What's Happening in the Garden These Days?

Well, I've been taking photos of new developments in the garden, but with all the actual work I've been doing in the garden, I haven't had time to sit down and blog everything.

Final Front Porch Container


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I made up my final container, with a spike (against my better judgment) and some purple petunias. The purple petunias came with some yellow flowers (similar to Cosmos, but I don't think that's what they are) that had to be transplanted to one of my other containers.

Wedgie™ Tool


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This is where my friend Cookie Wherry's great invention came in handy. Cookie Wherry invented the Wedgie™ tool, for planting containers -- specifically for pushing aside and making space in containers to stuff more plants in. Look at this baby in action. You can see how the bright yellow colour is perfect. You cannot lose it.

Wedgie™ Tool in Use


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So what other developments are there to blog about. The incredible morning light in the garden. That's always good for a gratuitous photo.

Incredible Morning Light in the Garden


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Of course, since I always take these photos before I put my three or four hours of work in, the garden is never at its best. For example, after taking this photo I weeded and swept the flagstone path, trimmed the errant heuchera scapes, pruned the juniper (at bottom left) and generally moved stuff around. Trust me, it all looks even better than this now.

Here is a slightly different view of that part of the garden, much later in the morning.

Looking Up in the Back Garden


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The weigela bush on the left is in full bloom with beautiful pink flowers.

Weigela Flowers


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Oh, and while I'm still talking about the back garden, here is something else going on. Remember these:

Columbine Volunteers


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Well, as you can see they are a pretty pink colour, with some darkish foliage. This is the original version that I bought. The parent of these columbines is planted farther up the slope. The parent plant has "gone native". It has lost its unique features and turned into an ordinary red columbine. That's why I have to keep the plants that are growing in the patio. They are still the interesting variety that I originally bought.

Parent Plant of Columbine Volunteers


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Moving on, the Harlequin Honeysuckle has started blooming.

Harlequin Honeysuckle


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If you look carefully, you can see the little green mites that infest it. Sorry organic gardeners, but I will be using a pesticide spray on this plant, as I do (sadly) every year.

Other new blooms include a 'Turkenlouis' poppy, which is bright crimson red, unlike the 'Allegro' poppy which bloomed earlier. (That one starts out orange, and the edges turn white after a day or so.) Anyway, Turkenlouis is beautiful. Photos cannot do the colour justice, because the red is just too saturated for my camera to handle.

'Turkenlouis' Poppy


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Another new bloom is Geranium praetense 'Mrs. Kendall Clark', a pretty cranesbill with a light purple flower.

Geranium praetense 'Mrs. Kendall Clark'


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This is an extreme closeup of the flower, which is actually about the size of a quarter in real life.

And speaking of real life, tonight I went to a local charity event with a big plant sale. People just divided the perennials in their gardens and put the divisions in pots for sale. I got two new daylilies for all of eight dollars. One was labelled 'Crimson Pirate' and the other was just identified as having a burgundy flower.

I love surprises. And with that, I will leave you.

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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Victoria Day

Here in Canada the first long weekend of the season is officially called Victoria Day, and it's held the closest Monday before May 24 -- unless, like this year, May 24 actually falls on a Monday.

Victoria Day Is For Mulching
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I suppose I could bore you with historical details of how this holiday came to be, but what if I just refer you to an article here instead. That way you can read it if you want to, or skip to the gardening stuff.

Mulch in the Side Garden


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For gardeners, this weekend has often been one where a significant amount of work is done in the garden. Here at our house, for example, we tend to use it as the day to put down mulch.

One thing Victoria Day has NOT usually been is the day the first poppy blooms. That's more often sometime around the beginning of June -- but not this year. This year, incredibly, the first poppy bloom opened on May 24.

First Poppy


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As usual, once the poppies start blooming, tulip time is over, and while my husband was laying down mulch, I was clipping tulip stems, leaving the foliage in place until it starts to turn yellowish-brown and die off.

The End of Tulip Time


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Besides poppies, other plants that are just starting to bloom right now are some of the many hardy geraniums I have in place throughout the garden, and the heuchera that have pretty little flowers.

Hollywood Heuchera


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Heuchera 'Gypsy Dancer' and 'Mocha'


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Note that, according to me, there are three types of heuchera: those that have pretty foliage and ugly flower scapes that must be cut off to keep the plant attractive (examples include 'Green Spice', 'Beauty Color', and 'Dale's Strain'), those that have pretty flowers with unexceptional foliage (ordinary Coral Bells), and those that have gorgeous foliage with pretty flowers ('Hollywood' and 'Gypsy Dancer' are my two favourites, of the ones that I own).

But moving on to another type of plant of which there are many varieties in my garden: cranesbill, or hardy geranium.

