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Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

There isn't a lot of actual gardening going on this time of year but that doesn't mean thing are not happening in the garden. I attract birds to my gardens year round using plantings and feeders. Birds are natural predators to some insects that can be a nuisance in the garden. The essentials for attracting birds into the garden are food, water and shelter. These remain the same regardless of

The weather has turned cold, grey and rainy with bouts of wet snow flurries, definitely not gardening weather. Walking to the mailbox isn't as enjoyable. The walk back to house was enjoyable Friday despite the nasty weather. I had the new Stokes catalogue safely tucked under my arm. Seed catalogues always bring a bit of sunshine on the dreary, cold days. I'll read through them, dog ear pages

Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

Today over fifteen thousand blogs with twelve million readers will be blogging on one topic - The Environment. Each of my blogs are participating, each from a different perspective so be sure to read them all.Square Foot Garden Bed2006If you have been reading this blog you will know we moved here in late June so have not set up the new vegetable and herb beds. When deciding on an environmental

NasturtiumsOctober 7, 20007When we moved here in June I was not expecting any edible plants so I was quite pleased to discover strawberries and parsley. A few weeks ago I noticed the greens of nasturtiums. When they began flowering I was elated. I had planted nasturtiums a couple of years ago in my old gardens. For some reason they did not reseed so I planted them again. With the move, the

Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

Note: This is a modified entry from my homemaking blog. The pictures are the same but I have added or deleted parts of the descriptions. There may still be some overlap but there will also be more detailed information.When we decided to by this house we had the main goal of buying waterfront property for family use. If you have read any of my other blogs you will know what a strong emphasis

Each time I do a walk-a-bout the gardens I discover new plants. I'm excited even though I am sorely missing my main vegetable garden this year. Plans are underway for a late season garden as soon as it cools a bit more at night. I'm hoping to plant towards the third week of August for our zone. In the meantime I've been starting herbs and discovering what is already growing

Not much has been happening in the gardens other than clearing brush and over growth. We decided to remove all of the remaining bits of garden decorations left by the previous owner to create a more uniform theme. The focus has been on preparing the greenspace areas for our upcoming anniversary party. The unseasonably dry weather combined with higher temperatures are working against us. I've

Clematis(Clematis viticella)In a previous post I spoke of Clematis, a beautiful flowering vine. This is one vine my husband will let climb on the side of the house. It does not damage the siding or motar like English Ivy or Trumpet vine. Clematis does need to be supported usually by some type of trellising system. I had two clematis growing at our old house. One was transplanted from the

English Boxwoods(Buxus sempervirens)English Boxwoods (Buxus sempervirens) are broad leaf evergreens. These are wonderful, easy to maintain shrubs that add a sense of formality to gardens. They line our laneway creating a welcoming entrance. These shrubs have densely packed light green leaves with a rounded, compact growth habit. They reach about 3 feet high at maturity. We have a lot of

The majority of the work in our new gardens has been the removal of an over planting of shrubs and other plants. Most of these have been under large shade trees. Some like an overgrowth of low growing evergreens were removed not only to enlarge the usable greenspace but for mosquito control. Others like English Ivy and Trumpet Vine growing on the brick of the house were trimmed back and

Purple Martin HouseThe Purple Martin (Progne subis) is a member of the swallow family. It is a medium sized, migratory song bird much desired in gardens. The male is entirely a glossy dark, purplish black sheen while the female is purplish black with a duller sheen and lighter underpants. Several Purple Martins will nest in a multi-compartmented birdhouse much like a bird condo building. They

Last Thursday was moving day. It was an extremely long and tiring day yet I was up at the crack of dawn to explore our new surroundings. I did a walk about the gardens with the camera noting some of the plants that I haven't grown before or have very little experience with.GreenspaceOur property is on a deadend road. A greenspace dotted with a stand of trees separates our road from the main

Happy Canada DayHappy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

My garden here as I knew is is no more and may cease to exist entirely after the new owners take possession of the house. This garden gave me much more than I could even begin to put into words. It was such a learning experience in all aspects. I have so many memories and pictures of this garden so it will live on in my mind, in our family discussion and in the scrapbooks. It will also live

