In the wee hours of yesterday morning a wave of frost rolled over the field and gardens closest to the house. I had, perhaps instinctively, cut and brought in for drying all the sweet and Thai basil the day before so no loss there. Hardest hit were the Canna Lilies, cantaloupe, zinnias and, sadly, my […]
Category: microgarden
Compost Fever!
One of the garden chores I get a lot of satisfaction from is the annual compost screening. Usually I’ll wade into the compost a few times every month to turn it over, aerate it, help the insects and microbes do their decomposition bit. This year; however, nature had other plans – I’ve posted previously how […]
Dream a Little Dream
One of my favourite gardening activities isn’t actually an activity – it’s just standing (or squatting or sitting) in the midst of it all, day-dreaming about what it will look like next year. Or three years from now. I enjoy this (non) activity so much that when a neighbour had a large spruce cut down […]
tiny tiny tomatoes….
I was amazed this year when three volunteer tomato seedlings quickly took over a pretty big micro garden. Last year this area was home to large artichoke plants. This year I changed it up and planted Canna lilies, a hardy Hibiscus, rhubarb, a few asparagus roots and a row of purple beans in front. Then […]
In Praise of a Not Very Spectacular Native Shrub
Snowberry. Doesn’t the name conjures up images of large, juicy, creamy berries produced after pollinators have spent the summer happily buzzing amongst fluttery, multi-petaled white flowers? Then you add the botanical name, Symphoricarpos albus, and reality sets in. Latin can really be a buzzkill sometimes. For me, the Snowberry is a memory pant — a […]
7 Early Fall Favourites
In this first week of autumn I realize there’s nothing new left to come up in the garden – no new flower buds to open, no new unfurling of leaves, no more sudden growth spurts of stalk and stem. The final Hollyhock flowers – those at the very tip of six or seven foot spikes […]
Tuteur Take Two!
Can you believe it?! I was doing this and that in the garden yesterday, looked up and spotted this! My one and only Morning Glory, the most beautiful sky blue shade ever! Sure hope there’s a few more blooms before the whole structure comes toppling down — it’s leaning quite precariously now, and I’m not […]
Favourite (almost) Fall Flowers
More than three weeks left in summer. Officially. But with days getting noticeably shorter and temperatures several degrees cooler than average (single digits when we got out of bed yesterday – Shileau came down the stairs with me but then just curled up on the couch!) it really is beginning to feel a lot like […]
Native vs Non Native gardening
I recently started following the Royal Horticultural Society on Twitter (@The_RHS); I’m not sure how this feed came to my attention, likely it was Twitter itself, that clever creature, that suggested it. It was a good suggestion. Even though it’s a British organization, and the information they share is abut British gardening and British plants […]
Orange is the new Black
This lovely double orange daylily is a vigorous grower in moist soil but is easily kept in check in my un-watered garden. A neighbour gave me a few fans many years ago and now I have several large clumps in the garden. It blooms later than most every other daylily, helping provide vibrant colour in […]
County Gardening 