My Lovely Garden … Mon Joli Jardin

No matter the language, my garden is my paradise. To watch the lovely birds that nest in the trees and bushes. The bees, butterflies are such a joy to see.

Tag Archives: Yorkshire Tea


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A variety of things, including flying, gardening, mulch .. etc.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

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So, August is zipping along.  Lots of gardening.  Lots of flying.  Now that summer is here in full force, it’s so easy to forget those cold rainy days.

Veggies are growing well.  I finally shovelled the last of the 5 yards of the miracle mulch and so the perennials have a nice soft blanket to retain moisture and keep the soil cool.

And yesterday, so lucky .. woke up to the sound of branches being buzzed and then ground up as a few neighbourhood trees were being trimmed.  These included an oak tree.

Quickly grabbed my mug of Yorkshire Tea and dashed out the door … and politely asked the working crew if I may have the chips!  Well, lucky me .. they said yes and I was ecstatic.  These are things that only a fellow gardener can understand!

So at least 1 ½ yards were gently deposited on a tarp in the driveway and I spent a few happy hours shovelling up this lovely mulching material and spreading under our first Christmas tree … the 2 yards that I placed there yesterday has nearly disappeared.

And I noticed that this tree only has a very few cones on it this year .. this means that the tree is not under stress.  Finally, I’m giving it the love and attention that it needs.

Once all this shovelling was done, I decided to clip some roses for drying.  But first, I:

–          Discovered that the branches of an old apple tree in the back were in my way, so went to find the clippers to trim away some of the ones that were at eye-height

–          Then I thought it would be a good time to drag out the soaker hoses for the recently updated side yard .. this took a good chunk of time as I sorted through the two sizes of hoses and too late remembered that I couldn’t attach the 3/8 to the 5/8 .. so undid my work and started again

–          Put aside a tarp to take to the front yard, to help when I weed that area

–          Became enthralled with the sight of the bees buzzing around flowers, so took pictures

–          Again, became enthralled with the skies up above and more time spent there

–          Took a few minutes to search for berries

–          Had a look at the various squash, basil and pea pods growing

–          Then finally I walked to the rose-bush, clippers in hand (after searching for a basket to hold the flowers) and finished what I’d wanted to start over an hour ago, that is, clipping roses

Then, time to go to the front yard and begin pulling out some invasive perennials .. they’ve served the purpose of greening up the yard, but time to remove these, fluff up the soil and then go shopping for some ferns and things to complete the woodland look along the front of our first Christmas tree.

And now I must go outside and continue what I started yesterday.

I forgot to mention that my work was stopped by a thunder & lightning storm …  heavy raindrops, thank you for watering my garden!

🙂


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Oh, clouds, way up in the sky … you teased me into procrastination and won the day!

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

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Oh, I was such a little window fighter yesterday!  All gung-ho to plant and not procrastinate.  However, life doesn’t always go the way you plan it!

Started out with:

– mug of Yorkshire tea – check

– Sudoku & pencil – check

– hose connected and water on – check

– iPod music playing – check

– several tomes of gardening books to check on plant size – check

– camera ready for taking photos of birds/trees .. whatever – check

– beautiful skies above – check  … and here is where I met my downfall and paired up yet again with my ole pal, Procrastination.

Looked up and saw the most beautiful blue skies dotted with puffy clouds and decided to walk around and take some aerial photos.

Somehow ended up by the gigantic yellow globe Buddleia at the side yard.  Hmmm .. this plant has morphed into a giant .. some branches would do best to be trimmed.  So I fetched my clippers and started making a few trims of outstretched growth.

And, a few hours later, I’d pruned the plant down to just one main stem.  Discovered that the rapid growth was gently squeezing the life out of my cedar trees, planted a few years ago.  I say “gently” because the cedars were still bright green, but they were sort of pushed in at the sides.

I trimmed quite a few branches for propagating … oh, just stop me now!  Then I decided to make a mulch out of the balance, so a few hours of trimming the supple branches and leaves .. they might as well be added to the compost, to add to the garden later.

Then I started looking at the Crocosmia plants.   Several people had given me the corms over the years and I’d just planted them here and there in the yard.  Well, I’m not spreading rumours, but, since I’ve added EM to the soil, I’ve noticed that plants have started exploding in growth.  Seriously, I’m not kidding.

