Old Home Week

        This event is the big provincial exhibition, with animal judging, handcrafts, etc. We went to have a look on Wednesday, and were impressed with the rugs and quilts in particular. There are a couple of evenweave embroiderers who are making impressive things as well. The standards are quite high in those categories - but the older crafts are plugging along as they always have, and the same people are producing the same things... not *quite* crocheted acrylic ponchos but very, very close.
         One of my work-mates entered an apron - very elaborate, with black-and-white coordinated cottons, and jumbo ric-rac. She had made a prototype and wasn't happy with it so refined the pattern and made another. She won 3rd prize! ($2). The first-prize ($7!) winner was a typical "granny" apron with ruffles up the sides and along the straps, made of poly-cotton broadcloth, and fitting, at a guess, a 12-year-old. I am sure the same apron pattern wins every year. Most of the sewing and knitting was along the same lines. I am sure the same judges are looking for the same things, and so no progress is made. It's tempting to enter something! Maybe an elaborate lace shawl in silk - I must finish my "Print 'o the Wave" one!
           The animals were cute - ducks and chickens and sheep - many of the cattle were being shown while we were there, and frankly, watching that takes more expertise than I have. It was HOT for the animals on display, however. I am sure they will be happy to get home again. A highlight was going on a free horse-and-wagon ride around the racetrack - that's a view I've never seen before.

It's not the heat, it's the humidity

       July has been hot! As a result the garden is burgeoning, especially the vegetable one. If I don't have tomatoes within a week I shall be very surprised.

    Unfortunately I have been *working* far too much - full-time this week! - and am so exhausted that I have no energy to work in the garden when I finally do get home. Anne and I went to the Honey Tree nursery and I bought a gingko tree and a Chinese wisteria, and then at the sell-off sale at the Sobeys garden centre (75% off!) I got another Chinese wisteria. Now I need a pergola. I also got some more thyme - I am determined to replace more of the grass with thyme. We saw some gorgeous thyme lawns in a recent visit to North Cape. I am spotting wooly thyme everywhere I go, hoping to dig up and transplant from the roadsides, etc. Now to gather some energy and plant them - except the wisteria and the gingko - I want to baby them on a bit (and plan for a pergola).
     I picked the first raspberries last night, just at dusk, so I may have missed some ripe ones.  There's enough to enliven the breakfast fodder, at least.
     Above is my clematis 'Niobe' - I also bought an 'Elsa Spath' but it didn't bloom yet. I got these at WalMart in the early spring and babied them along in the greenhouse for quite a while. In other clematis news, the mystery one in the flower bed by the lilacs turns out to be another 'Nelly Moser', like the ones I have in the bed by the door. I suppose this means that they are extremely hardy. The two new ones are in the lilac bed, one on either side of the opening between the lawn and the veg. There should be a pergola there too, but I don't think clematis can compete with wisteria.
      And speaking of lilacs, I have cut down the older part of the lilac hedge to half its size. It was getting too big to cut off the spent blooms, and shading the flower bed quite a lot. It looks terrible at the moment, but I am sure it will fill out again, and quite quickly.

I'm making jam, strawberry jam...

       As it says in the song. Just 4 or 5 batches today -

it started to rain while I was in the berry field so I quit, like a wuss. Plan to make strawberry cake as well, for dessert. Gotta get going on that!
         My western garden is doing splendidly this year, it has come along a lot since its initiation, last spring! The F.J. Grootendoorst rose has come along a treat since last June, and the mountain laurel from my birthday before that has grown quite a lot and is looking good too. The variegated wiegelia bloomed as soon as it was planted, not in season, but it has put on a lot of growth since and is looking quite well. There are hydrangeas there, too - and some of them will bloom this summer for the first time.
        The little white rose is Morden "Snowmound" - moved from the rose mound this spring  - and not far away is one of the two "Daydream" roses - I managed to split the one rose plant up, planted one here (just to the left of the "Snowmound") and potted up the other for a bit of babying in the greenhouse for a while before planting it in the bed in front of the door. They are both blooming.

 
      China Doll has been doing well since her move last year, and this year is blooming very prolifically in the bed by the driveway. She does this lovely thing of coming out a really clear pink, and then developing pink freckles as the blooms age. They stay on the plant for a really long time as well.
    And best news of all, the "Ring-around-the-Rosey" bed is doing just what I hoped it would do, when I put it in. Well, perhaps I hadn't expected that the Rosa multiflora would do quite so well, but she's a great big mound of blooms with the other rugosas and hardy roses peeking out around her skirts.

She's a once-bloomer, so when she's done I'll prune her back a bit to give the others some grow room.
    I love rose season! And my very favourite rose, Celestial, is out right now, too.  Must go have a look - and take some photos.

