14 May 2010 by pat.

So into the ground went the 10 hostas (oooh, some of them were looking long and white: I hope they’ll be OK) and the 10 astilbe roots. All of them labelled, sprinkled with blood & bone meal, and watered. I did that work in the afternoon, when birds usually make themselves scarce. It means that, with my recharged battery on my camera, I’m good to go again. It was a very birdy morning. I’ll be updating my Flickr account tonight with the results.

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9 May 2010 by pat.

Ugh! Didn’t get the hostas in the ground, and that may be a good thing. It rained Thursday afternoon, Friday, and yesterday, and there’s a frost warning for tonight. I hope the roots will be OK in their little plastic bags in the dark. Maybe tomorrow will be a planting day: it’s supposed to be sunny and 13. 

The one good thing is that all this rain should have pushed some of the nutrients from the compost down into the soil.

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7 May 2010 by pat.

Today started with a trip to Home Depot to get some hardware cloth. 1/4 inch square galvanized hardware cloth, to be exact.

I needed the hardware cloth to sift the compost that has been sitting at the bottom of my composter for a few years. It had lots of time to decompose, and it did it quite well. There were still some pieces of eggshell, some big hunks of bark, a few pebbles (must have come from previous garden waste, or the detritus at the bottom of flower pots) and the like. So in order to have just the good stuff, I needed to sift it through the hardware cloth.

Dump a few trowels’ worth on the hardware cloth (positioned above a bucket), and move it around with my gloved hands or the edge of the trowel until only the big bits are left on top. Discard big bits; repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. I would have worn my iPod, except I wanted to be listening for migrators while I was doing it. Didn’t see any new birds.

Have a nice even layer of compost over everything in the big north bed in the back yard. Need to sift some more for the south bed, the triangle bed, and the front garden.

The north and south beds are the priorities, because I need to get the hostas in the ground tomorrow, so I’ve been doing prepwork. Yesterday I pulled daffodils and bluebells. I would have raked them out, but discovered that the elderberry has very shallow roots! I’m afraid I broke a couple of them. So I’ve got a few daffodil bulbs left in the ground, but I pulled their leaves off and I’m not sure if they’ll even sprout next year.

I’m almost all set for tomorrow. I found my permanent aluminum plant markers, and have written the names on them, and have drawn up a cheat sheet on a filing card so I remember where to plant things. I need to go to East End Gardens before I plant, though, and buy some blood meal to sprinkle around each hosta after planting, with the hopes that the squirrels won’t dig up the hostas because they smell like wet dog. Give them a chance to get established and for the squirrels to forget that the soil had been dug up.

On another note, when I was cleaning leaf and flower junk out of the water thingie, I discovered that a young European sparrow drowned today. The corners of its mouth were still quite yellow. I was surprised: I didn’t realize that sparrow families were that far along this year.

I’ll have to see if I can rig something up so a bird that falls in the pond can recover and fly off.

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4 May 2010 by pat.

It contains 10 hosta roots!

• Medio variegata
• Aureomarginata
• Albomarginata
• Hyacinthina
• Sieboldiana Elegans

(oooh! Had to get out my Lee Valley credit card magnifier to read the labels)

So what does this mean?

I need to come up with an arrangement and decide which ones are going in which bed.

Most of them will go in the right-handed bed, and a few in the left. The triangle I’m going to leave for herbs.

What are their colors and sizes?

Medio variegata: medium green leaf with a white flame down the centre. Can get up to 36″ around, about 18″ high.

Aureomarginata: heart-shaped glossy medium green leaves with yellow edges. Height of 18-28″, spread 36-48″.

Albomarginata: how’s your Latin? This one’s got white edges on deep green leaves, and can eventually spread to 36″ or more (about 18″ high).

Hyacinthina: Loosely grouped, heavily quilted non-lustrous bluish-green leaves. Really textural. It can grow up to 24″ tall and about 36″ in diameter.

Sieboldiana Elegans: Now this one can get big! up to 30″ tall and 48″ in diameter. Large, heart shaped thick bluish-grey leaves, heavily quilted. Slow grower. (Thank goodness. I’d hate to have to divide that every couple of years!)

I need to remove my daffodils and put down a good layer of compost, and scratch that into the soil a little. They recommend Sieboldiana Elegans as a background plant, so I’ll probably put one by the back of the water thingie, and the other near the north fence, about 4 feet from the elderberry — its chartreuse leaves should set off the blue-grey nicely.

