Flowering Friday – Gladiola

Having worked as a floral designer in Toronto for many years, I developed a love for gladiolas, despite the opinion of many who may look upon them only as flowers for funerals.

These photos were taken at our local farmers’ market a few years ago, back when I was the market manager. Fisher Farms, one of our attendees had several buckets of these beauties in their booth. That glorious group seemed beg me to snap some photos.

My preference is for purple or the light green glads. A vase of a dozen or so look spectacular on our kitchen counter, and as a cut flower they last for ages! Lots of bang for your buck.

Admittedly there were many gladiolas in the garden when we bought our current house. All those spikes standing up like soldiers didn’t endear themselves to me. Not a very welcoming look, so out they went! Just plain bad Feng Shui.. (Plus, they’re not hardy here, and I can be a lazy gardener in my own plot. Who has time to plant the corms each spring and remove them again in the fall? Not me!) In any case, I’m happy to support local growers and purchase any flowers I prefer in a vase as opposed to my garden, from them.

Lots of colour to share on a monochromatic early spring day! Remember, they’re not just for funerals! Happy flowering Friday, everyone.

March goes out like a lion

Well, fingers were crossed that March would leave like a lamb. Unfortunately that’s not going to be the case!

Happily, I did see a Robin this morning! Personally speaking, that is MY first official day of spring, no matter what the calendar states.

The year we moved from Toronto up here to Haliburton, someone (I forget who), told me that it always snows one more time once the Robins arrive. So far in the last decade, that’s been the case. Don’t ask me why, but I keep track of these things, (along with the arrival of Hummingbirds), but this may have something to do with wanting to wave bye-bye to old man winter.

In any case I won’t be seeing those tulips in the garden for at least a few more weeks. The photo above is from last year, taken before some critter ate them, a part of county life I’ve come to accept, for the most part.

We have had a lovely taste of spring these past few days. The weather has been beautiful. Enough snow has melted to see a section of our driveway! The bad new is, that’s going to change this evening… We’re looking at possible freezing rain mixed with snow.

As you can see from the screen shot I took on the Canadian gov weather site, quite the system is approaching. That radar picture reminds me of Pac Man or better yet, that same March lion with it’s mouth wide open, about to take a bite out of Ontario.

The good news is I am patient and know spring will be strutting her stuff pretty soon. – Until then, Safe driving!

Gardening for pollinators and other wildlife

When we strike a balance with nature, creatures of all shapes and sizes with whom we share our neck of the woods all benefit, so it’s a win-win!

When we seek to create a garden, it can become a hub of activity, much of it we may not even be aware of, but activity that caters to wildlife. If we are mindful of life beyond ourselves and provide eco friendly spaces for other living creatures, we offer refuge to many a beneficial visitor.

Insects, birds, and smaller mammals begin to thrive, visit and maybe even take up residence! That’s usually because creatures smaller than themselves are also in the vicinity, offering a food source, so the chain of life begins.

Spring is an ideal time to embrace local biodiversity. We gardeners can see the effects of our handiwork in our own plots.

Perhaps not overnight, but over the course of a season when our yards yield evidence of the wildlife we’ve attracted. This is done when we create a natural space in which they can prosper.

Take the humble bumblebee. I’m going to risk the raising of eyebrows from fellow dog lovers and state that bees are up there with our pooches as ‘man’s best friend’! But seriously, some hard working pollinators might seem scary to a few folk, but they very rarely sting and if they do, it’s as a last line of defence. Beyond that caveat, a bee’s hard work and importance to us as a species cannot be overstated.

Can you imagine a garden without flowers? Or an orchard without fruit? In some parts of the world, this dystopian outlook is closer to reality than we might fear…

Approximately 80 percent of food crops grown around the world require pollination and that’s mainly done by the hardworking bee. Unfortunately bees are having a particularly hard time at the moment. It has become entirely clear to many that habitat loss and the use of pesticides and herbicides, mainly by big Ag are the main contributor to our loss of bees. (I believe Monarch butterflies may also fall victim to these practices for similar reasons, but I digress..).

Millions of bees have died and this disturbing occurrence is not just taking place in North America, but all over the world. Because of this, it’s crucial that we gardeners plant our plots to ensure the survival of the bee. We can offer them a safe haven from chemicals, and considering just how important they are with respect to our food supply, the consequences could be devastating to say the least, so our help no matter how small is vital.

We can help by offering bees, and other pollinators, plants that are attractive to them when foraging for food. Consider growing bee balm (Monarda) in the garden. It’s an excellent choice and certainly lives up to its name! The bonus is, bee balm is extremely appealing to hummingbirds and butterflies, too!

