I do want to remind my readers that I have another gardening blog that I hope to write in regularly as well. It’s called Organic Gardening Tips and as the name implies it’s about organic gardening. As I’ve mentioned in many of my posts on this blog I don’t use chemicals or synthetic fertilizers on my garden beds. I use organic materials so I suppose this blog is also an organic gardening blog as well.

In other news – my garden is doing very well this spring! I don’t think that I lost any roses this year. It was a very warm winter with barely any snow here in Toronto. So warm in fact that my roses started to leaf out in mid March! I’ve never seen that happen before. They usually don’t start getting leaves or even turning green until mid April or even later.

Everything is growing and I’d say that my garden is at least 1.5 months ahead of itself. My Crocuses, Glories of the Snow, Snow Drops, Hyacinths and the first of the Daffodils are just about done now. I’m waiting to see what will bloom next.

How is your garden doing this lovely Spring?

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Our garden was on hold for a good part of that time. Oh I did regular garden maintenance on it, such as pruning the roses of dead branches after the long cold winter and making sure the garden beds weren’t full of weeds. However, I didn’t put in any new perennials or plant any annuals until after the fence went in. The shared fence didn’t start going in until the 6th of June so I’ve spent the last two weeks playing catch up with my garden … oh and giving the plants along the new fence tender loving care since new post holes and a big trench had to be dug which likely disturbed some of their roots.

I’m exhausted … but I have to say, here on this first day of Summer, that my garden is starting to look the way I want it to. I must admit that a few weeks ago I was certain that my garden would pretty much be a write off this year. Oh and when the fence was going in I thought that my roses were going to be damaged. I have some very special roses along that fence line – Prince Napoleon, Sympathy and my gigantic William Baffin. I’d hate to lose any of them, but of the eight roses along that fence line Prince Napoleon and Sympathy would have been the worst ones to lose. As it was, we had to lean a few of the roses over while the fence work was being done and Prince Napoleon was leaning right over onto other roses and plants. I thought it was a goner for sure. As it is, it has a terrible case of Black Spot right now because of lack of air circulation due to basically lying on other plants for a week.

Since we’re in Garden and Yard sprucing up mode we sanded off the old paint on the doors of our storage areas under our enclosed back porch and I spent several hours yesterday repainting them. Wow .. everything looks so nice and new now.

Perhaps by this weekend I’ll have slowed down from my outdoor activities and I’ll get around to moving some of my photos from my camera to my computer. If I do I’ll post some pictures of the new fence and how the garden looks now. It does look pretty good if I do say so myself.

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Two weekends ago it was cold and we actually had snow with thunder and lightening storms .. yes and odd mix, but it happened – more than once. It’s true. Then it warmed up … then it cooled down again and then it rained and rained and rained.

Currently we’re hovering between periods of torrential rain storms and then warm sunny periods. It actually reached 22 Celsius (72 F) today which is quite warm for us in April – especially this year given that we had snow less than two weeks ago (which was really really unusual).

I guess the good news about the cool rainy damp Spring is that well … April showers bring May flowers … and well they bring April flowers too. I’ve had Crocus’ blooming since about March 20th and thanks to the cool weather a good portion of them are still blooming. Usually they’re GONE by now. I’m also enjoying my Snow Drops this year … often they come and go so fast than if I blink I miss them, but since we’ve had an extended cool period they’ve stuck around instead of blooming at lightening speed and disappearing.

My Glories of the Snow are in bloom in the backyard garden beds and the a few in the front are beginning to bloom this week. A few Dwarf Irises are also blooming. Other flowers that are growing and preparing to bloom are several Hyacinths, daffodils, tulips and I’m sure a few others that I can’t remember off the tops of my head. Basically everything is greening up and growing leaves including most of my roses. At least the heavy dose of snow that we had over the winter covered all the plants well and protected them so I believe most of my plants survived the winter cold. We don’t always get very good snow cover here in Toronto so I tend to worry about my plants in the deep cold of winter but not this past winter.

