Birds can be pests at times, but as you can see from the above photo they can also be quite helpful.

I know that when I’m outdoors at dusk or walking in a forest during the summer I tend to get swarmed with bugs (usually mosquitoes). It might actually be nice to have a few birds around to pick them off me like they are doing to the gazelle? in the picture.

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Do you remember the GTS post that I made in early October of a pretty blue wild flower with a snail on it? Well the flower was likely wild Chicory. I took that photo while my husband and I were on a nature hike with our dog in Taylor Creek park here in Toronto.

Well, in early November Chris and I went back to the park with the dog, probably for one of our last walks there this year as the weather is starting to get bad (it’s currently snowing outside as I write this post!).

I took some pictures of the lovely scenery - leaves changing color, and I also took some pictures of flower seed heads as well as action shots of my dog running around like a wild creature!

I believe the seed heads below are from the Wild Chicory. Aren’t they lovely?

I also took a picture of this flower seed head.

I’d first taken a picture of this flower seed head when it started turning in early October. You can see a picture of it on my photo blog. It was quite spectacular in October. Now it’s just a shell of it’s former self. I’m not sure what kind of flower it was though. Any ideas?

IMPORTANT: The company that I use to maintain our GTS blogroll (Blogrolling.com) has been having some problems over the last month or so and they are currently rewriting the code they use to run their site. As a result of this problem I haven’t been able to add or edit any sites on the blogroll.  So if you need a change to your site name or url, or if you’ve added the blogroll to your site (and remembered to let me know) and you’re waiting to be added to the list it will have to wait a while longer.

Please do continue to let me know of any changes you need or if you are a new member feel free to join … we’ll just have to wait for blogrolling to get their site fixed before I can properly maintain the list and add new sites, but I’ll keep your messages and take care of requests whenever I’m able to do so again.

Note- this message goes for anyone who’s on any of the other lists i run such as the dofollow blogroll, Toronto bloggers, Canadian bloggers and the Fabulous Photoblogs blogroll.

If two is company and three’s a crowd, what is it when you haveat least a dozen birds sitting at the table with you?  Not a Hen party! LOL

It looks like she’s given up and she’s just pushing her meal towards the birds, doesn’t it?

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My Monkshood, well the Azure Monkshood I mean, was a little late in blooming this year. It usually blooms in early September and finishes up by early to mid-October. However, this year it didn’t seem to bloom until late September and the blooms, though slightly wilted lasted until sometime last week. Maybe that happened because we had a drier and cooler September than we normally do and I wasn’t out watering.

Here’s a photo of Azure Monkshood:

The next photo is also Azure Monkshood, but for some reason it’s lighter in color than it’s ever been. It’s coloration is more like my Bi-color Monkshood that blooms in June.

I planted a rose in front of the last one so it competes all summer with the rose for water and sunlight. Perhaps that’s another reason why it’s lighter this year. Perhaps I should look up Monkshood and see how easy or hard it is to transplant and then if possible move it next spring to a more open area of the garden.

Sorry this post is late - again. I usually make my GTS posts at around Midnight, but I’ve been feeling quite ill the last two weeks. My Crohn’s is acting up quite badly and sometimes I just don’t feel up to sitting in front of the computer trying to come up with a post.

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It’s getting colder here in Toronto. Last night it went down to -2 Celsius. That’s below freezing folks … but my roses, some of them anyway, are still trying to bloom!

This is a picture that I took of my Parade Roses last weekend. As you can see they had beautiful rose buds.

Climbing Parade Rose buds

Parade is a climbing rose and it’s flowers are usually a lovely pink, but I think because of the cold weather we’ve been experiencing the buds turned red. I think they look beautiful.

Several of my roses are still trying to bloom, although last nights cold weather might finally put a stop to that. Moulinex, Sharifa Asma, Graham Thomas, Baronne Prevost, Jacques Cartier, Yves Pigiet, iceberg and even the Compte de Chambord have a few blooms or buds.

Here’s a fading Compte de Chambord flower … even though it’s obviously dying it was still putting out it’s lovely rose perfume scent:

Fading Compte de Chambord Rose

Several of my other flowers are still blooming as well. I even have some Petunias that are still alive! Oh and my Lavender has started blooming again too. Very strange!

If you live in an area that gets cool for winter are your flowers and plants dormant now or are some still struggling to bloom?

BTW Sorry this GTS post is late. It’s been a busy and sickly weekend. Speaking of Green Thumb Sunday - how many of you are really participating? I thought that members agreed to check in here on Sundays to let others know they have a new post up … but that hasn’t been happening much over the last week. I’m starting to wonder if we should keep this going?

