Still Planting...

I planted again today! I stopped by Judy's for coffee and when she heard that I had been able to dig the other day, she handed me a container of 'White Lion' Daffodils I had given her. So out into her yard I went. She has more snow than I do here but underneath it, the ground was not frozen. I was easily able to dig a hole and drop them in. New latest planting date for me and I think if the weather holds, my tulips may go in yet.

From the Realm of the Fantastical

The ground is not frozen and yes, that is a hole in it! Today I was working in the garden. It is definitely the latest date I have ever dug in the garden. We have snow left but not a lot of it and the weather has been beautiful. Just for fun, I kicked the dirt around a bit when I took the dogs out today. Sure enough, it was not frozen so I grabbed a shovel and tested it some more. Before I knew it, a hole was dug in front of the weeping caragana in the sideyard and I was popping in the bag of lily-of-the-valley root from Judy's backyard. It has just a good a shot at making it there as it does in the house and I always advocate planting in fall vs. spring if you can. In my zone, this gives things a much earlier start and with a short season, the earlier the start, the better. I am keeping my fingers crossed for them. Spring will tell.

Houseplants



I don't do houseplants. I have tried many times and for a few years in a row I was having quite good success. But it was work. I never think of my garden as work and when plants become work, their days are numbered in my house. There are a lot of reasons houseplants don't do well here. Plants don't like forced air heat and in our weather our heat runs 24/7. Plants need water and have no voice to remind me of that. Unlike dogs and cats, a plant won't walk by and poke me when the dish is empty. Plants need to be fed and unlike in my garden, where I can just keep digging in the compost I make, I have to think about what to feed houseplants. Knowing all this, I still try a houseplant once a year or so. This year's victim is the little aloe above. What is going to be the most surprising part of this story, I am sure, is that this little guy lived more than 6 months in a plastic bag with several siblings and absolutely no soil or water on Judy's breakfast table. Now that I have "rescued" it from that, planted it, remembered to water it for at least 6 weeks now and given it some sunlight... it should die before spring. Houseplants like me less than I like them.

Cats in My Garden

I often mention the challenges of gardening with dogs. Particularly when I am newly planting things. Rarely do I mention the challenges of gardening with so many cats. We have 6 and all of them freely wander in and out all spring, summer and fall. In the winter, their usual door (an open dining room window) is closed. A couple of them will continue to go outside through winter, using the doors when they are opened to let dogs in and out. Most of them stay inside in the winter. They are less of a challenge for my garden than the dogs are because the cats never dig plants. They do like to roll in mulch and dry dirt so I am often kicking mulch flat and covering up bare spots but it really becomes part of how I walk through the garden and doesn't feel like too much of a bother. When we first moved here, our cat that came with the house, Hannah, was using two of the garden beds for an outdoor litter box.

I remedied that immediately with cayenne pepper and she is now using somewhere in the acres of bush that I do not go into because I try and avoid wood tics. Dogs or cats makes no difference. My rule is always... when you are gardening an unfenced bed and you have outdoor pets - you better wear gloves when you work! Scooping up is probably the least exciting chore that comes with pet ownership but I have been mostly lucky on that with my garden beds. Once I am able to convince them an area is part of my garden now, they rarely give me trouble.

And then there was snow...

When I worked in operations, nothing annoyed me more than Christmas. Every year, year after year after year, we would experience delayed shipments, no staff and general confusion. My thoughts were always... Christmas comes every year at the same time... how does it take so many people by surprise? Well, welcome to my garden where the same issue comes back to haunt me. Every year, year after year after year, Mother Nature decides when my gardening season is going to end. She always decides this around the same time. I couldn't set my clock by it but fall is always followed by winter. This year has been better than most for my garden timing. I only have 4 shrubs and a pile of bulbs that did not get into the ground. Now I am left with the decision to put it all in the shop for the long winter or dig in the snow to drop them in. I haven't decided yet. It will depend on the temperatures over the next few days. Regardless of what I do, winter has arrived in my zone 3 garden. Nothing to do but play with garden maps, read garden books and wait for spring. The season that never takes me by surprise. I am usually watching for the ground to thaw for weeks before it actually happens.

