That is just one example of what can happen when a simple tweaking can take on a life of its own and grow into something much larger than originally intended.  So it is in the garden as well.

 Last fall, during the season end clearance sales, we purchased the cutleaf Japanese maple (Acer palatum dissectum Inabe Shidare) we had both been wanting for many years. Purchasing it was the easy part. Once we got it home, the discussions began on where to plant it. Let’s just say the only thing we did agree on was the maple would be planted in the back garden where we spend most of our time and could therefore fully enjoy it.

 We began the process of trying to agree on its final home by moving the small tree (still in its pot) around the yard. Agreement didn’t happen. So imagine my surprise when I came home from work a few weeks later to find that the maple had been planted! As a result, this spring we will be moving a Dwarf Korean lilac (Syringa patula) standard, several Stella D’Oro plants, three hibiscus, some rocks and, some boulders. Plus we will need to widen and re-shape the bed! The yew can stay where it is.

 All that work because of one little tree!  I shudder to think of will come about when I add to the perennial bed.

While in the fall, I do remove the spent annuals I do not deadhead perennials. I prefer to leave the seed heads for the birds that visit our yard. As spring grows nearer, we’ll put bird feeders out to help our winged visitors through the nesting season.

Seed catalogues are piling up and I’m forcing myself not to look at them too much lest I be tempted to over spend and over plant. Not that I have the room for overplanting anymore, Economics has made maintaining our hobby greenhouse rather difficult. In other words, heating it throughout late winter and early spring months has become “cost prohibitive”.  Last year I attempted to grow seedlings in a lighted plant stand with mixed results. The lack of humidity was the biggest reason the plants did not fare well. Then there was the light. Or should I say lack of light. Despite the grow lights, the seedlings all became too spindly. Pinching and pruning didn’t help much. The other thing that didn’t work well in the plant stand was vines! I love flowering annual vines such as mina lobata, cardinal vine, canary vine. And no matter how hard I tried to keep them separated, I couldn’t. What a mess!  I will try again this year to grow seedlings in the plant stand. In a pre-emptive move,   I have purchased a roll of clear plastic to make a humidity cover for the stand. That has to help! I’ll let you know how it turns out.

In the meantime, the houseplants are receiving my attention. They are being watered regularly, fertilized (at half strength), brown tips and leaves are kept to a minimum, and the plants that need some shaping are getting just that. They seem to be pretty grateful for the extra care as they are looking much healthier than when I brought them back into the house after a summer outside. The bougainvillea that hung outdoors all last summer in all its green glory finally decided to show some colour this month.  The spider plant is producing dozens of babies. Not bad considering I purchased three little spider plants for $ .75  last fall  during the season-end clearance sales. They were in 3” pots and all leaves. I potted them together in a 10” hanging basket and waited. My patience has been rewarded.

You may have noticed that I’ve been away for a very long time. But, I’m back. That could be bad, it could be not so bad. Time will tell!

The reasons for my absence are varied. One is time. Or lack of time more correctly. We’ve given the interior of our home a major facelift this winter. – lots of painting, plastering, ceiling work, trim etc, etc, etc. It’s been difficult to find time (energy) to blog and work on the house. And now, all I can say is, if I never see another paint brush again it will be too soon!!

Another reason is all the spammers out there that made my blogging life hell for a while. I can’t believe they actually believe that anyone they spam would actually accept their spammed comments, let alone read/open them!!! How stupid can they be?? I guess some people have nothing better to do.

In addition to the above reasons, I briefly (?) went through gardening burn out. Yes, what I thought would never happen, did! I got tired of gardening. I got tired of weeds, tired of flowers, tired of shrubs, tired of grass, tired of watering, tired of writing about gardening.  Guess all that’s understandable since I’ve been doing it personally and/or professionally for most of my adult life. And, since arthritis became my constant companion, gardening is no where near as easy as it was just a few short years ago. But this year, I’m ready to go at the gardens full tilt.

We have many plans for our gardens this year; new projects to start, old ones to finish. Today, I’ll be starting some seeds. Not in the greenhouse this time, but in my plant stand. That should work out a little better than previous attempts since our cats are older now and a little less curious. Again, the seeds I’ll be starting are varieties that are not commonly found at the local greenhouses.  The other seeds I’ll be sowing are for plants that are too expensive to purchase finished.

