The Garden Lit Up

The last pictures I posted were also snowy. It seems that winter has started a little early here in Kincardine and looks like it will stay. Not the snow that melts and comes again and melts and so on till Christmas time or January when it finally stays for a while.

The pictures I posted in Snow Gardens were taken after a week of snowfall and one overnight dumping. There was so much snow I had a difficult time getting to my front planters to remove the fall decorations. When I did get to them, they were so frozen solid I couldn't get anything out or put my winter greenery in.

Then came the milder temps and the rains and by the next weekend some of the snow had melted and my planters were thawed out. It was a mad dash to clean them out and get the greenery in. The newly purchased lighted branches would actually be installed! Thank you Mother Nature.

So, last night when we went outside to watch the Santa Claus parade pass in front of our house, I took a couple of shots of the finished product. Considering the wind was howling and it was snowing like crazy (again) this picture turned out okay.

Snow Gardens

Mother Nature has designed a new garden for us. This one is mostly white. It includes sculptures created of snow falling without any wind involved.

Although I recognize some of the objects underneath the white stuff, others had me stumped for a while.

About a foot of the white stuff fell over night.

Year after year the transformation (which began earlier in the week) always amazes me. I don't mind when the snow arrives because it covers the dull and bleak landscape that November brings.

I started out using the camera's setting for snow and somehow later ended up on the auto setting which explains the colour difference in the photos. The light played a part too as the sky was quite dark earlier in the morning. As the day went on clouds thinned and the sun poked out a couple of times.

The shot above was taken with the sports (action) feature and nicely catches the falling snow.

Pretty it is until a few months have passed and we've had enough of it and yearn for spring to appear once again.

Looking Back

Looking back on the garden before it's covered in snow - again.
Oh wait a minute... that's when it all started. My first blog was of winter pics. Check it out at Winter. And the seasons they go round and round.

In Magazine Stand I set my sights on the perfect renovation for my little shed and stuck to my guns and did it! With a little help from the men in my family. Here is the story First Things First.

Spring brings sprouts and Waiting for everything to come to life including me!

Additions to the garden in 2008.

New trellis for the kiwi vine

Let's Face It

Little Boxes

Lady in the Garden

It's All About Convenience

and of course... Dexter

And a few thing which have been around for a while

Bits and pieces

Birdhouses

November

It's all over now - except for the cleanup. Once the Halloween stuff is put away the focus will shift to hunting for greenery to dress up the window boxes and urns. Yes, my friends the next(Canadian) holiday is only 53 days away!

We had a grand total of 5 trick or treaters at our door last night. Not that we ever get a lot - the neighbourhood kids have all grown up. My co-workers will be enjoying some sugary delights on Monday! The weather was fantastic - warm and dry. The ghosts and goblins can be packed away dry and tidy until next year.

Happy November 1st! Gotta go now and take down those spider webs!

PS...Check out these incredible carvings.

Halloween Prep

Last night we carved the pumkins. So much work for one night!!! It went pretty good though... no major mishaps although Craig likes the sharp knives and ended up with a couple of little gashes. He gallantly finished the task with a paper towel wrapped around his hand! The carvings are now ready for display on Friday night. Hope the kids (young and old) like them!

Devil of a Dog

Very off the topic of gardening...

Don't be afraid... it's just Dexter

a little angel dressed up as a devil for Halloween!

Last Buds

These may be the last buds of the season even so this cosmos will leave behind the seeds of future gardens.

In Praise of the Hydrangea

Though my limelight outperforms this pink diamond hydrangea I can't help but see it in a different light after taking this photo of it.

Another hydrangea addition to the garden, planted in August 2007 as a scraggly little browning thing, has performed well this year at least in the vegetation department. The flowers will come surely when the plant becomes estatblished.

Spooky Things in the Garden

Dressing the garden for the seasons has to be one of my favourite things to do during the non-gardening months. Other favourite things are organinzing photos, updating my plant list and of course, planning next year's garden.

In autumn I am grateful for sunny days, fall colours and getting ready for Thanksgiving and halloween. While out photographing the beautiful fall garden it was impossible to overlook that spooky things lurked so I turned camera lens towards them.

Blue Berries

Oh so many berries. This variegated porcelain vine is teeming with berries this year. The vine itself has grown to twice the size it was last year. It was planted in 2003. The berries start out a deep purple, almost black then lighten to a grape colour and then fade to a beautiful blue.

