cherry tomatoes

Where are my gardening gloves – time to get my hands in some dirt

I’ve got my work cut out for me this weekend! Yesterday evening my husband and I went to a new garden center that opened up near us – it’s called Reeves Nursery.

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?

A little late, but Summer’s finally here

by Tricia

Join

Well it was a slow start, but as of this past week summer’s finally arrived in Toronto!

The week, well let’s say last Sunday, started with rain and a massive lightening storm. Spectacular really – with sheet lighting and huge vibrant lightening all over the city for about an hour and a half! It was the most vibrant lightening storm I’ve seen in a year or two!

After that the heat that is usually so much a part of our summers here in Toronto finally arrived. As the week has progressed it seems each day that passes is hotter than the last! We’ve also had a lot of humidity. Currently with humidity it supposedly feels like 36 C (96.8 F).

I think by Wednesday of this week the true summer like heat will be gone again though … so that means we’ll have only had about one true week of summer this year! Perhaps that’s still better than last summer though – last summer we had record breaking rain!

All through July I watched my Tiny Tom and Cherry, Early Girl and Glam tomatoes grow on the vine. I began to wonder if they’d ever change from green to red as they seemed to stay green and the same size for the longest time – probably due to the lower than normal summer temperatures that we were having.

However after a week of true summer like heat I can finally say that I was able to pick two ripe tomatoes and a handful of Tiny Tom tomatoes yesterday.

Likewise, my pole beans, cucumbers, raspberries and strawberries have been behind this summer. Over the last two weeks though we picked our first beans and a new (very small) crop of strawberries came in. The raspberries started to ripen and we’ve had a couple of handfuls over the last week as well.

The cucumbers are growing very very slowly! Three weeks ago I noticed that we had our first cucumbers, but they were smaller than Gherkins! Now those cucumbers are a little bigger and thicker than my thumb so it’s still slow going. They’re English Burpless cucumbers so they have a long way to go before we can pick them!

Our roses are starting to rebloom now too. Maybe well have two more flushes of blooms before summer truly ends.

The pro’s of having a cooler and slightly drier summer are:

1. The lawn has been growing slowly so we haven’t had to cut it as much, and due to the cooler weather and occasional really heavy rain it’s stayed green.

2. We haven’t had the air-conditioning on for most of the summer (with the exception of this week and the last week of June) so for a change, we’ve been able to enjoy the summer with our window and doors open, and of course, we’ve saved a lot of money on the electricity bill!

3. We’ve been watering less this summer. With the cooler weather the plants don’t seem to need as much water – so again we’ve saved some money on the water bill (which doubled on the last bill anyway- Thanks City of Toronto due to increased prices, taxes and sewer and trash collection fees!)

Overall it seems like my plants don’t mind the weather we’ve had this summer although I do have a few roses that have almost totally lost their leaves due to powdery mildew (cooler weather, more dew at night on the leaves?).

The Balloon flowers seem to love this weather. They’re taller than normal (4 feet!) and blooming their pretty little heads off. Here’s a picture of a Balloon flower bud, and a Balloon flower in bloom – you can definitely see where they get their name from:

How is your garden doing this summer? Have you managed to eat any of the veggies that you’re growing yet?

My garden is one of the things I hold important to me

by Tricia

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

This weeks theme is Important

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?

A little late, but Summer’s finally here

My garden is one of the things I hold important to me

Meta

Connect with me