Garden Thursday

 Well, I don't know what happened here but I thought I'd posted this yesterday but it appears as though I didn't. Can you spell G-L-I-T-C-H?


So, what's new with your garden?

We have had the most spectacular spell of warm, dry weather these last few weeks, which the Olympic organizers have no doubt been completely deflated by, but being a good little Canadian I say:

SORRY!

(because as we know most Canadians are self-effacing and polite to the point of idiocy).

But (sheila smirks a little here in the way that only self-effacing Canadians can) that  warm dry spell allowed me to do an awful lot of gardening. I transplanted roses from Totally In The Way Places to Much Better Now They Are A Sort Of Hedge Places. I transplanted mock oranges because they were in the way of my beloved interloper Rosamundi and seeing as how history and me are tight Rosamundi won out. Besides, the mock orange is in a Truly Better Place now. Don't feel bad for it. I sank my Rose of Sharon into the ground even, it was so balmy. And I watched a lot of plant action. If you're going to do this be sure to have a lot of bone meal on hand: it really helps the transplanting process.

We went for a walk up the road yesterday. It's incredibly mellow in the woods up on the hill. I think what struck me more than anything was the soft voluptuous colour of the vegetation. There's no winter kill. No pathetic "I'm doing my best, sorry I'm a Canadian plant I have to apologize" kind of growth. It's all lush and green and moist.

I have to include this picture because it's so odd. I examined it from several angles but I never really did figure out whether it was one tree growing out of another tree or one tree growing out of its horribly mutilated other half. It was, I confess, that hard to tell. I even had my kids climb up and they couldn't readily tell. And one of them had just had two teeth removed forcibly from his mouth so that shows you how dedicated a Garden Thursday Correspondent I am.

And no, I would prefer you didn't speculate as to what kind of mother I am.







Had some fortuitous finds in the second hand store this week:

This is one book in a series Rodale put out a while back: Rodale's Successful Organic Gardening. I say a while back because I bought their "Vegetable Garden" book ages ago and while it's a great book, this one on pests and diseases is even better: great colour photographs and useful advice on getting rid of all manner of pests.
The other book I bought was one of those The _____Expert by Cavendish Press. In this case it was The Rose Expert by Dr D.G. Hessayon. I like this series a lot (I already have The Tree and Shrub Expert) because it's so technical. There are lists on pruning, leaf problems, pest issues, light requirements, and more. I might sound mildly obsessive but if you start delving into the world of roses you will soon discover that they have very specific pruning requirements (among other things): if you prune some varieties you will unwittingly be pruning off next year's blooms. It reminds me of when I discovered that apples come in tip-bearing and non-tip-bearing varieties, and that despite having been a fairly fanatical gardener for many years prior, I was blisslessly unaware that there WAS such a thing as a tip-bearing apple tree. How about you?

Here's a fun read I have out from the library (now if only I could reinvent my wardrobe):

There are thousands of books on this variation in the library, but I was more taken with this one than most others because it took several "reinventions" step by step and included a number of photographs of the reinvention aspect. I like seeing these kinds of overhauls a lot: it's one thing to think about changing things in the garden but it's another thing entirely to actually be out there doing it. And some of these changes (installing paths, remodelling beds) require such complications as leveling, sand underlays, gravel sides, and tamping down, too, so it's worth seeing someone skilled doing it before using up a lot of time and energy. Trust me on this one. I've expended a lot of time and energy doing things one year only to uproot and change everything COMPLETELY the next year. See beginning of this post if you don't believe me.

Now, get on with those Olympics! Go, Canucks!