Thursday, September 22, 2005

Fall Gardening!

The garden is empty - except for the dahliahs and some irises that will be moved soon. I spent yesterday and this AM digging and pulling everything out. This PM, we went to the recyling place again to dump another trunk load of garden waste. My hubby will roto till the garden one of these days and it will be all ready for winter. It has been warm and breezy the past 2 days -perfect for working outdoors. I still have lots of pots and flowers in 3 other beds, so I am not completely without colour in the yard. I haven't touched the front bed - it is full of marigolds and looking great.
I actually worked in the greenhouse after supper - potting some cuttings of houseplants. A neighbour gave me some coleus plants that she had rooted and they have been potted.
Enjoyment - the first day of fall - I love autumn! The trees are turning colours already!

Monday, September 19, 2005

Garden Cleanup!

Yesterday I decided to clean up the garden-pulled out petunias and some sedum in one flower bed-cut back the peonies and some other bedraggled perennials. Then I headed to the garden and pulled out the tomatoes-I only grew Tiny Tim's this summer and they were bursting before I could pick them, so they were cut down and bagged up. I grew a huge morning glory plant on my arbor and a lot of leaves were yellowing so it was the next thing to cut down and it was a lot of cutting as it was very well wrapped around the arbor's slats.
This AM we loaded our car's trunk with bags and bags of garden waste and went to Lappan's Lane, the recyling depot, and dumped it there. It looks like a lot of folks are on the same wave length as me - I saw lots of garden flowers and tomatoes-we were there around 8:30AM and it was busy already.
Back to the garden - where I dug up some irises and yarrow and moved them to another flower bed. Hopefully I will finish the job this week and can concentrate on bringing into the greenhouse my geraniums, begonias, some herbs. I will leave the dahliahs until the frost hits them and the flowers in my herb garden will remain also but the vegetable garden will be clean and roto-tilled.
Enjoyment: A tidy garden!!

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

September Horti Club Stuff!!

On Sat., Sept. 10th, Collins Bay Hort Club had their first ever plant sale and we made $300+. How great is that! There was a great selection of perennials - lots of irises - herbs & houseplants (my contribution). A couple of the members picked MacIntosh apples and we bagged them and sold them. They were a hit. I went to help at 8AM - sale started at 10:30AM and I was home shortly after 12Noon. They even gave me lunch.
The leftover plants stayed in the church hall where the sale was held and a couple of members were going to sell them after weekend church services.
On Monday, Sept. 12th, the Club had the monthly meeting and the fall flower and vegetable show. I always like to participate and I wish more members would place entries. I won three 1st prizes - for - marigolds under 2" (which I grew from seed), lemon yellow strawflowers, and a floating sunflower.... 2nd prizes - for -
collection of three annuals - cosmos, lavetera and zinnia - all pink flowers, except the zinnias which were pink with peachy centres; a collection of 5 herbs; "Mike" orange marigolds - category over 2"(grown from flower head seed my brother picked in Victoria, B.C.; a mini design - "Rustic Charm" -I used a tiny clay pot filled with strawflower buds and statice; a design using an antique container-"Time Passages"- I chose an old honey pail that belonged to my dad (he had his own bees) and filled it with different coloured statice and in the centre of the arrangement I put a litte bumble bee in a little clay pot. I also received two 3rd prizes for my sweet red peppers and a floral design "Anniversary Celebration"-I used a red basket and filled it with red and white flowers - cosmos, zinnias, feverfew flowers, dahliahs, red velvet sunflowers and love lies bleeding. It looked like a Canada Day arrangement. Yesterday was extremely hot and some of the flowers were wilting a little but the judge took the weather into consideration which was nice of her.
Our guest speaker talked about houseplants - she was very informative.
We had a mini lunch - I ate a little tiny lemon tart, some veggies and dip and had a cup of tea...in that order. Our club has the best bakers - there was more goodies but I held back....I have been walking for exercise and try not to munch in the evenings.
Today, I pulled out all my carrots - they are really small and not plentiful - I had one little row. We had them for supper and they are yummy.
I am going to start to empty the garden - sad to say!
Enjoyment - winning prizes for all your garden show entries!

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Cleaning my greenhouse

My greenhouse has had it's annual cleanup-it took me most of last week to complete. I moved all the plants off two tables and placed them on a 3-tiered shelf in the greenhouse. The plants were packed so tightly together that if I touched one a domino effect would take place and they would all crash to the floor. I watered them thoroughly before moving so I wouldn't have to worry about their drinks. We moved the tables out to the patio, cleaned them with soap and javex and then my husband proceeded to remove some warped slats and replaced them. The tables are 20 years old and have only been painted once. I bought a semi transparent colour stain and after applying it, realized the original stain was a solid colour. Rather that drive back to Home Depot I decided to use it anyhow. Pine darkens with age and so does the stain and when the plants are on top of the table, the wood colour will be unnoticed. So... the tables were painted and returned to the greenhouse and due to the muggy weather mid week, they took 2 days to completely dry. Before returning the tables to the greenhouse, I cleaned all the windows and scrubbed the mildew off the aluminum and mopped the floor. It was a BIG job. On Friday, it was a cool day and I worked all AM-moved the plants back to their home tables-cleaned the 3 tiered shelf-it will get painted next year. While putting the plants back, I repotted any that needed it and prepared a couple to flats of plants for our Horti Fall Sale on Sat., Sept. 10th. My greenhouse looks great now and hopefully I can keep it that way. I brought some of my red geraniums inside recently and divided them into 3 plants and they are doing very well.
The garden is looking good these days, thanks to the rain that Hurricane Katrina sent to us. I have been eating and giving away lots of Tiny Tim tomatoes. My sweet red peppers are absolutely delicious-I have been roasting them on my George Foreman grill. YUM! I have been drying lots of herbs and will take some to the Plant Sale. The flowers are doing better. The squirrels have not discovered the new regrowth of sunflowers-I have Giants, Red Velvet and Lemon Yellow and Teddy Bears. I look out the window every AM and luckily they are all still there.
Yesterday, a beautiful hummingbird spent the whole day in my Petunias - what an amazing creature!
Kids start back to school today - and it is gorgeous here-I will be out in the garden this AM for sure.
HAPPINESS IS COOL FALL WEATHER!!