Here’s some pumpkins that you do not want to mess with:

LOL isn’t that interesting?

If you have several pumpkins or if by chance you’ve grown your own you could make your own pumpkin man too … maybe not one as violent as this one though …

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Well I guess it’s about time to chop down the sunflowers in the front boulevard. They’re beginning to die off since it’s getting cold here and if we don’t cut them down we’ll have no where to put the snow when we have big storms this winter. Yes … we have a very small yard, so every inch counts when it comes to shoveling snow. LOL

My beebalm didn’t do very well this year at all.

I used to have a clump in my front garden but it didn’t come up this year at all, and the clump of beebalm in the backyard was scraggly with only a few stems coming up. Hopefully it does better next year (or I’ll have to buy some more in early summer) as I really like it in the garden. I like the smell of beebalm when you brush by it’s leaves, I also like seeing the bees, moths and butterflies enjoying the flowers too.

Some of our roses are still blooming even thought it’s getting quite cool here. We’ve had frost a few nights and it’s been down to zero at least once. I guess it’s just about time to say good bye to the garden for this year.

Isn’t that an amazing picture of lightening striking a tree?

That just goes to show why you shouldn’t take cover under a tree in a rain storm. Tree’s get hit by lightening all the time and so do the people standing under them!

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Of all the roses I grow I think my Yves Piaget Romance rose is putting on the biggest fall show:

It’s just full of blooms!

As you can see from this picture the roses get a little over blown fairly quickly, but they stay this way, with their petals all puffed out for days, especially in this cool weather.

Actually I think all the roses are enjoying the very cool weather we’ve been having here in Toronto. They are growing and some are developing buds, even though they really should be shutting down for winter by now.

If you grow roses, how are they doing right now? Are they enjoying the cool weather and flowering?

Image by J Wynia via Flickr

The process of hydroponic vegetable gardening is different than regular gardening. The vegetables are grown in a liquid nutrient solution. The plants usually have either their root system in an inert medium or are completely submerged in the fluid.

There are several different types of hydroponic gardening systems. There are drip systems, passive systems, the ebb and flow system, an NFT system and the aeroponic system.

If you are using the ebb and flow system, the roots of the plants are flooded periodically with nutrient solution and the plant is able to obtain its nutrients in this manner. This is achieved using a pump on a timer that will periodically pump nutrient solution into the plant containers and allowing the chambers to drain completely. The ebb and flow method typically uses a growing medium of some kind for the plant to root in.

The drip variation uses the pump and timer to pump solution directly onto the roots of the plants on a regular schedule. The excess solution then drips back into the reservoir where it is used again on the next timer interval. This method also typically uses a growing medium of some kind.

In a passive system, the lowest maintenance of all systems, the plants are grown with their roots dangling directly in the growing solution. There are no timers or pumps required for the technique, however, an air pump and air stone are often employed to ensure that the oxygen levels in the solution are sufficiently high.

Aeroponic is a slightly more complicated and advanced method of hydroponic vegetable gardening. The roots of the plants are completely exposed to the air and the pumps are used to mist nutrient solution onto the roots at frequent intervals. Insufficient misting will risk drying out the roots and killing the plant while excessive misting can cause molding. There is no growing medium used with aeroponics.

Finally, the Nutrient Film Technique, or NFT, systems make use of trays in which constantly flowing nutrient solution is pumped over the roots of the plants before draining back into the reservoir. This is another method in which a very regular frequency is required to keep the plants from drying out as there is no growing medium to help trap moisture.

When using a growing medium in hydroponic gardening you can use any number of chemically and nutritionally inert substances, such as coconut fibers, gravel, sand, rock wool or even air. The only additional requirement for a growing medium is that it allow the nutrient solution to drain freely from the container.

Once a method has been chosen and the system is setup, it is critical to ensure that the pH of the nutrient solution is kept consistently in the 5.5 to 6.5 ranges. Anything lower and you risk burning the plant with an acidic solution, and anything higher and you eventually risk burning the plants with a basic solution. In either case the plants will suffer and cease to flourish before eventually dying.

Finally, unless the system is sitting in a location where it can easily obtain natural sunlight, some manner of light will need to be provided. The options, from worst to best and also listed from cheapest to most expensive, are: incandescent, fluorescent, and high intensity discharge lamps.

Getting started with hydroponic vegetable gardening may seem a daunting task but it is fairly straightforward once the basics are learned.