Let the Work Begin

Well the move to Stratford has come and gone. We have been in our new home in this great little community for one month as of today.

I'd love to say the yard is looking good (it isn't) and the gardens are all in full bloom (they aren't), but wouldn't it be great to be able to say that?

We took possession of this house last February when the yard was under several feet of snow. Since then our attention has been focused on the squadrons of workmen busy inside the house and not so much on the outside. With the coming of spring and the inevitable melting of the snow it was pretty apparent that there was a lot more work to do on the yard than we remembered.

My guess is that yard and gardens haven't seen much maintenance in about 3 to 5 years. The garden work this summer will, of necessity, be mainly weeding, edging, re-claiming gardens from grass and cutting back that which has gone wildly out of control.

Here are a couple of before shots of a little plot beside our (nasty) garden shed. One of the rhubarbs is about 7 feet tall. The thistle beside it is at least 6 feet, though it was initially dwarfed by the rhubarb (The-Plant-That-Ate-New-York).

Then there is a shot of what that little garden looks like now. I intend to make it into an herb garden. Since it is so late in the season now, most of the herbs will have to wait until next spring to get started. I did manage to find two very sad looking basil plants in the sale bin at Zehrs and bought them for 26 cents each!

For the record, it took me almost 5 hours and 3 yard waste bags to clean out this one little corner of paradise. I salvaged some decorative concrete edging from another sad little garden to keep the soil and plants safe from the driveway. I don't normally like this edging, but it was handy and there is no point in adding to the Stratford landfill site unnecessarily.

Before:






After:


There is an old cast iron stove of some sort in the back of this garden by the cedars. I'm reasonably sure there are no human remains inside it. I did make a brief, half-hearted attempt to dig it up but since I was hot and tired I arrived at the conclusion that it will add interest to the herb garden and really should just stay there.

And here's the original home of the concrete edging that I re-purposed. It's a little hard to tell which side is garden and which side is lawn.



I'll end today's post with one more before-after pair. There are mature gardens around the entire house and deck. All are overgrown and under-weeded. Most have been planted with things that need full sun to thrive though our house is surrounded by very large shade trees and these gardens are pretty much in full shade most of the day. Lots of work to do yet as I've only finished cleaning out on one side of the house. I guess that means I am about 1/4 done.

Before:


After:

Stratford Outside in June

Remember this?



Well now it looks like this ...



This is not to say that there isn't work to be done outside at our new home - I have lots of ideas. A few more pictures of the yard and deck as it looks in the early summer.







Most of the work this summer will be cleaning up and thinning out. The soil here is heavy clay and the plants are quite overgrown. Also, we are thinking of making some changes to the decks, adding a storage shed and garage - so any serious work on the gardens around the decks will have to wait until we decide what we're doing.

Stratford Renovations

We are making rapid progress with the renovations to our house in Stratford.

First some pictures of the inside of the house as it was in late March.

We decided to open up as much of the space as possible and one of the best ideas was to remove the walls around stairs, giving us more light and more sense of space.


When we bought the house, it was operating as a B & B and there was a small office on the main floor. We've taken the walls down and made a space for the grand piano. We were a little fearful the piano would be a tight fit, so we made a cut out to check the space for sure. And it looks like the piano will fit just fine.


Here's what remains of the kitchen. Here, too, we removed the wall separating the kitchen from the dining room.


Now for the outside. The snow is starting to disappear so I was able to get more photographs of the yard to assist in my garden planning. The first two shots show different angles of the front of the house and yard.






Here's the view from the front porch ...



And the side and back yards ...







Now that spring is on it's way, I'm hoping to get more shots of the yard and start giving some serious thought to plans for gardens.

As for the inside of the house, the exciting part is just beginning. My next post will definitely be showing rooms coming together rather than being torn apart. We've decided on floors, counters, kitchener cabinets, sinks, faucets and outside doors. It's really exciting now watching the progress from week to week.

We've been working with WoodDecor here in town on the kitchens and other cabinets. Lloyd is an amazing craftsman and artist. With the vaguest description of what I want, he pulls together a sketch in minutes that captures it completely.

Before long, I look forward to being able to post some before and after shots of the inside.

Happy Easter to all.

Summer Thoughts

Happy March 1st.

As a miserable winter storm blows through Ontario on the first day of March, my thoughts turn to this summer's gardening project. My husband and I have bought a new home in a beautiful little town in Southern Ontario. This summer it looks like I'll have more space than our deck offered last year.

