Friday, September 29, 2006

Unrainy day!

No rain today-cool-sunny with clouds-but over all-nice! I walked today outdoors-yesterday, I exercised to my Walking DVD indoors -much nicer to be out breathing all that fresh air.
The only gardening done today was digging up dahliahs this PM - they were muddy and there were lots of huge earthworms that I disentangled from the tubers and threw back in Mother Earth.
My hubby washed all the dahliahs with the hose and they are drying out in the garage.
I have lots of tubers-didn't have a lot of flowers this year but lots of greenery.
No work in the greenhouse - I had to make a huge German Potato Salad for Octoberfest party at my church tonight - then we did some cleaning - moving furniture - but we did take a break -got a coffee at Tim Horton's and drove out Taylor Kidd Blvd. to Millhaven to see the fall colours - they were beautiful today.

Thursday, September 28, 2006

Pots and pots

Today, we had more rain - all day - so this PM I attempted to pot some cuttings and repot some other plants in the greenhouse...I have used up most of my small pots and will have to scrounge some from some friends and neighbours as I do not want to spend dollars and cents on pots. If I get totally desparate for pots, I will punch holes in my coffee cans, margarine containers or whatever else is in my house that can be recycled.
Here is a list of newly potted plant babies - 3 plectranthus, 1 hoya, 2 spider plants, 2 jade plants, 5 citronella plants, 2 coleus, 2 Silver Shield plectranthus, 1 wandering jew, 3 aloe vera plants. I also cleaned up crunchies from the geraniums and a pineapple sage. I elevated a begonia (from my mum's plants)-placed it on top of a clay pot so it can cascade so now I won't be stepping on it.
I don't have any more hanging space in the greenhouse - it is packed. I will take photos soon so you can see what I mean.
My garden is a mud bed right now and there is more rain forecast for the next few days.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Fall is here



Summer is over and my garden is looking as if.....in the past 2 weeks, we have had a ton of rain and wind and I had to cut down the dahliahs (tubers will be dug up if the ground dries a little)-chopped down the morning glories-dug up all the carrots-pulled out the green peppers and have started a fall cleanup. I feel sad as some things are doing so well. We have been eating the beans that I planted end of July-the daikon radishes are small so far - we ate one - swiss chard and celery and tomatoes are thriving. I have been picking a lot of herbs to dry. My greenhouse is a jungle at present. I have brought in from outdoors lots of geraniums and plants to winter. I also have lots of cuttings in vases of water-coleus-pineapple sage-some ivies-and I bought 6 bags of potting soil on sale at IGA -they were having a clearance. I will need it to pot up the cuttings and geraniums.
Today was such a beautiful day that I actually cleaned my living room window-some spiders are now looking for new winter homes.
Now you know why blogging has been neglected.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Sunny days-sunny, sunny days---

In the PM - I worked in my garden - it was such a beautiful and sunny day. When I was eating my lunch, my neighbour phoned me and said they were taking a load of yard waste to Lappan's Lane - our compost/recycle place - so I gave them about 5 small bags of garden stuff - then I hauled out the broken "Love Lies Bleeding" plants - plus some overgrown rhubarb and threw them in the truck....went back in the house to finish my slice of banana bread and coffee...energy food! I hit the ground running and spent a lot of time in the garden...dug up carrots, cleaned out all the bug eaten swiss chard leaves, picked a bouquet of asters for my kitchen table, picked some ripening tomatoes (they are staying green longer now), picked some celery leaves to dry (for soups and salads), checked my beans-they are starting to grow, cut down some poppies and saved the pods-they are in a vase. I did not weed. I just enjoyed being outdoors. This evening, a friend from church, gave me a box of plants for our church bazaar plant table. She always grows very different things and some are very interesting looking, especially a cactus that doesn't really look like a cactus to me. Tomorrow, rain is forecast. No gardening allowed!

Monday, September 11, 2006

Sunday in the greenhouse

Now that we have cooler weather-- 9degrees Celcius for the past two nights-- the greenhouse is quite cool and I feel like working there-- also, my hand is able to work again-- hooray! Sunday, I did quite a few repots-- Aloe became at least 6 new plants -some geraniums went to the compost and others received new earth. I can't believe how the plants there have thrived on neglect.
The rash on my hands is worse, so today, I visited my doctor-- she prescribed a stronger cream. Did you know that spruce and pine needles can give poison ivy type of rash? I learned that info the hard way.
Hopefully, this week, I will make some space as I want to start bringing in some geraniums. A large piece of my coleus broke off today, so it will become my newest plant.
For supper, we had our garden carrots-- they are so good. My garden is doing so well. Love lies bleeding flowers went to adorn the church on the weekend, along with a bouquet of asters in front of Blessed Mary's statue.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Cloudy day gardening

Saturday was a cloudy day so I decided to pick up all the cones that had fallen off our Colorado Blue Spruce and weed the perimeter of the tree. It looks so much neater now.
I also did a lot of gardening - picked tomatoes - gave two large bags of swiss chard to my neighbours - cut down my Summer Savory and wrapped it in newspaper to hang in the garage and dry - cleaned out some dead flower stalks and generally made my garden look so much neater.
But...
After all my hard work, I noticed a rash on my wrists and left hand and my neck...from the spruce needles, I assume...so I have been using some medicated ointment and it is clearing a little. Be very careful when working around prickly trees and shrubs. I had a glove on my right hand and my wrist splint on my left hand - it would have been worse without them.
We had rain Sunday and yesterday was cloudy and cool and I caught up on some stuff inside. Today, my sister came for a little visit and she went home with Swiss chard
- onions - tomatoes - a bouquet of flowers - oh yes - and pickles and jams. It is great to share your produce.

Friday, September 01, 2006

More Pickles

Today was a non-greenhouse day as I decided to use some of my tomatoes and make a few jars of Fruit Chili Sauce. This is a big favourite of mine - the recipe calls for tomatoes, onions, green pepper, pears, peaches, apples and raisins.
The greenhouse looks so much better after my work effort of yesterday.
My friend and I walked around our neighbourhood today and we admired a lot of pretty gardens and flowerbeds. The recent rain has made a lot of plants decide to perk up.

Enjoyment: The smell of Chili Sauce in my kitchen!!