Overall my garden is healthy and happy … I’m just waiting for the weather to warm up and for all my flowers to start growing and to begin blooming … but what gardener isn’t?

Tell me about your garden.

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We’d driven past the site a few times in the last couple of weeks and when I took a look at their website I discovered that they have a “no tax” Wednesday every week … so we figured we might save some money if we went shopping for our plants last night.

It turned out that they were having a 20% off sale … so we got that instead of the “no tax” as that saved us an extra 7%. They had a great selection of plants in a variety of sizes and the prices were ok … I’d be happy if the prices were the lowest I could find, but the discount and the quality of the plants made me a happy gardener.

We ended up spending more than I thought we would. You see we have several hanging planters, window planters and 7 balcony boxes (those large low rectangular planters) to fill with annuals.

I did grow some of my own annuals this year, but not nearly as many as I need.

So … what did we end up getting?

A flat of Impatiens, 2 nice double flowering Begonia, 2 small Fuchsia, 6 dwarf Dahlia’s, 6 Gerber Daisies, a few Coleus, several Lobelia and Petunia plants, dwarf white night scent Nicotina, several Marigolds in vibrant orange and yellow and I’m sure a few other plants that I can’t think of right now.

I also picked up some early Girl tomato plants, Sweet cherry 100, English cucumbers a few types of lettuce and Swiss Chard.

The only plants I couldn’t find, but ones that I usually use in my garden or planters were annual Geraniums and Cleomes. When I found the dwarf Dahlia’s I thought I’d use them instead of the Geraniums but if I can find some Geraniums this weekend I might use both.

As for the Cleomes I did find some at Reeves but they were single plants in 4 inch pots at 2.99 each … and I need about 20 of them to border the back of my garden beds so I’ll have to find cheaper ones. Oh and I did take some seeds off the plants last year so I’ll be planting some of last years seeds in the back of the garden beds this weekend too.

Earlier in the week we’d been to another garden center. I wanted to find a replacement for one of my roses – Chicago Peace – as it didn’t seem to come back this year. With the great weather we’ve had all year I’d think it would show signs of life by now, especially considering that all the rest of my roses are 3 to 7 feet high, full of leaves and rose buds … but no luck.

So … I thought I’d replace that rose with perhaps a Weigela or another type of flowering hardy shrub since I’ve now lost two roses in the same spot in the garden. I did pick out a purple Weigela that I love, but then I found yet another Chicago Peace … so I guess the Weigela will go in another place in the garden and I’ll try the rose for the third and final time in my small oval patio garden bed.

All in all I think I picked up 75 or more plants! You know what I’m going to be doing this weekend … planting, planting, planting. I’ll also be pulling out all my seeds and get some veggies and a few other annuals started by seed.

Hows the weather in your area? Are you going to be planting this weekend too?

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Wow I’m BAD. I run the Green Thumb Sunday meme and I haven’t done one since last November. Yep, bad bad bad meme creator!

Ok it’s time to get back on track. This meme is still alive … barely, but I know some of our members are still posting Green Thumb Sunday posts regularly, at least more regularly than I have been lately.

I don’t have a good excuse for my absence. As usual I haven’t been feeling well thanks to my Crohn’s, but yes, I’ve still been gardening and so far this year I’m amazed with my garden. I just need to start posting about what I’m seeing and doing more often, now don’t I?

So … if you’ve been participating in Green Thumb Sunday or waiting around to see if it was going to start up again … come on, let’s see some Green Thumb Posts. (please).

As I said above I’ve been amazed with my garden this year. I think it started waking up in February … way way early! By March 15th I had my first Crocuses blooming. Usually they don’t bloom until near the end of March.

This was the first crocus to bloom in my backyard this year. It bloomed on March 15th! Shortly thereafter more and more crocus popped up. They’re all done now though.