In the north bed, I want to put two albomarginatas and one aureomarginata near the Sieboldiana, and one aureomarginata next to the one by the water thingie. I’ll combine the Medio variegata with one Hyacinthina where the scentimental rose is (dead looking), and that leaves me one Hyacinthina to put somewhere, which I’ll figure out once I get the others in the ground. I have to leave room for ferns, astilbe and bleeding hearts!

Ooooh, I’m really going to have to watch out for slugs now. I think it was Martin Galloway who called hostas a salad for slugs!

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29 April 2010 by pat.

Here we go. I spent the afternoon clearing the back yard of goutweed… it was all through the bed on the right side of the image. Required a lot of care to try to pull all the stolons without killing the daffodils (so few of them are in bloom that I’d like to enjoy them this one last time before I yank them in a couple of weeks).

When I get the astilbes, ferns, and hostas from Vesey’s, I’ll be filling things in. I’m also going to get a few plants from East End Gardens.There are three roses in this yard, and I’m not sure if they’ve really survived winter. I’ll give them a couple of weeks to prove themselves. If they’ve survived, I’ll move them to the front garden. If not… well, compost time.It looks like some of the roses in the front garden are also a bit slow or haven’t made it. I’ll have to give them some time to see how they do:

There’s a clump of grass growing in the lavender bed that I have to get rid of, and some perennials that materialized from nowhere in the raised bed that I’m not fond of and am thinking of destroying. Going to get rid of the pots of sedum (plant the sedum in the back yard). Might ditch the two half-barrels: after 14 years, they’re looking more than a little tired. The alliums should be flowering within a few weeks, by the looks of it.  What an early spring!

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22 April 2010 by pat.

Just went on Veseys‘ website and placed an order for

• 10 hostas
• 10 astilbes
• 2 bleeding hearts
• 10 ferns

for my shady backyard.I’m also buying 3 blue sea holly for the front garden: the blue will be a nice cool contrast to all the warm colors of the roses. I thought of buying some foxgloves, too, but I think I prefer the foxgloves at East End Garden Centre, so I’ve got to hop on my bike and make a trip over there.I’ve reconciled myself to pulling up the daffodils in the back yard: I’ve got lots of greenery, but only 4 flowers this year, and because there are so many of them, it’s difficult to (a) plant around them (b) get rid of the goutweed that has spread among them.

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5 April 2010 by pat.

It’s so early in the season, and yet, gardening is based on what the plants are doing, not what the calendar shows. The forsythia two yards away is yellow and almost in full bloom!

I’ve got most of the front garden cleaned up, all the roses and shrubs pruned, and started pruning in the back today. I’ll take pictures once I’ve got them both all cleaned up.One of my first tasks after that will be to move three of the roses to the front garden: it’s getting too shady in the back. I need to get some more shade-loving plants, like hostas, ferns, and astilbe (after I kill all the goutweed).

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12 October 2008 by pat.

It hasn’t been a good year for tomatoes: long, slow cool spring, lots of rain. Actually, wasn’t a good year for jalapenos, either. They just disappeared.

There just isn’t enough time for my heirloom San Marzano tomatoes to ripen before we get frost. I haven’t seen any turn red: I think they’ve been taken when they turn orange. It’s not the rodents, because they just eat things in situ, and the stem end of the tomato remains on the plant.So this weekend I decided it was time to harvest what is out there, and decide which ones I’m going to try to ripen indoors, and which ones I’ll turn into some green tomato recipe. I’ve got 8 lbs of them, so I have lots of room to experiment.My front garden didn’t develop many weeds this summer: the 4 tomato plants pretty much overran the garden. Pulling the plants out today has left my garden much emptier! I still have a few rosebuds that may bloom.Anybody have a favorite recipe for green paste tomatoes?

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12 May 2008 by pat.

I took a little walk to East End Garden centre yesterday to buy plants for the two planters (front living room window, front of porch) that are sitting completely empty. Bought some lovely plants (potato vines, double impatiens, petunias). Also saw some other plants that I couldn’t quite resist, because I had such luck last summer.

