Friday, May 19, 2006

Empty Day!

This evening, we took a large carload of houseplants and herbs to my Horti Club plant sale-which is actually tomorrow-I was so happy to see them leave the greenhouse and garden. Our members who were busy lugging in their plants were able to buy 3 plants this evening and quite a few of my plants are now gone to good homes. I was very good-I did not buy any plants!!!
Our club received a number of plants from Canadian Tire garden centre-last fall. A member actually planted them in her vegetable garden - for the winter - then dug them up - washed off the pots and lugged them all to the plant sale....is she a dedicated helpful gardener or what. There were honeysuckles, silver lace vines, hydrangeas and numerous types of trees and shrubs.
I am off to work at the sale in the morning from 8AM to 12PM-should be fun chatting with all the garden people and learning more about plants.
I also have two more trays of plants to take in the morning.
It is soooo nice to have empty trays in the greenhouse!!!

Monday, May 15, 2006

Geraniums

Today started off very cool -then sunny-then cloudy-this PM was gorgeous, sunny and warm-this evening, cloudy again, cool again and then buckets of rain.....BUT.....we poured 5 bags of sand around our Colorado Blue Spruce and raked it and it looks great again and will make lawn cutting around the tree so easy.
I planted five (5) red geraniums in my front flower bed and moved my rocks around so it looks really pretty now. A couple of days ago, we dug up a pink spirea shrub and transplanted it in my next door neighbour's front flower bed, so I had some extra space to fill with the geraniums.
I have two HUGE clay pots that I fill with geraniums and vines, etc., for our back patio and I potted them before the rain came down. Then I caught rain water from the downspout to water them with.
I have some room in the greenhouse now for flats of plants that I have ready for the plant sale on Saturday.
While enjoying a Tim Horton's coffee on the patio this PM, I marked all the plant sale perennials with cut up vinyl blind slats....they make great plant markers for your garden as well....just be sure to use a waterproof marker when writing on the slats.
My mother's day lily is blooming like crazy and is so beautiful!!!
We also went to Loblaws today and bought 3 - large bags of Super Soil-the best potting soil, ever.
It was a great gardening day even though the weather was really crazy!!

Sunday, May 14, 2006

Getting ready for the plant sale

My horti club moved their spring plant sale date up one week - halleujah!! I can get all those baby houseplants out of the greenhouse and clean it up a little bit.
I have also dug up some herbs and a few perennials from the garden - potted them and they will also be for sale.
I have been filling flat strawberry and fruit boxes from No Frills with lots of houseplants and geraniums. We will need to borrow a truck to transport it to the sale. Luckily, they are having a drop off on Friday evening before the sale.
I received a beautiful lily plant for Mother's Day - it is a deep deep red colour - I don't have any lilies so this will be a challenge to keep it alive- I hope it doesn't spread - I have downsized my garden BIG TIME - so I had to dig up quite a few plants to make room for it. Luckily, I can give them to the plant sale as I hate throwing them in the composter.
What did I do on Mother's Day? This morning I transplanted some tomato plants - went to church for the Crowning of Mary - did some sewing - picked some rhubarb for the first time and made a dessert for supper.
My friend lent me Nanny McPhee so I might watch it tonight or tomorrow - the joys of being retired, eh?
Next week, I hope to plant my garden - if it doesn't rain.

Friday, May 05, 2006

Rotilling day!!

This PM, my husband rototilled the garden patch - now - I can start planting bit by bit - so hope this weather continues. My greenhouse is overflowing and it is telling me to move stuff out. I actually dug up some herbs and perennials a couple of days ago from the garden- for the Horti plant sale - end of month.
I have to talk about this cactus that my friend, Bill, gave me about 3 years ago....Bill said his mother originally had the plant... and Bill is in his 70's....so this could be a heritage plant, perhaps. Bill told me the cactus will produce lovely red flowers.....well.....it is producing and the flowers are all over the plant and definitely red.
I think it is called an Orchid Cactus. Hope to have some photos soon....if my old camera worked ok.
The geraniums are blooming overtime also....have to buy some large bags of potting soil so I can pot them in my huge clay pots for the patio.
Will try to write more from now on ---hard to keep up with all the greenhouse/garden happenings. Hope to hit the garden centres soon as well.
Enjoyment: Planning the garden!!