Flaming June!

                 Well, it's been flaming for the past few days at least. We have been travelling, and gardening furiously since our return, so there hasn't been much blogging time. Thanks to wonderful neighbours the plants in the greenhouse were still alive when we returned (June is a BAD time to travel if you are a gardener). There are actual strawberries on the plants inside, ones that should ripen in the next day or so. Don't they look a lot more lush than when they came out of the vegetable plot? The outdoor ones are just a bit behind.
             We dug a new bed for the tomatoes this year, to see if the blight problem will lessen. I was pulling off diseased leaves as I was planting some of the bought ones (Hybrid Sweet 100, my favourite cherry tomato) so I am not - as they say - sanguine. But I buried them all d-e-e-ply, so I hope they grow great stem roots and do better than I expect them to do.

            What's new in floral? Great bloom on the two surviving tree peonies, especially the dark red one, which has 8-10 blooms. The pink one has definitely died, but the rootstock is sprouting again, and I have decided to leave it, as any peony is better than none. The big blue-edged iris is blooming well -

many more blooms came out subsequent to this photo, and they have hidden "back up" blooms when the first ones fade. Spectacular! I notice that the dark burgundy iris I got 2 years ago at the Flower Patch is still not blooming - it has great big leaves but nary a sign of a flower bud - yet. I suppose it is quite a late one. The white Siberica ones are blooming away, though - from the same source. I must find time for a photo shoot tomorrow.  Things are getting ahead of me.

The first rose this year was Fra Dagmar Hartroop (or whichever spelling you fancy). I had noticed many of them in Toronto at the first of the month, blooming away. She seems much happier in her new sunny position in the herbaceous border, though I have to keep an eye on the tanacetum and dicentra around her, as they may try to crowd her out and steal her sun. She is an early one, but repeat blooms very prolifically. There are many more out by now - the David Thompson and of course the rugosas on the mound - where they can get some sun! The "wild" rose is covered with buds - can't wait!
The only other really new thing is this yellow deciduous rhododendron - blooming this year for the first time. I nearly collapsed last fall when the leaves all dropped - I didn't know then that there are deciduous rhodos! My sister gave it to me, and I was sure I had killed it. Phew!

        This is the bloom with our Princess kitty. (This is the last photo I have of her, as she has disappeared, just like Boy kitty did a few years ago. They were both outdoor cats, and we live on a busy road. And there are foxes and even coyotes. I fear she is gone for good.)
The rhododendron I bought last year - a more common mauvish one - didn't bloom but it is putting on good growth, so it seems happy where it is. The mature ones you see around the countryside, blooming their socks off at the moment, are certainly an inspiration.

May is - Popping!

First asparagus!

     Things are growing fast with the warm weather we've had in May. Every morning I go out and find things - that weren't there yesterday - up 20 cm. or so. The classic example of this is the Solomon's seal (Polygonatum multiflorum) which was invisible on Thursday and up fully 25 centimetres on Saturday. It's related to asparagus, and that's been doing very well also - we've eaten it twice so far. This is its third year, so apparently we can go crazy for 6 weeks, and then let the fronds open and grow.  I am planning to try shaved asparagus pizza this week. It comes highly recommended by Emily.
    Vegetable gardening is coming on slowly - I got all of the dandelions dug out of the raised beds and sent off to the government compost facility (ha! take that, dandelions) and put out the onion sets I had started in pots - I had just sprouted the red ones and a few of the whites, so now that the pots are empty I'll start the rest of the whites. It gives them such a great jumpstart. But that is all I have planted so far. My potatoes are chitting, though.

Sarian in pots in the greenhouse

    I bought 25 Kent strawberries at Veseys and plan to rip out the everbearing ones I got there and planted outdoors two years ago - they *do* produce fruit all summer, but only one or two at a time - and I want more productivity.  I still have the Sarian everbearing ones I got at Thompson and Morgan in big pots. Having hoiked them out of the raised bed where they spent the winter, they are now set up on the old deck steps at the back of the greenhouse and are starting to grow, and even bloom. I would like to to try the Beechgrove method of having indoor (June-bearing) strawberries, then an outdoor crop, and then indoors again, to stretch the strawberry season to the whole summer. But first I will have to see how Kent do in my fruit bed. And maybe collect some seedlings from them.
    Speaking of fruit, the hardy cherry bushes, babied along in the greenhouse last summer and planted out last September, are leafing out. And Veseys came through! and we have two Honeycrisp whips, being babied in the greenhouse in their turn. I have to get the posts set up so I can espalier mine. The other one is Anne's. And then, b*gger if there weren't Honeycrisps on sale at somebody's greenhouse opening - Kent I think. They were bigger than ours, and less expensive too. Ah well. We do have other apples for pollination on the property, but I want to get a couple more trees for the espalier - different varieties, but good new ones.  Anne had gotten three "Anne" raspberries from her friend Lise, sent from Veseys, and I potted them up for her to decide where to put them, when she gets back home. We are planning to stay over at hers and do some cleaning up tomorrow, so I must get myself organized. Much to do!