Years ago when I first started gardening I planted Snow Drops .. but I rarely ever saw them. Either they bloomed too early for me to notice or it warmed up to fast and they faded within days … unnoticed. It was obvious this year that they’ve been growing, multiplying and thriving as I had a few large clumps come up in March.

I even had a few tiny Dwarf Danfordia Irises come up too

They’re a little faded in this photo as they were already wilting by the time I noticed them. They didn’t last long. We’ve had some warm weather in March and April which wasn’t all that good for making Spring flowers last.

Here’s a shot of my center garden bed … full of red and white Tulips, Heuchera, Astilbe, perennial Geranium, and tiny shoots of Phlox and Hostas and probably a few other plants that I’m forgetting … I took this picture on April 18th. I just wish that I’d pushed the hoop that I use to contain the Phlox when it grows down a bit before I took the photo!

This is a wide shot of my garden. It’s small, but for the middle of April there’s a heck of a lot of plants up. All of my roses have fully leafed out now and more and more plants are coming up each day. Right now I’ve got Daffodils and Hyacinths that are just about finished blooming and I think my Glories of the Snow are pretty much gone. I have a feeling that I’ll have roses about two weeks earlier than usual this year too.

And Finally this is my dog, Midnight, enjoying some sun in the garden. She’s growing and blooming too. She’s two and a half years old now and still very puppy like in a lot of ways … just thankfully not quite as hyper as she was a year or so ago! LOL

How is your garden doing? What’s blooming? What’s growing?

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Yes, I can hardly believe I’m saying that, but did you know that we didn’t have ANY snow at all here in Toronto in March? None, zip, zero! Toronto has apparently been keeping weather records since 1845 and this is the first year in that time that there’s never been snow in March. Geesh, it might the first year in history that there’s never been snow in March in this area.

Not only that, my home town of Ottawa which is known as both one of the coldest capitals in the world as well as one of the snowiest didn’t have snow in March either.

I’ve had small leave buds coming out on my roses since February and the shrubs in my neighborhood have had leaf buds for two or more weeks. In fact the trees are starting to fill out a bit as well .. There’s no leaves yet but I know there will be soon. Perhaps after this weekend! It’s supposed to hit 25 C (77 F) tomorrow and get even hotter on Saturday. It’s like almost summer temps!

I bet that my husband seriously considers pulling out the patio furniture this weekend.

It’s like we had an extended Autumn, an Early Spring and if the warm weather that we’re supposed to get starting tomorrow sticks around I guess we’re skipping to summer.

Very strange weather but I’m not complaining. I’d love it if it were like this all the time.

Of course last summer we didn’t really have a summer – it was cold and wet – like a long spring and I’ve found over the years that whenever we have a terrible summer like that (seems to come about ever 10 years or so) we almost always have a mild winter followed by a hot hot summer. So we’ll see how summer turns out.

My plants are loving this weather. My first crocus’ were up on the 14th of March and now there’s tons of blooming Crocuses all over my backyard. The clumps of flowers are bigger than I’ve ever seen them.

The grass is already turning green and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we have to pull out the lawn mower before the month is over. I can’t remember ever cutting the grass in April so this might be a first too.

There are also all kinds of plants sprouting up in my garden – something that usually doesn’t happen until mid- April to early May. I’m not sure if the plants coming up are Hyacinth, daffodil or tulips leaves … probably a combo of all. The leaves sprouting up are about 4 or 5 inches tall already.

I’m sure that I’ll be getting out in the garden this weekend to tidy it up, clear out old leaves and just admire all the plants that are coming up.

I’m so excited to see my garden coming to life so much earlier than it ever has before.

Is your garden ahead of itself this year too? Do you have plants coming up or perhaps some early spring flowers blooming? Tell me about it.

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Here in Toronto there’s a ban on pesticide and insecticide use (not that I used them on my garden or lawn anyway as we are fully organic) so for some, it’s become harder to maintain the quality of their lawn.

