Gardening for Geeks

I just finished reading this great garden book, "Gardening for Geeks" and let me tell you it just isn't for geeks or novice gardeners, even seasoned gardeners can learn a new thing or two. This book by Christy Wilhelmi is chock full of information on the basics of gardening with many great ideas for simple solutions that you can do yourself to complex problems in the garden.

Christy covers the basics of building garden beds, soil amendments, composting and much more. There is information on building your own trellises, irrigation and water harvesting (especially important in these days of climate change) plus information on various techniques of gardening including French intesive, Aquaponics and Bio-intesive.

The book also provides information on growing a variety of basic vegetable crops and then finished up with some recipes to use your fresh picked produce (they're simple too if your not into cooking). As well Christy provides information on a variety of ways to save your produce including making your own dehydrator.

Gardening for Geeks is a real how to manual that is easy to understand and follow, a must have for any novice gardener or garden geek or for those of us who need a refresher or want to learn something new. I know I got some new ideas and tips I want to put to use in my garden this summer. So take time out from weeding, settle down with a cool drink and enjoy this book - it's a quick read.

Garden Tours - A Time to Share

A deck outside the kitchen provides an outdoor kitchen for entertaining.

Our largest pond with a newly created waterfall which still needs a little work.

This seating area is hidden from the main garden and is where my son Jeremy and his friends like to warm themselves on a chilly summer or autumn evening.

This newly appointed seating area is great for enjoying a glass of wine while the chef makes dinner on the BBQ.

The gazebo is where we enjoy our summer evening dinners close to the big pond. The raised box veggie gardens provide us with fresh produce.

Yesterday we were part of a garden tour for some visitors who came from Toronto with Garden Instructor Frank Kershaw. My son was surprised when the coach pulled up next to the house and a whole busload of people disembarked. But the rain held off and the weather was perfect for a garden tour. Everyone enjoyed some juice and goodies and a walk around the garden. I hope they got some good ideas.

We love hosting garden tours. Not only is it a great way to get those niggling garden tasks completed (my husband is a procrastinator and works best under pressure) but it forces you to look at your garden from someone else's perspective. I have started to rehabilitate our gardens this year. A small rock garden had become infested with a big ant nest, so I had to deal with that and then add more soil and replant and at the same time I added another great piece of granite.

You can see above that we also added a waterfall feature to our big pond. (We have three water features in our backyard - we love the sound of running water throughout the garden).The waterfall still has some adjustments to be made but it adds another dimension to the pond.

We also reconfigured our back deck. Previously it has held two Muskoka chairs on one level and a picnic table on the upper level. Well, the past couple of winters a huge icicle came down on the picnic table and finally broke the stone slab that was the table top. After having been at garden Walk Buffalo last year, we came home with an idea from that garden tour. We moved the BBQ up to replace the Muskoka chairs which had reached the end of their life span while at the same time remaking the picnic table into a table/counter for food preparation next to the BBQ. We then purchased a new seating arrangement for the upper deck. Using the frame of the old pergola (for the ice had smashed that too) we rearranged our fabric shade cover to work over this space and with enough of the leftover fabric I was able to recover the cushions so that all matched. Now we have a lovely are to sit, relax and enjoy a glass of wine while being able to converse with the grill master. And the counter area is great for setting up the food for a BBQ. Jeremy loves grilling the burgers while his friends can load their plates.

Garden tours are a great opportunity to share your garden triumphs, disappointments or mistakes. Two days before the tour while digging a hole to put up a bird house for me he cut the TV cable, luckily the cable guy came on Friday to restore order. For us, it is a chance to show the ability to reuse and recycle materials. One of our ponds is an old bathtub. The marble floor of the gazebo came from a building in Toronto via my sister's neighbours backyard. Our greenhouse was made from windows from a restaurant on our main street that was having the windows replaced and sided with leftover siding from the house and the pergola was once the children's play unit. Peter, the resident handyman, builds everything with screw nails so that he can constantly reuse materials when things outlive their current usefulness.

Take the opportunity to visit other peoples gardens and get ideas that you can use in creating your own personal sanctuary and then share what you do with others. Happy Gardening!

Summer Days, Summer Days!

These are the lovely hollyhocks that appear in our garden each year. But a recent windstorm knocked many of them over.

I just love the beauty of a summer's day. Yesterday I had the chance to visit another gardeners' garden and see the beauty that they have created at their home. The sun was shining, good friends were in attendance all to share in one couple's creation of their personal sanctuary.

We each garden for our own reasons. For some, vegetable gardening is the way they sustain their family during the summer and winter months. Or perhaps they just want to try and reduce their carbon footprint, know where their food comes from and enjoy straight from the vine fresh produce when it is at its absolute best.

