First Frost

Our first frost arrived this week. The early forecast was for -5 overnight but then updated to -2 later in the day. By our thermometer, we hit the -5 mark. Yet, when I left in the morning for the city, I took a quick look around and the garden looked great. When I got back home in the afternoon, I was greeted by this rhubarb and virginia creeper at the front door. About half the hosta were frosted off as well, including Sun Power.

It is supposed to warm up for a few weeks yet and today we had great gardening weather. The kind where you step outside and feel a tiny bit chilly but once you start digging, the chill goes away and it is perfect. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right. If we can get another week or two of that, my garden will be ready for the winter. Today it is not. I still have roses, iris and tulip to get in the ground. Tomorrow, however, is reserved for the chain-saw.

Long Time Coming

When we first moved here, I planted this Iris from my garden in the city in this spot. It sits just above and behind the Catmint, right under the flagpole off the back deck. Three seasons ago, the tree branches from above had grown to the point where this spot became mostly shade. The Iris has struggled to bloom here ever since. Add to that the fact that Iris really need to be divided every few years to put on its' best display and this spot was well overdue for a change. The Iris is being relocated to I don't know where yet but this Dwarf Burning Bush should be very happy here and I already like the look eventhough it has the strangest little flowers. I can't wait to see it turn bright red. If I believe the tag and my yardstick, it should not get tall enough to block my view of the sun gardens from the deck. Theoretically anyway.

Old Favourites

I have to admit that I hold onto things in my garden. But this is the best reason why. I have loved this little bus ever since I first spied it in the garden centre. It looks great planted with impatiens or begonia or fuschia. It is still one of my favourite non-plant items in the garden. The best thing about it is that even after all these years, I can't pass by it without smiling.

Rose, 'J.P. Connell'

This 'J.P. Connell' rose was a gift from Judy and is my first yellow rose. It came to me in a bag and I transplanted it to a pot while I got its' permanent spot ready. I was told it was a climbing rose so I planned to put it on the second trellis next to the 'John Davis' pink climbing rose. It is very fragrant and I thought the pink and yellow would look pretty together off the front deck. However, looking it up this evening, I discovered it is an explorer shrub rose. It will not have room to grow between the trellis and the deck. This means I need to find a place for the 'J.P. Connell' and decide which of the climbing roses will climb the second front trellis. All the climbing roses I have are in shades of pink. I think I may still have an unplanted 'John Davis'. I could plant them together, one on each trellis. I'll have to give that a think.

First Sign of Fall

Our first sign of fall has shown up in the garden. Sedum 'Autumn Joy' is in full bud. Won't be long now before we will be watching the forecast for frost warnings overnight. I heard today that we are supposed to have a dry, warm September. That would be nice.

Late Lupin

I love so many things about Lupin. The way their umbrella leaves fill the space in my garden. The bottom up opening of the flower petals. The colour change the flowers go through from opening to seed. My favourite characteristic of Lupin has to be the way one or two will pop up at the end of the season just when I think they are finished. Two seasons ago, a friend brought me a small tray of unlabelled Lupin she rescued from a compost heap. She thought one might be yellow and one might be purple. All my Lupin to that point were varying shades of pink. This is the first of her gifts to bloom. It looks white but I think I can see a hint of yellow there. I hope it has enough time to go to seed before frost. Lupin are slow to get to the dry seed stage. Probably their only flaw.

This Year's Starring Couple

Last year, Nicky phlox was my perennial pick of the season.  This year, it's grown taller and pairs up beautifully with my Opus One Oriental lilies.  These lilies are over my head!  And the scent of these two together is awesome - spicy and sweet.

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!

A Lily Plan

My 'Stargazer' Lily is just finishing up for this year. This is its' second season in this spot and it seems happy in front of the ninebark on the lower level of the bird sanctuary. Not far from it is a 'Navona' Lily in white. This year, I decided that I would add the pale pink of 'Renoir' to this area with them. I think it will really make the 'Stargazer' shine next season.

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!

