Happy Halloween

I had 135 kids this year for Halloween (15 more than last year)! Same skeleton as last year, but I flipped him horizontally. One trick-or-treater was rather troubled by it - he kept repeating "Skeleton broken? Skeleton broken?"

Garden Diary - November 2

We've hard our first snow (about 1 cm) and hard frost - winter is on its way. The squash vines have died, as have the nasturtiums and purple clover. Some of the hardier plants are still looking good. Last weekend we ate one of the squash (tasty) with a mix of cold weather greens (swiss chard, kale, chinese radish leaves, etc). The swiss chard actually looks better now than it did in the summer - glossy and firm (next year I'll try planting it in a semi-shade ground spot, rather than a full-sun planter as I did this year). We also had an omelette with cold weather greens, and Mark topped mine off with a baby cucumber 'candle' no bigger than my pinkie finger.

My forsythia in front has put out a few blooms recently; I think my continual pruning through the summer (an attempt to keep it from getting bigger than my house) has confused it; hopefully it will still bloom well next spring. The ornamental grasses continue to look great, and the blueberry bush is still beautifully red. The sedum seems to have grown alot in recent weeks, which surprised me, since I assumed it was a hot-weather plant.

Today I planted all of the bulbs: crocus, anemone, grape hyacinths and a dragon arum. I also planted the gaillardia seedlings I received in the mail recently from Veseys. I expanded the bed in front to better integrate the perennial bed with the sandcherry - now it has a curvilinear edge that is continuous with the larger curve of the main bed. In the extra triangle connecting them I have put in a rhubarb plant that I have divided from the rhubarb in back.

Garden Diary - October 19

Last weekend was an unexpected blast of summer - temperatures in the low to mid twenties, bright sunshine, no rain. So things are still growing surprisingly well in the garden - today I discovered a perfect branch of big, luscious raspberries. The squash continues to grow, with two getting just about big enough to eat. I've planted the poppy and lime-green coneflower that arrived recently from Vesey's; soon I'll also plant the gaillardia, which is the other leafy plant. All of the rest are bulbs, which I'll leave for a few more weeks, when the weather is colder.

The blueberry bush in front has turned a beautiful shade of red, which looks even more fantastic against the lime-green sedum and the blue-green grass and sage bush. If I could have this electric colour combination year-round, I'd never even need flowers.

In the back I've put away the hammock frame. One of my mystery bushes is starting to turn red. The nasturtiums are finally coming into their own, all blooming. Next year I should plant them much earlier so that I'll have more time to enjoy them.

Garden Diary - October 5

There's not too much new to report in the garden, as growth is slowing down, and my work is winding up.

I harvested the last of the scarlet runner beans, and have frozen some for use later on this winter. We lost two of our small squash to a very hungry animal (Mark has it pegged as a squirrel, although raccoons could be the culprit too). Luckily another squash has taken off, is already bigger than the others ever got, and we're keeping it on the vine until this upcoming Thanksgiving weekend, in the hopes that it will still get a bit bigger with the last of the warm weather.

Soon I'll be planting my new order of bulbs; raking my leaves (last year I thought I would have to beat them off the tree with the rake, they stayed on so long after the first snow); cleaning up what's left of the wasp's nest (the local kids have kept throwing rocks and knocking off bits of it); and getting my pile of dead clippings into the compost bin.

And then I'll start daydreaming about spring. Hopefully I'll finally find time to properly fill out my garden plan with the current crop of plants, before I forget what's planted where...

Garden Diary - September 21

Yesterday was a beautiful last day of summer - warm, sunny and dry. More of this kind of weather would have made it easier to get some of the gardening done this summer - I always seemed to be dashing inside as a thunderstorm was starting. But at least the frequent rain made it easier for my new plants to get started, and I didn't need to be home every night to water the potted plants.

