2017 Gardens

[LEGION 12]

For real!

For several years I looked after a parrot raised by my daughter.
Matty, the parrot, would say "H e l l o B a b y" just like The Big Bopper ... and man would she raise the roof when I tried to talk on the phone. Not good for a business run from home at times. She did eat at least one whole computer keyboard too ... I love to see them free like in your garden.

There has to be at least a hundred of them around here, noisy birds.

 

[taldesta]

There has to be at least a hundred of them around here, noisy birds.

That must be entertaining . I know that under my watchful care, Matty took off into the wild blue yonder here, the Muskoka wilderness actually, twice. Once, after several days and very hungry, she landed on a cottager's head and he thought he was being attacked - and the second time - again after several days being blown around in a heavy stormfront, she wound up perched over the kitchen door at a kids summer camp ... being fed and stroked by many hands. Both times the network for lost critters here where I had advised of her travels brought me in contact with her finders. I am talking laminated posters on telephone poles, calls to the shelters and friends ... and much driving and asking and handing out contact info. Happily, my pups can't fly.

 

[taldesta]

Signs of Fall are all around me here.



Some visitors to the gardens around the porch.




Hey gardeners ... enjoy the crops, relish the bounty Many of you have already harvested, pickled, preserved, cooked and eaten ... that's the reward of all your worthy work. Thanks for sharing ... all

 

[taldesta]

Hmmmm ... this smells tasty



... and this smells good too



If I stand perfectly still ...



Daisy, Master of Concealment, is BUSTED again

 

[taldesta]

Lumpy came to hydrate in her pink pot yesterday ... following a dry spell of several days. She is here again this morning. Sort of like Dracula ... she returns to her pot just before sunrise

 

[LEGION 12]

Planted a couple of bushes last weekend .

 

[22-rimfire]

Hope you know that those get real big (or most of the varieties do). I grew up with those. When I got into my teens, we had Arborvitae that were as tall as our house. They make good wind breaks as they grow fast and are dense. Birds like them for nesting. My Dad eventually cut them down and allowed other conifers to take over the space. Our yard was a bird nesting paradise.

 

[LEGION 12]

Hope you know that those get real big (or most of the varieties do). I grew up with those. When I got into my teens, we had Arborvitae that were as tall as our house. They make good wind breaks as they grow fast and are dense. Birds like them for nesting. My Dad eventually cut them down and allowed other conifers to take over the space. Our yard was a bird nesting paradise.

Yes I am trying to screen out my neighbors supposed to grow 8 feet high and 4 feet wide, I planted those 4 feet apart.

 

[taldesta]

These look and sound great! Evergreens here generally are very, very slow growing ... I will be seeking something that grows fast and is evergreen for an application at my new digs. Yup, the pups and I at Spaniel Crossing are relocating and boy, is my gardening work cut out for me there. Much less house, no shop ... and much more land that needs work. Not a lot more land - just more that is cleared and in full sun. I may just have that 3/4 acre of bee balm yet.

Also, the red mulch looks very appealing around your plantings, LEGION 12. I have put some down here this year and it seems to stay put and hold its colour quite well. It has stopped the splash-back from the bare ground onto the house and keeps the weeds out. I am always too late smart when it comes to the finishing touches!

Nice

 

[22-rimfire]

My wife was "bugging" me to put down some new bark chips on our main bed in the front. I told her I planned on freshening things up once the flowers were gone. Debating this, but if I can get some bulk mushroom compost (about a cubic yard seems to work for me), I may just clean the chips off, till the majority of the bed up and then till in a thick new layer of mushroom compost into the soil versus waiting until spring. I do this every other year in both the garden and the larger flower beds. I don't mess with the perennial portion of the bed in terms of tilling. But I will spread some compost on the surface.

Today's activity is to aerate and over seed fescue in my yard. Like the mushroom compost, it is a chore that I like to do every other year unless the yard really looks bad. Honestly, the front yard looks great at the moment (pre-aeration) but the back yard needs work. It's shady and the grass eventually peters out in about a third of the area. Just going to give the yard a boost in the grass department.

The only thing I have at them moment in the garden are green peppers. The tomatoes are done, but there are a few scraggler maters, so I'll just wait until frost to clean out the plants. I normally chop them up into small pieces so that I can till them into the soil easily.

Still seeing hummingbirds at the house. They were waiting to hit the nectar at daylight this morning.

 

[taldesta]

As much as I enjoy the summer work in the gardens, Fall is my favourite season. Time to wind down, prep in the brisk air for a nice quiet winter. Plan for the next year. A time when all things slow down here for me. And when the ground freezes and the paws can find no sand to track inside, the inside work becomes a little easier too.

The hummingbirds appear to have left within this last week. Woodpeckers are in abundance but the woods are a lot quieter these days.