'Ankums Pride' Hardy Geranium


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'Ankums Pride', which is a very aggressive variety I got when someone was giving it away, has bright pretty flowers of a good size. I always have to trim it back every year. 'Samobor' has tiny flowers on tall stems, but is mostly remarkable for its variegated foliage in green and black.

Geranium phaeum 'Samobor'


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This is just a generic white hardy geranium. I don't think it even has a special name.

White Hardy Geranium


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Oh, and I finally planted the garage urns today, thus making "permanent" my decision to keep the baskets I bought at Home Depot for hanging at the front door.

Hanging Basket


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Garage Urns


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Oh, and finally one last thing. I thought I had somehow discarded my yellow irises, since they didn't bloom last year. But they are still there, right where I planted them together with some purple ones. The purple are 'Cherry Garden' and the yellow might be called 'Flemming Gold'. (I have an ancient label in my gardening binder from about the right time, so I'm just guessing that's the one.)

Irises, Purple and Yellow Together


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And with that, I will leave you.

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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Busy Couple of Days for the Garden

The weather has been nice for the past few days, and my husband took a couple of vacation days to extend the long Victoria Day weekend. So we have picked up a few things for the garden, made our annual trip to Canning Perennials, and just generally done what we can with the time we had.

One thing we got was a new rainbarrel. Previously we have used the ones that the City was selling at a subsidized price. But we had a few bad experiences and so we got rid of them. Now there are many choices of rainbarrel design available in local "home and garden" type stores, so we picked up one by Fiskars.

New Rainbarrel, by Fiskars


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Unfortunately, the diverter kit they include works with a couple of standard sizes of downspout, but our downspouts are another standard size, not covered by this diverter. Well, my husband figured out a solution that involved buying a section of downspout in one of the covered sizes and attaching it to ours. (The join is not even unsightly. The sizes were actually very close -- just not close enough for the diverter to work.) Anyway, here is what the installed rainbarrel looks like.

Installed Rainbarrel


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Now we just have to wait for enough rain to fill it up, so we can test how easy it is to use. I can say, though, that this version does look a lot nicer than the old rainbarrels.


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Well, that was my husband's contribution. This is mine. New containers. I had to replace my old black square container that cracked and broke when I pulled it by the lip. So I found this lipless model.

New Black Container


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The price was right for this container, but I am not sure I like the look of the thin walls right up next to the plants. A container with a lip provides something more substantial to set off the flowers. Here is what I mean by a container with a lip. This is an old picture of the container I am replacing.


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Anyway, I think it looks fine added to the collection of containers at the front of the house. Just, if I'd had any choice, I would have preferred the other style.


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The other thing we have done so far is make our annual visit to Canning Perennials, one of the great places around here to shop for rare and desirable plants, like the ones you see in magazines. Unfortunately, when we got there we saw a "For Sale" sign, so this might end up being our last annual visit.

Canning Perennials Purchases


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I bought three new daylilies, two new iris (trying for another shot at Immortality -- I've had it before, but it doesn't bloom any more), a fern-leaf bleeding heart, a new hardy geranium with tiny bronze leaves and white flowers, some woolly thyme to replace bare patches in the back, and that's about it.

Another Shot at Immortality


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New Cranesbill (Hardy Geranium)


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This photo shows patches of woolly thyme on the slope below the red maple. This is where we will plant some more and hopefully have fewer bare patches by the summer.


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You can see from this photo why our neighbours refer to our backyard as "The Forest".

And with that, I will leave you.

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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Composting

A subject near and dear to my heart is composting. I've evolved practices and knowledge from doing it for a few years. For example, those "bio-solo" plastic bags I referred to back in 2006 aren't even around anymore. The page I had linked to for them is no longer available on the web site. Which is a good thing. No one wants compost that has both the smell and consistency of baby poop. Ugh!

Starbucks Grounds for Your Garden


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Here is a composting practice I have been employing the last couple of years: picking up used coffee grounds at the local Starbucks. Along with kitchen waste, they make a nice wet addition to the composter out back.

Compost Pot for Collecting Food Waste


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Kitchen Waste


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Some people don't put bread in theirs, but I put a little. Sandwich leftovers or pizza crusts every now and then. But mostly it's tea bags and fruit and vegetable discards -- the wet stuff. With the addition of the Starbucks coffee grounds, there is a whole load of wet stuff going into the composter today, which is good, because the last time I added to it, I put a layer of dry leaves on the top. (We now save a bag of leaves in the fall so we have "dry" or "brown" stuff to add to the compost when needed.)

The composter sits in its revered position by the shed out back, a relatively short walk from the patio door.

Backyard Composter


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We don't actually do home composting in winter. Our city collects compostable waste in a special container, so I make the effort to separate some of the items and let the city pick it up in the winter time. They don't get much in the summer though. Just a bag of cat poop every couple of weeks. (I am not fanatical enough to separate all the paper, dryer lint, meat scraps and stuff like that. Only about half the people on my street use the green bin, so I figure I am already contributing a lot just by using it at all.)

