Post Retirement

       I should now have more time for knitting, gardening, and to a lesser extent cleaning and cooking. Yes, I was retired at the end of November. Hurrah!
       As I haven't posted since July (last year!) I shall do some catching up.

       We had a terrific raspberry crop again this year!

I was surprised because I thought they were on a good year/bad year cycle. However! A generous application of horse manure in the spring might have had something to do with it. They're an unknown (to me) variety, with very tall ( up to 3 metres) smooth canes which produces fruit from August first or so for a good three or four weeks. I have a lot of jam and frozen raspberries in the freezer and so do many of our friends! Despite this success (or perhaps in case something strikes them down sometime) I've started another bed of raspberries, from some canes I got from Anne. Again, unknown variety, but hers are more typical, with thorny, shorter canes, but are a bit later and have huge pyramidal fruit. She also has the golden fall ones (called "Anne") and they are suckering up all over so I may get some of those too. Problem is where to locate them, as they need a permanent spot with lots of sun. Our original ones are getting to be shaded by some growing trees so they may have to be relocated sometime in the future. So far so good, however. 

In addition to "Primuland", I developed a new bed at the entrance to the woodland garden this summer. It has things which like a bit of shade. I visited a garden which had a load of geranium macrorrhizum bordering the beds, and, as I had a shedload of these seedlings, I bordered it with them. There were a few things which had to come in for the winter (fuchsias, etc), but the other day I was out looking and the hart's tongue fern is still there, and still green. The painted Japanese ferns have of course disappeared for the winter but I'm confident they'll be back. I had a couple of little tiny seedling Japanese maples which I put in here as well. Maybe it will be my Japanese garden? I have a couple of rhododendrons in the woodland garden, and one of them was viciously attacked by some beastly insect (I suspect) so I don't know if it will survive. It was an Elphidote - one of the miniature ones, like Karen Seleger but white blooms, and it had bloomed a lot in the spring.

        Other lovelies: In the bed in front of the lilacs, a  

nice mix of sweet William, geranium, and rose campion. These are the ones which I am sure will bloom again next summer (they grew many sets of basil leaves after blooming) and which I have very successfully grown from seed - in abundance, waiting in the vegetable plot to be planted out in the flower beds. There is a really lovely bright magenta one which looks superb with the grey foliage, but we can't seem to get it - or the white one - to survive/bloom. Luckily I like pink, but I'm not giving up on the others! Loads of people have them.

        Five years ago I started a new garden, based on shrubs, to the west of the house. I wanted to collect many of the superb hydrangeas which have been developed recently. It takes a long time! But I have many of my favourites and am now impatiently waiting for them to develop and bloom. This one is a big fave, as the blooms last a long time. I think it is "Nikko Blue" macrophylla hydrangea. In the past few years I've added some rhododendrons to this area too, two last year: Rhododendron "Roseum Elegans" and a "Minnetonka" which is the only one of the lot with buds on. They are all in a line above the path at the top of the west garden. I see many more places for rhododendrons, including a spot where we've cut a hole in the spruce hedge to be able to see the water again from the deck - the rhodos will fill in the hole and cover the spruces' dead lower branches, but not block the view. That is the plan at any rate.

         Last but not least. I've been wanting one of these

veronicastrums for years, and now I have two! They are still very small, but I hope they will settle in here and develop. They also come in white (mine are both pink) and they are very tall.Perhaps I need some white ones too.

High Summer

      It's rose season, and lots of the inmates are doing their best to cheer up the view. This is one of my climbers which hasn't bloomed for the last three years, but it is covered this year. The blooms are a simply glorious, deep, velvet-ty red. It is Henry Kelsey, one of the Explorer roses. I moved it from the rose mound a number of years ago, and I think it has finally ceased to sulk and has settled in to be a stunner. It is away back at the east side of the property so you have to go for a walk in order to see it. I often forget about it when I am doing photos and have to make a special trip. It's been blooming full belt since about the first week of July.

          The rosa gallica Tuscan Superb is doing a lot of blooming also, and it's a slightly deeper deep red, or slightly purplish red. (This photo does it no favours.) I wanted to be able to paint our house the colour of this rose, but I don't think paint comes

in colours this subtle.
     The rose Snowy Pavement has been great, both in blooming and in spreading itself about. This shot is of the one on the south side of the ring-around-the-rosey bed. Lovely subtle lilac shade and a terrific scent. I had pruned the original one on the rose mound last fall, and it is coming back well.

The rosa multiflora was NOT blooming for the wedding, but it bloomed very successfully since. I had pruned it very hard back in the fall and again in spring, and it took this as an excuse to become HUGE. I am leaving it alone for now, as the hips are a great addition to Christmas decorations, but I'll never again worry that I've been too harsh with it. It can take it very well. This shot is when it's in full bloom, and all that green on top is the next year's canes. It doesn't re-bloom (or at least not very much) on the old ones.

