HI Debbie - it has been absolutely ages since I have been by and posted. Guess with work, getting the garden ready and managing my own Canadian gardening group I just was too busy. My gardens are coming along lovely ... got mini roses in bloom, evening primrose, shasta daisies, geraniums, marigolds, salvia and more in bloom. One large clump of day lilies has finished blooming, another is just starting to bud. The oriental and asiatic lilies are in bud and will bloom soon. I planted 2 new clematis and can't wait for them to grow and bloom. Work has just finished so I've got the summer off. Plan to do lots of gardening, reading, and crafting. I'll try and visit again now that I have a bit more time.
Linda aka Crafty Gardener

Here is a link that might be useful: Country Roads Gardens and Crafts

Things are pretty weird here, weather-wise. I was going to post a link to the local newspaper so you could read about our windstorm from last week, but the latest issue doesn't seem to be up yet. If you want to try again in a couple of days, the site is www.drydenobserver.ca. The headline is "Did a tornado touch down in Waldhof?" and there are some pictures, too.

Anyway, i jinxed things by hanging clothes out this morning. I thought i could squeeze in an hour or so of drying time before the rain hit. No such luck. But the showers are only supposed to be for this morning, so maybe they'll dry this afternoon. And maybe i'll get out in the yard this afternoon. Ack! DOes this mean i should do housework this morning??????

Debbie, had to laugh when you asked about my dad helping with the floor! My dad is so UNhandy that my mom had to learn figure out how to do all kinds of stuff herself! And we still have to get the kitchen flooring - have to pass that hurdle before we can get started. I'll broach the subject one of these days!

Speaking of broaching subjects, yesterday i asked dh about the front step - the one it took me years to get and then cracked in half the first winter. Well, that's all it took, and yesterday he dragged it out with his tractor. There was a dead snake under it - how pleasant! LOL Anyway, the last i had heard before was that he was going to make cement sidewalk blocks to put there, but when i mentioned that, he said he was still thinking of putting a wooden deck there.

What?

Still thinking? First i'd heard of it! LOL But that actually would be really nice, if it does happen. I would have to dig up the little beds that are there, but that wouldn't be a problem. He said the deck would probably be 8 x 16 in front of the porch, and would be right on the ground, of course, but hey - the possibiliies! LOL So he had me thinking yesterday!

I don't know about soaker hoses around here. You'd have to have a different set-up. The area i garden in is pretty spread out and hoses would be running all over the place. Of course, maybe that's the reason for the quick-connect things, but i won't worry about it because it probably won't happen here anyway.

One thing i've been noticing this spring (summer) is that some of the flowers aren't lasting very long. The cherries were done flowering within a week, one of my lilacs didn't bloom at all and the other just had a few blooms that opened and died within days. The peonies aren't lasting long either and neither did the blue poppies or the wild roses by the deck. Maybe it's all the rain?

I really haven't been doing too much outside because i was busy with work and other things and the weather and mosquitoes weren't cooperating. But now i'm off and can get things done - looking forward to that!

None of my clematises or lilies are blooming yet. I've seen lots of pictures of blooming clematises here and in the Far North Forum - hope mine get a move on! I'm not even sure if there are buds - have to have a look.

Anyway, not much else happening. I'll write more later!

Take care and happy gardening!
Marcia

Hi all

Two of my clematis are blooming right now, Artic Queen and Warsaw Nike. Pink Champagne is done and Ville de Lyon is just starting to get buds. Speaking of Clematis, I picked up 4 clematis for $5.00 each and one for $6.00 at Canadian Tire today. They were all the one gallon size. I did have to pick through to get the healthiest ones but I am pretty happy for getting them at that price. I picked up 2 Mrs. George Jackmans, 2 Rhapsodies and one Star of India. The picture of Rhapsody on the tag isn't the right colour. It shows pink on the tag but Rapsody is a saphire blue. It will be interesting to see what colour it does bloom. I am going to plant them on the wall at the back of the house since there is nothing growing there at the moment.

The rest of the garden is doing quite well aside from a few leaves being eaten by bugs and a couple of my hostas getting stomped on by the puppy. Well the puppy is more like teenager age but she doesn't understand that the raised planters along the patio aren't for her to lie in or to stand in while barking at the neighbour.