We have, in my opinion, a perfect sized lot with some great mature trees and lots of potential. The house is over 85 years old and there is a distinct possibility that some of the shrubs are approaching that age too.

I invite you to follow along as I (slowly) plan and execute a remodeling of the yard. And indeed, it might be very slowly this first summer, since we are remodeling the inside of the house too.

My nephew, Tyler, a landscaper himself, has volunteered to help me with the design and maybe even the execution of our plan. So this promises to be fun on two fronts: 1) gardening is always fun; and 2) I'll get to work on a project with my favourite nephew!

I have promised myself that this time I will follow the pro's recommendations, take my time and do this right ... with lots of thought and planning. There will be no mad rush to the garden centre buying interesting looking plants on a whim. We will approach this garden with discipline. No really, I promise.

The first step is to get to know your garden space to understand how the sun hits it, what it looks like and particularly what it looks like in all seasons. Here are some photos of the yard under a blanket of snow.

The Front (the porch faces east):




The Side (facing north):



The Other Side(facing south): Please note the beautiful trellis nailed to the house for support! And under that snow is a poured concrete walk that needs help.



The back of the house - we get some fantastic afternoon sun here.



Finally, here are some shots of the view we will have from our living room and front porch. We can enjoy these views with no work at all.

Container Gardening Lessons

I learned a few things this summer about gardening on a deck. Some of it I already knew and conveniently forgot in the excitement of creating a summer paradise.

Petunias: They're hardy, readily available, colourful. They are also very common, require excessive deadheading, produce a yucky sticky substance during the deadheading process, tend to get leggy and are really overdone in many gardens. I already knew this, of course.

Watering: Container gardens demand frequent and consistent watering throughout the season. If you are planning a vacation, you will need to have someone come to water your plants. If your vacation is during the hottest days in July or August, you will need to water at least every day and possibly twice a day. I think this is something we all know too, and try to convince ourselves that if we over-water Friday night, everything will be fine until Sunday night after a weekend away. It won't.

Fertilizing This is a new learning for me, compliments of my novice gardener husband ... he who does the garden maintenance. If you cut the strength of the fertilizer by half, and apply it three times as often, you will have much more abundant flowers. And yes, it is important to use the right fertilizer.

The three numbers on the labels of fertilizers are important. They represent the content of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, (N-P-K) in that order. In very simple terms, here's what each of N-P-K will do for your gardens:

Nitrogen: Promotes growth
Phosphorus: Promotes rooting and flowers.
Potassium: Winterizes your plants.

I used a fertilizer with a higher P value (middle number) on the flowering plants. This is also good for your vegetables. I used fertilizer with a higher N value on the herbs, because I wanted more leafy growth and not flowers. I didn't use a higher potassium fertilizer because I'm not too concerned with winterizing plants.

For a more complete description of fertilizers you can check this site.

An August Deck

As the end of summer approaches ... and as a Torontonian I know this is the case since the Ex has begun and traffic along the Lakeshore is worse than ever ... I think this will be the last posting on my experimentation with deck gardening for the year. Intrepid gardener that I am, I crawled out the bathroom window on the fourth, yes the 4th storey of this house to get a bird's eye shot of the deck in its fully colourful glory.

You may notice that the table and chairs have retreated somewhat, as the herbs and flowers expanded to take up more and more space on the deck. Not that we mind sharing our space at all. Here are some different views of our planters and hanging baskets. I would say we have achieved our goal of creating a lovely private space for ourselves on a deck in an urban area. The herbs were a pleasant surprise offering greenery and fragrance to the deck and flavour to our meals. My co-workers were very happy to use my extra clippings when I brought them in to the office ... by the bagful!

More views of our deck ...






And as a reminder, here's what it looked like in early June.

Colours of the Deck

One of the nicest things about gardening is that when you go away for a few days, there's usually a nice surprise waiting for you when you come home. I've been away for the past four days, and my deck gardens have been blooming furiously the whole time. The happy state of the flowers is in no small part thanks to the constant care and attention my husband has been providing them in my absense. He is a master of plant maintenance, not to mention a fine photographer. So in addition to keeping the gardens alive, credit for the photographs in this entry also go to my husband, Roel.

You can see from the first two photographs, that my goal of filling in spaces and providing us with some privacy on an urban deck have been accomplished. If you go way back to the entries in early June, you will notice that some of the plants have been replaced. Sadly, the palm tree did not survive and has been replaced by a planter with African daisies and purple trailing petunias.