Some garden for the flowers. They love the beauty of colourful blooms and they are entranced by the wildlife and biodiversity that those blooms attract. I'm a bit of both those gardeners. I have six raised beds in which I grow a variety of fresh vegetables. There is nothing better than fresh picked beans, lightly steamed and drizzled with a little butter or extra virgin olive oil. The rest of my garden is a mix of perennials, trees and shrubs with a few containers of annuals. I too delight in the wildlife that visits my garden from the groups of starlings, a few robins and mourning doves that like to frolic in the water of our several water features to those crazy squirrels that dig up my bulbs and my beans (had to replant them several times before they actually germinated). But oh those squirrels make me laugh as they chase each other up and down the trees and along the fence tops. And then there are the couple of little chipmunks who scurry about always with their cheeks full of peanuts courtesy of our neighbour next door.

No matter what kind of a gardener you are the important thing is to love what you are doing - getting exercise, fresh air and enjoying all that nature has to offer. And to take time, not just to work in your garden, but to sit down ever once in a while and truly enjoy all that you have created. Summer is fleeting, so enjoy it while it is here!

Canada Blooms - Inspiration, Ideas and Information

I can hardly believe that it is mid March already and time once again for Canada Blooms, Canada's premier flower and garden show. Winter has really been hanging on and we are all ready for a breath of spring air and Canada Blooms certainly delivers that along with plenty of inspiration, ideas and information. Some people can easily feel overwhelmed at the show but here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your Canada Blooms visit.

1. Inspiration-The show gardens are large and beautiful but can be overwhelming to some who say I don't have the funds to hire a landscaper to do all that work and it is beyond my own capabilities. Remember these are show gardens where landscapers and designers are showing you new products and their services. These gardens are meant for inspiration. Look at the smaller elements that you can take home and use in your own garden - it could be a new plant variety, and interesting colour combination or a new hardscape element like a water feature, outdoor kitchen idea or some cool accesories.

2. Ideas - The show is filled with lots of great ideas. Bring along your digital camera and a notebook and pen so you can make note and record ideas or new plants you'd like to try in your garden. If you rely on your memory, you'll lose a lot of ideas. By the end of the show your head will be so filled with ideas that when you go home, you won't remember them all. I keep a file of new gardens ideas so that when I have time and want to make changes to my garden I can readily see ideas I wanted to try.

3. Information - If you are a novice gardener just getting started or an experienced gardener wanting to find out about new plants or techniques, Canada Blooms information sessions are filled with quality education from experienced gardeners. There are many opportunities throughout the 4 day show to here excellent speakers who share their knowledge, tips and techniques. Again, bring along a notebook so you can jot down all the great gardening advice.

If you've never been to Canada Blooms, there is no time like the present. Not only will you leave filled with Inspiration, Ideas and Information but you'll leave knowing that spring is just around the corner. So celebrate spring this week at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto at Canada Blooms.

"And when the vines and stalks are empty, when the soil's been turned, and it is blowing into Winter, we sit with neighbours and compare. About who had the best luck with this year's garden. Outside, the garden's brown again. The crows are back. And we are, all of us, waiting . . . for next year's garden."

Cynthia Ryland, "This Year's Garden"

Today is one of those days that you just feel the need to have a little sunshine in your life. As I look out the window the sky is leaden grey and a light snowfall is gently drifting to the ground. Luckily it is still not cold enough for the snow to accumulate but rather it melts as it hits the earth.

It's hard to believe that it is the end of the first week in November already. Most to the garden chores have been done and the beds put to bed. The garden seems empty and dull with colourings of brown and green but the red rosehips and white snowberries add bright spots of colour. True to form, I still have tulip bulbs to plant. Hopefully we will have a slight reprieve this weekend and I can get them planted.

It seems like the time to sit back and relax but I know I must create next season's to-do list. Fix the fence, replace the lattice, redesign the front garden, divide the hosta, cut back the grapevines (do it earlier next spring because I got lots of foliage but no grapes this year)and build a waterfall for the big pond (that was on this year's to-do list but just didn't get done).

Some people like to think that gardening is an activity that can be "completed", if you can use that word. But a garden is a living, breathing, ever changing entity. Plants grow, or don't grow, and need to be moved and divided and we must always deal with Nature's blessings or her wrath. Our gardens thrive with plenty of sunshine and adequate rainfall or they suffer with cold or too hot temperatures and too much water but that is in fact the true beauty of gardening. No two seasons are the same and the garden is always in constant evolution.

