I’m ashamed to realize it’s been almost a month since my last blog post. This should be a good time of year to be doing a lot of gardening and therefore, for me, a lot of writing about it. However, I’ve been back at work for a couple of weeks and, geez, that takes up...
Year: 2013
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Back care for the (Lazy) Gardener
I swung my legs over the side of the bed on Sunday morning and immediately felt a muscle spasm. I felt one more, then it subsided; so I rolled out my yoga mat and lay down, face first, to let my back relax. After a few minutes I tried getting up, and that was successful...
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Phase One Complete!
I’m excited to show you the “after pictures” of Phase 1 of my project. Before I go any further I want to thank Virginia, my colleague in music and in gardening, for her amazing help yesterday. I definitely recommend doing this kind of project with a friend. It’s more fun and of course, proceeds much...
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Neighbourhood Gardens
Before I start my big garden project tomorrow, I thought I’d share a few photos I’ve taken of a couple of neighbourhood gardens. The first two are of the side yard up the street that I mentioned in my previous post. The cosmos are splendid in both photos. In the first one you can see...
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Garden Project: “Before” Pictures
Here are the promised “Before” pictures of my front yard. Tomorrow, with help from a friend and fellow gardener (thanks, Virginia!),and possibly from my champion digger husband, Dave, I’ll start work on my biggest garden project to date, including a small stone wall and maybe a rock garden. After some initial pondering and head-scratching, I’m...
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Garden Report: successes and failures
Although the summer is far from over (I keep telling myself), I’m already looking at what plantings worked and what didn’t. It’s educational to keep at least a mental note of these successes and failures so the next time I’m tempted to buy, say, another fabulous rose bush, I’ll just slap my hand. In a...
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Weeding Therapy
If you were to ask me what my favourite part of gardening is, I might not mention weeding, but it really is a therapeutic practice. While I’m pulling out unwelcome guests, I know I’m also making room for the plants I want to encourage, and making the garden look neat, tidy and beautiful. Also, when I...
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Mid-Summer Beauties
A fellow gardener and I were talking today about how there is often a slump in the middle of the summer where there isn’t much blooming. There’s no problem in the spring and early summer because so many perennials, bushes and trees get there blooming periods over early, but somewhere around now (end of July),...
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These are the Bees’ Needs…
I suppose most people have heard about the plight of the bees. How they are suffering from “colony collapse” and have been for several years. The reasons for this syndrome are not fully understood and may be numerous. However, one culprit that is being blamed, at least in part, is a type of pesticide in...
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Deadheading 101
I’ve had quite a few novice gardeners ask me about deadheading lately. Even experienced gardeners are not always sure when to leave the faded blooms alone and when to chop them off, so I thought I’d offer some basic advice on deadheading, a somewhat tedious, although some find it zen-like, gardening chore. Deadheading refers...