I bought 4 San Marzano tomato plants.If you know my house and its situation, you know that my back yard has become almost completely shaded over the last eleven years. So it’s definitely not a place to grow tomatoes.So I will be planting them in the front garden. Among the roses. Heck, flower and vegetable gardens were never separate things in the middle ages to Renaissance. The French called them potagers.Why not? Maybe the thorns will help protect them from raccoons and other thieves. If not, I bought another set of four plants to serve as centurions guarding the tomatoes.Jalapeno peppers.I chortle with glee. We’ll see if I’m successful. My front yard, although it gets more sun than my back yard, doesn’t get anywhere near as much sun as the allotment gardens at the base of Leslie Street get.Cross your fingers for me!

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6 April 2008 by pat.

Pruned:

• Honeysuckle vine (leaves were already budding out)
• Potentilla
• Euonymous

so I can paint the wrought-iron fence next weekend.Cut back the Japanese Anemones to the ground (they’re herbaceous, and will reappear from under the earth).Also grossly pruned the roses. Will do a fine pruning in a few weeks, when I see which canes survived the winter. I had a few really big hips on some of them, swollen with seeds. I saved a few, and brought them in the house to dry out. I may try planting the seeds to see what I get!

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5 April 2008 by pat.

On my way over to the grocery store this evening, I

• heard a male cardinal singing his territorial song
• saw two robins
• saw two male grackles.

OK, the cardinal is here all winter, and the robins may have been, too, but the grackles are definitely a sign of spring!This weekend it’s supposed to reach 13C each day. I think I’ll be doing some garden clean up!

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9 March 2008 by pat.

Just felt like taking a picture of some of my tomatoes thawing. I liked the frosted look.

It’s a mix of Romas and San Marzanos. Thaw them, slip the skins off and cut them in bits, then turn them into to pasta sauce. Memories of summer!

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12 September 2007 by pat.

More tomatoes.I think, however, that this is the last of the Caspian pinks for the season.There are still many more Black Cherries, San Marzanos, and Romas to come.Several of the birdhouse gourds have serious munches on them, and are not likely to be useful. I’ve left them on the vine, hoping (maybe against hope) that this will persuade the beasties not to munch the other ones, because they’re obviously not tasty.We’ll see if there are any harvestable ones by the middle of October.

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3 September 2007 by pat.

Last week, I got about 7 lbs of tomatoes. About the same the week before. This week I harvested some that are not quite ripe as well as the ripe ones. 10 lbs worth!I’m freezing the paste tomatoes as they ripen, and I’ll make a big batch or two of tomato sauce one of these days (with lots of my basil in it).I’ve also got about 10 birdhouse gourds growing: let’s hope they continue to grow, and ripen before the garden gets closed for the winter.It’s been an exceedingly dry summer. I’ve been watering on a weekly basis, because there just hasn’t been any rain to talk about.It’s been fun having a garden plot, but I’m not likely to renew it for next year. I’ve got enough with my front and back gardens at home, and really want to devote some time to photography.

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12 August 2007 by pat.

I went out to my plot today to water… there hasn’t been any significant rainfall in well over a week. But because I’ve been putting a gallon of water on each plant when I water, their roots are probably deep (because I only water once every week to ten days).My plants look as tall and healthy as anyone else’s, so I credit Marjory Mason with the story of her father’s vegetable garden, and how she planted tomatoes.She said that, when planting, she and her father would dig a hole; fill the hole with a bucketfull of water; plant the tomato and fill the hole in; put another bucketfull of water on the tomato. And didn’t water for the rest of the season. Now, we’ve had an extremely dry summer, so I’ve watered once a week to ten days.The tomatoes are growing, as is the basil, and as are the two birdhouse gourd plants. Here’s what the garden looks like now. You can hardly tell there are tomato cages… the tomatoes are growing wildly out of them, and some are crawling along the ground, like vines.I picked some. Here are a couple of photos before I picked. First, the San Marzanos. They’re an heirloom variety of paste tomato.And some Caspian Pinks! Warning: I used Autofocus (it was getting dark) and so the vine is in focus, not the tomatoes.So how many tomatoes did I pick today? About 1.8 kilos worth!I didn’t pick any of the black cherries today, because I think they need a few more days of ripening on the vine. I’ll have to go down to the garden mid-week to check on them.Cheers!p.s.: I just ate one of the Caspian Pinks as a Caprese salad (tomato, basil, bocconcini, drizzles of olive oil and Basalmic vinegar). ‘Twas yummy!

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