I've resigned myself to the fact that I'm just not going to be able to get rid of the mint in the front window bed. So instead of trying to eradicate it, I'm going to put in some more plants that will dominate a bit more in that bed, so that the mint acts like a background filler, rather than the out-of-control center of the show. After cutting down the mint, and pruning down the rosebush, it's possible to get in to plant things. I've put in irises from my mother's garden (should be shades of purple and white), purple coneflowers and phlox that I've taken from the smaller front perennial bed, and I've moved the peony closer to the clematis, since it was almost totally obscured by the rosebush. I may also try transplanting some rhubarb, to sit at the front between the forsythia and the rose, where the forsythia seems to shade out the mint a bit. And I have bulbs that I've ordered from Veseys, some of which will go in along the front of the bed, to make a bit of a border against the backdrop of the mint. I've mulched the bed and redistributed the rocks, so that the border between it and the rest of the new bed is less obvious.

I've also started some fall clean-up - taking down the dying bean vines (next year I won't bother growing them in pots; they didn't do nearly as well as in the ground), transplanting the rosemary and thyme into pots so that I can have them in the kitchen for the winter (and perhaps I'll keep them in pots outside next summer, since they'll probably like it much more than the beans did).
I've harvested about half of the scarlet runner beans, which I'll be eating for dinner tonight (I've added them in to the chicken with red wine and sage that's in the slow cooker). I've also harvested what is likely the last (and only our second) zucchini. Next year I'll plant the squash and zucchini in the ground, as they also didn't do well in pots. The runt of the litter squash plant that had been transplanted to the front is astonishingly huge now, with large leaves stretching almost around the entire front perimeter of the bed.

A few things are just blooming now - nasturtiums in the front, Easter lillies in the back. Next year I'll be paying more attention to blooming cycles of plants - I was looking for long-blooming flowers when I ordered from Veseys. The morning glories are finally paying off, although I still think that next year I'll replace them with scarlet runner beans - more flowers and edible instead of poisonous. The phlox that I cut down earlier this summer (it was getting too tall and messy) has re-bloomed, which is a nice surprise.

My neighbour from across the street just pointed out to me yesterday that I have a huge wasp's nest in the front maple tree. How has this escaped my notice? I'm a little nervous about tackling it, and as long as I don't get any flack about it, I'll probably leave it until winter.

Garden Diary - September 7

I've had success with just about everything I transplanted in the front garden two weeks ago, even though they initially looked dangerously wilted. I had to trim off lots of limp and browning leaves from the sorrel, but the remaining leaves look strong and healthy. The lamb's ears still look pretty ragged, but I'm pretty confident that they'll come back too. Most of the patches of thyme are still green, which is a good sign. Meighan's blue fescue looks perfectly at home. And the purple clover are doing just fine. It's hard to tell if the creeping golden sedum is growing, but it doesn't seem to have died off. The only iffy plant is the purple sage - the bit I cut off from the main stem only had a very small bit of root with it. If it doesn't take maybe I'll try taking a cutting and rooting it in water first.

I've bought a creeping blue juniper which I planted last weekend. The maidenhair grass is almost as tall as me now that it's blooming and is really the centrepiece of the garden. The 'runt of the litter' squash that I transplanted weeks ago from the backyard has finally taken off - it stretches around almost the entire front curve of the bed, and two small squash are growing - hopefully they'll have enough time to mature before we get frost. I think I'll plant more in the front next year - I like the way they can be positioned to follow the borders of the pathways. I also want to plant more kale (and more varieties next year) - it makes a great edible and decorative plant.

The front perennial bed is starting to look a bit ragged - I need to keep up with deadheading and trimming the foliage. I've enjoying the look of the coneflower heads after the dead petals are taken off - they're very spiky.

I'm finally getting some morning glories blooming along the side fence. I think next year I'll replace them with more scarlet runner beans - I'll get more flowers, bushier foliage, and edible beans as a bonus.

