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This weeks theme is Share ANY Photo

Doesn’t it look like this trillium’s trying to get out of the way of the camera lense or like it’s doing it’s best imitation of “Walk like an Egyptian”?

I took this photo on May 1st and the trillium still looks about the same. It will probably bloom sometime next week.

The tulips are still going strong! There’s even more now than there was when I took this photo a week ago:

I hope that your garden is looking lovely this weekend.

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This weeks theme is Twisted

Isn’t it funny how strange some plants look either as they are developing or after they’ve bloomed?

The photo above is of a seed head from a Hybrid Seiboldiana Clematis.

I grow several types of clematis and this is the only one with a strangely twisted seedpod. Most of the rest of the clematis develop seed heads that look more like this:

Do you have any plants in your garden who’s leaves or flower buds look strange at the beginning or end of their life cycle?

This weeks theme is Metal

Why I was wandering around my backyard on New Years day I can’t remember, but that’s when I decided to take a photo of the metal sun ornament that I’d hung up on the back of our enclosed porch last year.

Those poor beans that went to waste before I could pick them make an interesting accent against the cold metal sun don’t they?

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This weeks theme is I Spy

I spy with my camera eye at least two busy bees collecting pollen from the New York Asters. Heck, there might even be a third one in the last full flower in the right hand corner. There’s a blur there that certainly looks like a happy bumble bee. You can click on the photo to see a larger image on my Flickr page.

I won’t be seeing my lovely New York Aster blooms again until autumn, but I sure hope that I’ll start to see some spring flowers soon. It’s finally warming up a bit here and the snows beginning to melt. The temperatures have been above freezing for the last two days and are expected to be above freezing (sometimes with rain) over the next four or so days, so with luck there’s a good chance that much of the snow that ruined my back last weekend will soon disappear.

Wish us snow bound northerners luck?

Want to grow luscious delicious vegetables and beautiful flowers this year? Start composting and use the compost you create on your garden!

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This weeks theme is Wooden

I’m hoping that my Honeysuckle Gold Flame managed to survive the winter! We grow it at the side of the house, at the back entrance to the garden.

It’s in a large planter pot that’s right against the brick wall of the house. Along the wall we’ve placed wooden lattice for the honeysuckle to grow on, and on the entrance side of the plant there’s the bamboo arbor where several of the honeysuckles branches tend to grow.

I used to have a harlequin honeysuckle in this area, but it wasn’t hardy enough to be in a planter over winter it seems. So I replaced it with the Golf Flame which is a hardier honeysuckle.

I sure hope it survived. It’s definitely had quite a bit of snow cover this year! It’s so very pretty when it blooms that I’d hate to lose it.

The photo above is of the Gold Flame honeysuckle when it was just about to bloom for me for the first time. It has beautiful colorful flowers.

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This weeks theme is Heavy

We’ve had a lot of snow here in Toronto this week. I think we ended up getting close to 20 inches of snow. This is on top of all the snow we got the Friday before!

As you can see the snow was so heavy that it caused one of my plant stands to topple over in the garden.

Normally I take the planters off the plant stand in the late fall, but I didn’t this year and this will serve as a good reminder as to why I should always take the planters down in the autumn. Look at that. The pole was anchored in the ground yet it still fell over!

We’re going to have more snow today and tomorrow and then again on Tuesday! I have no idea where we’ll put all the snow. My front lawn is tiny. It’s only about 10 feet long by 7 or 8 feet wide and the snow pile on the lawn is already as high as the car!

I think my back will break if I’ve got to shovel more snow … especially if I have to throw it five or six feet to get it on top of the pile on the lawn.

Please visit two of my other blogs that are participating in the Photo Hunt – We’ve had a lot of snow this week here in Toronto and if you want to see just how much please visit My World. You can also see what my puppy finds heavy over at Tricia’s Musings.