Mowing and Mulching

Last summer Kelly and I were trying to figure out what to do with the west side of our property along the other side of the driveway.  I knew it wouldn't be a good place for gardens because of the shade trees.  But it was a royal pain to mow around hostas and trees and I wanted a tidier look.  This year, Kelly cut out all the sod, we put down landscape fabric and mulched all around the bank edge and tree line.  Looks so much better now and easier to maintain.

Patience Rewarded

Isn't she pretty? Three years ago, I planted 6 bareroot poppy. Three were 'Royal Chocolate Distinction' and three were 'Miss. Piggy'. They were planted together and I am sure would have looked awesome blooming side by side. It was the last year that I planted bareroot plants because even as I dug and buried, I had very little hope I would see plants. They were really such pathetic little things, as were the coneflower roots that I planted the same year. In all, I planted 15 bareroot plants that year and I have yet to see any of them with this single exception. She popped up out of nowhere this year and I immediately cleared everything away from around her in an effort to save her. Although I would say she was well worth the wait, I am still not planting anything bareroot. It was a long wait. My next thought, of course, is that I hope her seed is not sterile...look for the update next season.

Coincidence Gone Right

Sometimes Linda and I think the same. This red daylily came from her garden, a division I brought home last year. I had thought I brought one red daylily from her garden but as it turned out, there were two varieties that were red. Since I thought I only had one variety that was red, I expected this to be 'Stella D'Oro'. I planted it with my other 'Stella D'Oro' in a patch. My first stroke of luck was that I planted the two of these at the back of the patch since they are taller than 'Stella D'Oro'. My second stroke of luck was that the golden yellow in this variety matches the 'Stella D'Oro' quite nicely. Apparently Linda thought so too because a few days ago I noticed that one shoot coming from the middle of this plant clump was, in fact, a 'Stella D'Oro'. When I mentioned to Linda that I have no idea how one got in the middle of the other she told me that she knew how... they are planted together in her garden too! I must have gotten a bonus root piece.

Deadheading

Normally, I am quite good about deadheading... honestly. Even in this year of mayhem for my garden, I have managed to keep most things deadheaded. Of course, the reward is more flowers and a longer blooming season. I missed shearing down this patch of pinks when the first flush was done. As you can see, I still got a second flush of flowers but look at all those seedheads. The reward for not deadheading is more plants next year. Funny thing is, I can see myself standing in this very spot next year asking myself where all the pinks came from!

Lily

It has been a rather interesting year for my lily... and Linda's yard. Last fall in anticipation of our move, I sent Linda some of all my lily. In fact, I sent whole gardens of lily! Kelly planted them in a temporary place where they all came up and many of them bloomed. They were crowded but from the pictures I saw, they also looked happy. What it meant for my garden was that there were very few lily left. Although my orange lily garden was still big and beautiful, this 'Acapulco' was the only pink lily that came up in what was the pink lily garden. I moved it into the garden proper since the pink lily garden is now lawn and it didn't miss a beat. It was full of blooms on only two stalks, reminding me how much I love lily in the garden. I can't wait for more variety next year. Linda shipped me lily this week and it should arrive today. Now, where to plant...

My Grandmother

We have been picking raspberries for over a week now and the rhubarb is ready to harvest as well. As soon as the heat wave breaks, I will bring it in and turn the stove on. Whenever I bring food in from the garden, I think of my grandmother. Her name was Myrtle but everyone called her Myrt and Miles had a 'Myrt's Cafe' sweatshirt when we were younger that she found a delight. It was appropriate because my grandmother ran a canteen for years at a local bakery. When I think of her, I think of warm blankets, soft pillows, sheets that smell fresh from the line and food. Mostly food. When I was young, I would visit her in the summer and spend everyday with her at the canteen. When we were not there, we were in her kitchen making homemade soup, pies, tarts, buns and anything else she was serving that week. Saturday's were always pies and tarts. All the kitchen counters and the table would get cleared, cleaned and promptly filled with flour. Flour everwhere. Her hands, her hair, her apron, the floor and my face. It seemed that flour was always flying as she rolled, flipped and rolled the dough again. By early afternoon the house would fill with the smell of apple, cinnamon, cherry and lemon eventhough the pies were always a little shorter on filling when I was visiting. One the of the best parts of Saturday was taste testing and then, of course, licking the spoons! My grandmother gave me the gift of appreciation for food fresh from the garden.

