Thinning Out A Bit

This spring I had more annual seedlings come up than in previous years, probably because of the unusually warm weather we’ve been having in the area. In the back yard there are a few clumps of cosmos seedlings, probably a few hundred plants. I took out a small clump the other day and potted them up for my sister, there were 50 plants. I think I’ll plant some between the garage and the fence, they are tall and self-seed so they may keep the weeds there under control. In the front gardens there are alyssum and snapdragon seedlings galore but most are too small to move yet.

As for the perennial flowers, the clematis liked the winter weather, they are blooming like crazy. I thinned out the gooseneck loosestrife in front of the clematis the other day, it was growing around the flagstones. They multiply pretty quickly, I think I will have to confine them in the future. Here are some before and after photos:

I don’t see any butterfly bush seedlings coming up yet but the winter was so mild that the bushes didn’t quite go dormant so they didn’t get pruned back this spring, there were still leaves growing on the bushes in February.

I have to thin out the ribbon grass around the pond soon, Maybe I’ll plant it in the back border garden after the fence is replaced, it will keep the grass in the alley from creeping under the fence, I hope.

Speaking of thinning out, the birch tree looks like it could use a trim too. It has been growing for six years now and is at least 25 feet tall, in 2004 it was less than 3 feet tall. We brought it back from my sister’s cottage in 2003 and it died back over the first winter and had to start growing from the ground up again. We were surprised that it grew at all but it is doing great.

After we get the deck finished we will be re-setting the patio stones and fitting some interlocking natural-looking pavers around the pond. When we are getting ready to work on the pavers, I’ll have to move the purple coneflowers and columbines that are growing in front of it, we had sandstone bricks in front that fell into the pond over the winter and they flowers are growing between the liner and the patio stones. The interlocking pavers will hopefully stay put when we put them in.

My hummingbird flowers need to be thinned out also. I planted two that I bought at our town horticultural plant sale two years ago and there must be two dozen now. They don’t have much more space to expand.

Since building the new deck, I had to remove a flower garden and now have several clumps of spiderwort, astilbe and spotted dead nettle to find a home for. Maybe I’ll plant them in the back after the fence is done. I have to move a butterfly bush from the back to the side yard beside the other two also. It is getting too big and crowding out the peony.

In the front gardens, the swamp mallow has to be dug up before the front porch can be extended next month. It is still small enough to put into a pot, but it has to be done soon. I have some pink creeping phlox, a couple of hostas, lily-of-the-valley, coneflowers, a couple of small butterfly bushes and loosestrife to move before the porch gets started too, but I can replant them in the raised bed we’re making in front of the porch. I’ll be planting my new climbing rose bush in the raised bed as well, I have to get a trellis for it to climb on though. After the raised bed is finished I’ll split up the spring bulbs and replant them, they need to be thinned out anyway.

I think I have a whole summer’s work to get done in the next month, I’m sure glad that we are going on vacation afterward, we’ll need it.

Leaves Are Down, Lights Are Up

Before you know it, the first snow is going to be flying, the weatherman is calling for flurries next week but it is mild today. The trees are bare and my clematis is still flowering! Nothing spectacular, the leaves are all turning brown, but there are still a few buds on it. The snapdragons are still flowering and the sweet peas are straggling, otherwise, the rest of the garden is going dormant, except the weeds! I look out the door at my vegetable garden and I see green everywhere.

I brought the cactus in that was in the front garden and re-potted it. I think that it liked the full sun better than the indoor lighting, it is surviving but not thriving. I'll put it out next spring after the chance of frost is over.

My husband brought our Poinsettia inside about six weeks ago, and I brought it up from the basement last week. It was in the utility room and the light was on a timer so I was forgetting about it all the time and it was dropping leaves. The first buds were coming so I hope it will keep flowering. I'll know in a couple of weeks if the leaves start to change.

I am going to over-winter the fuschia downstairs, in the laundry room, it's been in the garage since before the first frost. I have to bring in two rosemary plants that are in the garage as well, I have to re-pot them into a smaller pot for in the kitchen for the winter.

