Picture Day

Every day is picture day in my garden. At least once a day I wander around with my camera in hand. Mostly the dogs ignore my efforts, sometimes they find their way into the background of my garden pictures. I usually keep my eye out for that in an attempt to avoid butt and bathroom shots.

The other day, Judy's little lime hosta caught my eye while I had camera in hand. I didn't notice until I was looking at the images on my computer that it caught Maggie's attention to. Usually, if they are the close when I am taking pictures, the dogs are trying to knock me over. Apparently, she just wanted to see what was so interesting.

Fall has definitely arrived!

Today was cold. Not cold enough for the football fans to show up at the game, they are a hardy bunch! Too cold for me to be in the garden putting it to bed. So instead, I stayed inside, went through garden photos and thought of warmer days. Like this one where the garden dogs are lounging. Tuk is happy on snow or grass but I think Summer prefers grass any day!

 

A Sure Sign of Spring

Summer and Tuk had a raccoon treed in the Forest of the Damned last week. This is a sure sign of spring. It took us almost a half hour to convince them to go all the way back to the house. It was easy to get them to stop barking and jumping. Getting them to the shop wasn't that hard either. But convincing them to go all the way to the house was tough. Tuk kept stopping and looking longingly back. When we noticed the raccoon, we were on our way to town. When we came back, the dogs were at the house and the raccoon was gone. No blood. So I guess in the end, they did listen. Now just to determine where the raccoons are living. Although, it doesn't really matter. The dogs will convince them to move to a more peaceful residence quickly. I hope.

Protecting your Garden

I have often posted about the adventures of my pets in my garden. Although there is some work involved in having so many dogs and cats AND a large garden, it has been well worth it for me. One of the big benefits of all my cats and dogs is that wildlife, generally speaking, stays out of the yard. We get the odd gopher or two and Hannah brings me mice that are no longer alive but we are not overrun with anything in the rodent family. This year I am starting my new kitchen garden and it will have an 8 foot fence around it because I need to keep my animals out of it as well. Digging in my flowers is one thing, digging in my food is quite another!

If you have wildlife bothering your garden, Organic Gardening magazine has a good article here on protecting it from wild things.

Winter Weather

Wile E.

Our snow dogs are not the only ones waiting for snow. My garden is waiting as well. Lack of snow cover on my garden means that when the temperature drops, the plants are unprotected. Snow cover acts as insulation for the perennial roots trying to survive cold, long winters in zone 3. I am not on their side though. Our weather has been wonderful with many days above zero and even the cold days are close to -20. No snow makes keeping the road open much less work. I would rather replace the plants that don't make it than have more snow and colder temperatures.

Dog Proof

Today I replaced the winter-killed Heuchera 'Key Lime Pie' with the division of Heuchera 'Lime Rickey' from Linda's garden. They are so similar that the colour combination will be perfect again. In my never ending quest to keep the dogs from digging up everything new I plant, I found yet another solution. The dogs only dig where I have just dug. Once a plant is in the ground for a few days, they do not bother it. Right after I plant though, I need to protect it from them. Usually, I use anything that is handy and free. Most often that means willow cages. The willows are a good walk from the garden though and you can only cut what you need to use immediately because if they dry too much they don't bend. So I will often use anything else that is handy like the odd metal chair or rocks, although they can be heavy to move around. Today I was stacking plastic pots in the shop and I found two old wire hanging pots. Along with a couple of tent stakes I had instant plant protection!

Hens & Chicks Again

I love groundcovers of all types, especially sedums. Of all of them, my far and away favourite is hens & chicks. Any variety will do but the larger the better and if they are bicolour green/red I tend to gravitate to them first. Of course, my favourite would also be the one that is the most challenging for me to grow. I did manage to find and save all three of these this year. Their reward for resilience will be a more protected spot for next season.

First challenge is that they are small. Small can get lost in my garden and sometimes be found too late to save. I have more than one day a season that I look out the kitchen window and wonder if I am growing a weed garden or a flower garden. Worse still, I can't even try to call it a wildflower garden because thistle and goldenrod do not a garden make. Under any definition.

The next and biggest challenge can be summed up in one word... animals. From the crows that peck them up every spring to the dogs that seem to live only to paw them up out of the dirt and baby hammy who likes to take them into the tree to munch and then spit them out - animals of all kinds love hens & chicks. Many days I can do my garden walk-about to find hens & chicks sitting root upward, smiling at the sun. The afternoon sun here is hot. +35 and dry today. An afternoon of that would kill most plants. Not hens & chicks. I pop them back in and they always recover. Always. It is one of the many things I admire about them. This week, I need to find all three of these a new, permanent home. They are currently in temporary spots. I am determined to have their roots in the earth by the end of this week!

We are all waiting...

It is only December but we are all waiting for the snow to melt and the temperature to rise. We have had an extaordinarily warm fall and start to winter but January is yet to come!