Bee Balm(Monarda didyma)Bee Balm (Monarda didyma ) is a hardy perennial herb that is unsurpassed for attracting hummingbirds, butterflies and bees to the garden. It is a member of the mint family. I will be taking a portion of the clump to the new house. M. didyma is a hybrid so is best grown from clump division rather than seeds collected from the plant as plants grown from the seeds will

Lily of the Valley(Convallaria majalis)Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) is one of my favourite garden flowers. It evokes pleasant childhood memories and has been in every garden I've created since we were wed. I can remember laying on the cool grass gazing into the glass rocks my mom had surrounded by the heavenly smell of Lily of the Valley. I have a nice sized patch of Lily of the

English Ivy(Hedera helix)I have a somewhat small patch of English Ivy (Hedera helix) growing along the south side of the house originally planted to hide a gas line. I'm taking several clippings of this plant to our new house. This versatile evergreen ivy can be grown as a houseplant or outdoors. When grown outdoors, English Ivy can be used as a maintenance free ground cover, climbing vine or

Trumpet Vine(Campsis radicans)Years ago when we bought our second house there was a vine growing up the south side of the house. This was an old, turn of the century, wood sided, two storey house in need of tender loving care. We were young and naive so tackled the job that ended up being an almost 12 year project. We did everything from designing a huge kitchen, re-roofing, siding, new wiring

Snow-in-Summer(Cerastium tomentosum)My mother-in-law introduced me to Snow-in-Summer when we bought our first house over twenty years ago. Since then I've grown this low growing ground cover with dusty green foliage and pretty white flowers at every house we've owned. This move will be no different.Snow-in-Summer is a very easy to grow, low maintenance perennial. It is undemanding and will

Sunrise on GreenhouseMay 30, 2007One of my readers asked what I would miss about this house when we moved. Aside of the fact that I love the charm of the inside of the house of which I will think of fondly, I won't miss the lack of privacy the property has. What I will miss the most is my garden. The way the greenhouse glows in the early morning as the sun rises always brings a smile. I love

StrawberriesJune 2, 2007My strawberries have just started producing. These were the first of the season so I had to share them. The technique used on the photo is called selective colouring, combining black and white with colour done in Photoshop. I will be taking a few of these June bearing strawberry plants to the new house. Unfortunately I do not know the variety but they are very

Update: We have sold our house and will be moving in 27 days so my gardens aside of maintenance are on hold. I am taking plants I started here from plants I know I will want at the new house especially herbs and strawberries. There should be time for a late garden after we move. The gardens there are mainly floral, trees and shrubs in a mature landscape. Some of that will need to be cleaned

graphic by Forrest BrownPokey asked about slug problems in strawberries. I thought the topic should be discussed in greater detail. As many of you know, I garden as organically as possible with dish soap and vinegar being about as toxic as I will use. I also grow most of my vegetables in raised beds or containers. This makes slug control considerably easier. Most slug control involves

Strawberry BloomsMay 15, 2007My experience with strawberries is they are very hardy. My June bearing strawberries are now in bloom so it won't be long. The majority of them are housed in a 8' x 10' raised bed. The bed originally was planted with strawberry plants I moved from our old house, planted in a temporary bed then moved to the new raised bed the following year. I do not know what

Ruby Throated HummingbirdMay 10, 2007Look at my new garden visitor! Isn't he just adorable? This picture was a real fluke as the feeder is hanging on the back porch so I can see any activity from the kitchen window. Well there he was flitting around so I had to grab the camera and take several shots. I should have taken a video clip as well but I was so excited, I didn't think about it.

GoldfinchesMay 3, 2007Gardening is more than just growing things. For years I have tried to attract beneficial wildlife especially birds and butterflies. This is always a pleasant time of the year when the goldfinches return. They like niger seed as does the house finches. Their bright yellow colour is sure to bring a smile as they flit around the garden!Yesterday I did a little garden

RhubarbMay 2, 2007It has been a great pleasure to see the newly planted last year rhubarb come up. My husband is so excited and is patiently awaiting the first rhubarb pie. I will can up some as well for use as a sauce in the winter. My pie and canning recipes are on my cooking blog, Mom's Cafe Home Cooking if you are interested. The rhubarb should be ready for first cutting later this

TulipsApril 2007Tulips are one of the easiest to grow and almost problem free flowers for the garden. They are a true spring delight sure to bring a smile. Some of our tulips are finally in bloom and the rest are ready to follow suit. Each year the tulip clumps get larger. The majority of the tulip clumps are orangish red giving a blast of wonderful colour. Somehow a clump of rosy pink and