Among the gardening tasks I’ve let slide are the cuttings I’ve rooted. They are well past the potting up point, but over the next day or two, they will finally make into soil filled pots. While I’m potting up cuttings, I have a number of houseplants that are crying to be transplanted into bigger pots, so that task will be taken care of too.

Powdery mildew had infected the rosemary plants I overwintered. Rather than resort to chemicals, I trimmed the infected stems off, and rinsed the plants under the tap. That method worked quite well, (I repeated the treatment three times) and now, six weeks later, there is only a very slight trace of powdery mildew left. One more time should do the trick.

Enough of writing about gardening for one day. It’s time to actual do some.

Catch you later!!

THE ENGLISH GARDEN  – What can I say? Being raised with “English gardens”, for myself, this magazine epitomizes gardening as it should be. It is chock full of fabulous photos that will leave you practically drooling. And not just over the gardens, but the beautiful character homes, country manors and yes, castles.  While most of the gardens featured are well beyond the financial reach of the average person, The English Garden is an excellent inspirational tool. It is not too heavy in the how-to’s of gardening. Plant profiles are standard in every issue, however it often features plants that are only a fantasy for many North American gardeners. That said, with a bit of research and a willingness to substitute, you can tweak the elements you would like to recreate and grow a garden every bit as beautiful as the ones in the magazine that inspired you.  The English Garden is published six times a year. Visit their website via the link provided on our website under Worth Looking Into.

GARDEN GATE MAGAZINE – Now this is a magazine that seems to do it all! It inspires, it profiles plants, it teaches you how to garden, how to landscape, how to grow plants, and it offers tips from its readers and its experts. It is full of fantastic photos that make you think “I want that”. All of its articles are well written and directions are easy to understand. Experienced gardeners as well as new ones will find Garden Gate Magazine interesting and helpful. If I have one complaint about Garden Gate Magazine it’s that it features gardens and landscaping that most people can only dream of affording.   However, it often shows you how to do some of the work yourself, making the landscaping projects more affordable. Garden Gate Magazine is a definite read! It is published six times a year and has one of the best websites. Visit their site by clicking on the link under Worth Looking Into.

No petunias allowed!

Warning: This article may be offensive to some gardeners. Reader discretion is advised!

For the life of me, I cannot believe that petunias are the annual of choice for so many gardeners! Every where I look I see petunias in gardens, hanging baskets and containers. There is no escaping them! Talk about cookie cutter landscaping!

Why? Why do so many gardeners plant petunias? What is the attraction? Is it because petunias are drought tolerant? Low Maintenance? Showy? Is it because they are easy and cheap?  For the life of me, I just don’t understand why so many people like petunias!  One theory of mine is the marketing behind the petunia. The gardening public has been inundated with adverts telling us that petunias are the wave of the gardening past, present and future. Well I say it’s time gardeners waved goodbye to petunias!

Petunias are one of the few plants that I will not allow on my property and I include calibrachoas in that ban. Now, I have grown petunias in my garden and, in my greenhouses. Thirty years ago when I was first learning to garden, petunias were the recommended annual for a novice gardener. I soon learned of their shortcomings and within two gardening seasons I came to detest petunias and my garden to be a petunia-free zone.  So intense is my dislike of the petunia, when I was operating the greenhouses, my staff could always tell when I was planting petunia seeds by the frozen scowl on my face and the constant muttering coming from the propagation area. Even with Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (the most beautiful music ever composed) playing in the background, I my mood could not improve until the last petunia seed of the day was planted.

Why do I detest petunias? I find them boring, blowsy, overused and just plain ugly! Not to mention they become weedy looking by mid summer. And, they are sticky little things. The use of petunias shows no imagination whatsoever.  Why limit yourself to petunias when there are hundreds, thousands of alternatives available?  Flowers that are every bit as easy to grow, and just as colourful, not to mention more interesting. 

If you are among the millions of petunia planters out there, I encourage you to explore your local greenhouses, skip over the petunias and you will discover how much more beautiful and interesting your gardens can be sans petunias. 

The Herb Garden

A few observations:

The spring bulbs are all but done, replaced by irises, dames rocket, lily of the valley, aquilegia and bleeding hearts. The old fashioned roses have begun to send out a few brave blossoms to test the waters. It will not be long before the rest of the rose buds follow.

I have noticed the irises and lilacs are producing smaller flower heads than in previous years. At first, I thought ours were the only ones blooming on the small side, but travelling the county, I see a good many in the same condition. The same with the aquilegias.  A result of the extreme cold and deep snow of this past winter perhaps?