The Christmas lights went put up yesterday, before the weather changes. There are a lot of lights this year, there are two less bushes to put the lights on this year. My husband already mentioned this morning what furniture needs to be moved where when we put the Christmas tree up.

Gardening - Herb Garden Rejuvination Long Overdue

I had a couple of planters containing some sages, oregano and thymes on the deck all summer. Now that fall is here, I had to replant them in a more permanent place in the herb garden behind the garage. The only problem was that the herb garden had been neglected and was severely overgrown. There was a wild grape vine growing out of the middle of it and the oregano was spreading over the chives and they were not getting enough sunlight.

Before

There was catnip growing here and there and a wild grape vine was growing over the lattice and covering the rhubarb. I had to prune back some mulberry suckers that were growing from stumps beside the fence. There is a row of stumps from cedars that were cut down before we were here that make it impossible to dig up the mulberry, so, I just keep pruining the suckers.

The hoses you can now see beside the fence were once a garden hose which the dog chewed up last year. I decided to keep them to lay out in the garden if earwigs got to be a problem. There were no problems with earwigs this year, but the garden snails have really been bad this year. I told my husband, who likes Escargots, that I was going to start a snail ranch, so he could have all he can eat!With all of the grape vines, mulberry suckers and various weeds gone, I can actually see my rhubarb and chives, which the snails have been having a feast on. Now, to tackle the oregano!
I was digging up and pulling out oregano for a couple of hours, then I had to get the roots out so that they didn't grow new plants all over the place. I decided to keep only a small clump of it and pulled up the rest. There was enough of the herb to fill two garbage cans!


After I got all of the oregano dug out, and cut back, I was finished for the day.

Day 2

I dug up a couple of clumps of chives and replanted them closer to the rest of the chives. I then started to replant the sages and thymes.
The last of the plants was a new variety of oregano, which has a purple coloured leaf. I hope this one doesn't grow out of control.

My Gardens - My Front Backyard Gardens

I think my ribbon grass is taking over the pond, I'm going to have to divide it already, I just planted two 6" pots that I bought at the Leamington Horticultural Society's spring plant sale last year. They seem to thrive in the arid conditions, maybe I'll plant the divisions in the back corner of the yard.

This spiderwort is getting overgrown as well. I have chives, 3 strawberries, leaf lettuce and a strawberry spinach growing in the wire basket that my husband rescued when the town was cleaning up in the fall.

My gooseneck loostrife was growing into my clematis so I had to dig up the offshoots near the roots of the vine. I repotted them into two pots. This was another find at the plant sale.

The cosmos self-seeded so I just thinned the seedlings out where they were. The gooseberry bush, behind them, was a seedling about 8" tall when I bought it last spring at the plant sale. I'm hoping that it will be productive this year. My neighbour gave me some raspberry canes, front left that are starting to take off. She was told they were an everbearing variety and should produce fruit this year. We'll see.

I had to prune my trumpet vines back to the fence. They are invasive, and I'm constantly finding new shoots coming up in the garden and lawn. My sweet pea vines are getting too heavy for the netting that they are growing on.

My water lilies are doing great this year, the first week of blooming there were 11 blooms out at once!

The dogs knocked the flagstones from the edge of the pond. The feverfew self-seeded also, and there are tons of them now. They are good medicinal herbs if you are a migraine sufferer. The tea, made from five or six fresh or dried leaves steeped, sweetened to taste, and sipped slowly relieves the migraine and accompanying nausea. A daily tea is said to be a preventative. The tea has a floral flavour, similar to chamomile tea.


I had to take a close-up to show this golden sedum, bought at the plant sale, it is a ground-hugging plant. Next time I'll post pictures of my back backyard, the dog's playground.

Gardening - Spring Cleaning

Well, it's been a long, cold winter and I'm anxious to get out and do some yard work again today. I'm still sore from the yard work I've done already in the past two days. The weeds seem to grow under the snow, as soon as the s now is gone, chickweed is everywhere.
My gooseberries look like they made it through the long, cold winter with no damage, they should produce some fruit this summer. The Butterfly bushes need to be cut back today, and I think I'll give the Trumpet vines a good pruning too. If I had it to do over again, I would have planted the trumpet vines in containers, there are shoots coming up all over the yard.