The Flip Side

I'm a big fan of hydrangea.  If I had more space, I'd have more of them.  As it is, I'm stretching it to have 8 of them on my city lot.  Good thing they don't mind a little shade.  My 'Bluebird' hydrangea has been around a few years now, bought in my first hydrangea shopping spree.  It's a lacecap and the little flowers are pretty pale blue in the summer.  As the season goes on, one by one, all the little flowers flip over and turn rosy pink.  It's interesting to watch the progression into the fall.  Now at the end of October, it's like the hydrangea has flipped its jacket inside out - I guess you could say its reversible ;)

Hydrangea serrata 'Blue Bird' in fall

Rose, 'Therese Bugnet'

'Therese Bugnet' is one of my favourite roses. They fill with flowers in the summer, starting early and ending late. The leaves start out light green, turn dark and then turn shades of burgundy and red that last throughout the fall, ending well after the first snowfall. They grew quickly, reaching full height within two seasons and have been an anchor in my sun gardens ever since. Best of all, they require very little attention. This year I moved the slide between them and the Siberian Iris which also add to an interesting fall display. Many of my perennials disappear or become little piles of dead leaves and stalks by now which leaves me always searching for something to plant next year that will add to my fall garden views. Today, I am thinking I will try coneflower again next year. Of course, by spring I could have a change of heart. Coneflower can be a challenge in our too dry, too hot, too short season and they cost too much to treat them as annuals. Too many too's to try for a lazy gardener! Whatever I add, it will be hard to beat the fall view in this tiny spot in my large, empty, October garden. No doubt about it, 'Therese Bugnet' is a winner.

Borrowed Glads

This year we had a hard time finding places to plant all the glads. Aside from our own, we had a loan of Danielle's for the season. This is bold orange one is definitely a favourite:

Gladiolus 'Hunting Song'

In the back yard, I got to enjoy Mon Amour, with frilly pastel pink and yellow blooms.  The delicate Velvet Eye was a wonderful surprise too - for some reason I was expecting it to be dark purple so had planted it out front.  We also had several mixed varieties from Danielle too.  There's one more pink one still to open.

Hostas in Dry Shade

Hostas work great in areas that are shady... under trees where not much else will thrive.  Even the less showy varieties add greenery where it's hard to get other things to grow.  This year we inherited several large hostas which were going to be dug up and thrown out by other gardeners.  What we have found though is that they don't really do well in the woods because it's so dry.  Here is what Kelly did to help keep moisture around the hostas in the woods:

So for a few days it looked rather odd in the woods with these sandy circles built up around all the hostas.  Then Kelly went and raked a bunch of mulch from the forest floor and hid the architecture:

Now it all looks more natural!  And I can tell the hostas like it too.

Last Flowers 2011

Earlier this season I was singing praise to my viola which was my first blooming flower. At the time I said they would be my last flower of the season as well and here is the evidence. Yesterday when wandering the yard, I again noticed that viola are the last flowers left in my garden. From the pretty bright yellow blooming from under the lizard to the deep purple blooming all along the drive edge, just outside the rock border. These little viola's are ultra reliable; always smiling, always bright, always cheery and always blooming. Many gardeners I know consider these little beauties a weed although, I will never understand how they ever fell into that category. I love them and try to add new varieties to my garden every year on my mother's birthday.

No Stopping

After all my years of gardening in Saskatchewan, the one thing I know for sure is that there is no stopping winter from arriving. This is the time of year that the timing of the snow keeps me on my toes. The saddest day of the year in my garden is the day I have to bring in all my garden art, which includes the sun stone and little squirrel sundial above. Anything that is not made of concrete, is super strong or too heavy to lift will be either brought into the house or put in the shop. It is a long day of heavy work to put it all away and the consequences of missing something are not much fun either. I lost a Mexican sunbaked tile by forgetting it out all winter. It was a gift from a friend and very disappointing to lose. Once the job is done, the garden will look very bare until the snow covers it. As a result, I try to leave it to the last possible day. Everything glass came inside today because the nights are getting cold. Everything else has been left out so far. I am keeping my eye on the forecast though. If I wait until the snow actually falls, it will be a cold, wet job as well and that usually leads to my first cold of the season. I try to avoid that scenario but my desire to stretch the season often leaves me wet and cold... whether it is planting last minute bulbs or moving things inside. It is hard to let go of the garden for our long winters. Often, I am glad to see the snow in late fall, being in need of a break. Always, I am ready for spring well before it arrives!