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This weeks theme is Narrow

I love how my chives look when they are blooming. Those pretty multi-petaled flowers on long narrow stalks.

Chives usually grown in dense clumps and when they are in flower they can create quite an intense display in the garden.

Other than crocus’ and snow drops, my chives are often one of the first plants to begin to grow each year. Once the snow begins to melt in March, well if we still have any snow that is, the chives begin to grow.

I’ve found that Chives are very easy to grow. They are an appealing plant in the garden and of course they’re handy when you are cooking or making a salad. I’ll often go outside and cut a few of the narrow green chive stems from the clump and then chop them up and add them to salads, stir fries, or add them to marinades that I’ve made for fish, chicken or steak. They have a mild flavor that is wonderful in many dishes.

Do you grow chives?

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This weeks theme is Old Fashioned

Since this weeks theme is Old Fashioned I thought I’d show you what I call the ‘ol Milk Canister although I have a feeling it never held milk but rather coal or some other form of fuel according to the markings on the bottom of it.

When my mother passed away a few years ago I was assigned the task of inventorying the houses contents and then my brothers and sister and I picked out the items that we wanted. I won’t say that the divvying of items went perfectly but it went ok.

I remember this old canister from my childhood. My parents never used it. It was always stored in the basement. Our house was built in the early 40′s and until sometime in the 50′s it was heated by coal! I believe that this canister might have held some of the coal used to heat the house. I’ll have to look at the markings again to verify what it says but as I said it appears to have something to do with a fuel company.

My second oldest brother turned out to have major allergies and I guess the coal particles in the air aggravated his allergies so I believe my parents were one of the first in our neighborhood to change over to oil heating. I think oil was the main heating source for homes (in Canada) in the 50′s, 60′s and early 70′s. They eventually changed over to gas heating when the gas lines were being laid on our street.

The canister was an off white color when I brought it home. Some of the paint was beginning to peel off but over all the canister was in good shape. I thought it would make a great garden ornament so I painted it blue.

I should bring it in, in the winter and I usually do, but it was left outside this year! I guess it’s not too late to bring it indoors huh?

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This weeks photo hunter theme is important and I decided to show you what’s important to me as far as gardening goes.

It’s no secret to anyone that reads this blog or any of my other blogs that my garden is important to me. Gardening is a great hobby and activity. I’m passionate about gardening.

The act of planting new plants each year and maintaining my garden helps keep me fit and gets me outdoors for some much needed fresh air. My garden is also a source of comfort and peace. It’s where I go to relax.

I’m off work due to Crohn’s Disease, but when I’d come home from a hectic shift in the ER, no matter how tired I was, I’d often head straight to the garden. Either to simple enjoy my plants and flowers or perhaps not so surprisingly to do some work! Just a few minutes in my garden would erase the stress of an ER shift.

I’m an organic gardener. I don’t use any chemicals in my garden beds or on my plants at all. Everything is natural and my garden is fertilized with manure, leaf mulch, and alfalfa tea.

I mainly post photos of my flowers on this site and others that I maintain, but I also grow a fair amount of veggies and fruit. Some of the veggies, particularly the leafy greens, are grown in large balcony planters beside my back porch.

Other fruit and vegetables such as Tiny Tom tomatoes and beans are grown in planters on the patio, while plants such as peppers, carrots, raspberries and strawberries are grown right in the garden beds among the flowers.

Now wouldn’t a nice bowl of fresh raspberries be great right now?

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This weeks theme is Skinny

I love lavender.

I grow a few different types in my garden. We’ll perhaps I should say I’ve tried to grow a few different types in my garden. The one that does best is Munstead. It seems to be the hardiest and I suppose the most forgiving?

The photo above is a close up of the tiny flowers on a slender lavender stem. You can see the skinny lavender leaves just underneath the lavender flowers. The other thicker green leaves belong to another plant. Once which I can’t remember which one it might be at this time.

Do you grow Lavender in your garden?