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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I’m hoping that all of my fellow gardeners and gardener wannabees are happy and healthy as we start this new year.

I know for many of you your gardens are now dormant since it’s winter and it’s too cold for leaves on our plants let alone flowers! However I’m sure many of you are making plans for Spring.

I haven’t done this for a few years, but this year, come February or so I’m going to set up my seedling trays and start planting seeds. If I remember correctly you have to start Asters, Impatiens and a few other plants quite early in order to have big enough plants for the end of May or early June planting. Of course, the majority of plants that I’ll start indoors don’t need to be planted until March ie Tomatoes.

Luckily I have a good stock of seeds in my cool basement storage. I hope that most of them are still viable! I also collected seeds off a number of my plants this year ie Cosmo, Cleome, Liatris etc so I’ll be planting some of those in little pots and others right in the garden beds ones the soil is thawed in the Spring.

I know that growing some of my own plants will cut our costs greatly. As I said I haven’t grown my own seedlings for a few years now … instead I’ve purchased annual flowers and some veggies at a nursery in late spring or early summer … but enough of spending money on things i can grow on my own! I just have to get started early enough.

Do you grow some of your own seedlings? If so – what types of plants do you start indoors during the winter?

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What I mean by this is that from early April until last week or so, every time I visited my garden I had work to do! From spring clean up, pruning the roses and other plants to weeding to planting annuals to finally completing the big task of adding approximately 30 bags of red cedar mulch on my back and front garden beds.

We put mulch on our garden every year, but the last two years we only topped up the beds with a light layer. This year we noticed that the previous applications of mulch had really broken down, so we made sure to add a 3 inch layer this year – hence all the big heavy bags of mulch!

Other than doing a little pruning here and there as the roses grow and become floppy, and or staking the roses and other plants as they grow, most of the work is done. From here on in the main gardening job will be keeping it watered.

Actually there’s at least one more job. My husband and I made up a large garbage pail of Alfalfa tea about a month ago and it should be just about ready to be applied to the garden. Alfalfa seems to contain a growth hormone that causes the plants to row quite well once either alfalfa pellets are added to the soil and break down, or in our case once our evil stinking brew of Alfalfa tea has been applied. It’s a great natural fertilizer.  Obviously it’s also organic.  We are organic gardeners and never use chemicals on our plants or lawn.

We just have to make sure that we apply it to the garden when most of our close neighbors are indoors! It’s stinky! We usually apply alfalfa tea twice a year – once in early June and then again near the end of July, but we’re behind this year, so the garden might only get one dose this year.

Speaking of enjoying the garden … The first huge flush of roses is just about over. The roses started blooming in early June and now that first flush seems to be dying down. Most of my roses are re-bloomers or continuous bloom … but nothing beats that first Spring flush of roses as it’s usually the largest!

Other plants in bloom include Lavender, Salvia, Heuchera, some of my hostas, some of my clematis, Gazania, Marigolds, Petunias, Dianthus (Sweet William), Impatiens, Alyssum, Portulaca, Hollyhocks, Lilies, Daylilies, Maltese Cross and the list goes on. More plants will begin to bloom soon as well!

We also have a number of veggies growing ranging from Tomatoes, Tiny tom and Cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, peas, a variety of lettuces, spinach and carrots. Plus we also grow strawberries and raspberries. Yummy.

Now if only it would get a little warmer here in Toronto. It’s been kind of cool the last two weeks with below average temperatures. It looks like it’s supposed to warm up a little bit this weekend, but overall it will still be below normal temps for a while. I do hope summer starts to feel like summer soon.

The only good thing about the slightly cooler temps is that I haven’t had to water the garden daily or even every second day and we haven’t really had the air-conditioning on. So we’re saving money on water and electricity. But enough already … It is after all supposed to be summer!

How is your garden doing this summer? Are you finished most of the hard work and like me find it’s time to sit back and enjoy the garden? And is your weather a little cooler than normal too?

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Well it seems that my garden has finally got the message that winter is coming.

There are still some stubborn roses sticking around, but they are no longer alive. The cold got to them and they are just there. Actually I’m hoping that I can take some pictures of them with frost or a light coating of snow on them one of these days as I think that will probably look pretty.

There’s also one single clematis flower on the vine at the front of the house. Like the roses it’s dead, but it’s still holding it’s color. I’m sure it fooled a few people that might have noticed it.

Since I don’t have any pictures of frosty flowers or snow covered plants to show you today I’ll have to fall back on pictures that I took earlier this summer.