The best defense against pests and weeds is a healthy turf, so I thought I’d post some lawn care tips that you can do now and in the spring to ensure that your lawn is healthy.

Autumn Lawn Care

Autumn is the best time to apply grass seed, repair damaged areas and thicken existing turf.

If you have weeds growing on your lawn take some time to carefully dig them out of the ground or if you are so inclined apply an appropriate weed killer to affected areas.

We usually aerate our lawn in the fall and late spring. Aeration will increase the amount of air, water and nutrients getting to the soil, which will strengthen grass roots and help create a healthier lawn. We use a simple two pronged tool that we can push into the earth with our foot, but I believe you can rent an aeration machine at your local hardware store.

A great time to fertilize and reseed the lawn is after aerating.

We also cut the grass at least once during this time of year (mower set to 2 – 3 inches) and give it a watering if it’s been dry.

Spring Lawn Care

If you live in a cool area that gets snow or a lot of moisture in the spring it’s best to stay off the lawn until the ground has dried and it’s firm to walk on.

Begin your spring lawn care by raking up dead grass, leaves and any other debris that might have accumulated throughout the winter season.

If your lawn is uneven or has “frost bumps” this is also a good time of year to roll out the bumps with a light roller.

Aerate the lawn – particularly in high traffic area and then apply a slow release lawn fertilizer. You might purchase a fertilizer with a crab grass preventer if that’s been a problem in previous years.

Spring through fall Mowing guidelines

As spring progresses you should apply grass seed either to the whole lawn or at least to thin areas. Remember a lawn with healthy thick turf will have fewer weeds.

Once the grass begins to grow and it’s time to mow it, remember to set your lawn mower to cut at a height of 2 to 3 inches and in the summer especially when it’s hot and dry outside raise the mower another 1/2 to raise drought resistance. Mowing short weakens the root system and gives weeds a chance to compete with the grass.

Mow in different directions and alter the pattern each time if you can. For example, go north-south, east-west, clockwise, counter-clockwise, diagonally, and so forth. This will cut more leaf surface on weeds that may tend to lean in the direction of mowing and may help the grass compete with them. It also reduces soil compaction and turf wear from the wheels.

Sharpen your mower blades at least once a year. Dull mower blades tear-off rather than cut grass blades. The torn leaves give the lawn a whitish caste and may leave it more vulnerable to disease problems.

It’s fine to leave the clippings on the lawn and if you have a mulching mower that will chop up the clippings further as it will speed up their decomposition. During the summer, clippings decompose and return nitrogen and other nutrients to your lawn. The decomposition is slower in cool weather.

Watering your Lawn

It’s best to water your lawn deeply, but infrequently rather than water regularly, but lightly – as infrequent and deep watering encourage deep roots.

Most lawns require approximately 1 inch of water per week. Use a rain gauge, coffee tin or aluminum pie plate to measure if the correct amount of water is being applied. High spots and south-facing slopes will need more water than other areas. Apply less water in shady areas that receive less than 4 hours of direct sunlight daily. Grass under large trees will need more water since the tree roots will consume water and the tree canopy may intercept rainfall.

Early morning watering is ideal as you’ll lose less water through evaporation. Watering in the evening or at night leaves the grass wetter long and can contribute to the development of diseases or fungus growth.

If you have a hot dry spell during the summer don’t be alarmed if your grass browns. It’s normal for it to go dormant during these kinds of conditions. It will come back nicely once the weather cools again.

Hopefully some of these tips will help you have a healthy lawn next year!

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How do you know if you have slugs or snails in your garden?

Well if you notice that your plants leaves have irregular holes in them or perhaps slime trails on the soil and leaves you probably have slugs or snails. You might also see them crawling on your plant leaves in the evening after dark.