The clematis continues to bloom. Since it's first flower last week,which is still beautiful, it has opened up almost a dozen more blooms and there are still lots to come. I continue to be amazed at this performance in it's first year.
I may have been a little disparaging about the overuse of petunias on decks and in planters in some of my postings. But you really can't beat petunias for hardiness, colour and long-lasting blooms. I admit to the use of petunias to fill in spaces and provide vivid splashes of colour. Here is a shot of an ivy geranium amidst a sea of deep purple petunias. The boxes on the deck railing are filled to overflowing with ivy geranium, lobelia, petunias and trailing ivy.

The canna has grown to over 6 feet tall - always a giant in the back rows of my bigger gardens in the past. This year, I tried them in planters and they didn't disappoint.
I'll leave you with two shots of the canna - the last a closeup of the bloom, beautifully backlit on a sunny morning. I hope you enjoy them as much as we are.

July Gardens

The best thing about flowers is that they need so little from us, and they offer us so much beauty. Summer after summer, I continue to be amazed that a little dirt, some regular water and sunshine and maybe a little fertilizer produces such splendid colour and beauty. We're well into July now and I can barely remember those sad little plants I set out in the freezing rain on May 24th weekend. Just look at them now ...


The canna lilies are both well over 6 feet tall now and the flowers are a vivid orange. The foliage I planted at the base to 'add some interest' is reaching out beyond the planter looking for more space and the variation in colours from brilliant yellow-green to a deep purple is beautiful. The Morning Glories have done their thing and are happily climbing the trellis, covering it in rich green folliage and the purple flowers I've always loved. It's hard to believe the seeds were wrapped in a wet paper towel on my counter less than two months ago!

The produce section is already paying off. We've begun harvesting our summer crops of basil, sage, oregano and best of all the cherry tomatoes have begun to ripen and are a delicious addition to our nightly salads. A cautionary note on growing herbs, though, we are a bit overrun and have had to resort to drying them already. They're out of control. It's a good thing Zeus the Wonder Puppy likes to nibble on sage and basil from time to time.

I've saved the best for last. The clematis have bloomed. I am very pleasantly surprised to have this happen already. I wasn't expecting a bloom at all in the first year, but it looks like I'll be getting quite a few in the coming weeks. This is a Crystal Fountain clematis and is good for small spaces, likes decks and planters. It is supposed to bloom twice each season, in June and again in August.

Then and Now

I always find it amazing how quickly gardens, especially annuals, take off once the warm summer sun starts to shine. The scrawny little petunias, lobelia, ivies that were planted in the freezing rain on May 24 have started to fill out and add colour to our deck. Indeed the constant watering and fertilizing my husband lavishes on them have them flowering profusely and beginning to cascade over the sides of their containers.

The canna have settled in and started to reach to the sky. And the foliage and bacopia I planted around the base are beginning to fill in nicely. We had a near disaster this past week with torrential downpours of rain and even an afternoon of hail. The hail did do some damage, especially to the broad-leafed canna and even broke a secondary shoot off completely. After just 2 or 3 days of sunshine though, the intrepid canna has recovered beautifully. There are still some reminders of the hail in the shredded leaves, but I think we will still see some spectacular blooms later this summer.

I think the most amazing progress has been with the herbs. Last February when we planted the almost microscopic seeds for basil, sage, oregano and thyme I don't think we ever truly believed we would be harvesting our herbal crops and using them to season our dinners. The herbs have taken root, so to speak, and are quickly outgrowing their containers. Many times every day, we find ourselves in the 'herb section' gently ruffling the leaves of the basil and sage to enjoy the aromas they release. We have recently added rosemary, chives and lemon balm to our little herb garden ... not to mention the lavender and nigela damascena or love-in-a-mist that is reputed to be good with lamb - but I love it purely for the delicate flowers.

To add an extra element to our deck garden, we have had a few visits from humming birds and some very hungry finches ... mainly purple finches. The neighbour's cat is quite intrigued with the finches. The clematis is growing nicely spreading it's tendrils around the wire frame and I do believe I see quite a few buds that I am looking forward to enjoying in August. The morning glory seeds, started in wet paper towels last May are happily climbing the trellises though I don't see any flower buds yet. The tomato has managed to flower quite a few times and I can count at least 30 perfect little tomatoes forming on it already.

B & B Weekend

If you like gardens, birds, beaches and privacy, there's a bed and breakfast on the shores of Lake Huron just waiting for you. The hosts are Audrey and Bob Hamilton and they have built their retirement 'cottage' on the south shore of Lake Huron near Camlachie, Ontario. The B&B is absolutely lovely. The entire ground floor is for the guests and is more of an apartment than a guestroom. And then there are the gardens ...