Just off the top of my head, I’d like to name several varieties in my garden that I’ve found appeal to bees and other creatures:

Aconitum (Monkshood), Chives , Dandelions, Purple coneflowers (Echinacea purpurea), Digitalis (Foxglove), Bearded Iris, Lupinus X polyphylla (Lupine) Physostegia virginiana (Obedient Plant), Pulmonaria (Lungwort), Sunflowers, Sweet William (Dianthus barbatus), Hollyhocks, and Gaillardia, just for starters! Of course the best thing any gardener can do is to have a progression of blooms throughout the growing season, which is a tall order for even the seasoned gardener, but definitely a great goal to have.

The same gardening practices that attract and help wildlife also improve our air, water and soil quality. The benefit goes beyond our gardens, and it only takes a few plants and some forethought to create these habitats.

We can even attract creatures to our garden by adding a couple of containers with some flowering annuals. Gardeners with limited space may even want to plant vertically. Using wall space, arbors or fences to grow perennial vines like honeysuckle, Virginia creeper or annuals like sweet pea, morning glory, or scarlet runner beans and even hanging baskets will woo pollinators.

If you’re ambitious, consider selecting a wide variety of plants that provide blooms from early spring into late fall. Hummingbirds happen to prefer red tubular flowers and will visit all season long for them. Butterflies are usually drawn to more open-faced yellow and purple flowers, as well as herbs like lavender, dill, thyme, oregano and parsley.

Many herbs can be grown in containers in the smallest of garden like a balcony or windowsill. And I’ve yet to mention native plants, which offers the ultimate gift to wildlife as they are even more attractive a food source for local pollinators than anything else one could grow.

By making a conscious effort to not use harmful chemicals in the garden we encourage beneficial insects like ladybugs to visit, who happen to eat aphids! Toads and frogs are great allies in the garden as well since they eat slugs and grasshoppers. For them, I have a couple broken clay pots turned upside down, which offers these creatures some shelter during rainstorms. I also strategically place large seashells in the garden which collect water to offer them a drink on a hot day.

With very little maintenance, the garden will be a welcome haven for all kinds of insects and birds, and wildlife, while adding beauty and creating sustainability at the same time. Whether it’s mulching beds, reducing the size of lawn, which happens to be the most unnatural landscape of all considering the chemicals and water use that go into maintaining one, or by harvesting rainwater in a barrel for use on annual containers, we all benefit by preserving the environment and creating an ecological balance in our own backyard. Remember, preserving the environment is one of the most fundamental elements of gardening.

Have fun in the garden, and at the same time lend a helping hand, and those green thumbs to the pollinators in your neck of the woods. 🙂

Gardening experiments on the windowsill

With the proper amount of sunlight, basil (pictured here), and other culinary herbs can be grown year round on a windowsill.

The ability to pinch fresh foliage from herbs grown in my kitchen for flavouring recipes during winter months has become less of an experiment and more of a necessity in our house!

Beyond that, there are many simple gardening experiments people of all ages might enjoy. Many of us may recall planting bean seeds in cup with wet paper towel during grade school in an effort to see how they’d grow.

When the mood strikes, I plant seeds from fruits and veggies purchased from the grocery store, especially during winter, just to see if anything will happen!

That’s where the potato in the photo comes in. I simply cut it in half and placed it on the dish in a bit of water. Since it’s actually sprouting, I’ll go a step further this spring and plant it outside in a container to see if it will produce an actual crop!

The other picture here is a container by our kitchen sink where I’m growing Amaryllis seedlings.

A few weeks ago I was enjoying some of the sweetest of Clementine oranges from Spain. Those delicious fruit had many seeds in them so I (somewhat mindlessly), stuck a few seeds into the soil. In all honesty, I completely forgot about them until I went to water my plants the other day. I saw the sprouts emerging and was absolutely tickled. Next thing you know I began to envision a lush tree full of those lovely fruit growing in my dining room, and me plucking them at will off the branches. Talk about an active imagination!

However, with a positive outlook and an open mind, I’ll likely continue experimenting with these kinds of benign windowsill gardening trials, and encourage my fellow gardeners to give them a try, too!

Spring is in the air…!

A big welcome back, spring… you’re my favourite season of them all. You’re full of potential and a new start to another year in the garden. I can hardly wait!

Yes I know.. we’re supposed to enjoy each season as it arrives and at first I really do try. But as the weeks drag on and while the snow piles up, admittedly the only thing that gets me through winter is looking at beautiful landscaping pictures on Pinterest. That, and planning what changes and additions I can make in my own garden.

The photos I’m sharing here are actually crocus pictures from last April. We still have much snow on the ground in my neck of the woods, but with the equinox on our doorstep there is light at the end of the tunnel!

So, like many other like-minded itchy green-fingered people living in a northern climate, I shall celebrate the official beginning of spring by sowing and starting some seeds indoors.

Happy Spring!