We hired an arborist to deal with our two maples. One is huge and a danger if it ever decided to drop a branch on the house. The arborist put a couple of cables to hold the main branches up and drilled bolts to prevent the base from cracking open. It doesn't look as bad as I thought it would and apparently, the tree will grow over the bolts so you won't be able to see it. This cost a fortune but it allows us to keep the tree for another 20 or so years and will prevent the tree from destroying half of our house if part of the tree ever fell over in a wind storm.

We also have another visitor for the summer... a sheltie belonging to a friend. The puppy showed him how to get to the water in the pond and I guess he jumped right in as hubby found him soaking wet after leaving him for a few minutes in the back yard. Hubby went out and bought more fencing to close off the access. It is short fencing and the puppy could jump over it if she really wanted to but so far, it seems to keep her out. Why she would want to drink water out of the pond when she has fresh water in a couple of bowls is beyond me. So with the visitor, the puppy and my old girl, the pet count is 3 dogs, 3 cats, 2 rabbits, 2 goldfish, a pleco and a tetra. Yes, I know I am crazy but oh well, makes life interesting.

Happy growing,

Danni

Morning,

It has been so long since I posted, where does summer go.
I was going to downsize this summer, but have started another lassagne bed ,plus making a bed for my daylilies, just fell in love with them. Can't get any help from my guys, of course they think I am completely crazy.

Marcia, all my plants have had a very short bloom season also. It seems that the lilacs were done in a week, and my peonys the same thing. Our weather has been up and down also, but nothing like I hear you have had.

Debbie, your pics are always so great, you must spend a great deal of time out there. All my hosta are doing fine, I tried the epsom salts on them and they turned a more darker shade, love it.

Well I thought I would just check in to say Hey.

Happy Summer
Janet

Hi,

Me again, is anyone having trouble with ants this year. I have never seen so many in my yard, my hubby keeps killing the hills, but they come back. I have had so many bites from the red trying to move plants, couple times ran to the house since they were in my pants ---- things. Anyone know of a cheap or expensive quick fix.

Janet

Me, Janet, and i've heard it mentioned other places too. I had some kind of powder stuff that didn't work, so i got some Raid ant killer in a red plastic bottle. I just used it the other day, and haven't had a chance to check the results yet, but i'm sure that's the stuff i used in another bed and it killed all the ants. I'm not crazy about using chemicals, though, but it was a last resort.

Hi
It was another cool day here today but at least it was sunny and I wasn't wearing my winter coat like I was yesterday. Last night it went down to 6c and tonight it is only 7C.

I was able to get out and get the new side garden covered in newspapers and landscaping fabric and anchored down. I will start planting it in the next few days depending on the weather.

I cut down some of the roses as the leaves are such a mess, they are just awful and I don't know what is causing this. I don't know if it's white fly, black spot, the freezing temps we had after the leaves came out. Some of the roses don't have the papery leaves but most of them do. The new leaves on the roses seem to be ok, but when the first leaves came out on the roses they were ok too then went weird fast!

This is what JP Connell looks like now {{gwi:2100320}} Yuk!

I put some white fly traps out around them tonight and I also sprayed them for disease and bugs so hopefully they will start looking better, of course they couldn't look much worse right now.

It is the JP Connell, Winnipeg parks and Morden Blush that are the worse right now.

I have a flower bud on my water lily so it will be so nice when it blooms. I only have the one now as I donated the other to the plant sale for the Horticultural Society.

More of my lilies are also starting to bloom so that is nice. I don't have as many lilies as I did last year. I don't know if the chipmunk has found a new food sourse, or the winter was hard on them, or they still have not recovered from the contractor smashing and burying them.
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I love these Orange Pixies, they sure do make ya take notice. *S*
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Some of the lilies I thought I had sprayed with Round up last year are coming up in the new beds, even in the beds that are 20" tall. But they are only a couple of inches tall now by the time they get to the surface. LOL I have also been pulling out baby roses that I also sprayed with round up last year. I guess they are growing up from the roots.

