Then and Now

I recently came across this photo of our backyard garden - next to the hedge - in the summer of 1999...

I took a photograph of that same garden today.

The hedge is much taller - and the two-storey building next door hides behind it now.

Time changes everything - even gardens!

Two Tomato Plants

A week ago, my older son and I optimistically planted two cherry tomato plants.

It was HIS idea!

I've given up on vegetable gardening...

I've been defeated by squirrels too many times!

Friends of his had an abundance of tomatoes last year. He credits their success to daily watering AND spraying with hot sauce - diluted slightly with water... just enough to make it spray-able!

I hope he succeeds! I hope the squirrels don't plant their own seeds in the mulch we put down.

So much depends on the sauce - to keep the squirrels away!

Green World

Thanks to rain and hot weather, our yard is all green...

"Get a picture of that rabbit," Terry tells me. (He loves the gentle rabbits the way I enjoy the antics of squirrels!)

Another green development... the olive tree that I brought outdoors for the summer is growing NEW PALE green leaves... while the OLD DARK leaves now have brown tips and are beginning to drop.

Will the leaves become darker as summer passes?

While driving to Toronto a few weeks ago, I noticed that new leaves on trees along the highway were also pale green... 

I wonder what makes them darken over the course of the summer.

Indoor Gardening Experiment

I've been buying Canadian-grown lettuce this winter...

It's grown hydroponically in a greenhouse.

The bunches are still attached to the "soil" pods they grow in.

Would the lettuce continue to grow if I watered  the pods? I wondered...

So I've given it a try. Four or five pods have been growing in this container on my kitchen window ledge. (Can't forget to water it!)

I need to start a second container as this one is now full. All they need is water and light.

I've snacked on a few leaves - but no large salad yet from my little indoor winter garden. (Maybe it needs more light!)

Yesterday...

Last Sunday, our front yard looked like this...

The snow was off the roof - but there was still A LOT on the ground!

Then yesterday...  (a mere TWO DAYS LATER!) ... 

I was out raking!!

There were so many pine cones on the ground - that I had to tidy things up!

I got two garbage cans full.

This is my favourite part of spring - warm, but not too hot... and NO BUGS! They haven't appeared yet.

Community Garden

At one end of the park we visited recently...

There's a community garden.

What I love about it is the mix of edible plants - like tomatoes...

... and the flowers - planted mostly to deter insects, I think.

I wonder if it works!

Such a peaceful place in the middle of a quiet neighborhood!

Second Blooming

I was surprised to see these day lilies blooming in a curbside garden a few days ago.  

Do they bloom twice - once in summer - and now as well? Or is this a different variety of late bloomers? (I can barely get mine to bloom once!)

Dandelions are coming back - now that summer is over.

Not as abundant as in the spring, it still annoys me that they spread their seeds in late summer as well as in spring.

I often have a second blooming of delicate white anemones - but I haven't noticed any recently.

I really should plant annuals in spring. With a long blooming season, they "spark joy" until winter frosts arrive! 

(I saw these flowers in a neighbor's garden. I THINK they're annuals , but I could be wrong.)

More Japanese Anemnes?

I've discovered that flowers either do very well in my flower beds - or they die and disappear.

When they do well, they spread until they're hard to control.... like the Japanese anemones in our front garden bed, above.

Those that don't do well, diminish - then completely disappear... Like pink echinacea flowers and "bleeding hearts" that used to grow here.

I love them - I've planted them several times... But this year none flowered. Perhaps they can't toletate the acidity of the soil with the pine trees overhead.

Last year, Terry asked me to dig up some of the Japsnese anemones. The roots had spread and the flowers were taking over the lawn... (Not that I mind!)

So I dug up a few spade-fuls - and replanted them in the middle of the flower bed. I see they've taken hold. I wonder what next year will bring... More flowers? Or diminishing blooms?

NEXT YEAR'S Garden!

Gardeners are always looking forward! 

A few days ago... as we near the end of our 2024 growing season, I saw this idea online.

Plant popcorn for greenery...

The last time I planted sunflower seeds, hoping to have lovely tall sunflowers in the front yard, they didn't take. Maybe the squirrels dug them up or the birds ate them!

Perhaps I'll have better luck with popcorn!

Hmmm. I may have to start it indoors to protect the seeds from animals!

The only way I'll remember to do it in 6 months is to add it to my 2025 calendar! Time to plan! And I'd better do it now or I'll forget!

Feeling "Eco-Anxiety"

A friend who is an avid gardener told me that she had been standing near some flowers in her yard and, without thinking, removed a few dead petals.

Later on, she saw that she had an insect bite on her leg. It didn't look or feel like a mosquito bite. Had she been bitten by a tick?

She didn't normally worry about things like this - but her husband recently had been bitten by a tick in a wooded area.. So she went to the nearby drugstore to ask the pharmacist if she should be concerned.

Well, there  are ticks in our neighbourhood, he told her, so it's possible.

Ticks never used to be a concern here in the city, she told me. But as our winters get milder, they're moving farther north.

Now I'm afraid to do any gardening without being covered up from head to toe, she said. It's awful! I guess this is what they mean by "eco-anxiety."

Anxiety spreads! Now I wonder if I should be concerned about bug bites now too?!!

New Spring Flowers

A new "season" of flowers has arrived. I think of them as my late spring flowers (after the hellebores, scilla, tulips, and daffodils - have disappeared.)

The garden beds are filling in with green: grasses, gout weed and hostas. Yellow euphorbia recently dominated the flower scene, but they're now fading. 

Anemones appear among the grasses. They will return to bloom again in late summer.

In shaded corners of the yard are lily of the valley....

Nearby, blue and pink "forget-me-nots".

The most recent additions to our garden beds are irises, large and small...

A whole new wave of flowers has appeared!

Euphorbia

When we moved to our house, there were half a dozen perennials in the back yard. They all bloomed in July - a short season of flowers.

Over the years, I've added more varieties, focusing on ones that bloom in early spring and late fall. Some do well; others, like poppies and echinacea, bloomed for a year or two - then disappeared, possibly due to the acid soil created by overhanging pine branches.

This year, I wondered if I had lost my euphorbia, an early bloomer. It forms tidy little bouquets in spring. I remember having two in the front yard.

My neighbor Mary's were beautiful, as usual (see photos above). 

A week after noticing them in other places, I finally saw my two bunches beginning to bloom in our yard.

Happy to see you back!

Spring Flowers

The cycle of spring flowers is starting anew. I find it so exciting!

First flowers to appear in our yard are hellebores - white in the front garden bed ...

... and yellow in the side.

The flowers aren't very showy - I really have to look for them. They look like they're hunkering down, trying to get out of the cold! Most even bloom downward! I wonder how/why that happens. I wish they were bigger, brighter and showier - but I'm happy that it's spring!

Inner City Garden

Terry and I recently parked near this front yard garden in Old Ottawa South.

I was amazed at the size of the Brussels sprouts plant - which still had a few normal-sized sprouts on it.

The kale plant still seemed to be producing edible leaves.

I'm not sure how they did it. For all my efforts, my little veggie garden only produced a handful of beans.

Hedge Maintenance

Autumn is a busy time of the year! Now that cooler weather is here - and no bugs! - Terry and I try to get as much yard work as possible done.

The backyard hedge is always a challenge! Vines of various kinds get entangled in the hedge all summer long... It takes us a long time to find them and cut them out. 

There's a great sense of satisfaction when this chore is done! But unfortunately it has to be done EVERY YEAR!!