But anyway, as I was saying, in the summer, we compost. Kitchen waste, coffee grounds, and dry leaves should be a good recipe for making compost fairly quickly. (I've not yet resorted to Compost Accelerator this year, but I may have to if I find things aren't breaking down quickly on their own.)

Coffee Grounds


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Plus Dry Leaves


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Equals a Recipe for Good Compost (I Hope)


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I keep a handy tool for mixing and chopping nearby. I find I use it a lot to spread the waste around or chop up the bruised and mushy fruit that sometimes gets sent out in the compost pot whole.

Handy Tool for Chopping and Mixing


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That's right. It's a hoe. And with that, I will leave you.

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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

A Good Day for Gardening

It was a gorgeous morning, so I spent it in the garden. I love the morning light.

Morning Light in the Garden


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As you can see, there is plenty of need for weeding, pruning, and trimming throughout the garden, and it looks much better now after I spent three and half hours going through it all. I was pretty tired, and the light had changed, so I did not get an "after" shot of all the work I did.

But here are some pretty shots from elsewhere in the garden.

Iris and Hosta


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Heuchera Foliage


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Heuchera Scapes (Now All Trimmed Away)


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Yes, I did a lot of trimming, along with pruning and dreaded weeding. The one thing about leaving a patio neglected for two rainy summers is that you get a lot of surprises growing between the cracks. Some are good surprises. Like these columbine volunteers.

Columbine Volunteers


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I will admit that they are too pretty to remove, so I have left them growing amid the rocks and stones. Unfortunately, most of what grows in the patio isn't pretty. It looks like this (only green and alive).

Dead Patio Weed
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Now, there's a reason why that weed is dead, and if you are a die-hard organic gardener, stop reading right now. As a gardener, I do not object to using unnatural chemicals on plants, whether it be "Weed Out" to make them die, or "Miracle-Gro" to make them thrive. The dead patio weed comes to me courtesy of Weed Out. I do not have a problem with that.

What I did do, now that my patio weed-killing is moving closer to plants I want to keep, is create a wind block for my spray bottle. Yeah, I don't know what it's called, but most of you will recognize the concept. You start out with an empty pop bottle, like this.

Empty Pop Bottle
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Then you remove the label and cut the bottom off, like this.

Cutting the Bottom Off
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Then you have a little cloche-like doohickey that you can place over the weed you want to spray, and then point the nozzle of your weedkiller bottle through the bottle opening at the top, and spray without worrying that any droplets will escape and land where you don't want them to, like on plants you don't want to die.

Chief among plants I don't want to die, and also the most exciting thing to happen in my garden so far this year is... the very first daylily bloom of 2010! Little Red Spring Song came through a month and a half earlier than last year, and here is its first bloom.

Little Red Spring Song, First Daylily Bloom This Year


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And with that, I leave you.

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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.

Containers

Well, neither the weather nor the family schedule have been conducive to a lot of gardening, but I managed to get some of the containers done in the Sunday morning sunshine.

With my trusty gardening bag at my side, I got to work transferring the contents of hanging baskets into patio containers.

Gardening Bag (With New Gloves Ready to Be Used)


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I christened a pair of my new gloves and realized immediately why they might have been such a good price. I have small hands, so they fit me fine, but anyone with "normal" sized hands probably would have been out of luck trying to wear them. But they worked wonderfully for me in my attempts to plant the containers that will (hopefully) beautify my home for the summer of 2010.

Here is a picture of the first one done (on the right) with the next one waiting for 'Bourgogne' Pelargonium to be planted above the perennial lamium maculatum that lives permanently in that container. The planter on the right now contains some hot pink snapdragons, pale yellow violets, and purple alyssum.

Planting Containers


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As you can see it was a very sunny day, which is great for the gardening but not so great for the photos, creating harsh shadows and blown highlights.

One thing to be aware of if you are like me and you buy hanging baskets to become container-stuffers: all baskets are not equal. Check this out.

Two "10-inch" Baskets
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The one on the right (taupe) is from Home Depot, and the one on the left (white) is from Wal-Mart. What happens if you stack them?

Stacked Baskets
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You will notice that the Wal-Mart "10-inch" basket is quite a bit smaller than the Home Depot "10-inch" basket. I guess at Wal-Mart they roll back more than prices.

Ah well, I got most of my containers planted. I still need to figure out what to do with the pansies, since the container I wanted to plant them in fell apart and I have not been able to replace it with a similar one yet. I am still on the lookout for a good black plastic square container. Anyway, here is what the containers look like now.

Front Porch Containers


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Copyright © all rights reserved. All text and images in this post belong to 1-2-3 Go Garden! at kbgardenblog.blogspot.com.