One thing leads to another

 

It all started out simply enough. I decided to plant two kinds of pole beans this year instead of one. “Where are you going to plant them?” my father asked. Well, they’ll go right in this spot, oh, except no, they can’t go there because they’ll shade the zucchini. Well, then maybe over…well, hmm, good question Dad.

I thought on it for a few weeks and then decided that a small space, previously unused because it had a large tree stump on it could work, if I just created a bit of a raised bed. Well, maybe raised quite a bit, like two feet.  Hmm.

A flash of inspiration, a trip to the Habitat Restore for a $5 wooden door, two trips to the city compost depot, one old garbage can, two old recyling bins, and most of a day of grunting and groaning and…I finally have a place to plant my second kind of pole beans! Along with enough room for quite a few other plants (probably edible).  It kind of looks like something you’d stumble on in a back alley behind a convenience store, but it’s largely hidden from the neighbours and I don’t think the raccoons will mind.

But boy, I have to admit that was a lot of work for a place to plant some beans!

The back (by the door that's on it's side) is the future site of my 'Rattlesnake' and 'Purple' pole beans. Tomatoes, cucumbers, ground cherries, herbs, and maybe potatoes will fill in some of the other spaces. There's already a rose bush on the right.

Garden snapshots - April 2011

It stopped raining long enough this weekend for me to finally be able to take a few photos of what's coming up in the garden.

I've been liberally planting bluebells the past couple years, as they remind me of walking through the streets of the Annex area of Toronto--every decent front garden there seems to have bluebells in the spring. Here, they're paired fortuitously with some mini daffodils (I think it was a pot I bought last year to brighten my desk, and then let the foliage mature, and then put the bulbs in the garden in the fall). I don't remember planning to put these together but they match nicely in scale and it's a combination I'd do again!

And here we have a rather purple hellebore (I know it looks more red in the photo), that my neighbour Elizabeth gifted me with a few years ago. It is always the first substantial bloom in the garden. I stumbled on a deal on hellebores on the weekend (Northland Nursery near Hamilton--all of their plants are $5.99) and picked up a white one to put behind this one. This one always blooms like crazy but because it's so dark you really have to look to see it. I think it will stand out nicely against a white version of itself.

This is a white & pink hellebore, with a charming garden cat I won at our last horticultural society penny raffle.






I was very pleased to see that the lone trillium I planted last year came back...and brought a friend!

The peonies are coming up. This one is an Itoh peony that I grew from a small seedling. John Simkins, founder of the Canadian Peony Society, had come out to speak at our horticultural society in 2005, and brought along some seedlings to sell. They were mystery peonies, as he'd been crossing all sorts of peonies, and, as he explained, you never knew what you'd get until it bloomed 3 years or so later. Well, I carefully tended my seedling and yes, 3 years later it bloomed, on my wedding day!  It's a very robust plant, and gets bigger every year. The flowers are large, single, and sort of peach.


Here is another cheery combination of species tulips (sorry, can't remember the variety and that info is out in the potting shed--it's raining and it's dark, and I'm not going out to look), bluebells, and winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis). 

I planted these species tulips (I think they're Tulipa "Turkestanica") several years ago, along the front sidewalk, and they just keep multiplying. They're not a loud tulip, kind of subtle, but as they're the first tulips to bloom (and before the daffodils too) they're very noticeable.








In the vegetable garden it's very exciting to see all the garlic planted in the fall coming up. We have "Hungarian" garlic on the left and "Red Russian" on the right.

And here, we have the cold frame my father put together for me on his latest visit. It's pretty simple construction (as requested) but hopefully it does the trick. Out of desperation, I put two trays of my monster tomato seedlings out there this afternoon. We're not forecast to go below freezing so hopefully they'll acclimatize quickly. It's a bit of baptism by fire (I'm sure it's better to put them out for a few hours at a time and gradually build up to overnight) but hopefully they'll pull through. 

So those are a few highlights of what's coming up in the garden. It's getting pretty exciting out there now (at least from my perspective)!

Seed Starting Update

My little seed-starting experiment is humming along nicely. Maybe a bit too well, actually. I started my first batch of tomatoes ("Mortgage Lifter") on March 12th. Let's just say they've been enthusiastic growers...

Tomato "Mortgage Lifter"

These tomatoes are close to a foot high. Today is April 19th. I don't think I have to wait until the Victoria Day weekend to plant them out, but given the fact that we had snow squalls here on Saturday, it's not going to be any too soon. Thankfully, my father was kind enough to build me a cold frame a couple weeks ago, so I should be able to transfer them out there shortly.

Even though they're pretty huge, all of the tomatoes are healthy looking, and seem to be developing good strong stems. I usually put an oscillating fan on them for an hour or more every day, to help develop strength in the stems (apparently the motion of bending back and forth in the wind stimulates them so that they grow sturdier stalks.)

Here's a shot of my entire operation:

 The reason the light stand is encased in snow fencing?

Pepper aka Plant-eating-cat

Her name is Pepper. She thinks plants of all kinds are delicious.

