As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for In The Garden

Slight delay on site changes

by

Yes I know, I said I was going to change the theme and look of this site a few days ago and nothing has happened yet. Honest, it’s going to change soon.

I won’t put a time limit on it, but I’ve got the new theme picked out and I just have to work on it and whatever graphics that I might include in the new design.

I’m also hoping to post some great articles soon. I have them in my head, I just have to start writing all of them out. I’ve recently been inspired and I think you will like the new home and garden related articles that I’ll be posting here soon.

The reason that I haven’t got much done this week – on any of my sites – is because I’m still feeling very sick. I just can’t make myself sit up and work on articles and site design when I’m like this. I haven’t even been able to talk myself into taking a walk in my garden to see what’s growing. Now isn’t that sad? I think it is.

Anyway, keep an eye on this site. Sometime in the very near future there’ll be a lot of changes and some great articles that I think you’ll enjoy. Stay tuned.






The garden is … Alive

by

I had a busy day on Monday. I had to go to a doctors appointment and then after that my husband and I ended up going shopping for some much needed supplies.

I had hoped to take a good tour of my garden but it was late in the day when we returned home so I didn’t take as good a look around as I’d hoped too.

I can tell you that my Siberian iris’ are beginning to sprout leaves in my front boulevard flower bed. So are several tulips, Sedum, and the chives in the back garden. I’ve also noticed that my Blue Fescue grass in my front flower bed is greening up in the center – already! It’s so early for that to be coming back to live.

Yellow and purple crocus’ are blooming their heads off on my front and back lawns.

Overall it seems that many of my plants are waking up.

Unfortunately it’s supposed to rain all day here in Toronto. If it clears a bit perhaps I’ll go out into the back yard garden and begin to tidy up the beds. I’m sure that there are many plants poking through the soil that I just haven’t noticed yet because dead leaves and other autumn related debris are covering them.

What’s blooming or growing in your garden?

Q & A – Vines for cover

by

I had a question from a reader that is similar to my own situation.

The reader stated that they have a five foot chain link fence and they’d like to cover it with annual and perennial plants.

She was particular interested in finding a perennial vine that wouldn’t crowd the annuals, and one that would also provide enough ground cover so that she wouldn’t have to clean up after the annuals were finished blooming.

This is a tricky situation as many climbing vines, particularly Morning Glory which she had been growing are very vigorous. What she really needs is a vine that isn’t over vigorous, but that grows steadily so that by the end of the season it will have filled in the areas taken up by annuals such as Sweet Pea vine.

Lonicera sempervirens, Evergreen Honeysuckle, or Polygonum aubertii, silver lace vine are both vigorous vines that do not take over a garden bed.

I grow annual morning glory. I don’t mean to grow it anymore but it seeded itself so well the first two years that I grew it that it keeps finding it’s way back to my back garden bed. At this point I’m of the opinion that morning glory should only be grown in areas where it is either on it’s own, or where you can easily prevent it from spreading and taking over the garden.

I’ve switched to Honeysuckle (dropmore scarlet) , and two types of white clematis where I used to grow Morning Glory vine. However, as I’ve mentioned, I still have to pull out new morning glory seedlings on a regular basis otherwise they’ll strangle my clematis!

When you are seeking to cover a troublesome area, do your homework. You might regret planting vigorous or invasive plants.

If you have gardening questions please feel free to ask your question and I’ll try to find an answer for you.

Meta