There's another small squash in the back (Mark's worried that it's not getting enough light to grow fast enough - it isn't much bigger now than when he discovered it last week), along with still-ripening tomatoes, purple pole beans (their leaves are dying off now and starting to look messy), scarlet runner beans (running low on flowers now, and the pods continue to enlarge to mammoth size), a small zucchini (this will be our second) and yesterday I just found 3 pods of peas for the first time.

I'm starting to look through and covet bulbs in Vesey's fall catalogue. Since I have created so many new beds this year, there are alot of spots that could use some colour added to come up in the spring. I'm hoping to not get too carried away...

Garden Diary - Aug 24

The perennials I planted at the beginning of the summer have gotten big enough that I've finally started dividing them to fill out the new front yard bed a bit more. The lamb's ear has been moved entirely, as it seemed to be crowding the blueberry bush too much. I also moved the sorrel, which turned out to be a much bigger plant (more like the size of a small bush) than I'd realized when I first planted it next to the maidenhair grass.  I'm a little worried about how they've survived the move - they've drastically wilted, but as long as there's enough to come back up, I'll be happy.

I've also transplanted the woolly and lemon thyme in patches between all of the stepping stones. I moved some of the purple clover in to places in the front that needed shorter plants and more colour. And I've added a new decorative grass - a nice little clump of blue fescue, which needed a new home now that Meighan has moved across the country.

The roses are blooming again, almost as strongly as before. The mint and coneflowers are still going strong, as is the perennial sage and bachelor's buttons. I've started looking over the fall bulb catalogues, and am trying to remember to pick plants that will have overlapping blooming periods.

I'm continuing to harvest purple pole beans on a regular basis, as the ones I planted later are now ripening, just as the earlier vines are starting to die off. I've realized that their growth pattern is quite different from the scarlet runner beans, which keep putting out new flowering branches continually. My aunt and uncle, who paid a visit recently to the house for the first time, told me that these beans taste best if allowed to grow very big, and then harvested from their pods. The plum tomatoes are also ripening, and I made a very tasty quiche with them.

I realized that I don't have any evergreen plants, so I'm hoping to start including a few, in order to have some colour through the winter. I was able to find one creeping juniper at Home Depot, although the selection is very slim at this time of year.

Garden Diary - August 10

After 10 days out of town, I was shocked to see how much everything had grown in the garden. I guess that's what happens during the wettest summer on record in Toronto!

It took several hours of weeding and mowing, but things look like they're under control again. In the front I've cut down the overgrown daisies and mystery flower (phlox?) that had splayed out beyond the edges of the bed. The purple coneflowers are still blooming very nicely, and hopefully will continue to do so for some time. My recently planted beans and other assorted container seedlings are doing well - beans are climbing up their lines, rainbow chard is big enough to start eating a bit. The blue bachelor's buttons started to bloom while I was away, and the perennial sage is still blooming strongly. Many of my plants looks large enough to divide now (especially the lamb's ear) so that I can fill in the beds a bit more. I can't believe how large the sorrel has gotten - I may have to move it next year so that it doesn't get crowded by the decorative grass. We ate some of it for the first time this past weekend, in an omelette that also had kale, chard and arugula.

In the back we are finally getting some ripe cherry tomatoes. The beans (both the scarlet runner beans and the purple pole beans) grew to mammoth proportions while I was away, but are still tasty (and are sweet enough to eat raw when freshly picked). There is a tiny zucchini; the kale continues to put out lots of new leaves; the chinese radish is doing well. Slugs have attacked a few of the low-hanging tomatoes and beans, so we'll have to start setting traps and wrapping things with the copper mesh wire that I bought from Lee Valley. I love how the scarlet runner beans have branched out near the top of the shed, forming a beautiful canopy of green leaves and bright red flowers. The effect is overall more dramatic than the mostly non-branching purple pole beans, although I prefer the taste and tenderness of the purple pole beans.