Snow fencing seemed like a good idea, and so far it's working. A little bit of a pain every night when I water and check in on everything, but at least the plants are all in tact.

I have another variety of tomato growing--Bloody Butcher--which I started on March 19th. They're a little more manageable in size.

Tomato "Bloody Butcher"

My Aunt Mollys' Ground Cherries (or Physalis  pruinosa) is coming along ok. They're supposed to (according to the websites I read) grow like tomatoes, but I'm finding that they're a lot slower growing. I planted them on March 19th, just like the Bloody Butcher tomatoes, and they're so much smaller I haven't even transplanted them up to individual pots yet.

'Physalis pruinosa'  or Ground Cherries

And lastly, I have some Clematis 'Radar Love' going, along with some Turkey Grass.

Clematis 'Radar Love' on the left, Turkey Grass

on the right.

I had a bit of excitement the other night when one of the shop lights I had just purchased (to replace one of the original set that my friend gave me with the light stand) started smoking. I quickly unplugged it, check to see that the light tube was in properly, and plugged it in again. This time it started smoking from the other end! So that one's going back to Home Depot (sorry HD, I keep trying your lighting products and I keep having problems--smoke coming out of a fixture freaks me out.) I picked up another shop light at Lowe's the other night and it seems to be doing much better (looks to be built a bit sturdier too.)

I bought new flourescent tubes too, after reading what Ken Brown had to say about which kinds were best (hint: cheap works just fine, thank you). 

The other interesting thing I learned was that playing with tomato plants doesn't agree with my skin. I couldn't figure out why the backs of my hands were so itchy and had little bumps on them, until I did my nightly watering & check-up and figured it out.

It's a small price to pay for the fun of watching things grow (and it's a good thing I have this to play with inside, as someone seems to have forgotten to tell mother nature to knock off the snow!)

Veggie Gardening Resource

I've been getting a lot of really great questions from my friends about their plans to start a vegetable and/or herb garden this year.

I've had my own vegetable garden since I was old enough to hold a small shovel--my own little plot within my dad's huge garden (thanks dad!) where I'd grow carrots or lettuce and maybe even a tomato plant. Quite a few years later my plot isn't much bigger--not for lack of desire, but more because of the price of land in Toronto, and my need for a lot of perennial and shrub growing space.

So, while I have a pretty good grasp on the basics of vegetable gardening, there's a lot I don't know. I'm always happy to chat about gardening with newbies, but I spend a lot of time asking questions of more experienced gardeners, looking things up on the internet, and reading.

The most useful gardening book I've found concerning vegetables is one called small-plot, high-yield gardening by Sal Gilbertie & Larry Sheehan (Ten Speed Press, 2010). 

I ran across it listed on the Garden Rant blog last year, took it out of the Toronto Public Library, and then liked it so much I put it on my Christmas gift list (and Santa showed up with it!)  It's a really useful and well-organized book, containing the type of practical information that both novice and experienced gardeners will benefit from. In fact, they will often temper their advice on certain topics by saying that your first year of gardening you should do this (e.g. buying your plants already started from a nursery) and then in a few years, once you have the experience, you can move onto this (e.g. starting plants from seed, and this is show you do it) if you wish to.

The authors present several sample garden layouts, to help you maximize your space and sunlight. The book is well organized, with a handy index, and it's not very expensive, considering the wealth of knowledge contained between the covers.

If you're keen to start a veggie garden this year I recommend spending the next month reading small-plot, high-yield gardening. You'll need to wait at least that long (at least in Toronto) before you put your tomatoes out.

Princess Pineapple

A full review of Canada Blooms 2011 is still owed to this space, but there's so much to say about Canada Blooms that I'm going to need a good amount of time to do justice to it, and that time just hasn't been available lately.

Until I get to that though, I thought I'd share my latest little adventure in flowers. As a member of a society that's part of the Ontario Horticultural Association (OHA), for the last couple year's I've participated in the OHA's floral competition, which is housed at the Successful Gardening Show.

So, last night I took a bucket of flowers...

...which I'd been hiding in the bathtub (one of our cats thinks all flowers are "salad" and she loves this kind of salad), and started to play around.

I get a bit nervous competing in OHA-wide events in the "formal" design categories, as there are some highly talented and very experienced who also compete. But I figure the best way to learn is to give it a shot.

So, in the category of "When the time is Ripe" I created this:

My idea was that your eye would move from the "unripe" green on the right to the "ripe" oranges on the left, and then land on the eruption of a bright little flower arrangement.

As uncomfortable as I am competing in the formal designs, I was excited about the "fun" class. In this competition you were to decorate a fruit or vegetable to reflect the theme of "Once Upon a Time."

I went grocery shopping a week ago and stumbled across a unique looking vegetable known as a chayote, which my friend blogged about recently, and a lightbulb went off...

May I introduce, Princess Pineapple...

I had fun with this one! Her body is a pineapple, head is a chayote, hair and cape/dress are chrysanthemums, tiara is statice, eyelids are seedpods from Blue False Indigo (Baptisia australis,) and her eyelashes are dried seaweed.