Slugs can do a lot of damage to young plants and seedlings. They can literally strip a young plant bare or even eat it down to the ground. You might try cutting a 2 Liter pop bottle and creating a collar to place around young tender plants if you have slugs in your garden as this will help protect them.

Slugs are particularly fond of Hostas and Delphiniums. However having said that I’ve seen them on about half the plants I grow in my garden so keep any eye out for signs of slug damage.

Some tips on keeping slugs at bay

• 1. Stir up the earth in your garden beds in the spring. This helps to expose the slug eggs/ larvae and causes them to die from the exposure.
• 2. Don’t put mulch down until early June (at least here in this Zone 5b area, might be earlier in your area)
• 3. Add used coffee grounds to the soil or apply around the base of plants troubled by slugs.
  • Each year we make several trips to coffee shops and ask for their used coffee grounds. Most will give them away to the public as they are just throwing them out in the garbage anyway. Some will even take a bucket from you and fill it up throughout the day. We add the coffee grounds to our garden beds, especially around slug troubled plants like Hostas and we also add the coffee grounds to our compost container as they help make a rich compost when they break down.
• 4. Crushed egg shells around troubled plants is said to deter slugs as they don’t like crawling over abrasive material. Sand, wood shavings, diatomaceous earth, hair or ash can be placed around susceptible plants as an abrasive barrier as well.
• 5. Copper tape, used wet or dry, is one of the most effective barriers. When slugs and snails make contact with the copper, there is a toxic reaction, similar to an electric shock, which repels them. The minimum width for the copper barriers needs to be at least two inches; slug barriers sold in nurseries are often smaller and should be doubled or tripled when installed.
• 6. Slugs and snails tend to feed at night so you can go into your garden at night and literally pick the slimy slugs off your plants and dispose of them.
• 7. You also might try setting some bait for slugs in shallow containers. A popular slug trap is baited with beer, but people have also tried using yeast, damp dog food (dry pellets), and a potato cut in half.
• 8. You might also try purchasing Nematode worms from a garden supplier. Nematodes also help to keep other garden pests from the garden too.
  • Nematodes aggressively search out and attack slugs. They enter the slugs body through a hole behind their heads (the pulmonary aperture that they breathe through to be precise). Once inside they release a bacteria which stops the slug eating. The nematodes then start to reproduce inside and within 7-10 days the slug is dead. The nematodes continue to reproduce as the body breaks down. This new population enters the soil and searches out new slugs to attack. This is a natural, non-toxic product that is safe for both users and wildlife. The nematodes stay active for 6 weeks so a single dose protects plants when they are emerging in the spring and are most vulnerable.
  • Nematodes can only be used in late spring and summer when the soil has warmed up (to above 5°C). On heavy, waterlogged clay soil, the nematodes can find it difficult to move, so Nemtodes can be less effective in these conditions.
• 9. Use plants that slugs dislike to repel slugs – Ginger, garlic, mint, chives, red lettuce, red cabbage, sage, sunflower, fennel, foxglove, mint, chicory & endive seem to be less prone to slug attack. Plant them around the perimeter of your garden to keep them from infiltrating, and or plant them near troubled plants such as Hosta.
• 10. Make your garden bird friendly by putting out a feeder. The birds might pick off a few slugs while they’re visiting your yard. Also if you have frogs or snakes in your garden they will often eat slugs and other garden pests.

And a bonus tip … Slugs love moisture, so if you want to minimize slugs in your garden keep your garden as dry as possible (without killing your plants), especially in the spring when there are slug eggs in the ground. Dry soil could kill them or at the very least cause them to move to an area that suits them better – ie your neighbors yard. That’s one reason why I suggested turning your garden soil several times in the spring, preferably before your soil temp reaches 5 Celsius, as you will likely expose slug eggs and they will die because they’ll dry out.