Just outside your door is a beautiful and mature garden, complete with flowering shrubs, mature perennials, bird feeders and trees. There is a covered sitting area where you can enjoy the garden and the birds even in the rain. And the birds are plentiful - orioles, doves, ruby-throated hummingbirds, finches of all kinds, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds and many more I can't name.

My mother found this beautiful retreat and introduced me to it a few years ago. We try to visit at least once each summer to enjoy the gardens, the beach, the birds and the peace. There's not much nearby, so you will need to take a drive to find a restaurant or town. The beach is a short walk away, down a shady lane. This is definitely a place for adults, not children. And adults who know how to wind down and relax.

Planting Strategy II

The final element in the height strategy is to add plants that are ... well ... tall. This can be a challenge when you're dealing almost exclusively with annuals. The resident genius, my husband, solved it quite nicely by dragging one of our indoor plants out for a little fresh air. In this case, an areca palm that was not looking at all happy indoors has been added to the deck decor. It definitely adds height and a sense of the tropics. I have found areca palms incredibly difficult to keep robust indoors and had almost given up on this one, but who knows? It might just decide to thrive outdoors in an Ontario summer.

For the bits and pieces around the main plants, I've added some brightly coloured annuals, mainly trailing plants. Our colours this year are red, blue and white so I've stuck with bacopia, lobelia, ivy geranium, trailing ivy and, yes, petunias. As an afterthought, this afternoon I was looking at the pothos inside which desparately needed cutting back. So I poked the cuttings into some of the planters. Next year, I'll plan ahead and root them properly in early May, but for now we'll see just how hardy they are.

The scented part of the plan comes into play with the 'produce' section. First is the lavendar - planted in a large imitation terra cotta pot - light enough to be brought indoors for the winter. Just planting the lavender was heavenly. Touch the leaves and you have a cloud of lavender scent.

In another corner of the deck I have arranged pots of basel, sage, chives, oregano, rosemary and thyme. If I can find it, I'll be adding a pot of cilantro too. Herbs have such wonderful smells - we often ruffle their leaves just to enjoy the delicious smells. I bought a very inexpensive white plastic table (from Canadian Tire) and have arranged the herbs on and in front of the table. A great little corner of enticing aromas.

Another accidental addition to the produce section came about when preparing dinner one night. It turns out the garlic had sprouted when we weren't looking. The offending garlic almost went into the garbage, when a lightning bolt of brilliance struck us. Now we have 15 or 20 little garlic plants happily poking their green spikey leaves up between the basil, sage etc. in the produce section.

The last addition to the edible plants, was a cherry tomato plant, proudly displayed in a hanging basket above the herbs. Why hanging? Well ... why not?

Planting Strategy

I won't launch into a detailed and rambling essay on garden planning laden with confusing Latin names because:

It would be very boring; and

Having no formal training in either gardening or Latin, I wouldn't know how to.

So ... not quite as the nursery ryhme says ...
Mary Mary quite contrary.
WHY does your garden grow?
That is, what do you want from your garden?

On my deck, I am looking to create an outdoor room for us to enjoy the summer weather. And we are in an urban area, so privacy is important. That means I need to have the plants elevated, hanging or climbing to create a living privacy screen. Since it is a deck and we do enjoy sub-zero temperatures, I need to use annual plants that fill in quickly or plan to bring them indoors during the cold months.

I like having birds and butterflies visit, so I used plants with vivid colours and lots of scent to attract them. My no-to-low maintenance policy means no pruning and nothing delicate or prone to bug infestation. Finally, we love to eat well at our house and seem to have a constant challenge finding fresh herbs. So there is a produce section in our own little Eden.

Getting High
To get the privacy, I need plants that grow tall or climb on something. Of course, there are the hanging baskets mentioned in the previous post. One thing I haven't mentioned yet is that you can grow perennials outdoors in containers and have them survive the winter months. We are in a very mild area for Ontario and enjoy the moderating effects of Lake Ontario, so our winters aren't as severe as, say, Barrie or Muskoka. So I'm counting on that being sufficiently mild to leave a few hardy plants outside this winter.