I also entered a grape or oak-leafed ivy in the "trailing houseplant" category.

Judging was this morning. To my great surprise my "When the time is ripe" design placed SECOND! I was thrilled--as I mentioned, my competition in this category was very steep.

The oak-leafed ivy was second.

And "Once upon a time" with Princess Pineapple? FIRST, of course. She's royalty.

Squirrels and steam cleaning

On a recent Saturday morning I woke to see a squirrel chewing the buds off of my just-about-to-bloom witch hazel. When I “shooed” him he promptly ran up a lilac and started gnawing the buds off of it. A short while later he moved to feast on the cherry buds. He has good taste, but the little blighter was eating my spring blooms! Considering that the ground near the house has several inches of sunflower seed shells and a good number of actual sunflower seeds, he had lots of other options. I think he was just trying to taunt me.

He probably saw me checking on that witch hazel every few days, and then exclaim with delight when I finally saw a little bit of bright red popping through. He’s a sadistic squirrel, I tell you.

Gardening has the reputation for being a relaxing pastime, but taking a serious interest in your garden can lead you to some less than conventional behaviour. This morning, for example, I was sorely tempted to run outside in my flannel pyjamas and winter boots,and fling something at that little rodent with enough force that he’d think twice before nibbling on my blooms again (don’t worry rodent lovers, my aim isn’t that good.)

Weeds can be another trigger for unusual behaviour. A book I read last month  mentioned flame throwing torches as an effective method of weed control, but cautioned that the side effect of setting your yard and house on fire was a concern. Can you imagine explaining that one to your insurance company?

But then I read on the internet about someone using directed steam to kill weeds. Just take one of those steamers designed for home cleaning outside and zap your weeds with it!  The article said the heat should bake them but there would be no danger of fire (unlike with the flame thrower). The steam can be directed to a pretty small area so you can fry the weed and not your prize rosebush. Hmm, interesting!

So last week steam cleaners went on sale at the big box store, and I had some big box store “points” to spend…so home came the steam cleaner. I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to clean with (I’m sure the novelty will wear off, but hey, anything that makes cleaning “fun” for even a short while can’t be bad!) Our house hasn’t been this clean since we moved in!

But I think the real calling of this new toy is going to come when the weather warms up and it’s time to weed. Granted, the dog walkers and neighbours going by may take a second look. ”Honey, that lady with the crazy garden is out there with a big purple thing strapped to her back and a long orange extension cord, and she’s shooting steam at things like thistles and dandelions. She was laughing and I think she was talking to herself too... Do you think she’s finally cracked?”

I can’t wait for spring!

My Long Overdue Review of Canada Blooms 2010

With Canada Blooms being next week, "What are you looking forward to at Canada Blooms?" is a question that keeps popping up on facebook and twitter. Since I haven't yet posted what I enjoyed most about Canada Blooms 2010, I guess I'd better get to that, before I'm two years behind instead of one!

Purple hyacinths, purple campanula, white tulips, and ferns--what a combination!

What I enjoy about Canada Blooms is liable to be a little different than everyone else--you see, I'm one of the small team of volunteers that are responsible for planting up all of the huge planters you see throughout the show. So while I do swoon over many of the larger feature gardens, I have a fondness for the exuberant collections of blooms we create throughout the show.

You'd never get this combination to grow together "in real life", but what a show it makes!

 

 

 

 

A delicious combination of pink. These ranunculus were amazing.

Proudly showing off one of my creations

Small scenes with big impact
Being a rabid heuchera fan (betcha don't know many of those!) I had to stop and take half a dozen pictures of this "lawn" of heuchera and "Princess Irene" tulips at the Home Depot garden. Absolutely adorable.

The Canadian Cancer Society's fortress of daffodils was a sad and delightful monument, all at the same time:

Air ferns and orchids make extraordinary wall art

Vegetable Delight
The Toronto Botanical Garden's display had a whole edible theme to coincide with their 'edible summer.' I know the trend now is to include edibles with your ornamentals, but no one can make those combinations look as stunning as Paul Zammit (TBG's Director of Horticulture.)

I did not know that chrysanthemums were edible. And how did they get tomatoes to fruit in March?!

A tiny perfect raised bed.

The vegetable theme carried through with the City of Toronto's garden. Check out this herb and veggie topiary:

And if you could actually grow a real garden with this mix of plants, we'd have everyone in the city gardening:

Competition in the flower show is tough. I do a bit of floral design but these arrangers are in a whole other league:

The Dance of Time

Feature Gardens

Some things at the show are just too big or too difficult to do capture in one tiny photograph. Landscape Ontario's garden was a stunner but how to encapsulate something so mammoth? This time lapse video from Landscape Ontario will give you some idea of the scale of this undertaking:  

 

Good Things

And of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that a highlight of Canada Blooms in 2010 for me was seeing...

Martha!

Canada Blooms 2010 was a wonderful burst of garden in a desert of winter, and I've no doubt that Canada Blooms 2011 will be even better. I promise not to take a year to post a report...