As you can probably tell I’m not into using pesticides to get rid of slugs and other bad bugs. in fact here in Toronto they’ve banned most pesticides and herbicides so it’s a good thing I’ve been gardening without chemicals anyway! LOL I have a lot of success with these methods – particularly the coffee grounds, turning the soil and hand picking slugs and snails off my plants and as a result I don’t have too many slugs in my garden beds.

May your garden be slug and snail free this year!

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I think I love just about everything about Spring … well ok, maybe not the garbage that seems to blow on my lawn and gets tangled in my roses or the sometimes endless days of rain … but otherwise, Spring just might be my favorite season.

I love watching the grass turn from dry straw like patches to tender green; seeing the first stem and leaves come up out of the soil from a seed I planted only weeks before; and seeing the first few flowers of spring bloom in my garden.

Speaking of Spring flowers … my Danfordia irises – tiny little things, came up in the second week of April, but unfortunately they only lasted about a week. I wish these lovely delicate flowers would last a month instead of just days!

They’re so pretty!

It’s cool outside today, but yesterday … oh it was one of the best and worst days of Spring! Temps were almost 90 F with the humidity, but then at about 5:30 pm it got really dark and winds suddenly came up out of nowhere. I was outside pruning some roses and our neighbor behind us started to lose part of his eves trough, and the one next to us lost part of his lattice fence …

All the while I was gathering up my gardening tools and trying to get inside the house while things were flying around ie fence, eves trough and small branches from our other neighbors huge maple! My husband was just coming back from a store when he got caught in the wind storm. A tree fell right in front of the car as he was driving! Power lines came down with it too! Surprisingly this didn’t really make the news … but as far as I’m concerned we were both out in a bad wind storm or mini-tornado! That’s what it seemed like anyway! After that the rain started and we had a small thunderstorm – what an end to a beautiful day!

At least my flowers didn’t seem to get damaged in the storm. The hyacinth had just opened up the other day and I took photos of them before the storm … oh that sweet smelling hyacinth perfume … wafting through the garden. I love it!

I also have some tulips that are just starting to bloom today, daffodils that will bloom in a couple of days and several other plants leafing out or developing buds. The garden is going to be lovely this year!

How is your garden this spring? Are your plants coming up earlier than normal – as they are here in Toronto?

BTW sorry for the lack of Green Thumb Sunday posts in the last two weeks. I’ve been sick lately (bad reaction to a new med), and also discouraged by the lack of participation from members. If you are making GTS posts please remember to check in on this site so we will all know that you’ve made a new Green Thumb post.

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The Crocuses are just about finished blooming in the backyard – although the ones in the shadier front lawn haven’t come up yet). The ones remaining in the back are wilted or just green leaves now. Here’s what they looked like about two weeks ago at their best:

The raised garden beds have little green patches throughout – the tulips leaves are almost fully grown, as are the hyacinth leaves. Some of the hyacinths have started to develop buds and I expect that they’ll be blooming in a few days. The Glories of the Snow are up as well and most are in bloom. Actually a lot of my spring bulbs are producing leaves or showing signs of life, the roses are starting to leaf out as well. It’s certainly nice to see all the green leaves as well as spots with pink and blue flowers.

My Danfordia irises were up and blooming last weekend, but then we let the dog out in the yard and she trampled them. She also ate a few of the Crocus flowers and leaves and gave us a bit of a scare late that night when she wouldn’t settle down. She kept trying to lie down in various areas of our living room but then she’d jump up again and change spots a minute later. This went on for over two hours. So for now we’re not letting her out in the yard – when she gets excited (seeing the new puppy next door) she tends to bit plants randomly … that’s not good when there are some toxic plants out there!

So far my garden beds are looking good. They still have cedar mulch on them from last year.  I did however spend some time tidying them up and pulling out oh maybe 100 tiny maple trees that had started growing in the still bare spots in the raised beds. With all the rain we’ve had in the past few days I’m sure I’ll have more to pull out this weekend.

How is your garden doing this Spring? Is it a week or two ahead because of warmer temps earlier in the year or is it behind?

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