Wintery weather in November 2011

Yesterday we had our first snow....freezing rain started falling the evening before, turning to rain after the first hour or two, and then snow....it was pretty but in the morning the sun came out for a short visit and a lot of the snow melted....I was happy to see the green grass again....today, I rode my bike once more....every day that I can ride my bike is bonus for me.....winter hibernation is a long time and if there is ice on the roads from freezing rain or frozen slush, I am NOT about to go for a walk....I will have to do my Leslie Samson walking DVD, I guess...not the same as the great outdoors.
Still have plant to rearrange in the greenhouse....hopefully soon....time goes by weekly....and now Christmas is looming, but luckily it is not a big deal for our house any more....we are even going to eat out this year...at a restaurant!!
Here are some recent pics....first snow and greenhouse blooms....

Pots are inside for winter

Today, we emptied patio pots...I brought in a lot of plants to repot into smaller containers...windy, cool and sunny weather....hubby cut down rest of tomato plants....I had picked a lot of little green tomatoes a couple of days ago and today I made green tomato mincemeat....my house smelled like Christmas...so fragrant and nice. All that is left in the garden is: carrots, green onions, celery and dahliahs and lavetera....I have to pick the seed pods off the lavetera for next year's garden and dig up the dahliah tubers....another day.
After supper, I hurriedly potted all the geraniums, begonias, ivy, and other plants into pots...it gets dark so early now...yuk....
Busy day....but productive.
We had shepherd's pie for supper....it was yummy!

August Gardening

Long time, no blog....too hot this summer.....garden growing like mad......lots of rain....lots of weeds...lots of beans, swiss chard, cucumbers....lots of pickles being made.....weather is cooling a bit so hope to clean up garden a little so it will continue to produce till late autumn....August is half over now....unbelievable.....

Flattened garden June 23 2011

Last night, we had a terrific and I mean scary crashing thunderstorm and heavy rain which totally muddied and flattened my garden. The garden is just starting to grown so I am hoping there is no permanent damage. The only seeds not growing are parsnips. If we get warm sunny weather, all the baby plants should stand up and really thrive. More rain in forecast this PM and more thunder this evening again.....not complaining too much....we are so much luckier than folks in the west.

Pots today

I own 3 huge clay pots and today I started to plant them with geraniums from the greenhouse....I was able to stuff 3 salmon coloured geraniums that I have kept alive for nearly 10 years in one of these pots....a bright pink geranium and a variegated ivy plant went in the second one....two pale pink - really tall geraniums - were transplanted into the third. Lots of potting soil for this job....I saved the soil from the church poinsettias so it was mixed with fresh Loblaws Super Soil....the best potting soil ever.....the greenhouse is emptying out quickly. I planted more beans, onions, China White radises and carrots into the vegetable garden after supper tonight.....can't wait to munch all the goodies in that garden....lettuce it coming up now, tomatoes have blossoms.....one of these days a picture will appear on this blog.....if I ever get the dirt off my hands so I can handle the camera for you.....

Planting the vegetable garden

For the past week, I have been trying to plant my veggie garden and I am almost there....still have not been able to buy seed potatoes and have decided to plant more beans and carrots, etc. I sectioned my garden into four spaces and will have a photo soon.....hope to finish up this weekend if the rain holds off. Then I will plant my large clay pots for the patio...with geraniums and other annuals....bought more super soil at Loblaws today so I am ready for potting.
Went to Burt's Greenhouse yesterday and bought red and white plants - did two pots for church this weekend for Pentecost Sunday....hope they don't wilt inside the church after being outdoors in the greenhouses.

Planting time

So far, the garden has been planted with Loves Lies Bleeding, Cosmos, Snapdragons, Agapanthus, lots of Lettuce, 4 celery plants, 4 sweet red pepper plants, 2 hills of cucumbers...spent this evening on patio washing a large amount of pots.....tidied the greenhouse....came inside to tidy house a little and catch up on some laundry as well. Tomorrow, we have company coming.....yeaaaa
PS Disappointed that pkt of Chinese cabbage had six seeds inside....will try to return empty pkt to Canadian Tire for replacement....booooo