Final Grass Cutting for 2012

It is cold out today, a typical grey and overcast November day here in beautiful Ontario, Canada.   The forecast is for clouds breaking for some sun but there hasn't been much in the way of sun for the past few days.  Our front yard and garden bed look so bare as we did a major rip out, getting rid of a couple of umbrella trees, a small maple tree and a foo foo tree.  I don't know the name of the

A Look Back on Gardening in 2012

It is the first gardening season in our new home and to say the least, it has been a very odd year at best.  When we moved here last September, I was quite excited to discover we had two peach trees and a pear tree.  Needless to say, I had a lot of plans but the weather simply did not cooperate.  Within a very short period of time, my gardening plans turned into a comedy of errors!

Our new house

Spring Cleaning

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day so I decided to get a bit of work done outdoors.  It took several attempts to start the lawn mower after its winter hiatus but finally it started.  After cutting the lawns I hauled out the pressure washer to clean some of the winter grim from the windows and doors.  The maple trees are dropping seeds so I pulled a few of the tiny maple seedlings from a couple

First Robin of 2011

Yesterday afternoon I spotted the first robin of the season!  I quickly grabbed the camera just in time to see him take flight so didn't get a picture.  This is a good sign that spring is almost here!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Artificial Verses Real Christmas Trees

Gardening seems so far away with winter setting in and the holiday season upon us.  That brings me to the never ending question of real verses artificial Christmas trees.  Hands down I am on the real Christmas tree even though we have used an artificial Christmas tree for the past 5 years.  Now here my reasoning.

When we moved to our last house we bought an eco-friendly fiber optic artificial

Winterizing the Lawnmower

Once the final lawn cut for the season has been done it is time to winterize the lawnmower.  This is not a difficult task but neglecting to do so may cause starting problems in the spring and premature rusting of the lawnmower bed.    Here's what we do:
remove any grass build-up under the bed
hose down the bed and under the bed well
allow to fully dry in a sunny location
rub a bit of oil onto the

Cleaned Out Garden Beds

Cleaned Out Garden BedsNovember 13, 2010
We cleaned out the two smaller and one larger garden bed on Saturday.  While a good portion of the leaves were mowed over with the mulching lawnmower to provide mulch for the lawn another good portion were vacuumed up.  Rather than waste the leaves collected by the leaf blower/vacuum my husband dumped them onto the two smaller beds and the garden paths

Winterizing the Gardens

Now that we've had our first hard frost followed by rather cool nights but pleasant days, my thoughts have turned to winterizing the garden.  Here's my to do list for winterizing the gardens this year keeping in mind the house is on the market so I may be setting up a new garden at new home next year.  As you can see there is still a bit more to do.
bring in plants
shut off water to the gardens

The Grey Days of November

The grey days of November have arrived.  I dread these days because they are so dull and dreary lasting most of the month.  Quite often we wake to a blanket of fog that slowly dissipates throughout the day but never really fully goes away.  The sky turns a bleak, mono-toned grey broken occasionally only by ominous looking storm clouds.  Most days will see a bit of misty rain as well although some

A Bit of Garden Clean-up

The weather has turned surprisingly mild so I managed to get a bit more painting done outdoors.  The main thing we did in the garden was drain the hoses and put them away for winter storage.  We also drained the water lines shutting off the valves as well so there is no water in the lines.  It does freeze here over winter so this is a necessary part of fall garden clean-up.  It was nice to do a

Fallen Leaves

Fallen LeavesOctober 28, 2010
A sure sign of winter approaching is the falling leaves.  We get a lot of leaves because we have 3 large maple trees in our back yard and the neighbours on both sides of us each have a large maple tree.  Across the road in front of our house there are more trees that drop leaves, neighbouring properties with lots of trees and our huge, old willow tree.  Most of our

Bringing in Potted Plants

When frost threatens the garden, bringing in potted plants and tender plants is an ideal way to keep plants for the next spring.  There are a couple of problems with bring in plants with the main one introducing insects indoors.  I kid you not, I brought in an asparagus fern that hid a spider almost the size of a quarter!  Other common insects in potted plants are ants, earwings and pill bugs. 

The Weather is Turning

I spent the morning bringing in plants and doing a bit of picking in the garden.  The weather is still quite nice but it's easy to see it is turning.  The weather forecast for today is a low of 0ºC and a low of -3ºC tomorrow making the possibility of a frost all that much closer.  I decided it would be prudent to make a clean pick of the remaining vegetables.  That way if we get a frost they

Gearing Up for Spring

My gosh!  Coming up with something garden related to write about in January is difficult.  There is little going on besides garden planning and browsing through the seed catalogues.  I usually let the indoor garden dwindle as we take a 7 to 10 day vacation each January so like to reduce the indoor temperature as low as possible while gone.  Any cold hardy indoor plants are fine as one of the kids

Garden Visitor

Garden VisitorNovember 7, 2009This little guy visited us earlier in the month. He was a bit sluggish so I moved him off the path. Autumn has been rather mild and for the most part drier than the spring and summer. There isn't much left to do in the garden and yard other than the last minute tidying. We've cleaned the beds from debris and most of the leaves have been raked up from the yard.