted peppers before. By this time he was looking flushed so I sent him off to put things in the garbage and then to rest in the house while I tided up the remaining bits.

We had a great time together, mixing dirt, talking and figuring things out. It's good to share work with a helpful lad.

Spring Time Planting in Ontario

4/30/2016

What predicates this post being written?

The other day on facebook I commented on how I have my peas planted, and how my radishes and turnips are coming up. I was surprised to get comments of "Boy you are early!" "Wow.. .that's might early". I often have things in the garden at this time of year. I don't always tell people, but this year it surprised me at how many people commented on the earliness.

Hubby, in answer to my surprise said "but hun, you have raised beds.. it makes all the difference".

So know you what predicated this post. :) Be prepared to get some early gardening advice.

Early in the season... probably beginning of March I put up my hoop over one of the raised beds. I did this so the ground would have a chance to heat up.   I blocked off the ends and just waited.

Once the weeds started growing I knew the soil was warm enough.    I planted cold weather seeds such as spinach, radish, turnip and the like and then let the boards stay up until the seeds sprouted.

Now the boards stay off and I just watch for frost warnings.   I picked up some inexpensive frost cover at the local dollarama.

At the beginning of this week, after we had a good rain I planted my sugar snap peas. The package will tell you to soak them, but I've learned you don't need to soak them if you just wait with on the weather. Rain comes in the spring. :) I put my peas in. YEAH!!! Soon enough I'll have pea!!!! The lad and I can eat them all before they even come in the house. :) (and dad will shake his head at us).

oday as I was fussing about I noted I made an error in judgement. I forgot to remove my seeds from a box before I watered our freshly bought mint! ACK!!! Wet seeds!

(guess what I got to do?)

Yes..you nailed.. I got to plant seeds that I wasn't anticipating planting today. :)

I planted: more spinach, swiss chard, lettuce (two kinds), mustard greens, and Salad greens. This is all for the bunnies except for what we steal for our own table.

I also planted some bush type zucchini. These went into my short box raised beds that I reserve for plants that need their own space.

In my raised beds I plant close together, usually about 6-8 inches, but some plants simply don't do well with that type of spacing. Those plants have short beds that they don't need to share. :) I planted the whole package of zucchini which we DEFINITELY don't need but they will hopefully come up and then my son can sell them to raise some dollars. :) We'll market them to the various homeschool groups around. I certainly felt stupid getting the seeds wet so hopefully that didn't ruin them.

I keep a thin piece of plywood next to my short boxes so I can cover plants as they start to come up to protect them from frost damage.

The reason I plant closely is two fold.
1. It helps to keep the grounded shaded so they don't dry out as fast. The nemesis of raised gardens is they dry out quickly.
2. It helps shade the ground so weeds don't grow as persistently because there is no room for them to spread their roots.

The Joy of raised beds is
1. they are MUCH easier to work and it's easier to work up one section at a time. This keeps the job from being overwhelming.
2. It's easier to rotate what is going where.
3. If you get a diseased patch of dirt (it happens). It's easy enough to spread that batch of bad dirt over the lawn, which gets rid of dips and divots in your lawn.
4. Lack of persistent weeds. Twitch grass is SO not a problem in my gardens.
5. Adding growing room is not difficult. You can use a hoop cage, screw in support poles and hang twine down for plants to grow up, or you can even build up (as in the case of layering potatoes)...
6. It gets me started earlier growing plants for the bunnies. They adore my parsely/cilantro patch and have eaten from it twice already. I have some clover, plantain and dandelions mixed in the patch as well.

Here in Ontario, where the season can be shorter than one wants, having raised beds helps me to extend the time I can garden and to take advantage of the cool weather crops by planting early.

Do you have anything special that you do when you garden?