     In addition to admiring the roses I have been trying to get all of the plants I've collected or sown into the ground. It has been a challenge to say the very least. For example, I planted rose campion from seed, and they have been very successful in both germination and in surviving being pricked out. As a result I must have planted out 7 or 8 dozen of them. They are biennials, so I put them into the cutting bed of the vegetable garden, to grow on, to be placed in the flower garden next year. However, I have some rose campion planted out two years ago, blooming now, and I'm not sure if they will survive to bloom again next year. If they do I shall be over-run with rose campion. I may have to sell them or give them away.

      This week I've been developing "Primuland", a special area for my extensive primula collection (do you see what I did there?).  It's facing south and quite near the road, and, in summer, quite shady, except at mid-day. The weeping purple beech and the chamaecyparis were planted there a couple of years ago.
      I hope that before the trees leaf out the primulas will have a chance to bloom in the sunshine. I also put in a stephanandra, a creeping rhododendron, and some sedum, creeping phlox  and erica carnera seedlings I generated this spring. And I stuck in a couple of pots of blooming things and some pinks for colour.
       In the area below the yellow birch I am planning to add a bed of the orange flowers that are scattered around here and there amongst all the pink ones. I find them a bit jarring and think they would do better off on their own. I expect I shall find I have far more of them than the space will hold! However there is a possibility of digging out a matching bed on the other side of this little lawn area (perhaps I should say former lawn area? Yeah, more lawn gone!) and more oranges/yellows could go there. I know I have a couple of daylilies including two big thickets of Franz Hals, and my geums should go there too. There are others but I have to wait until they have finished blooming before moving. Just now I am smothering the grass with carpet in those areas.

Too Busy!

     This is iris 'Ziggy', the first time it's bloomed since I bought it at the Veseys fall sale in 2014. Pretty glorious.

        I've been gardening frantically, but knitting has gone by the wayside for the moment. We have a wedding NEXT WEEK so everything revolves around that. The bride and fiance arrived yesterday so I expect the pace to pick up considerably.

       In late spring we had two weeks of an upper-level low which dumped a lot of rain on us, but lately the warmth has come and the garden has benefitted. However, the peonies, upon which we have been basing a lot of floral ideas, have been held back nicely. I think we should have lots and lots for floral arrangements.
 

But not these babies, unfortunately. The two surviving tree peonies are blooming like good 'uns but they are now over, or nearly so. Spectacular, however! And this one, the Paeonia suffruticosa 'Renkaku had eight blooms!
      Now I am keeping a weather eye on my ring-around-the-rosey bed, as the Rosa multiflora should just about be blooming on July 3.  They will be just the ticket for a massive, ceremony-backing arrangement with branches over 10 feet long.  Now I just need a HUGE bucket, and something to disguise the fact that it is a bucket. No problem!
     Veseys has had another sale, this time of bare-root things, and as usual Anne and I have splurged quite A LOT. Lots of hardy hibiscus, roses, clematis - If the NEXT wedding is in five years, they should be ready.

Early Spring?

We hardly dare hope. But it has been mild and even rainy, so most of the snow is gone, and most of the ice in the river and the Bay. Yesterday it blew hard from the northwest, so I expect much of the ice in the Strait is over on the other side now. I certainly can't see any from here.
I have been starting seeds, mainly the really hardy ones in milk jugs for outside, and a few things in the house - sweet peas, peppers, anemonies (no sign of them so far, but Anne did hers at the same time, and, with the same result as me, excavated one last week. There are roots!) Most of my fuchsias are sprouting new growth here in the office, and the all-white ones have buds on, the crazy things! Unfortunately I'm not seeing anything on the more unusual ones - two triphylle 'Gartenmeister Bonstedt' I bought late in the season, and another really tiny one in the typical pink-and-purple. They may have gotten too dry in the garage.
I have put the smaller wire-and-plastic greenhouse out inside the polytunnel (which has withstood the weather perfectly!) and last weekend I put bubble wrap around it to see if I can keep it from getting below freezing inside it. It would be so lovely to put out some of the hardier things - I am sure the sweet peas would bush up (they are very stretched right now) and other things would do well. But it was -8 outside last night (and windy) so I doubt we managed above zero last night. I bought a great little battery-operated temperature and humidity gauge that records the lows and highs, so I have been keeping records out there for a couple of weeks. Soon!

January Thaw

         This was the post-Christmas snowfall - a festive look in the front yard. However it is all gone now, as we are having a break from the wintry weather. A bit of rain and quite a lot of wind, but warm. I looked out in the afternoon and the sky was blue! And the solar water heater was cranking out hot water in the basement.         
          Decided to go for a walk, up the hill as far as the golf course. In our sheltered corner there was not much evidence of the wind, but it was still blowing up on the hill, on my back as I walked. I was a bit worried about the return journey but it was not too bad - a function of the +5 degree temperature! However it started to rain a bit as I neared home.
               I stopped in at the polytunnel to give it a bit of a face-lift. It had popped a few clips on the Southeast corner in the wind before Christmas, and then of course the clips were under the snow so I couldn't do anything about it. However! The snow has disappeared and the clips were just where I thought they'd be so I got it all put back together again. It's a bit damp inside but warm. I wish I could grow out there! But I am not deceived. The cold will return.
            The cold frame was bare as well, and everything inside looks great. A bit dry but I don't want to water, as there's cold coming tomorrow - and snow on Wednesday. And as I look out now there are flurries. It's been nice to have the break, though.