Where there were only a few raspberry canes, a few Crocosmia plants last year .. and that was fine .. this year they are bursting out of the ground.  I pulled hundreds of Crocosmia plants out of the ground and the same story with the raspberry canes.   I’ve grown these raspberry plants for years and never, ever, have they grown so abundantly.

And then I noticed the lily plant .. now this one I don’t remember planting, but it appeared last year .. very demure and sweet, about 2 feet tall.   Last night, I looked “up” at this same plant, it’s over 6 feet tall!

I noticed my Mock Orange plant is growing, but all twisty and turny .. so time to move it to a place where it can grow up a bit straighter, with more room.

Where the cedars have been given space to grow, these are lush and taller .. and some of the smaller ones need to be dug up and moved over a bit.

I ripped out all the hundreds of annual flowers, the flowers have bloomed already, but these are taking up too much room.  Darn that EM anyway, ha ha ha.

So, procrastination won out in the end.  I admit defeat yesterday.  But, on the bright side, I tackled a chore that wasn’t even on my list (that is, if I had a list, ha ha ha ).   And I made changes that I wasn’t aware needed to be done.   That is .. clearing away space so my cedars can grow.

That side of the yard feels much more spacious now .. it’s a good feeling.

I was going to post photos, but decided that I’ll show those pics tomorrow.

For today, I just want to share some of the sky pictures that caught my attention in the first place .. and the reason why I succumbed to procrastination.

🙂


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Thursday, a day of cloud and rain and playing in the garden .. oh joy!

Friday, June 29, 2012

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So Thursday was a mixed bag of weather, I seem to remember sunshine in the morning and later this morphed into an overcast type of day.

Perfect for puttering in the yard.

I continued to pursue the digging around the cherry tree. Poor ole ground has been neglected for a while, it’s mostly tough and unyielding. Time for a change.

Using a lot of the composted material from an area that has served as the latest composting area, the one with the spoiled hay and all the other goodies, I began to pile on the lovely decomposing material. Lovely earthy scent. Lots of big fat earthworms.

Using my lovely Lee Valley angled hand digger, I soon have the outline perfect. And then I used the edger to score neater edges, but the soil is that hard that the hand digging works better.

Soon I’ve added in the balance of all the mosses .. some of the potted Scotch mosses have grown so well since last year that they are nearly triple in size. Then I place some geraniums around .. they always add a spot of cheer. I’m not a big fan of annuals, but they do work to add that instant colour.

Looking at my finished work (but, you know, it’s not really finished, I’ll be adding some Sweet Woodruff and a few other low growing perennials) .. I can see that in just a month’s time, this area will be just be growing so well! And of course I added a generous amount of EM .. so should be seeing some differences of new growth in a few weeks. Pics to follow!

Mixed up a few more watering cans of diluted EM and generous applications made to perennials around the yard. Noticed that some of the plastic seams are coming apart one of the containers .. uh, oh, must remember to rinse them out with water .. the busy little critters are eating away the plastic!

Checking on my garlic .. starting to wonder if these vigorous stems and leaves will also lea to gigantic bulbs, or is all the growth going to them and not the bulb? gulp … only another week or so to find out. Although, my pal D says it’s ok to pick them anytime, so I might be tempted to try one today.

I keep finding little garlic scapes! Honestly, I swear that they hide beneath the leaves! Just when I think that I’ve gathered all of them, then I find a few more! In the fridge, I have a Ziploc bag of garlic scapes, they must weigh at least a pound or so, quite heavy. Today I’ll pick up some almond chips and whir up another batch tonight .. and will store them in the freezer, in round, patty shapes, easy to lift out one and add to quinoa or whatever.

Still picking up cherries dropped by the wind/birds. See the robins vying for the best ones at the top .. too high for us to climb with the ladder .. glad to see them enjoying the fruits.

The apples are getting larger and the berries are getting closer to that ripe stage.

Loving the peace and tranquility in the yard. Listening to beautiful music on the iPod, sipping a mug of Yorkshire Tea. Watching the birds zip around the yard. A bright yellow butterfly flits by.