Here is a new pic of the beds that were built last year. The hostas still don't hide the wooden beds, but I figure in another year of two they will. {{gwi:2100324}}

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Hi there Linda! So nice to hear from u again! Sounds like u are keeping yourself very busy! I have some evening primroses blooming in a pot! They overwintered there with a tulip. *L*I use to have a lot of them in the old rose bed, but since I redid it I pulled a lot of them up. None of my daylilies have started blooming yet, I keep waiting. I hope I will get more blooms from them this year.

Marca, I'm sorry to hear your Dad is errr unable to do home repairs. Maybe your mom could help ya....*LOL*

A dead snake under your front step? Maybe he was under it when the step cracked? It wasn't a poisonous one was it? Don't know if u have those up there. A wooden deck? LOL Well it would be nice if he did it this year. Seems like it would be a good size deck too.

Some of my flowers didn't bloom long either. Like the regular lilacs and peonies. The lilacs hardly had any flowers on them and what they did have were little spindly things.

Hi Dannie, 5 bucks is a very good price for a clematis. Hmm maybe I should go and check out our Canadian Tire. I have been wanting to go there and get some more patio chairs to spread around the yard so I'd have more places I can rest so that gives me more incentive to get over there. *S* I have a Nelly Moser that blooms in the backyard, but I never go back there, so I'm thinking I should dig it up and move it to the front yard where I can appreciate it more.

That back wall is going to look so pretty with all those clematis growing up it. You will have to take a pic when they are blooming!

Some people say that stomping on hostas is good for them. That they develop more eyes so they send out more shoots, the shoots will be smaller though. I haven't tried it yet for my hostas that are slow growers, but the way Tegan is getting around the yard now she might step on some. She almost got one tonight. *LOL*

I have heard about cables being put on trees to hold the branches together, I bet u feel better knowing that it can't fall on your house now.

How old is the sheltie? I bought one for my mom when I was about 17 and he was the smartest dog I ever owned, I should say mom owned, but he was still my dog. It was the only way I could get a dog,,was buy it for her as a gift, as she never returns presents. LOL What is a pleco?

Hi Janet, thanks, my gardens only look good cause I don't take pics of the weeds. LOL I still have to get to the weeding this year. I did the front yard, but the back yard needs help,,,,,,big help.... LOL
Thanks for reminding me, I haven't put out the epson salts yet. Yikes!

Sorry to hear about your ant troubles, is your hubs killing the hills at night time? He has to kill them at night time as during the day the ants are out gathering food.

I have a recipe that worked on my ant problems, but it takes a couple of weeks.

it is one part borax laundry powder soap
3 parts white sugar

mix it up well and put a few spoonfuls in a covered container with a couple of holes in it, so that no kids or other animals or birds can get at it as it is poisonous. Place the container where u know the ants are and it will kill them as they take the poison back to the queen ant and feed it to the others too.

Well time to get to bed here.

Take care everyone and happy gardening!

Debbie :-)

Morning,

Thanks Debbie for the recipe, I am going to try that. Marcia my hubby hates chemicals also, but I don't care just get rid of it, he won't even wear bug spray, where as I bath in it if the bugs are bad.

My lassagne bed is done, gotta love that method, of course I will continue to add to it, all my leaves in the fall etc.

Started breaking sod for the daylily bed, our landfill has compost that they give away, I picked up a load for my lassagne bed yesterday and plan on adding a truck load to the bed for the lily's. It is not suitable for vegs gardens but helps with my flower beds.

Break over.

Janet

Hi Debbie

The boy sheltie we got for the summer is 2 years old, my old girl is nine and the girl puppy is a year and a half. The boy and the puppy rip around the yard playing and my old girl just sorts of rolls her eyes at them. I remember when she used to rip around the yard just like them. Kind of sad when they get older....

A pleco is a sucker type of fish that eats the algea off the glass in fish tanks. I have a 75 gallon tank in the rec room where I keep my pond fish during the winter.

We went back to Canadian Tire to look for perennial salvias and somehow, courtesy of my daughter, another five $5.00 clematis found their way into my cart. I am going to plant two together so that when they bloom there will be contrasting colours. Now the issue is getting trellises for them. I have two twig trellises that I picked up at Vanderwee's but the lady at Willow Springs is going to have to make a few more for me. Willow Springs is the place I got my twig arbour and twig chairs and tables. The lady is really talented and makes all kinds of twig furniture including baskets.