Daily I take some cherry tomatoes from the vine and toss a few to the pups and treat myself. No taste like tomatoes from your own garden. Sunshine has been lacking this summer so the scarlet runner beans haven't produces a bulk ... but the pups and I take a few every day fresh from the vine for snacking. They know the routine when it comes to their stomachs. Sadly we said goodbye to Tal last Monday. She so loved her home grown treats and she is so missed.

Monarchs are gone. If it weren't for this lovely warm September weather, I doubt that Lumpy would be finding much to eat at all. Soon she will want to head to that safe, hidden little dig on a south facing slope where she overwinters.

It's been a year of meeting challenges and change here. More to come. A quiet winter sure would be welcome.

 

[22-rimfire]

... but the pups and I take a few every day fresh from the vine for snacking. They know the routine when it comes to their stomachs. Sadly we said goodbye to Tal last Monday. She so loved her home grown treats and she is so missed.

I feel for you. The fall and spring are the dominant times of the year that I hit the woods and take a lot of pictures. Don't like sweating to death during the summer in the woods. Winter is good to; just different. I often hate to see things change come spring from winter. But that is the beginning of gardening time.

 

[taldesta]

I feel for you. The fall and spring are the dominant times of the year that I hit the woods and take a lot of pictures. Don't like sweating to death during the summer in the woods. Winter is good to; just different. I often hate to see things change come spring from winter. But that is the beginning of gardening time.

Thanks. I appreciate that.

 

[taldesta]

Here's the red mulch in place here ... keeping the house from being sprayed with sand and dirt every time it rains. Also, you can see the creeping jenny (light green) that started with six seedling plants. I have to rip it back at least twice a year to keep it from overrunning the perennials in the raised garden and I just mow it like grass where it has spread on the ground. Beautiful, highly invasive by seed and root when it finds conditions it likes. Would I plant it again. Not unless I needed a runaway ground cover where other plants are not important to me.

 

[taldesta]

The hummingbirds are gone but, should a stray or two from up north happen by, the nasturtiums are blooming wildly still.


The verbena, cali and bacopa are out-blooming the wave petunias on the patio this time of the year. Some varieties of petunia are just loving it. I will note that for next year. Next year I will be in new digs not far away. Trailer is working hard this fall.

 

[taldesta]

The begonias (the dog wall) are spectacular this year with all the rain and overcast. I've had to tie them to a horizontal support wired to the porch posts. The weight of the blooms had been tipping their pots over.




Hard to imagine that one morning soon I will find these stalks frozen in place and will be packing the corms to over winter for the second time.

 

[22-rimfire]

Think I'm going to try to keep some Geraniums over the winter to re-pot in the spring like you do. Your garden and so forth looks great. My petunias are looking really ragged as they have been blooming a long time. I cut them back the other day to see if they might sprout up some new foliage (even if it's late). Had on petunia sprout back up in the spring from last year which was surprising.

Planted some pansies in the large pots on the deck that I had tomatoes in. Those particular plants are gone, but they remain barely in the regular garden. Probably will plant a few more pansies in the next couple of weeks as I usually do for the winter. Sometimes they're nice and sometimes it's too cold.

 

[taldesta]

Last fall I experimented (got lazy again) and just pulled, trimmed and bagged a bunch of geraniums for over wintering. Just before first killing frost and when soil is not wet, I pulled the plants with just what soil clings to the roots, trimmed stems back to a generous 1/3 and placed the roots in doubled bags stems up (or if you have room, this could be empty pots). I leave room for some air circulation because I think it is either rot from too much moisture or extreme drying out that makes for a failure of the root that will regenerate in spring. I placed them in a dark, cool room, checked every few weeks (for rot or drying out) and misted to just lightly moisten the soil as needed. Leaves will die and fall off. Messy. If they get enough light and have some moisture they may waste energy by forming albino leaves. Here, in late December (if I can wait this long I just add soil to pack the roots and rid the air pockets around them right in the bag and add water. I didn't feed when they were still in the house because they were already jumping out of the bags quickly and I can't plant out until after the 24th of May. After trying bags, I think that overwintering them this way is handy ... but that when re-planting them in early spring, I would use pots to bring them to the planting outdoor stage. There are lots of varying methods online too.

Good luck with it.

Amaranth, one variety from seed planted directly outside in June - a grain that really adds showy red to the fall garden ... and makes people ask what it is

 

[22-rimfire]

Thanks on the geranium experiment.

Yanked and chopped up my tomato plants in the garden today. I just got tired of looking at the spindly things and it's not like I'm going to get any more tomatoes from them. Think I'll till up enough space for a leaf lettuce planting. I might have time before a hard freeze for using on sandwiches... if not, nothing lost but a little seed.

 

[LEGION 12]

Looks like I will be getting a few more tomatoes.