Chilly April

 

Crocus, up and blooming under the viburnum!

       I'm having a domestic engineering day, because it's only 5 degrees out and I don't want to have to bundle up in winter gear to get out and garden. And anyway the house needs work. I am planning an all-out assault on our bedroom - Spring cleaning, if you like. The duvet cover is in the laundry and I think the curtains are coming down for a wash. I may even replace them for the summer, I don't know. A freshen-up is in order (and there's a wide variety of curtain fabric on clearance at the shop).
       Spring is progressing, as is gardening - I have re-skinned the greenhouse, and, innovation for the year, I have a thermometer out there, which, yesterday when the sun was out, was reading 40 degrees C. I opened up the ends to cool things down, although the only plants out there at the moment are onion sets, sprouting. I must also get some potatoes chitting right away.
        I finished feeding and mulching half of the raspberries yesterday. I am using for mulch some bags of wood pellets which had spent the winter outdoors and absorbed a lot of water, returning to their original sawdust form. I hope the fertilizer I put underneath will prevent it from leaching all the nitrogen from the berries as it decomposes. I am planning to give them a high nitrogen feed once the leaves start to emerge. I put lots of newspapers under the sawdust, as I am trying to control the cooch grass which is everywhere underneath the raspberry canes. I am trying to just dig it out of the vegetable garden, but it's impossible to get out of the raspberries, short of digging out all the canes. That's Plan B, if the mulch doesn't work! I have also carpeted between the rows, so the cooch should be well-suppressed.

     My "Pot for Winter Colour" is making good progress. There were some lovely dark purple crocus which lasted for weeks, and now the tete-a-tete daffodils are taking over. I haven't moved it indoors for the night in quite some time, even though we had a night-time temperature of  -7 a few nights ago. The flowers seem to have survived, and I hope the pot has too, as it's an unfired one. There are actual tulips coming as the next layer. At Beechgrove, they kept the bulbs in one of their layered pots, dried them off in situ, and got them going again in the fall - just to see what would survive, and it did quite well. I am not sure if I can spare the pot or the space - oh, I suppose it could summer in the greenhouse! Maybe I'll try it.
      My hellebore is blooming, at last! I planted it last spring, and it just sat there with the same 4 leaves all summer. I guess it was building up its strength, because this year it has produced two healthy flower stalks. I am as pleased as Punch.

        Here it is, looking at itself in the mirror so I can see the bloom, as it is a nodding one. There are many more blooms to come, I am pleased to note!

Happy April!

Although the weather is anything but happy. We are burning the last of the wood in the furnace and wearing sweaters indoors, but just can't seem to get warm. It's 3 degrees outside (or was, when we walked earlier) but there is a nasty SE wind and it goes right through you!
 

So, not much spring to report, although there were buds breaking on the beech trees and I saw pussy willows and catkins on the birches. Perhaps we are just beside a stretch of really nice weather. I hope so! I am finding this pot quite cheerful now that the crocus are out, though I am not sure that the daffs and tulips will actually bloom. TWT.

Yesterday I finished all of the Master Gardener course I had time for - I didn't do the assignments on fertilizing and propagating because I didn't plan ahead. I will be pleased if I can get enough marks to pass.

Another thing I'm awaiting is the start of Beechgrove Garden - should be this week! I think they start April 5th, but it may not be posted right away. I am watching Gardeners' World but it's not the same - the English climate is so much better/earlier than ours. The flower beds are still buried in snow here! There, they are planting, dividing perennials...sick-making. Oh well.

I have been finishing up knitting projects and digging out old hibernating ones. Blaithin is finished except for the i-cord bind off and the buttonhole row. I am a bit bothered about how thick the steek sandwich turned out, although there's no doubt that it makes a nice neat finish.

 

 This is the side where I'll make buttonholes, later, when I figure out button placement.

I was worried that the green wouldn't show up very well against the grape but it seems to be visible in the photos at least.

I think I might have to do a few more decrease rounds at the neck- it is quite loose - but otherwise the sweater fits well.

This is the button side, with that nice neat steek sandwich. I will not use such a high-contrast yarn for the crochet the next time - I used a bright orange, and sometimes it peeks out!

I also did some home sewing - a quilted runner, table square and 6 placemats, in shades of brown, oranges and golds to go with the kitchen. They're pretty garish, but I like them!