Our Garden Rocks

Yes, we actually had more rocks delivered to us so we could complete the front garden.  The strip between the garden and the road has always been so unruly.

This project cost us quite a bit in money and in Kelly's sweat.  We bought the best landscape fabric we could find and even recycled an old carpet.  The load of river rock was close to $300.  Here it is from a different angle.

Garden Map - Bird Sanctuary, Fence side of path...

All areas of my garden have gone through big changes this year. Normally, I update my old maps of each area, marking what winter-killed and what was moved in or out. This year I had to draw new maps because marking the old would have made them unreadable and I like to keep the old maps legible so if anything comes up down the road that I don't expect, I can usually figure out what it is by checking what has been planted in that spot over the years. A good example of that is my new poppy in the Sun Garden. It is either 'Chocolate Ruffle' or 'Miss Piggy' because those were the only poppy planted there. However, both were planted there in 2009 and this is the first I am seeing of either. Just waiting for it to bloom now. Today I finshed moving and planting everything I had that was to go in the Bird Sanctuary on the fence side of the path. Once that was done, I turned the sprinkler on it and made a new map (above). This is a shade garden and includes my hosta garden. Although I have hosta strewn throughout the garden, this spot contains the largest part of my collection. I love hosta. Also here are wood violets, spirea 'Snowmound', solomon's seal, columbine in three varieties, phlox, lily-of-the-valley and lamium 'Herman's Pride' that I brought back from Linda's last year. The columbine patch was added today and the ostrich fern patch was moved from Judy's backyard this year as well. I have moved a few hosta around in this area this year and added hosta 'Carol' but the rest of the plants are all returning from last year. I will have to do an overlay for tulips and daffodils if I put any here but there are only one or two spots that get enough sun for them. I may not plant any here. I dug hosta 'Carol', 'Wolverine', bonus dark, 'Dream Weaver', 'Christmas Candy' and purple/yellow columbine to send to Linda today as well. It was a great day for gardening even if it was a little hot at +32!

Voodoo Lily

This bloom has been 4 years and 2 bulbs in the making.  Only my husband would want to grow a flower that smells like carcass!  Apparently it will smell as it is pollinated by flies - but I haven't caught a bad odour yet.  This is one of a few 'first times' in our garden this year.  aka Dracunculus vulgaris

Prairie Coneflower

My first discovery about country gardening was the seemingly unlimited variety of native plants, which most people call weeds here. Weeds or not, many of them were captivating to me. First came the wild rose with its' variety of pink shades in small flowers that open wide for the sun and its' remarkable adaptability to bloom under any circumstances. I have seen wild rose blooms high in the treetops, opening from a single winding stalk along the trunk and I have seen them bloom less than an inch off the ground, forced by a mower to open low yet looking happily upward. Just as delightful were the dark purple blooms of vetch. Although I work hard to keep it out of the yard because it gets big, tall and abundant, I let it go crazy in the fields because there is nothing quite as fine as the sweet smell of vetch coming in on a cool summer breeze. I also discovered a little white star flower that first year that I have yet to identify, honeysuckle in pink, anemone in white and the fall joy of wild cucumber vine when its' seedpods pop-pop-pop, providing listening pleasure around the fire. It was impossible for me to pick a favourite until late that first summer when the prairie coneflowers opened up. All along the roadside, in the ditches and fields, miniature sunny yellow coneflowers with long, dark, detailed cones appeared suddenly and everywhere. Sunny, smiley and optimistic is how they make me feel. I have tried to domesticate many of these wild plants. I move wild rose that comes up in the road to the lawn edge and attempt to get it to climb the bush. Wild rose tolerates everything well but being moved. You can mow it down and it will come up over and over but if you dig it, it sulks. I move the pretty little star flowers from deep inside the bush to the edge where their blooms poke out from behind and between other plants as little white twinkles. I move vetch from the yard to the field edge. Only prairie coneflower has been awarded a spot inside the garden proper though. Last year, I got to the field before the thresher and moved four plants into my garden. They are opening now and all I can think is that the patch needs to be about twice the size it is now. If I am going to beat the thresher this year to remedy that, I better get out to the field tomorrow because the fields are ready to hay now. Since I am never good with garden deadlines, I may just have to cross my fingers that these four produce a good amount of seed!

