As the Garden Grows

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A busy few weeks – but my garden is full of roses!

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Sorry I haven’t been writing much lately! It’s been a busy few weeks. My husband and I have had a few family things to do … like helping the in-laws put in a new fence, visiting with my brother and sister, attending some interesting events here in Toronto (Woofstock, The Mississauga Waterfront festival, Beach Ribfest etc) and of course – gardening, gardening, gardening!

Over the last week my husband and I have put down about 23 bags of cedar mulch on the garden beds. I think we still need to put a little bit more down to get a nice thick layer as it’s supposed to be warmer than usual this summer so the more mulch on the garden the less it will dry out and the less we’ll have to water.

I have tons of photos that I’ve taken over the last month or so, but due to updating WordPress to the new 2.8 I can’t use the visual editor so I can’t add photos properly or adjust their size … so no pics in this post – not until I get my WordPress fixed up!

All of my roses are blooming or just about all of them. If you don’t have roses or don’t have many you probably can’t imagine what almost 60 rose plants blooming at once must be like. I’ll tell you – it’s heaven! Especially since many of my roses are fragrant. Oh lovely!

Right now my garden is all about roses, but earlier in the month the German Irises, columbine and Clematis were the stars. Some of the Clematis are still blooming, and so are my two honeysuckle vines.

How is your garden doing? If you are like me, most of the major work such as weeding and adding mulch is probably done so now it’s just maintaining the plants by watering and occasionally doing a bit of pruning and deadheading – right?






My rose buds are covered in aphids! Ugh

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I was outside in my garden today, wandering around looking at the four Clematis that are currently blooming and checking to see if any of my roses or if the peonies had begun to bloom yet and I noticed that almost all of my rose plants had tons of aphids all clustered around the rose buds.

It’s been cooler than normal here in Toronto. They say our average temperature at this time of year is about 23 C (74 F), but it’s only been about 18 C (64 F) or cooler most of the month so far. I guess the aphids and slugs love these kind of temperatures, but so far it doesn’t seem like the Lady bugs do! I only saw on lonely Lady Bug feasting on aphids as I did my garden rounds.

Since the Lady Bugs aren’t going to eat all the aphids before they destroy my lovely roses I decided I’d have to go out there and fight them. So earlier this evening I went outside armed with a spray bottle full of water and a squirt of dish detergent and I sprayed all my rose plants and rose bugs with the mixture.

Die Aphids! Die!

I fully expect to go outside tomorrow and see dessicated aphid bodies stuck to my rose buds. Victory!

I’m glad it’s so easy to kill them!

As for my roses, so of the first flowers came out earlier this week. As usually Morden Sunrise was the first rose to bloom. It was quickly followed by Stanwell Perpetual and Charles Albanel. All of these rose are at the front of my house – surprisingly, since the majority of my roses are in the south facing back yard. You’d think the roses in the back would bloom first, but I guess not.

In the backyard, William Baffin has one rose open and so does Parade … all the rest of my many roses have buds that are in various stages – from just forming to just about to bloom. I’m sure that by the weekend most of my roses will have a few to many many blooms. It will be lovely.

Now we just need it to start getting warmer! Oh well … at least we don’t have to have the air-conditioning on so we’re saving money!

How’s your garden doing? Have you noticed a lot of aphids or other garden pests on your plants? How do you get rid or them.

I just remembered, we have one other major garden pest – the Lily Beetle. My lilies look awful this year. Their foliage is all raggy and they aren’t growing as well as they normally do. Anyone know of a non-toxic (no pesticide) way to get rid of lily beetles?

Deer getting take-out food

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I know that some of my fellow gardeners probably feel like their garden is an open buffet for wildlife pests such as deer and rabbits … apparently deer aren’t only hitting local gardens. Nope, they’ve started trying to get take-out from local businesses too!

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I wonder if they ordered a salad and a cocktail?

BTW – sorry that I haven’t posted a Green thumb post or any updates lately. I’ve been getting my gardening done (planting young plants and seeds etc), but I’ve also been very sick with Crohn’s so I haven’t felt up to writing.  Sorry!  I’ll be making some updates soon.

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