Trillium

A Weed is merely in the eye of the beholder...

"A weed is not so much a plant in the wrong place, it is a plant growing where it is not wanted" - Gardening Manual for Canada

I have to agree that I am not a vigilante weed murderer. I used to be, until I tossed 6 or 7 flourishing oriental poppy plants.
Since then I tended to be a bit more lax about what was growing in my garden.. Many herbs and useful plants are weeds by definition, but some can actually benefit the garden or gardener. I live between a field of hundreds of acres of unkept, unmaintained lands, and a county forest, which depending on the direction of the wind, I could have trilliums growing in the shadier portions of the yard, to ugly plantain plants. Some weeds are down right ugly, and others are actually pretty attractive, field poppies are gorgeous in bloom and can very easily get out of hand, but they attract hover flies and insect eating birds. Certain clovers benefit garden soil by adding nitrogen through their roots. Other local weeds provide cover for birds and other wildlife. Sunflowers are weeds, yet they attract birds and provide us with seeds, not to mention they are very beautiful in fields.

First poppy bloom

Calm before the storm...

The weather has been less than fantastic for this holiday weekend kickoff, the rain and cool nippy air really put a damper on the Friday rush. C and I had to load that less than a year old mower into my wagon and send it to the repair shop, who are 2 weeks behind turn around ... as everyone elses mowers in town are sitting there waiting to get fixed too! Thankfully our neighbour a few houses down lent C their electric lawn mower and he happily went to work while I trimmed the bed edges. The lawn is C's passion, its his responsibility, I don't like to get involved. After the grass was cut C looked and said the bare patches were healing O.K. and that we could skip the sod (he made me buy) for some more seed and compost.. The seed is NOT doing well on the hump by the front door and I wanted to sod that badly, but again I say, its his lawn, I have free reign over the garden, he has it over the lawn.. so I digress, tomorrow we are laying seed. C helped me by hanging up the brackets for the aromatherapy basket and the decorative shelf for the herbs by the front door (No your not imagining it, one of the decorative spikes broke under his pressure).. It took no less than breaking 3 masonry bits to hang that sucker up, so I really can't complain, a little compound adhesive wil fix it anyhow. Here are the results.

Happy Birthday Honey

The older we get,
The more I think about what really matters in life.
And so many of the things that once seemed important no longer even make the list.
What really matters to me now, is the 2 of us...
sharing our lives, reliving our memories, dreaming our dreams... together.

The Garden At Night

As it would seem that Mother Nature has decided that the rain must go on, and on and on here, I finally had the chance to gaze through the garden at night (Boy I really can't wait to set up shop in the backyard, with a fence, the neighbours already think I am nuts) So when the rain paused and the sun had gone down I went hunting.. in search of a few pictures to capture the garden at night... I was hoping to catch a few snails, spiders or other creatures, but I guess the rain had them all shacked up. The pics were actually taken blind, I only saw the picture after it was taken, and these are the best results. I am sad that the rain has conquered my first poppy bloom in the garden, saddened and sagging. I am anxious to see more blooms now.

Its a Jungle out there..

One garden chore I know is easy but I am just not comfortable with is mowing the lawn. C does an amazing job of it and usually mows a nice pattern. Yesterday we had a break in the rain and I had C convinced that the grass jungle was beginning to get out of control. I have given up on many grass seeds and I bought 3 rolls of sod to finish the patchwork. When C got home he quickly went to work on mowing the lawn, the only down side? The lawnmower wouldn't start (I knew I should have pushed harder for the push mower, He called me whilest I was in Home Depot to gte a new spark plug and some fuel additive to which he might as well have been speaking some alien language that only guys can understand. "Get the JM19R20FCIFUCNRMBRTHSNMBR spark and octane booster fuel additive for a Murray 9453lt3 model, I'll need a new RM1999494396025860296032 style filter too, Got it?" ...after a long silence.. "uh,I'll see you when YOU get home from Home Depot".

Aromatherapy Gardening..

Exactly what the doctor ordered. I used to be a skeptic, I used to think that people who saught alternative therapy were somewhat unstable to actually believe that drinking tea or eating a root could heal the ailments. Until I began working with Tracey , now my mind has opened up and changed. I had written previously about the focus of my garden is to please my sense of smell primarily, sight and touch are actually second. All the fragrant plants are closest to the porch and walkway to gently brush against.
I have promised myself to wait for any other perenial purchase (with exception to the flowering almond tree I really want) on restrain for a little bank book recovery. I was in the Zhers garden centre boggled over the "gicantico" super sized tomato and other anual plants on display when my nose led me to a basket hanging in a corner. I am hanging my basket by the front door to greet me home. As I was paying for my treasure the scent had tipped off a few keen scent lovers in line, asking me where I had found the treasure, but sadly it was the last one!

Busy Like Bees

I must apologize for being so unavailable for comment as of late. C and I have had many buzzings about for getting organized for our late summer baby quest. Thankfully though, the bees have been doing their part in the garden busily..Kaycee had one land on her nose today, I sadly did not have the camera on. >shucks<

Thank you, Show Off!!

I wanted to reply to Karen's blog about garden blogging, but I thought it best that I did so here on my own blog, to cut down on rantings from other comments and such. I too read the article Karen had critiqued about Garden Voices and how it was "mainly people showing off their gardens..." To my response is, good, I am sooo glad someone is showing off their REAL LIFE garden. I must admit I browse the garden magazines, I have several garden books, and I ogle and drool over the super perfect displays at botanical gardens and photo feature spreads in Home and garden shows. I will even admit to watching Martha Stewart Living. I wonder what it would be like to pull up to a home with a few acres devoted to separated gardens, "and this is the antique rose garden darling.. Its absolutely fab! You must come by in fall to pick your own pumpkin from my patch, shall we dine in the courtyard or the English garden today?". I mean really! I am sooo happy to get REAL advice, real commentary, and see real garden ideas for a backyard the size of a ping pong table like mine. I enjoy hearing tips and tricks that save me cash from being green in the gardening realm and buying expensive items for that I read in books or mags thinking that every great gardener has one. Thank you to the ladies and Men that have posted their secrets to success and warned of failures, you have probably saved me hundreds of dollars and effort already!

Iris