What's That in the Compost Pile?

Back in the spring, Craig doubled the size of our compost bin. Now we have a 'new' side and an 'old' side - plus a few plastic compost bins. He moved what used to be in the original bin into the new bin and we started adding new material to the 'old' bin. Confused yet? It gets better. Shortly thereafter, tomato plants started sprouting in the new bin. Knowing we didn't need that many plants but not getting around to the chore of thinning them out, we ended up with a tomato plant explosion in the compost heap! It has been a great attraction for everyone who visits and makes for good conversation. We are also reaping the benefits of a variety of tomato types - beefsteak, cluster, cherry etc.

The fruit has been picked to ripen on its own and the plants have been pulled.

A couple of years ago a cantaloupe plant grew from the compost pile and produced fruit! Not the sweetest cantaloupes nonetheless it was pretty amazing. Any unexpected plant life growing in your compost?

We compost yard waste, grass clippings and kitchen scraps which includes vegatable waste, coffee grinds and egg shells. The compost gets turned once in a while and voila, twice a year we have what I like to call 'black gold'. No special additives to make it work, just natural compost.

If you are interested in composting but need some education, check out the Composting Council of Canada for some good information and helpful tips.

Falling for Fall

In my opinion autumn is pretty only on a sunny day. This season which marks the end of the growing season needs sun to bring out the colours and blue sky to provide contrast. While during the summer months the best time to photograph the garden is on an overcast day the opposite can be true for the fall garden.

A Good Growing Season

It has been a phenomenal grownig season with abundant rain - not the hot dry weather we are so used to. Everything did well this year. Some shrubs grew to twice the size they were last year. We didn't have a vegetable garden however it would have been a good year to have one.

Fruit, on the other hand was in abundance. In the almost 10 years since this kiwi vine was planted, never has the fruit hung on so long. Bunches of them. Though ot nearly big enough or ripe enough eat they provide ornamental value to the garden. I was close when I guessed in Tour My Garden Part Three that some might make it to half the size of the kiwis we buy at the grocery store. Quite likely this vine was rejuvenated by the pruning Craig gave it when he was replacing the trellis.

Although the kousa dogwood has flowered in past years, I have never noticed so many or such beautiful seed pods. They won't be as prominent once the leaves turn their blazing fall colour but until then they're eye catching.

Tour My Garden Part Four

The patio garden is a haven for birds, bees and butterfiles with monarda, purple coneflower and penstomen tucked in around ornamental grasses, heather, persicaria and oak leaf hydrangea.

and of course a bird bath

the moss grew exceptionally well this year

Stepping stones lead up through the garden on the east side of the house where day lillies, hydrangea, sedum, butterfly bush and kousa dogwood thrive in the sun. In the shadier areas goatsbeard, solomon's seal, helleborus, meadowrue, ferns and hostas feel at home.

Another little garden plot on the back of the house sits on a slope from the back of the house and is home to mostly shade loving plants. Bugbane, hostas, heuchera, ligularia, japanese painted ferns and hakonechloa macra. A sweet pea winds its way up the trellis beside this garden.

Tour My Garden Part One

Tour My Garden Part Two

Tour My Garden Part Three

Tour My Garden Part Three

A young king crimson maple planted about 5 years ago. I mentioned this in Tour My Garden Part One

This year Craig replaced the trellis that the kiwi vine was growing on. He gave the vine a good pruning but not hard - there was still a lot of heavy vine when he literally laid it down on the ground while he installed the new trellis. Needless to say, it made a strong comeback. I haven't got a clue how to properly prune it, I just enjoy the ornamental quality. It's loaded with fruit this year - some of the kiwis still hanging on - maybe they will even get half as big as the ones in the grocery store?

These raised boxes previously yielded vegetables. I inherited the boxes after Craig decided he didn't want to grow veggies any more (maybe too busy erecting trellises and hauling stuff for me?). The plan is to eventually fill them with mostly cutting flowers.

Looking into the backyard from the pathway on the east side.

Mr. Turtle sprinkles one half of the garden...

and Mr Frog looks after the other half.

The start of my cutting beds. Zinnias, delphinium, glads, dahlias, lavender and more to come.

Looking down from near the back of the house.

and looking up the backyard towards the east side of the house...

where we will tour in Part Four

Tour My Garden Part One
Tour My Garden Part Two