My GnomesOne year ago today I started Garden Gnomes Wanderings blog. Over the year there have been a few changes mainly with the template. I'm still having a lot of fun writing this blog so expect it to last. Today our house is one step closer to being sold. If that happens I'll go through the steps of turning over the garden to the new owners and the steps of creating a new garden. Time

Attracting birds to my gardens has been one of my goals. Most birds are beneficial in the garden and while some can be pests, they are easily controlled. I was shocked when a fellow gardener referred to grackles as junk birds! As gardeners, we are stewarts of the land so there should be no such thing as junk critters. Some are pests and some are beneficial but all serve a purpose. I took this

Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

The weather has finally turned mild compared to the nasty April start. I spent a bit of time in the garden yesterday just puttering and enjoying the new growth. Now this is rather bitter sweet in some ways as we do have the house listed for sale and our offer was accepted on another house. Basically the only thing we have to do to move is sell our house. Looking at all I've accomplished in

It's springtime and time to do a little updating on the blog. Over the next few days you will see a lot of changes and at times the blog may look just a tad weird as I tweak the elements and template. Sorry for any inconveince.Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

Naked Lady LiliesAmaryllis belladonnaDespite the recent cold weather, signs of spring are all around us. Yesterday a house finch and goldfinch were visiting my neighbour's niger seed feeder. The bluejays are coming around for their daily peanut offering. If I don't have the peanuts out by the time they arrive, one of the bluejays has taken to sitting on the windowsill then tapping on the

Enjoy!Garden Gnome©2007

Standing GuardGarden 2006Garden gnomes bring good luck to your garden and work hard to help your garden prosper but sometimes they need a bit help. That is where other garden decorations can help. Garden decorations add a touch of whimsy to the garden but they can also help in pest control. Pests are smart especially the rabbits who likely have group meeting to decide the best way into my

Buds on Maple TreeMarch 26, 2007Mike Thomas, a reformed anti-blogger who's blog is call Brannigans Law commented on my cooking blog about a video his wife had made about gnomes. I just had to check out her video called "I Think I'm a Gnome Now". This is a must see for all gardeners unless of course you don't like gnomes. I have three of gnomes in the video: Jack, Jeff and Phillip. Thanks

There have been a few signs of spring here. The temperatures reached 77ºF here on Monday and that's after our first thunderstorm of the season. Yesterday I spotted our first robin, the bluejays were back to pecking at the window and the weather was very mild. So I did a little garden work, took the solar lights out to charge in the greenhouse and take a few pictures.ChivesI have two outdoor

Phillip & JeffPlease welcome Phillip and Jeff, my newest gnomes checking out one of the seed trays. They arrived by gnometravel this morning. While Gnameless is still looking for help in the garden, these two don't really looking like they have their mind on garden work. But that's ok because I'm sure Gnameless already knows that a gnome village requires input from all the little folk. Gnomes

Ten Ways to Go Green in the Gardencompostuse mulchuse only organic fertilizersmanually remove pestscollect rainwater for garden watering needsuse solar powered lighting instead of electricattract beneficial insectsuse natural pesticidesuse companion plantinguse organic soil ammendmentsHappy Gardening!Garden Gnome©2007

SunriseLexington Harbour, MichiganA very condensed version of this entry was first posted on my personal blog, My Journey this morning. Once I started writing it, I thought if expanded it would make a good entry here. The entry on that blog starts with a little animation I was playing with this morning but I thought for this entry, I would start out with a sunrise picture since skywatching is

Gnameless Gnome & JackGnameless gnome was used to being the only gnome in my garden. As you can see he lost a couple of pieces off his rake so I'll have to see if I can find a way to fix that for him. He was joined by a wide variety of other garden decorations. This year I decided to use a unifying theme instead of a mish mash of decorations. Of course that theme had to be gnomes! The

It's that time of year folks! Time to get all the seed packets in order, start seedlings indoors and get your hands dirty. It's also a good time to rejuvenate and start houseplants. Let the fun begin!Seeds Everywhere!I admit it, I'm just a little behind on starting my seeds indoors but only by a few days. Yesterday was sunny and a balmy 63ºF so that spurred me into action. Unfortunately the