But for today, I'll put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and dream of winter's depths when the land is covered with snow and as both the garden and I take a rest, I'll get my gardening fix getting caught up reading all about other people's gardening exploits.

Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!

" Oh, the weather outside is frightful

But the fire is so delightful,

And since we've no place to go,

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!"

Wow, how appropriate those words are today. For the past three days it has been snowing non-stop here in Bracebridge as you can see from the pictures. The kids have had three days of "school snow days" as the buses haven't been on the road (and I'll tell you they are going stir crazy being holed up here in the house). As I write this looking out the window onto my garden, the snow is now waist high, the bird houses look cute with these high top hats on. It is simply incredible - the snow just doesn't stop and now they have declared Bracebridge as a snow emergency area. Even the snowplows are nowhere to be seen. Everyone is hunkering down in their homes, just as the song says - we have no place to go!

So much for the three lilacs we got last week at the Royal Botanic Garden. We didn't get them in the ground before the snow started, so now they sit inside the doorway and as you can see from the photos, there is no way they are going in the ground now. Winter is definitely here, as garden work has ceased and it is time to sit beside the glowing fire and get caught up on reading all the great garden books I received over the year but just didn't get around to really reading. We might as well enjoy it while we can for as soon as it does stop snowing, we'll all be busy shovelling out and cleaning off roofs. And for those of you outside the snowbelt, if you are looking for a white Christmas - come on up to Bracebridge, you won't be disappointed.

Well, no worries about it not being a white Christmas this year!

Ten Ways to Celebrate Autumn

One of the many fruit and veggie stands in the Niagara region of Ontario offering fresh picked produce ready to be enjoyed.

"There is a harmony in Autumn, and a lustre in its sky, which thru' the Summer is not heard."

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Just the other day my son Jeremy said to me, "Mom, I think autumn is my favourite time of the year." Although I love all the seasons, I think I have to agree with him - the hills ablaze with colour, the mellow yellow of the setting sun, the chill of autumn evenings, the smell of woodsmoke in the air. Even with the shortening daylight hours, a warm Indian summer can be just perfect for gardening and family activities. Here are ten way to celebrate the fall season:

1. Visit a cranberry marsh - I'm lucky to live in an area with not one but two cranberry marshes (Johnston's and Iroquois Growers) plus my friend Sharon who lives in Hoquiam, Washington is also a cranberry grower. These tiny tart ruby berries are full of anti-oxidants and a symbol of autumn.

2. Decorate your home inside with big bouquets of sunflowers - a truly seasonal bloom that not only brings a ray of sunshine to your interior decor (they don't call then 'sunny sunflowers' for nothing) but also for me evoke a feeling of Provence.

3. Enjoy the warm weather by finishing all the garden chores you have been putting off. Winter weather is just around the corner. Cut back your perennials and protect tender ones with some mulch.

4. A great autumn family activity is raking the fallen leaves. When my children were young we would rake the leaves into big piles, their reward to jump into the piles before we would bag them for curbside compost collection. Now I have a mulching mower and use the mulched leaves to protect my garden beds and add to my compost.

5. Spend some quality family time planting spring blooming bulbs (tulips, daffodils, hyacinths and squill). Check out the variety at your local garden center or purchase your bulbs through one of the many specialty bulb suppliers (my favourites are Breck's of Holland and Vesey's) You'll be rewarded next spring when the snow melts.

6. Plan a day trip to a pick-your-own farm to purchase pumpkins and squash. My children still love searching the fields to select just the right pumpkin to carve for Halloween. I love trying all the different squash turning them into tasty treats like warm squash soup, mashed squash and even pumpkin muffins, fritters and cheesecake.

7. Spend a day making pickles or sauces. Visit a local farmer's market and load up on fresh veggies and tomatoes. A rainy autumn day is perfect for filling the house with the delicious aromas of garden produce being prepared now to be enjoyed in the depths of winter.

8. Clean out your potting shed. Clean and oil your garden tools so they will be ready to use next spring. Take all your unused fertilizer and chemical pesticides (if you have them) to your local landfill site on Hazardous Waste day. Do not dump them down the sewer as they will end up in your local water system.

9. Decorate your porch with an autumnal seasonal display. Purchase a bale of hay or straw, add a few cornstalks, a scarecrow (you can pick one up at the dollar store if you don't want to create your own), a pot of mums in an old milk can, aloong with some pumpkins and squash. Be creative, you are only limited by your imagination.

10. Finally, celebrate all the joys of the autumn season by inviting a few friends over for a seasonal dinner. It doesn't need to be lavish or elaborate. Fresh seasonal produce from farm or market stands, simply prepared, along with local cheese, breads and wines while watching the setting sun with good friends is the perfect ending to a great gardening season.