As the Garden Grows

What's blooming today?


You are here: Home / Archives for hot

Summer has gone by so fast

by

I can’t believe how fast this summer has gone by! The days are still warm but the nights are getting cooler. That can only mean that Autumn is just around the corner.


Most of the spring and summer was so hot I feel like I was hiding indoors! My poor plants didn’t have that luxury. They wilted in the heat hoping for some relief from the sun or at least some rain for most of June and July! I think June and July were the driest we’ve had in a long long time.

Luckily once August started we also began to get some rain. Lots of it. The way it’s looking right now I think we might even get a little bit of rain today too!

It looks like most of my plants and roses survived the extreme heat and drought and are now appreciating the cooler weather and rain. Good thing too because I couldn’t do much gardening during the heat wave. I injured my left hand at the beginning of June and I was barely able to use it to feed myself let alone type blog posts, water or weed the garden.

How has your garden been surviving this summer? Did you go through a heatwave too or were you one of the people who had the opposite problem – too much cool weather and too much rain?






Spring is here and my garden is a month ahead of itself

by

Winter is over and Spring is definitely here in Toronto. Actually it seems like we lucked out and never really had a winter this year.

Yes, I can hardly believe I’m saying that, but did you know that we didn’t have ANY snow at all here in Toronto in March? None, zip, zero! Toronto has apparently been keeping weather records since 1845 and this is the first year in that time that there’s never been snow in March. Geesh, it might the first year in history that there’s never been snow in March in this area.

Not only that, my home town of Ottawa which is known as both one of the coldest capitals in the world as well as one of the snowiest didn’t have snow in March either.

I’ve had small leave buds coming out on my roses since February and the shrubs in my neighborhood have had leaf buds for two or more weeks. In fact the trees are starting to fill out a bit as well .. There’s no leaves yet but I know there will be soon. Perhaps after this weekend! It’s supposed to hit 25 C (77 F) tomorrow and get even hotter on Saturday. It’s like almost summer temps!

I bet that my husband seriously considers pulling out the patio furniture this weekend.

It’s like we had an extended Autumn, an Early Spring and if the warm weather that we’re supposed to get starting tomorrow sticks around I guess we’re skipping to summer.

Very strange weather but I’m not complaining. I’d love it if it were like this all the time.

Of course last summer we didn’t really have a summer – it was cold and wet – like a long spring and I’ve found over the years that whenever we have a terrible summer like that (seems to come about ever 10 years or so) we almost always have a mild winter followed by a hot hot summer. So we’ll see how summer turns out.

My plants are loving this weather. My first crocus’ were up on the 14th of March and now there’s tons of blooming Crocuses all over my backyard. The clumps of flowers are bigger than I’ve ever seen them.

The grass is already turning green and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we have to pull out the lawn mower before the month is over. I can’t remember ever cutting the grass in April so this might be a first too.

There are also all kinds of plants sprouting up in my garden – something that usually doesn’t happen until mid- April to early May. I’m not sure if the plants coming up are Hyacinth, daffodil or tulips leaves … probably a combo of all. The leaves sprouting up are about 4 or 5 inches tall already.

I’m sure that I’ll be getting out in the garden this weekend to tidy it up, clear out old leaves and just admire all the plants that are coming up.

I’m so excited to see my garden coming to life so much earlier than it ever has before.

Is your garden ahead of itself this year too? Do you have plants coming up or perhaps some early spring flowers blooming? Tell me about it.

A little late, but Summer’s finally here

by

Join Green Thumb Sunday

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.

Green beans 3

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:

Balloon flower bud

Balloon flower 2

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

Meta