I've done a thorough job of weeding the cracks in the driveway and side walkway. Earlier this summer I experimented with filling one of the cracks with clumping cat litter, which seems to have done an excellent job of shading out the weeds; in the few spaces where they've still managed to sprout they are easier to uproot than in normal soil. I've gone ahead and filled the rest of the cracks, and hopefully now I'll be able to stay on top of the weed growth. Although I'd ultimately like to create some sort of 'green' driveway surface (since it seems something of a waste to devote so much of my real estate to the sole purpose of housing a car I don't possess), I'd like for my property in the meantime to look like it hasn't been abandoned and left to run wild...

Garden Diary - July 28

I'm starting to harvest more food from the garden: the purple pole beans are growing quickly (at least a dozen or so are ready every few days), the kale is big enough to eat a few leaves regularly, and I just had my first few cherry tomatoes today. The raspberries are just about done for the season, and I'm still not having much luck eating the strawberries before the birds, ants, and whatever else it is that's getting to them before me. I've only seen a few signs of tiny beans starting on the scarlet runner beans, but am hoping it's just slow so far - the flowers at least have been beautiful as it climbs over the top of the shed. No zucchini or squash yet, although I have friends who are already harvesting theirs. But the big flowers seem like a good sign.

The frequent rain has kept all of my containers nicely watered, so the recent plantings of beans, chards, and other assorted vegetables are all growing well - hopefully they'll have a chance to get to full size before we have frost.

The roses and clematis are all finished now; I miss their bright colours. But the purple coneflowers help to make up for it. I've also had a new light purple perennial in the front bed start blooming. The other perennials that I planted this spring in the large new front bed are all making noticeable gains in size now, and the russian sage is especially nice with its purple flowers. The sorrel is also becoming a surprisingly large and attractive plant. I'll probably divide up the lamb's ears soon to get them started in a few more spots. The mint (which I never really did get under control) is blooming now, and I am enjoying the many insects buzzing around in it.

Garden Diary - July 13

We've finally had some hot, summery weather, so things have been growing fast. The beans have all been growing like crazy, and I've had to find ways to wrap them around corners and extend their trellises to give them more space. I've moved some of the squash/zucchini out of the tomato containers, which were getting overcrowded, and have planted them in the back under the hedge, in the 'new' raised bed (which is the remnants of all the extra sod and soil from the front-yard landscaping). I've had raspberries to eat every day, and a few strawberries when I've managed to get to them before they're eaten by animals. Mark's earwig trap seems to have caught enough of the pests to allow the kale plants a chance to put out new leaves. In fact, we ate some of the kale this past week in a quiche that also had other garden items: chives, sage, thyme, garlic scapes, arugula and nasturtium leaves.

I've filled all of my planters with soil and seeds for beans, nasturtiums, and assorted other vegetables, and have put them on the front porch and next to the fence in the passageway alongside the house, in an effort to get a bit more colour and climbing vines. There was lots sprouting up in just the first few days. I've also done another round of vegetable seed planting in the large bed behind the house - hopefully I'll have a good crop of fall vegetables (spinach, swiss chard, arugula, chinese kale, choi san, giant red mustard, baby radish leaf, corn salad, etc).

The best new thing that I've added to the back yard is a hammock! It's big enough to fit two people, and has a great view of the neighbour's silver maple filling the sky when lying down. If there's one piece of furniture I needed to truly enjoy spending time in my yard, it was this hammock. It was an ordeal to purchase (three different stores, then half a dozen salespeople before the large box was finally lifted down from the overhead shelf, all of which had to happen in the time limit for which I had the rental car), but it was worth it.

In the front I've had a great new rock added to my collection, which Mark carried back from the Rouge River as a special gift to me on Canada Day. I've put it in just the right spot to help hold back some of the mulch that keeps floating away every time we have a torrential downpour.

