As the Garden Grows

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Flowers are blooming in my garden

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It’s amazing how much everything in my garden has been growing this week.

I know for a fact that some of my plants have grown several inches in just three days. Perhaps it’s all the rain we’ve had in as many days that’s caused the accelerated growth or maybe it’s just because it’s finally warming up a to the temperatures that we’re supposed to have at this time of year – at least in the last day or two it has anyway .. I’m sure it will be freezing cold again soon.

During a break in the rain yesterday afternoon, when the sun was shining if you can believe that … I snuck outside with my camera and took a few pictures of some of the flowers that are in bloom.

Have a look at what’s blooming in my garden this week:

Blue Glories of the Snow

Blue Glory of the Snow 15

These are lovely flowers that grow in clumps. I have both Blue, White and Pink varieties. They make a nice addition to the spring garden beds.

Hellebore (Christmas Rose)

Hellebore 2

My Hellebores are just starting to bloom. Their flower blossoms are shy .. with their heads hanging down so you can’t see their pretty blooms very well at all.

Dwarf Iris

Dwarf Iris 5

I usually don’t get to enjoy seeing the Dwarf Iris for very long because most years, once they make an appearance it often warms up and the flowers really seem to hate the heat so they wilt and die down quit quickly, but this year with it being a bit cooler than normal the dwarf Irises have been around for a little longer so I’ve had a chance to enjoy them.

Snow Drops

Snow Drops 6

The Snow Drop is another flower that I usually don’t get much of a chance to enjoy. They usually bloom quite early … in early March sometimes and die down as it warms up. But this year we had snow for most of March so they didn’t come up through the snow and once they did come up I could see them and enjoy them.

What’s blooming in your garden this week?






It’s been a lackluster gardening season – except for the tomatoes!

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It’s been a strange gardening year.

On one hand I think I did more work in the garden this year than I have in the last two or three – in other words I was feeling a bit better and was more into getting my hands dirty and my arms scratched up by the roses, but then the weather was well … blah … more like a warm spring than summer, so the plants didn’t grow as well as I’d hoped earlier in the year and that put a damper on my garden enthusiasm.

It’s a stunted garden in some ways because of the cold July we had. My Cleomes are only just now starting to grow … they’ve reached maybe 3.5 to 4 feet in height where they should be about 6 feet tall by now.

My Tomatoes are possibly my best garden crop this year. In the past few years I’ve planted my tomatoes late, and well last summer was rainy and cold too so my tomatoes never really turned red. This year I planted them early enough that they grew well in June, stagnated in July with green fruit on the vine that wasn’t really growing and then come August the tomatoes really took off (as they should!).

We’ve been eating Tomatoes since maybe the first week of August (second at the latest) and it’s been great. There’s nothing better than a fresh tasty tomato right off the vine.

I’ve been eating tomato sandwiches, adding tomatoes to our salads and other foods and pretty soon I think I might try grilling some tomatoes or well maybe sauteing them as my sisters recipe calls for putting them in a frying pan (saute garlic in oil then cut a tomato in half and cook – apparently the garlic oil just goes right up into the tomato – delicious!).

I think I’ll also have enough tomatoes that I’ll be able to freeze some for tomato sauce.

I discovered a very easy way to freeze tomatoes a few years ago. Forget dropping them in boiling water to get the skin off before freezing. Just place whole tomatoes on a baking pan and place in the freezer. Let them freeze (while not touching other tomatoes) and then place them in a freezer bag. Later on when you thaw them the skins just slip off as they thaw and once thawed you can put them in a pot and start making a nice tomato sauce from scratch.

One thing that I must do soon is take some pictures of the garden and all the plants in bloom. For some reason I haven’t taken as many pictures this year as I usually do. I could be short on pictures for Green Thumb Sundays in the winter if I don’t start snapping away now!

How is your garden doing this week? What late summer/ fall flowers are blooming?

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?

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