Entering that place where creativity resides .. leaving only space for beauty, peace and joy. The magic of the garden .. that’s empowering.

Today, after a few necessary outside duties .. it’s back to the garden.

Lovely .. lovely .. lovely


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Tuesday was a stunner. And .. can you make pesto from leeks???

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

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Tuesday started off cool and cloudy and then morphed into a wonderful sunny day, yeah!!!!

I spent the entire day outside … except for tea breaks, lunch breaks, visiting with DH.

And what a day.

The winds continued all day ..blowing the clouds around into the most amazing shapes.   So lucky I can just stop whatever I’m doing so I can just stand there and look up at the shifting shapes.

Saw a glory in one set of clouds, but the refraction of the sun kept entering the shot, so I couldn’t get a good visual to take a picture.  oh well.  I love those “circular rainbows” .. so sparkly and pretty.

At one point, a whir of twinkling colour flew back and forth above my head .. it was a dragonfly! It looked all shiny and new.  And it flew so quickly here and there that I had a time trying to fix it in my vision.  Too swiftly, it flew higher and higher and soon was gone from sight.  One of those magical garden moments.

Sitting on the back steps, Sudoku and mug of Yorkshire Tea .. I finally heard the delicate, cheerful –  high-pitched chattering song of the Bushtits!  Yeah …. I was beginning to wonder.  So I just sat there motionless …trying to get a fix on where they were. They were flitting about the branches on the apple tree .. about the same size as the small apples, so I had to look very closely.  Luckily I was able to get a few pictures.   Darling little birds.

Later on I saw them flying about a few old trees at the other side of the yard.  So happy to see them.

Another magical moment and I don’t have photos of this .. but .. I was refilling the suet holder at another apple tree and suddenly there appeared a little Nuthatch.  Sweet.  He/she just perched on a branch inches away from my face.   Then he flitted about, always settling down on a branch and seemed to look quizzically at me.  So I held out the suet filled holder, just to see if he would perch on it .. but he flew away.

The house sparrows are not nice birds, from what I’ve heard.  Bossy and shoving and pushing all other birds away.  So when I hear them making a big commotion in the trees, I make clapping noises to send them on their way.

I can’t control the birding world, but I can intercept when I can and that’s what I’ll do.

So I’m still waiting to see the Downy Woodpeckers .. maybe they come out at different times of the day during the summer.

interesting article (Larry Pynn, Vancouver Sun) in the Times Colonist this morning “B.C. coastal bird populations plummet, survey shows” … 35 per cent drop in birds over the past 4 decades.  Populations of “aerial insectivores” – swallows, swifts and nightjars, all of which are in B.C. are down more than 80% in Canada.

The causes??? fewer insects due to widespread application of pesticides & climate change upsetting the timing of insect production in relation to nesting of long-distance migrant birds.

Just say NO to pesticides.  Is this a no-brainer?

Well, no pesticides in our little gem of paradise.

Anyway … I finished putting the final layer of seaweed at the base of the garlic patch.  And .. lucky me .. I found more garlic scapes.   Even more than I’d harvested a few days ago!  Plus, I kept breaking away the broken stems from the scapes harvested previously also.  They do keep on growing.

And Bridget http://arignagardener.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/the-longest-day/ wonders if one can make a pesto out of leeks?  I wonder .. does anyone know?  I’m not enough of a creative chef to have tried this.

I finally planted those Kentucky wonder beans … they are nicely settled in to their new location.  I’m so looking forward to see how they grow.

Found a stray tomato plant growing amongst the garlic .. so planted it in a sunny area.  It was very wilted so I watered it with the magical EM and so will see today how well it is doing.

Transplanted some basil into a sunny area of the garden.  More EM!

Checked out my seedlings.  This should be interesting, as the labels have flown away so I’ll have some surprise plantings.    Thy mystery plants will unfold during the summer.

Cleared away some more garden pots.   I’ll be giving away hundreds.   I’ve been storing the empty plant pots in large storage containers.  And now ask myself “why”?   It’s not like I’m planning to have a plant nursery.  Oh, that did cross my mind .. but not for now.  If I need pots, I can always get more.

Feels good to create empty space in the storage area where I keep my plant supplies.  More space where I can bring out my creative paints, beads, tiles, etc. and jut paint in the sunshine.  Let free my creative spirit and just play.