In the largest of the fibreglass planters, I added a wire frame trellis. I have planted a clematis (a fairly hardy perennial) and in only two weeks, it is already sending tendrils curling around the wire frame. I've used a cultivar called Crystal Fountain, a new variation from Japan. It will have lavender blue flowers with yellow/white centres. I chose this plant as it is compact and recommended for small spaces like patios or containers. It has the added advantage of flowering twice each season, in May-June and again in August. Since this is it's first season, I won't see any blooms now, but will probably have something to show for my efforts at the end of the summer. Clematis like to be in full sun, but should have their roots shaded so I have added some brilliant red Sunny Impatiens around the base of the clematis, serving two purposes: keeping the roots of the clematis cool and shaded; and adding colour to fill in what would be a fairly stark looking space. The Sunny Impatiens, of course, is an annual and will come out in the fall cleanup. I will let you know if/how we survive the winter.

The other two fibreglass planters are home to canna lillies. These are bulbs that will grow 4 to 5 feet tall and have brilliant scarlet blooms. The bulbs will have to be lifted in the winter and stored indoors, just as they would in any garden in this climate. Again, to add some interest to the planters, I have added colourful trailing annuals and foliage at the base of the canna.

The deck already had some basic wooden trellises afixed to one privacy screen. A perfect place to show off some climbing annuals. I have always loved Morning Glory, but often have trouble finding a suitable spot, as it can be very aggressive and invasive. I think I have the perfect place for it this year. I started the Morning Glory from seed. To speed germination, place the seeds in a wet paper towel overnight. In just 24 hours the seeds will be starting to sprout. I planted them in small decorative pottery planters and added a couple of petunias to each pot for some colour at the base. The Morning Glory seeds have settled in and are already 6-8 inches tall and reaching out for the trellis. Within a month, the trellises will be covered in lush green vines and brilliant blue blooms. Cost of this effect, a grand total of $1.49 for a package of seeds.

More strategy coming in the next post.

Garden in a Bag

Having spent the past 20+ years attempting to create miniature Utopias in various back yards around Southern Ontario, I was met with a new challenge this spring ... that of creating an even tinier paradise on a deck. No more struggling with clay, rocks, weeds, rabbits or various creepy crawlies. The biggest question, though, was how to create something of interest in a small space that offered us some sense of privacy, beauty and tranquility without giving in to 'petunia heaven'.

Now petunias are beautiful annuals, come in a wide variety of colours, flower furiously all summer, are drop-dead easy to grow and are grossly overused. I wanted to use something a little more exotic. I am a major supporter of the low-to-no maintenance gardening philosophy (a great book on this is The Rusty Rake Gardener, by David and Cathy Cummins) so was looking to maximize effect and minimize effort.

The Foundation:
I bought a few of the outrageously expensive fibreglass containers. Three, to be exact, were all the budget would support. Fibreglass pots are excellent because they are lightweight, look really nice and can be left outside all winter - even with soil in them. I have three of different sizes in a similar style, though all are quite large. These form the backbone and set the style for my deck garden. The largest is set in a corner of the deck and I have added a trellis right inside it for interest.

Then I picked up a few decorative clay pots. There's more variety in these pots and they are about a tenth the price of fibreglass. Especially if you shop in the dreary month of February when Sheridan Nursery has it's winter sale. These pots, I kept at the medium to small size. Small enough that I, with the help of my loving husband, can haul them off the deck, through the kitchen, down the stairs and into the garage for the winter and without empyting the soil.

One of the challenges with container gardening is a matter of height. I don't like having all the plants on the floor of the deck. The obvious 'window box' containers are okay but only go so far. We've added a generous number of hanging baskets to the privacy walls of our deck. These are simple to hang and following my theme of minimum effort for maximum effect, I simply bought seven or eight of the already planted ones from the local grocery store and hung them up. As far as cost, they ended up being less expensive than buying the pots, the soil and the plants and potting them myself. And best of all, it took no time at all until we were enjoying a glass of pinot grigio and our flowering baskets last Sunday afternoon.

Then there are the work horses of the patio, the terra cotta clay pots. I really don't like these things. They're ugly, they're heavy, they dry out quickly, requiring more frequent watering and they can't winter outside without falling apart. The only advantage I can come up with is that they are dirt cheap. Sorry about that.

A variation on the terra cotta that I've just given in to using is the imitation plastic form of the same. I'm not sure why I've never used them before. Not only are they quite inexpensive, but they are light weight and they can be left outside over the winter. They are, however, still ugly.

A note on the title of this post ... on Mother's Day this year, my daughter's dog, Zeus, was considerate enough to give me a beautiful card and a 'Garden in a Bag' - some viola seeds that can be grown right in a little brown bag and set on a sunny window sill to enjoy. He's a very thoughtul little puppy.

Another note on the photographs ... the really good photographs you will find in this blog are probably the work of my world famous photographer husband, Roel. The so-so photographs are probably from my camera!


Next Post: The Planting Strategy