One flower that stands out is the annual asters that I grew this summer. They were so pretty! Such vibrant dusty rose pinks, purples, blue and white flowers.

They started blooming in late July (if memory serves me) and continued to produce lovely blooms until early October.

The annual Aster plants are 12 inches or less in height so they are the perfect size for a garden border. I planted several of them in the open spaces at the edge of my raised garden beds, beside lavenders and hostas and they looked lovely.

Did you grow Asters this past summer?

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I took this photo sometime over the summer after it had rained in the garden.

Why do flowers look so much more pretty when they have water droplets on them?

This of course is a common snapdragon. Lovely in it’s perfection isn’t it?

I know this Wordless Wednesday post is kind of late. I’ve just been so busy with our new little puppy! Hopefully I’ll get back to blogging on time again soon.

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Grab the Photo Hunt code. Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Pink

I love this flower.

I can’t figure out why I haven’t grown cosmos for two years though. I mean, they are so easy to grow. Heck they reseed themselves so well that you only have to plant seeds about once every three years or so!

Note to self – be sure to plant some cosmos next year!

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Grab the Photo Hunt code. Photo Theme. Visit participants.

This weeks theme is Smelly

So the photo hunter theme this week is smelly.

With gardening as a hobby I know both good smelly and bad smelly.

Those of you who read this site or any of my others probably came here expecting a photo of something that smells good. I certainly have plenty of photos of lovely scented plants and flowers.

As one of my internet friends says “If only the internet had scratch and sniff capabilities”. You know I’d apply that technology to some of my photos.

The picture that I posted above is of a Datura plant seed pod. The seed pod doesn’t smell, but the leaves of the datura plant sure do when you touch or rub them between your fingers. The smell is a mix of skunk and coffee grounds. At least that’s the way it smells to me. It’s very repugnant.

It’s flowers on the other hand have quite a pleasant strong fragrance. As you can see it’s large seed pod is also quite ornamental.

All round it’s a very interesting smelly plant.

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Pansies and Violas don’t do well here come summer.

Oh they bloom nicely in the spring, but once the warm weather hits they struggle. Toronto is a very hot and humid town come summer. The pansies and violas that I’ve managed to get to stay alive and even keep blooming into July end up looking kind of straggly, and leggy. By this I mean their stems grow long, and spread out and they appear to be in a permanent state of dehydration.

Believe me, if you live in a warm climate or an area that gets hot in the summer it’s not worth the fight of trying to keep pansies and violas going through summer. Let them die down if they are inclined to do so. Let them go peacefully. They reseed well, so even annuals ones have a chance of coming back the following spring.

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If you live in zone 6 or lower and you’d like to grow baby’s breath in a container it’s probably best to grow the annual variety.

The perennial variety of Baby’s breath must have perfect drainage. It’s has deep brittle roots which will make it difficult to grow in anything but a tub if you weren’t planning on growing it in a garden bed. The perennial variety can be counted on to bloom once during the summer, but if it’s a good season it might rebloom once.

Annual baby’s breath on the other hand will bloom over a much longer season.

I must admit that I haven’t had much luck growing either annual or perennial baby’s breath. My other plants always seem to crowd it out. I think I’ll try to look for the perfect spot to grow perhaps a combination of annual and perennial baby’s breath. That way, if I’m finally successful, I’ll have lots of baby’s breath blooms to use in my flower vases. Well if I ever cut fresh flowers, but that’s another story …

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New Profusion Zinnias are making heads turn. Profusion Fire and Profusion Apricot (which is now going to be called Profusion Deep Apricot) are two popular Zinnias that you might want to try to get your hands on this spring.

The Profusion Deep Apricot Zinnia has a richer apricot color that will sizzle in the summer garden.

Other new profusion Zinnias that will be coming out this spring are the Profusion Coral Pink. It’s more pink than coral but it’s name suits it.

Profusion Double Cherry is a double petaled cherry red.

The profusion knee high zinnias are available in red and white and they’ll knock your socks off. They’re close to 20 inches in height, with a more open look to the flower. These knee high Zinnias should look fantastic with Salvias and verbenas or even ornamental grasses such as Hameln dwarf fountain or Purple fountain.

Profusion Zinnias are easy care. Just select a sunny well draining site. They are apparently quite drought tolerant. Give them a light dose of fertilizer every four to six weeks throughout the growing season.

Learn more about growing Zinnias and other plants with this Master Gardeners Guide

Heirloom Vegetable Gardening: A Master Gardener’s Guide to Planting, Seed Saving, and Cultural History

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