Now that the perennials have leafed out, the effects of a cold winter and a wet spring can really be seen. We have lost all of our foxgloves, delphiniums, lupins and perovskia and a few ferns. Will they be replaced or will we take this opportunity to redesign the gardens, adding different plants? We won’t make that decision until the summer when we’ve had a chance to live with what’s left and given our imaginations time to dream up new landscapes.

The bridal wreath spirea hedge at the front of our property is blooming more prolifically that ever before! I was beginning to think that the hedge I fantasized about when we first planted it would never happen. How nice to be wrong!

This weekend has been set aside for planting up container gardens. Having learned my lesson a couple of years ago when I potted up forty-three container gardens, this year I’ll stick to five or six. Oh wait, I’m already at six, so maybe I’ll limit myself to nine.

Year two for the “new” herb garden and it is already too small! The perennial herb plants have grown like crazy leaving no room for annual herbs. Guess the annual herbs will have to go into containers. So much for limiting container gardens to nine! This fall we will have to seriously re-think the size of the herb garden. I foresee an expansion in the future.

Come to think of it, our entire yard seems to be shrinking more and more every year. Hmmm. Either the gardens have to be downsized, or we have to eliminate most of the remaining lawn area. Or we have to move to a property with more land!

Spring is at last in full bloom in our little corner of the world. It seemed to take forever to get here, but now that it is, we are revelling in the colours and scents, warmer days, the gale force winds and pounding rains.

We have had more than our fair share of rain and high winds of late making it difficult to get into the garden, never mind mow the lawn. Somehow, gardeners, hardy lot we are, manage to find a way to putter away at our hobby in spite of Mother Nature’s attempts to confine us to the indoors.

This weekend, the seedlings will need to be transplanted. Though I started them several weeks later than usual, and cut back considerably on the number of seeds I usually plant, I foresee several hours of transplanting ahead.

Some of the spring flowering bulbs are ready for deadheading. I need not worry about a lack of colour though as I had the foresight to plant early, mid-season and late flowering bulbs. If the weather does not warm up too quickly, we should have bulbs in bloom until the end of May.

The wild violets are already done as are the spring anemone. The Star of Bethlehem has not even bloomed yet in our garden, but in a friend’s garden twenty-five kilometres north of here, they have finished blooming already. Where’s the justice? The apple and pear trees are in bud and about to burst into full bloom any day. The cherry tree is already in full colour.

Tomorrow, my job will kick into high gear as my crew starts work for the season. There are many jobs lined up already and many more to come as we travel the county sprucing up gardens, trimming trees and shrubs, building new gardens, renovating old ones. My back is aching already at the mere thought of all the work ahead! But, it is a great job and I consider myself very fortunate to be working in a field I love.

Enough chatter for this morning! I cannot justify sitting at a computer when the sun is shining, the wind has died down and the temperature is warming up quickly. It’s time to head outside and putter away in my own gardens and to get those seedlings transplanted!

Gardening has been my hobby for most of my adult life, and my career for nearly half of that.  It still is my career. And I still like gardening, but the passion is gone. Every day I ask myself why? And, what happened? But the answers seem to be buried at the very bottom of the compost heap that is life. I’m thinking a backhoe is the only way I’ll ever be able to dig up the answers.

Is it burn out? Not likely or I wouldn’t enjoy my job and the bit of gardening I still do.

Is it boredom? Have I been there, done that? Have all the challenges that come with gardening been conquered and there is nothing left to try? No way! There is always much to learn, to experiment with, to play with.  That’s the beauty of gardening. It’s always changing so boredom never gets to set roots.

Perhaps I’m feeling outdated? Newer trends have brought significant changes to the gardening scene that are not always to my personal taste. But I’ve never been a trend follower so that shouldn’t bother me. And, as long as I have my own gardens to counter the trendy necessities required in the gardens I install professionally, I can play with the best (or worst) of both new and “old”.

Aha! Maybe that’s it! Maybe I am getting too old for gardening? Nah! You’re never too old to garden!

No, it appears the answer to my problem is deeply seeded and much more digging is required to make my passion for gardening sprout new growth. While I’m working on that, I’ll start some seeds, and maybe, if I’m lucky, the answers will come to me and the passion for gardening will return.

The last of the sweet peas of 2008

Photos of the plants still blooming after our 6″ snowfall.

Black-eyed Susans blooming under a blanket of snow

Another garden surprise.