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Who said you could pick my flowers?

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I’m just seething right now.

I was just coming outside a little while ago to clean up the dog fur at my front porch after a long grooming season with my Labrador Retriever, and as I exited my front door I noticed an older lady practically standing in my planted boulevard pulling away at my sunflowers. sunflower

She had a huge bouquet of yellow flowers tucked under her right arm, and with her other arm she was trying to get some of my sunflowers to add to her collection.

She noticed me come outside and she had the gall to turn to me and ask for scissors???

I told her “No I’m not going inside for scissors” – 1. I was covered in dog hair and wasn’t about to go inside where my husband had just vacuumed to get a thief something to aid her assault on my plants and 2. I was just stunned that she was hacking and pulling away at my plants right in front of me!

She told me she wanted the flower to take to the hospital. Yeah along with the variety of yellow flowers in the bouquet she was carrying – the flowers that she’d probably stolen along the way as she walked towards the hospital.

I let her take the flower. I mean she’d already ruined the stalk. But I’m really ticked off at the nerve she had taking the flower(s) in the first place without even attempting to ask first.

If she hadn’t had a whole bouquet of what I can only presume were flowers she’d lifted from other peoples gardens, or if I’d recognized he as a volunteer at the hospital I might have felt a little differently …

I guess I know now why some of the stalks on a few of the sunflower plants were all hanging down and trampled last week. She’d probably stolen flowers last week too.

Just her whole attitude ticked me off. I can picture her walking down my driveway and going into the backyard to pick roses too! Arghh

I don’t even pick my own flowers! Not for myself anyway!

I feel like putting a sign up that says

“These flowers are for those in the neighborhood to “look” at, not to pick!”

Should I bother? Or maybe I should leave some of my dogs droppings right where she’ll be likely to step in it if she tries to get my flowers again? Ha Ha! ((( yes I’m feeling evil )))

After she wandered off down the street I went and got my pruners and trimmed the stems and stalks she’d broken. I also shortened and thinned out the patch of sunflowers as they were beginning to get tall and were starting to hang out into the roadway. Remember last year I got a bylaw order to cut my sunflowers down to three feet? Well, they are about four feet tall right now, but look a lot tidier than they did this morning.

I’d hate to get a bylaw order to cut them down again with only about a month left to enjoy them, well if I can keep the flower thief away that is …

The thing that gets me most is that if she’d asked I probably would have let her take a flower. I would have even helped by cutting it myself. Heck, after she’d damaged the plants and I went out to fix the damage there were sunflowers all over the ground. Chris came out to help me put the cut stalks and leaves in a bag and as people walked by us we even gave them some of the sunflowers. So it’s not like we aren’t generous with our flowers – it’s just the fact that she didn’t even bother asking and that she damaged the plants. Grrrr






Want a peek at my garden?

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Join Green Thumb Sunday

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In the middle of July (July 14th to be exact) I decide to take a couple of shots of the backyard, front yard and my planted boulevard garden. Would you like to see what my garden looks like this year?

Here’s a shot of the backyard:

My backyard garden

It’s not the best shot. We had our patio table umbrella down due to all the rain storms we’ve been having. Our table gets tipsy in the high winds and I don’t feel like going through the pain and expense of having to replace the table glass if it falls, so no umbrella in bad weather! The green tube on the table chairs is for collecting rain run off from the rain spout so that the area closest to the house doesn’t get flooded in a heavy downpour.

The tall tree on the left – well the tallest in our garden – is the Rose of Sharon tree. It’s in full bloom at this very moment, but two weeks ago when I took the picture it was only just starting to develop buds. It’s blooming a little early this year. I’ll get some pictures of it soon!

My box turtles are enjoying a daily snack on the flowers. They are edible. If you have a Rose of Sharon or a Hibiscus bush you might even want to try using the flowers in a salad or as a garnish.

There are a large number of plants in those flower beds! The main plants are of course roses, lavender, salvia, hostas, clematis, balloon flowers and annuals such as petunias and portulaca’s. If you’d like to see a not quite up to date list of all the plants we’re growing in our back, front and boulevard gardens have a peek at my What’s Growing page.

Just click on any of the pictures for a larger view.

I’m pleased with how my front yard is looking so far this year. Our Lab puppy, Midnight, did a lot of damage to the grass in the early spring so we’ve tried to keep her off our tiny front long over the last two months and the grass has been growing back nicely. We helped it out my reseeding of course.

my front yard and garden

Our puppy still tries to bite at the roses, grasses and some of the other plants in the front flower beds as she walks by, but mostly she just sniffs at the plants. It’s quite funny to see her smelling a rose. I think she likes them! At least if she ever tries to eat a rose I know they are non toxic!

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The front boulevard is coming along nicely. I don’t know if you remember my earlier posts about cleaning up the boulevard garden in the spring. We had to remove thick sunflower stalks and lots of weeds before I could plant some new plants this year. It was a mess! It’s nice and tidy now!

planted boulevard

The sunflowers are beginning to bloom as are the pink Dahlia, daylilies, malva and gayfeather. Cosmos have come up this year as well. I haven’t planted cosmos there for at least three years and they were absent the last two, but I guess there were still some viable seeds in the ground and they decided to grow this year so there are cosmo plants scattered among the main plants and they are beginning to bloom now as well.

I have Marigolds and Alyssum planted along the edge of the boulevard and we’ve trained a few Morning Glory vines to grow around the No Parking sign that mars my boulevard garden.  Our neighbors seems to enjoy our planted boulevard quite a bit.

Overall I’m quite pleased with how well my garden is doing this year. It’s been fairly hot this month, yet we’ve had a record amount of rain (and storms!), so the plants are getting lots of water, free nitrogen in the air from all the lightening storms and some good heat to get growing. I actually think I’ve only watered the garden twice this month. Yay! I’m saving money on water too!

I think I’ll make up some of my famous Alfalfa tea later today and let it brew for a week or so. The garden has been doing so well I haven’t thought of using my secret sauce (great organic fertilizer that alfalfa tea is!) on it yet this year, but at least one dose won’t hurt it at all.

How is your garden doing so far this summer? Has the weather been good for it? Have you been getting a lot of rain and like us haven’t had to water much?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Sunny days are back!

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Wordless Wednesday

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Well after all that snow and our long cold winter it’s finally sunny over here in Toronto!

It’s a nice change. It’s been so dark and gray the sun is almost like a special treat.

I was just thinking yesterday as I watched our puppy lying in the kitchen with the sun shining on her sleek black coat that she hasn’t seen much sun yet in her short life. Nor has she really been able to enjoy lying in a sun beam.

I think she’ll be a real sun love just like these sunflowers!

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