Crazy how hard it is to imagine another season when you’re in the middle of this one. As you’re walking down a snowy, slippery sidewalk, imagine you’re in your sandals and shorts on a hot day. Or imagine yourself tending your garden in a sun hat and shades. It’s difficult, but barely possible if you concentrate hard enough. It’s like you’re remembering a time far in the past, or a place you once visited on vacation; yet, you’re imagining your own backyard. The birds are singing, there’s a butterfly fluttering in the breeze and landing gently once in a while...
Garden Refuge
January 29, 2015June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Is it my imagination or is there more bad news these days then ever? When I hear about all the Jihadist stuff going on, in Paris, Syria, everywhere, I feel like we’re back in Rome and the barbarians are invading and our world is about to cave in. We won’t really know it until the very end, so all we can do is live our lives and be constantly, vaguely afraid. Also, it’s hard to enjoy life since it seems disrespectful to everyone in the world who is suffering so much. I feel guilty a lot of the time, like there’s something more...
The Daylight is Growing
January 19, 2015June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Yes, this is a gardening blog, and yes it’s January. I told a friend at work about my blog today and how it was back on line after several months and he asked, “Have you done any gardening lately?” I guess implying that perhaps the lack of a gardening blog through the winter is no great loss. What he doesn’t realize is that we who love to get our hands dirty (which is not actually me, because I’m obsessive about using gloves, but you know what I mean) need to look forward to the time when the snow will be gone...
I’m back!!
January 19, 2015June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Well, after several months of procrastination I finally decided to spend the needed hours to figure out how to restore my website. I’m extremely excited that it worked! I still don’t know why the site went down (the database was “corrupted” according to the helpful man from Bluehost), but the miraculous thing is that I had a backup and I was able to restore it, after wading through all the information I was given, most of which was in Greek. Since I spent the last couple of hours working on the restoration process, I don’t have enough brain cells to...
Think of the Birds!
September 12, 2014June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
I was out mowing the long grass in the Tranquil Garden today and occasionally studying the fading blooms of the echinacea and the Bee Balm. Normally I would be thinking about snipping those deadheads off, but I’ve been reading the news feed from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology‘s Facebook page and one of the things it says about helping migrating birds is to leave the seed heads, especially from daisy-like plants like black-eyed Susans, echinacea and cosmos, etc.. That way the birds can swoop down for a snack when pickings are slim in the late fall and even into the winter,...
The Joy of Beauty in Public Places
August 19, 2014July 9, 2024By Vivian Lee
In my neighbourhood there is a park with three parts to it; there are tennis courts, a playground for kids, and a small area for walking or sitting, complete with park benches, trees and shrubs. It’s a lovely park and I take for granted what a hub of activity it is in the summer. People walk their dogs around and through it, lots of kids enjoy the playground equipment, and the tennis courts are busy day and evening. All of this makes a wonderful public space for the humans of our neighbourhood. It touches all the bases; some structured play...
Not the Glamour Jobs
August 2, 2014June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Yesterday, I finally decided to investigate the (first) compost bin to see how it was developing and take out the mature compost, if any. This is way later than I normally tackle this job, but my excuse is that I was away for four out of the last six weeks. This must be close to the top of any list of non-glamourous jobs, but it’s part of the whole process, so into the breach we go. I love that you can throw a lot of muck and garbage into a bin and take out rich and nurturing soil after a...
Mid-summer Slump and Thoughts of Italy
July 26, 2014June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
I got back from Italy two days ago and with all the house organizing I have to do after a trip, I didn’t really get into the garden to do any work. Of course, I took a couple of tours around it to see what was going on, and I noticed that the usual mid-season malaise has set in. Of course, without me there to dead-head the bee balm, lilies, hostas and roses, etc, things are looking a little ratty, and that can be easily rectified, but there’s a distinct lack of bloom in the garden right now. I complained...
Roses, and why I grow them
July 5, 2014June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
As some of you may remember, I planted three new rose bushes last year. I already had five other roses in the Tranquil Garden, most of which are very hardy and only cause me a small amount of heartache every year. The ones I planted last year are Canadian-bred hardy roses, too, and I’m grateful for that; I can’t imagine how particular they’d be if they weren’t! As it is, I worried over them a lot last year because they suffered terribly from black spot, that scourge of roses. They flowered for awhile and were beautiful, but then they dropped most of...
Back from Huge Plant Country
July 3, 2014June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
I’ve been back from B.C. for several days now and haven’t written a blog post. My excuses are many; my daughter moved back in with us and needed my help; I messed up my arm and neck a bit (too much computer, or moving heavy furniture, not sure which); I’m distracted by all the chores demanded by my house now that I’m back; plain old procrastination. Can’t forget that last one. Enough self-recriminations, I’m happy to report that our trip to B.C. was wonderful. We enjoyed seeing our relatives and a friend in the Vancouver area; then we travelled over to Tofino by...