Well .. dressed for the garden.  No evening dress & high heels for me.  Just my Car-hartt denim overalls, long-sleeved shirt, bright socks and gumboots.   Outside to play!

🙂


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Flying and Gardening .. what a great mix for a Tuesday, wouldn’t you say?

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

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Tuesday starts off nice and sunny.   Plans to go outside and play in the garden change .. as DH & I head off to the local airport.

Early lunch.

Tuesdays, Dak prepares authentic Vietnamese food and today this is curried chicken!  With 2 decadent pork deep-fried egg rolls.  I’m so hungry after a few days of not being able to eat much .. and chow down.  Still, need help from my DH to finish the generous portion of curried chicken, rice, pea pods and green peppers.

A few cups of tea and then we are outside … DH to prep the plane for our flight .. and me .. to tend to the garden outside the restaurant.  I’ll post a few pics later.

Due to the magical mix of EM, lots of sun and ample rain .. all the plants are growing well.  Except .. a bit of care is needed.  The Calendula flowers are rapidly going to seed and need to be ruthlessly cut down ..  no worries .. they will grow again.

I was so busy clipping and watering, that I didn’t take pics .. but will remedy this next week.  For yesterday, though, I showed tough love  .. cutting away the sections that were going to seed ( I have tons of Calendula seeds anyway).  The Mallow plants (like mini-lavatera) are at least 3 feet high, the seed heads have been forming and so it is time to cut them down.   I have millions of lavatera seeds collected from previous years, so no worries.

The lavender and pansy flowers are quite lush.   The sages are also flowering and I’m hoping to collect seeds from the purple and the green/white variegated sages .. this year.

The Rosemary plants are thriving.  As a matter of fact, all of the plants here are drought tolerant .. that’s why I chose them .. so they are tough as nails.

Next time I go out there, I’ll take lots of pics to share!

So I connected the hose and started watering the plants .. until it was time to fly away!

Being that it was such a beautiful sunny day .. the airport was kind of busy, so we had to wait a little bit before we took off.

What a marvellous time we had .. flew local .. I never get tired of this.  And so thankful that DH provided me with ground school and hours of co-pilot time (with the most wonderful instructor, Kirsten .. she is the best . an amazing instructor) last year.

I am so very happy when we are up in the air.  And, really, not having a sense of direction ..I’m ever so content to sit in the passenger seat!

Loved seeing the fluffy clouds way up high in the sky.  Seeing the tidy ploughed fields below.  the farms looking like little play toys.

After our flight, DH allowed me to dismiss my co-pilot duties and continue on to the garden so that I could finish a thorough watering of the garden area outside of the Dakota Cafe.

Not having my clippers, kneeling pads, and other gardening paraphernalia . .I worked away with a cutting knife, deadheading flowers and then watering the beds.   I’ll work more next week.  I love this volunteer gardening at the cafe .. and have plans to liven up the planter pots.

So tea … and relax in the sun for a bit.

Later, back home .. time to continue with the side yard plantings.  More boxwood cuttings are planted, along with the Southernwood.

And .. emptying the styrofoam planters .. I see the amazing root formations that have taken place on the Southernwood and the other cuttings, including the cedar cuttings.  These I tried, just for the heck of it, last fall.

Yesterday, when I removed the green cedar sections (branch tips) from the planters .. I didn’t actually see roots .. but, I did see the sturdy thick layer forming at the bottom of the stems .. which appear to be the beginnings of hardy roots.   So .. I coat these in mycorrhizal powder and put them all in a single pot … for the summer.  Then, in the fall, I’ll put them back in one of the styrofoam rooting planters.

Then, time to empty the Rubbermaid containers full of seaweed.    Place some around the garlic, some around the squash and tomato plants.  Some, also, in the new veggie section where I will be planting the Kentucky beans .. today, definitely.

I see that Yorkshire Tea has a contest on right now .. a chance to win a YT teapot .. so I quickly fill out the online form and submit.  Fingers, toes and eyes crossed.

This was  quite a day.  Spent mostly in the garden .. with a lovely bit of time way up in the sky with my sweetie ….   it was a great day!

🙂