A Note on Maps

My garden maps have been an on-going problem. At the start, I made one dimensional bed outlines full of circles representing the plants as seen from a bird's eye view. I use my maps primarily in the spring when I am looking for specific plants or looking at something poking up through the soil that I cannot identify. Maps helps then. I found it was impossible for me to figure out exactly where something specific was with no markers or landmarks on the maps that showed me the plants in relation to other things like large rocks, bird baths or bridges. I also found that because I do not view the garden from a 'bird's eye', the maps did not work for me. I do not use maps to visualize my blooming garden. For that, I use my imagination, area sketches, cut out photographs and transparencies layered over the bed outlines. The transparencies work particularly well for placing shrubs or overlaying bulb plantings which for me, mostly means tulips. Over time, I have developed the map style above which works much better for me. I mark in permanent 'landmarks' in the bed and do only one bed per map. Since I do not use the maps to visualize or develop the garden views, a single bed is much more effective on a map for my purposes, making locating plants in the spring easier. Above is my boardwalk garden entry bed on the lowest level of that garden. It is complete to the point it will be complete in the fall. My maps are a winter project. I get the basics down and tidy them up over the winter. For example, I know what hosta variety is planted above as well as the name of the purple viola, but not off the top of my head. In the winter, I will look them up and complete the labeling. Tulips do not need an overlay on this map because there are very few perennials planted here. This bed is one of two beds in this garden that I fill with annuals in the spring. You can see how the overlay would be helpful if this bed was also full of perennials. Cleaning up my garden maps is one of my favourite winter projects. It is particularly helpful on a long, cold, windy winter day by reminding me that the snow will eventually melt. Then there is the added bonus of the extra time it buys me in the fall. I can spend endless hours tidying up my maps - time I never have in my fall garden schedule. I suppose I should get to planting those tulips now. The weather is turning cold here and Jack Frost is in danger of catching me unprepared. Unprepared is not a good winter strategy in Saskatchewan.

Yellow

When I first started gardening, I was admant about no yellow. Yellow flowers were my least favourite, I was sure. I think it may be because most of the wildflowers here are yellow and my thoughts of a garden then, excluded most of them. Yellow has changed for me since then, as have wildflowers in the garden. Two years ago, I brought wild Prairie Coneflower into my garden proper and have not regretted it since. They are wonderful and look equally great with Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine' or any of my pink roses. Today, I love yellow, orange, deep chocolate colours and everything fall. You would not have known it from my early garden. The first two years, everything I planted was pink. That was my first mistake, followed by many others. That is the joy of gardening for me though, mistakes can abound and nature will still figure it out and usually put on a display better than any I could have dreamed up. Today, my garden embraces all flower colours as it grows with me. 

Phlox Paniculata

This will be the third year that Linda has sent me root divisions of her several phlox paniculata varieties. The paniculata phlox varieties are not one of my garden success stories. They seem to winter kill more often than not and they take forever to form anything that could be called a patch in my garden. The last two years, I have planted the root divisions where I would want them to permanently be situated in the garden. Last year, 'Pink Flame' and 'David' survived. With our planned move (that did not happen), the 'Pink Flame' ended up in Judys' garden. 'David' was a single stalk that was full of flowers at our sun gardens entry. This year, I have decided to change my phlox strategy. Since they remain skinny and thin for at least 2 years, I decided to plant them all together near where 'David' survived the last winter. I can protect them here, they take up very little space and grow tall so if I can keep them alive here long enough to form small patches, I will move them out to a more lasting location. I am calling it the phlox nursery and keeping my fingers crossed. Sometimes my garden can be a crap shoot... and sometimes I get lucky with that!

The Colours of Fall

Fall has arrived in the yard and the Valley. The hills are full of colour! As beautiful as it is, it seems to be pushing me to get the bulbs planted, perennials trimmed and mulched, pruning done, gutters cleaned... and it goes on and on and on. Of course, that doesn't stop me from standing in the yard with the camera instead of the shovel. Oh well, we are scheduled to have a long, warm fall so it will get done. Tomorrow ;)

Another Victim

The 'Autumn Joy' sedum was new to my garden last year. I had one a couple of years ago that did not survive its' first winter. Last year, I replaced it in a few places. It did not bloom but it came back this year in all of the spots it was planted and was in full bud when the early frost hit. Looks like another year to wait for blooms but I can only blame myself. The frost was forecasted and I chose not to believe it. I could have covered it and it would have likely opened since we are having a long, warm fall. Another victim of my lessons learned.

From Linda's Garden

This is the phlox that I still have left in my garden from Linda's garden. Somehow, I planted it with the only other two white blooming plants in the sun gardens. Cerastium is in front of it and baby's breath is beside it. The phlox is not as hardy as the others so I am going move them, or at least one of them. Although there is only one stalk...

...it is full of flowers! 'David', right?

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!