Garden GoodiesI treated myself yesterday for behaving at the dentist. I hate dentists so actually bribed myself. Yes I know, I clearly stated here that I was gnomifying the garden and I am but the store I stopped at had no gnomes! I bought two new bird feeders and solar lights. I think I might pick up another set of the post solar lights and perhaps another solar rock. All are on sale until

Balloon FlowerPlatycodon grandiflorumThe balloon flower is one of my favourites. Platycodon means like a broad bell and grandiflorum means having big flowers. The plant gets its name from the shape of the buds. They look like small pillowy balloons. I only have one balloon flower plant. It usually blooms in early to midsummer. This plant does seem to be rather hardy. A well meaning family

Stella de Oro DaylilySpring is just around the corner even though it does not feel that way today. It is cold with freezing rain and snow flurries. Everything was coated with ice this morning thanks to the Colorado Clipper as it made its way northeast. I'm itching to be in the garden again! This week I will be starting a few seeds indoorsGardens can be so much more than just plants and while

MarigoldThe marigolds were wonderful last summer so I have several close-ups. I'm playing with Adobe Photoshop today. Can you tell I'm bored and itching to get into the garden? I'm learning lots of neat tricks and thought this photo would lend itseld to the technique I wanted to use.It is getting time to start seeds indoors for us. Some of the seed packs say to start 8 to 12 weeks before

Cactus SeedlingsThe cactus seedlings continue to grow. There are now twenty seedlings but they are too small to determine what kind of cactus yet. I think they fairly close to being the same yet some have a tinge of pinkish red while the rest are green. They should be developing tiny spines shortly.Happy Gardening!Garden Gnome© 2007

Garden Under SnowThe garden is under snow thanks to the recent snow storm. While it has been blowing quite a bit creating drifts the garden is surviving. The greenhouse is not opened at the moment but if we dig a bit we can get a few fresh herbs. Still the blanket of snow looks rather nice even though there is little growing at the moment.Garden Gnome© 2007

I thought I would share this picture taken last spring. I used it for an animation project on one of my Yahoo groups. It is animated but for some reason the animation gets stripped when uploaded to my blog. Aside of the animation, this picture was a bit more challenging as I played with the filters in Photoshop and used several layers.I find wild violets (family - Viola) delightful! We are

Cactus SeedlingsIt took a bit longer but there are now eight cactus seedlings. They are about a quarter of an inch tall. There are a few seeds that haven't germinated yet so perhaps they will before the dome lid needs to be removed. Now the soil needs to be kept just moist to prevent the seedlings from rotting but to give enough moisture to allow the seedlings to survive until the first spines

An early spring has been predicted by Wiarton Willy who did not see his shadow this morning. His prediction doesn't quite match The Old Farmer's Almanac (2007) for this area. They predicted the "groundhog peeks, freaks! Six more weeks!". February is predicted to be -11ºC (3º below avg). A snow storm is predicted for February 5 to 8 and more snow throughout the month. March is prediced to be

Cactus SeedlingsI brought home a cute cactus starting kit from Las Vegas on our recent trip. This was an ideal solution since I thought trying to transport cactus plants on the plane or through Canadian customs would be problematic. The kit came with the soil, a seed packet that could contain upto ten varieties of cactus (including saguaro, prickly pear, cholla, fire barrel, fishhook barrel and

GnomesMontelago Village, Lake Las Vegas, NevadaThe number one question I get online is "Why the nickname Garden Gnome?". The nickname originated from a smart alec comment from my youngest referring me to a Gnome because of my short stature. The Garden part came because ove my ever expanding garden and desire to spend more time there. Gnomes have always been interesting to me likely because of

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Our winter vacation was spent in Las Vegas, Nevada. We stayed at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street in the downtown core area. While the main attractions in Las Vegas are entertainment and gambling, the area offers so much more. As always we rented a vehicle for sight seeing.Las Vegas lies in the northern region of the Mojave Desert, a desert that is hot and dry with little precipitation,

January 16 - 25, 2006See You Soon!Garden Gnome©2007

Water IrisesGarden water features need not be elabourate or expensive. They are a fun way to add interesting aquatic plants to your garden. A previous entry showed water hyacinth growing in a large potting tub this past year. Anything that will hold water can be converted to a water feature so get creative. Containers can be camoflauged by using other potted plants if you wish. Be sure to