The Little Things

This plastic pot belongs in a little green metal chair. It is the seat of that chair, obviously never meant to sit in. I really dislike plastic pots and only planted it because I loved the little chair. Last year I used the chair as a peony ring for a baby peony that was needing help standing and the pot sat in the shop all year. This year, every pot I am taking has been planted with plants I am taking. This little plastic bowl seat got filled with sedum, creeping jenny, hens & chicks and dwarf purple iris - yes, I have a spreadsheet! Since it is an awkward shape to sit outside the chair and the chair is still over the peony, I tucked it in the boardwalk garden where a winter killed veronica left a space. Turns out that it is my favorite little planter this year. It is full of texture and so many shades of green that it always catches my eye as I walk by. Guess I like plastic after all.

Roses!

As much as I hate to see the iris end, it means the roses have started! The 'Therese Bugnet' is the earliest of my roses and started with the iris but 'William Baffin' (above) had its' first open bloom yesterday. Today it is full. 'John Cabot' and Marilyn's rose opened along with it. All the others are in full bud and I expect to see more varieties open over the next few days. There are several reasons I love roses. The scent, the colours, the abundant blooms and the fact that they will flower now right through until fall. What more could you ask of a flowering shrub?

Good Hair Day

I was born with bone straight, very fine hair. The kind of hair that it is hard to find a hair dresser that knows what to do with it. The lifetime result of that is that my hair is always straight and either shoulder length or longer because for the last ten years I have had the same hair routine. Every summer when the weather gets really hot, I pull it all into a ponytail and then cut that off. It grows the rest of the year until I get too hot in the garden again and repeat the procedure. I think my skills as a garden hair dresser are far more impressive. This year, our pothead Gnome has three types of sedum for hair. I like this planting better than any other she has had since she arrived. Miles is more fond of her when I plant decorative grasses but I love the way the sedum sits along her forehead and fills outward and upward giving the impression that she has spent some time making herself look her best. Perhaps heading to a Saturday night barn dance. I think she is going to look even better when the flowers open.

A Pair

Every so often a plant pair in my garden turns out to look exactly as I had planned it to look. My 'Therese Bugnet' roses and Siberian Iris are a perfect example of this today. I had to wait three years for this show. This is the first year the iris patch was big enough to have this impact against the three rose bushes. It was worth the wait and I couldn't be happier with the result. They provide a spectacular view out my dining room window that I appreciate several times a day.

I fell in love with the Siberian Iris in the neighbours garden and planted it before I even knew what it was. The buds made me think of bird of paradise and it buds for a long period to enjoy. Then when the blooms opened to be a totally different colour than the buds, I was immediately smitten. I still am.

Columbine

I love Columbine. I have not seen one I did not like be it single, double or nodding granny varieties like 'Nora Barlow'. Yet, I still have my favourite and this purple and yellow is it. I can't remember where it came from or what it is called. I have tried to divide and share it several times but divisions have had no success. I have also shared seed and so far no success. (Although I do wonder if three years from now Linda will have a garden overrun with them!) So eventhough it is my largest Columbine, I have decided not to risk another division. I have dug and potted up the entire plant. It barely fit in a pot and eventhough blooming when dug, it did not miss a beat, still full of flowers and standing tall.

Every year since we moved here, there has been a small Columbine baby that grows peeking out from under our front deck. Each year, I carefully dig it out and put it in the garden. The result is 4 small Columbine that have finally matured to flowering size. So this year it was a happy accident to find that this new Columbine is yellow with a very slight pink edge and looks fantastic together with my purple and yellow. Obviously, I had to pot up one of these to take as well. Seems like deciding to take just a few special things has not reduced the number of plants I have to haul!