The perennial bed in front is in full bloom now, with white daisies, purple coneflower, something pale pink that I think is probably phlox, talk stalks of a pale purple flower that i see growing wild everywhere, yellow evening primrose, and some short orange flowers that remind me of gerbera. Now that I know what's there I'll be able to divide them up and move them around; I think the 'phlox' especially needs digging out, as it's pretty invasive, and not a particularly attractive flower. I seem to be gradually settling on a palette of burgundy, pink, blue and violet for the front yard flowers, so the short orange flowers and the yellow primrose will likely get moved to the back.

The rose is still blooming strongly; the mint continues to grow like the weed that it is, and my clematis has been fabulous (although I don't see many more unopened buds on it, so that may be coming to an end soon).

Garden Diary - June 30

Well, I missed my chance to photograph the peonies - they bloomed beautifully right after my last post, and then several torrential downpours in quick succession shredded all the petals off. Next year I plan to relocate the peony bush, as the roses grew up in front and almost completely blocked them from view. I had no idea the roses would be so vigorous - I haven't pampered them at all. And even though I'm not too fond of roses, I have to admit they're quite beautiful - a very rich red.

All the mulching is complete in the front, all of the seedlings I've planted have grown well (recent additions in the past two weeks: coral bell, decorative green clover, hens & chicks, bachelor's buttons, blue perennial sage), and I've planted a number of seeds for perennial herbs (chives, tarragon, sweet marjoram, lavendar) and annual flowers (nasturtiums, california poppies). I also transplanted a miniature rose that was getting lost behind the backyard forsythia.

I'm experimenting with putting a few pieces of the leftover wood from the retaining wall in the ground - not really deep enough to hold back any dirt, but I like the contrast between the geometric and organic shapes. The clematis is in full bloom and is amazing. I wish I had a place to plant clematis on the other side of the porch - it makes such a beautiful curtain of flowers as I go through the door.

I've finished some pruning in front - the forsythia needed another trim, as it was starting to sprout up as tall as the house. The front hedge got a full trim. And the purple-leaf sandcherry has been thoroughly pruned for what looks like the first time in years - I took out a number of dead and tangled branches, and have reshaped it so that it's more tree-like, and stands out above the fairly tall perennials around it. The white daisies look like they're almost about to bloom, and there are some tall spikes of a mystery plant with tiny mauve flowers. The yellow evening primroses are a bit lost in this bed of tall plants - either they should be moved elsewhere, or I should break up this bed with some more variety of plant height.

In the back we've been battling earwigs on the kale, although we've still been able to enjoy eating it (a recent omelette had kale, arugula, sage and chives from the garden) - a plan to trap the earwigs is in development. Some animal stole my one, beautiful, almost-ripe strawberry and then abandoned it largely uneaten in the middle of the lawn, so I've taken a photo of the others to enjoy, in case they're stolen too. I've had a few raspberries to eat so far, and the gooseberries continue to ripen. The beans are all climbing up past their trellises (which I've expanded with more fishing line), and the tomatoes, squash and zucchini are starting to tumble out of their planter.

I've mulched over all of the dirt and sod that I trucked back from the front yard - it forms a raised bed along the back of the yard. I plan to re-plant a number of vegetable seeds that didn't make it before (only the arugula and nasturtiums came up) - this time they'll be at the appropriate depth in their own little starter pots with lots of compost, instead of lost in the mulch, and hopefully they'll do well as fall vegetables.

The clematis in the back looks fabulous too - I should actually get a bigger trellis for it next year, as it looks a bit cramped as a densely carpeted square of flowers and leaves. I've also had a small mystery bush blooming next to the shed - white flowers with a very strong, sweet scent.

The sweet peas and morning glories that I planted in the one tiny patch of dirt along the side fence have sprouted up - it's a tough place to grow, but they seem to be doing fine. I may fill up the rest of my containers and group them in that area, as it's rather a long, boring stretch of mismatched concrete and garbage/recycling storage.

It seems like the big heavy work (digging beds, leveling and transporting dirt, eliminating sod) is finally done - now I get to fine tune the placement of plants, work at maintaining their growth, and enjoy the fruits of my labour!