Mists and Mellow

How did it get to be October so quickly? I am still in the garden, tying up the new raspberries and getting ready to plant garlic - and I think I am going to try fall sowing potatoes. Always something new to try! The rudbeckia I grew from seed this spring is really strutting its stuff at the moment. They are certainly doing better than the echinaceas, but of course they are perennials and the rudbeckia are not.
Another annual I shall certainly plant again is ricinus communis (Castor Bean) which didn't get as large as I'd hoped but still is making quite an impact.

The burgundy ones look the best but I like the red stems on the green ones. Those to the west of the house are big and doing well, but haven't produced seed, I suspect because they don't get sun until the afternoon. I hope to get enough seed from the ones in the photo to produce next year's crop! And speaking of seed, I am harvesting seed from Anne's giant bachelors' buttons (the ones I grew, I mean) to be able to plant them again. (*Update: They are Centurea Aloha alba - and there are 'rose' ones as well. Must find some. )I'll put them farther back in the border next year. They turned out quite tall.

The geranium "Rozanne" is in this same bed (and there's another one in another bed as well) and it has been blooming all summer and fall. It is certainly as good as everyone says.The cosmos are keeping on but man, did they ever get big as well! There are amaranthus in this bed too, but, unlike last year, they did nothing this time. Curses. I have some verbena "Bonariensis" here too, doing well. I actually saw some in parks in Dartmouth when we were there in September - catching on for municipal planting!!
I have harvested the cranberries in my cranberry bog - I think I counted 61 this year, up from 12 last year. And it's the big apple harvest I anticipated - we have had apple crumble and apple cake already, and they are only getting started ripening.The pruning last winter did no harm at all.

Heat Wave

      It's going to go to 31 degrees today, and the rest of the week will be in the high 20s. Not too nice for working in the garden, though I did do some renewing of shrub roses, cutting back a couple of Therese Bugnets, a Hansa, a Snowy Pavement and a Jens Munk.  I have more to do, but once it got to 11:30 I left the outdoors to bake on its own and came in. I did drag all the detritis to the burn pile, as roses like these have many too many thorns. They never compost down, the thorns, so for safety I have been burning them.  Not today, of course, but some cool damp day in September or October.
      I have been working on the pathways and seating area to the west of the house - finally got the landscape fabric and the wood chips spread for the seating area - now to work on the seats! I have a plan to sand down and spar varnish our old Ikea living room furniture - 2 loveseats and a sofa (or 2 two-seaters and a three-seater) and put outdoor fabric on the cushions. This may not all get finished this year! Anyway I could put them in the seating area, perhaps with the blue sunshade over them - or maybe we can get a screen house! (I have simply given up with the bloody mosquitoes - they are everywhere when I'm outdoors, probably because we have such good shelter - there's no wind to drive them away. I travel in a constant aura of Off when outside.) So, the woodchips need quite a bit of packing down, but we'll be able to get some of that done when it comes time to put the wood in the basement.  Tramp tramp tramp.

      It's a bit sunny there at the moment, but later on in the afternoon the linden will shade it - and there's usually a westerly breeze along the upper driveway that makes it nice for sitting. Or at least I hope so. The logs will be replaced by Island sandstones, as I locate them!
     We have been enjoying the woodland garden's coolness too - I put the hammock up in there, and it's a great spot for an after-lunch nap - or a reading spot. The lounger is there too, so Fred can nap too if he's having a day off. I have planted a couple of rhododendrons there - a Lepidote "Aglo" and another of the mini ones - like Karen Seleger but this one is white. And a tiny offshoot of Karen Seleger which was in the pot when I bought her, and I nursed her along in the cold frame and in the pot, but she wasn't showing any sign of growing so I put her in the ground too. I hope there will be enough light for them in there - of course we are planning to take down a few of the old pinus niger trees and that should improve things light-wise.

Invincibelle Spirit hydrangea

       I have been doing some propagation- the "Invincibelle Spirit' hydrangea had a broken limb that wasn't quite severed, but the blooms weren't coming out on it, so I cut it off and made up 9 cuttings. I had started a pot of Glowing Embers hydrangea earlier - still no sign of roots but I'm no givin' up! And the other day I pruned a lavender and had to take off some lower, dead stuff and one bit had some live stuff above, so I have a couple of pots of lavender. And, a propos of the woodland garden, I took some sprigs off the yew at the Hall, and I have them in pots now, too. I'm mostly using the shelf under the East window in the office for this - it is MUCH TOO HOT in the polytunnel for this stuff.
      Apparently yew loves the dark, and while I have not been able to source any of the fancy particular ones I've read about (that don't grow too big, etc.), I figure the bog-standard variety will be challenged enough in the woodland garden to stay a reasonable size. That's what I'm hoping, anyway.