Tonight I went and pulled out the tulip foliage from the front yard and I also trimmed back my snow in summer. I think that snow in summer could get pretty invasive if I let it do what it wants. It was gorgeous while it bloomed but now it was going to seed so it was time to trim it back. Here is a picture of it in full bloom. My daughter is on the front steps.

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Well one more day of work tomorrow and I am off for six weeks. I am looking forward to sleeping in, puttering in the garden and reading till 3 a.m.

Danni

Hi
It was a nice hot day today, was still 26C at 10pm tonight, so that was a nice change. Tomorrow we are suppose to go up to 30C, a bit too hot for me, but better than 2C!

Some of the people on a rose forum think that the reason my leaves are brown is because of the frost we have gotten since the leaves came out. I wish the green leaves would come out and cover them up soon.

I went to Canadian Tire tonight and picked up the 2 soaker hoses I had ordered, went over to their garden center and the girl said she was closing up in 10minutes. Geeeezeee she had the plants already locked up so I couldn't look at the clematis! I did at least buy one chair so I have another place to park myself.

I set up one of the hoses and after I test it out I will hook up another one. I'm still trying to make shredded paper to use as mulch, but I keep jamming up the shredder. LOL

Janet, I hope that recipe works for you. It did for me, just took a while. sounds like u are really busy with making new beds. Your lucky to be able to get compost from your city. Ours tried it but it wasn't successful, I can't remember the reason, I think too many weeds or something like that.

Danni, u got five more clematis??? Wow that's great! All I got was,,, hi we're closing in 10 minutes and the store was open for another 2 hours. Oh well, guess i really didn't NEED anymore clematis. *S*

That wall is going to look soooooo pretty! Especially with trellises from the Willow lady. I remember your pics from last year of all that nice furniture. Nice pic of your yard and your daughter. *S*

Well time to get moving here....
Take care
Debbie :-)

Hi
It has been so hot here the past few days I haven't done much in the yard except feed the fish and water. It has been 35 and 36C with the humidex at 40! So I have been staying in the house quite a bit.

Getting up in the early morning around 5 a.m. to water the pots and yard and then going back to bed. Even with watering, my poor hostas are getting a bit crispy.

We haven't gotten a good rain for quite a while. It was supposee to rain Wednesday but we didn't get any. It was a lot cooler though and not humid so someone around us must have gotten a good rain.

I'm still trying to figure out what is wrong with my rose leaves. I did a search on the net and one place said it might be a nutrient definciency. So I fertilzied and gave them some limestone as it also mentioned lack of calcium and lack of boron was a possibility.

The hostas I planted up against the house in the new beds are all burnt up. Poor things, they were so nice looking before I planted them. I guess I should of waited until it cooled down more. I really didn't think the sun would bother them that much though as they only get morning sun.

My lilies are really blooming and they look so pretty!
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This one is Plum Crazy, it has multiplied a bit this year so that is nice.
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My water lily never bloomed. I guess it didn't like the 2C temp we got one night because the bud just went below the surface. *sigh*

Take care
Debbie :-)

Hey, didja notice that i wasn't around for awhile? LOL My computer was "in the shop", but now is back and performing pretty well. They took out Windows ME and put in XP. I still have some fixing up and figuring out to do, but mostly things are good.

The gardens are doing fine - it's pretty dry, though, and evening watering doesn't seem to do the trick. We need a good rain, but that hasn't happened for weeks. When it rains, it's a downpour that bounces off the ground and doesn't sink in. But things are blooming nicely, and the lilies are outstanding! Some are about 5 feet high! Wow! I'll post some pictures soon, possibly next week. I have to get the newsletter done this weekend.

Big news - my garden is on the tour next year!! I kind of knew it was coming, but it's official now. They told me last week just before this year's tour. :) It should be okay, especially if i work at problem areas this year, and keep on top of the weeding, watering and deadheading next year. After going on this year's tour, i don't think i have to worry. Gotta get dh to move some of his "yard art", though! LOL

Anyway, just wanted to check in and let you all know i'm still alive. Take care! Will post more later~

Marcia

I'm going to start the August thread,,*gulp*,I will post over there.

Debbie :-)