leafette's Blog

Guess Who?
Oct 31, 2007 | 11:29 AM PST

By golly, it was an idea!    And a Super, Duper, Wonderful Idea!

While sipping sweet lemon tea for the scratchy throat, I was reading my newest garden book.   Now focal points, I got those figured.  That's the naked lady in the middle of the flowers!  But this axis business ???  I'm as tipped as the earth is.  The first plan I drew  way back when , looked confusing to me but the instructor took one look and said I had a S shape happening.  Well, that clicked and I went on to make it a figure 8 and that appealed to my sense of start and finish.  I've changed many things but I think that 8 is still happening.  So my light bulb moment was that pinched waist must be the axis.  And it is very bare, nothing but grass.  hmm

Years ago I had a Chinese elm tree in the back yard.  Grew wonderfully and then it started growing everywhere!   One day when Dh was occupied elsewhere, I convinced an accomplice (a less than willing son) to cut the thing down.  And great was the fall of it!  And the truth be known, my dearie did a bit of throwing himself to the ground and gnashing of teeth as well.  Best tree on the yard!  etc. etc.   I must admit that the west wind was particulary chilly that winter but Dh had to cuddle up for warmth!   But I must admit that it had added something to the back yard.  Too bad it added to the front, side, AND the vegetable garden!   

Not sure who all reads blogs, but are ya racing to the pinched waist ahead of me?   I need another tree!   And according to Miss Marjorie, it needs 2 supporting shrubs and I think the biggest rock my farmer can find in the field.  I guess he could look for the naked lady but I think those are in rather short supply, and by golly they better be!    Now his old dames are often out wandering  in the far pastures but the ewes are usually wearing their wool sweaters.

Now I got options!  I'm sure I can crank up that apology he had wanted and  the "sorry it took me so long to see that you were right" and get him to spring for another nice big fat tree,   It just won't be that same kind and it will migrate a bit to the NE.  I will wait till spring to suggest  the lovely grouping that will go around it.  I will keep listening for any chance remarks about *&#$~^ rocks out in the fields though!

Hot dog!  I knew joining this site was the smart thing to do!  I'm so happy, I may spill the lemon tea and go for full octanes of coffee.  Hmm, I wonder what zone coffee trees are?

Knock Knock Who's there?
Oct 31, 2007 | 7:24 AM PST

Dumb woodpecker!  And pretty cheeky, too.  The top story of the house is shakes and sometimes he even peers around the window frame to see what you are yelling about! 

The place is going to the birds!  My farmer's fowl are going farther afield and I'm going to have to put up traffic lights.  Now I do agree that my little call ducks make so much noise that Dh's muscovie ducks come over to see what all the splashing is about.  But the chickens are starting to follow and they don't just snatch the odd bug and nibble a leaf.  They start rearranging the terrain!  Then the turkeys arrive and they don't excavate but they have darn big feet and my struggling shrub (probably a zone 3, mmm maybe 4) has only a marker to show where it may return!  I did add a significant cage to the area because hope does spring eternal! 

As soon as the level in the freezer dips a bit more we'll reroute the traffic! 

Gotta run;  I think someone's at the door!

Crying in the rain!
Oct 30, 2007 | 3:39 PM PST

The mind is a wonderful thing.  Now who sang that song?  No, I'm not crying although this isn't my normal Pollyanna day.  I did some weeding of the main kitchen window view.  Maybe I shoulda just round-upped.  I'm sure the tips of dandelions make up double for any elimination techniques.  But the good news is that I do believe that soil may be some what friable.  Now that should be making me leap tall buildings in a single bound.   It only took 10 years and loads and loads of manure.   So while I'm resting for the big push for supper, and reflecting on earth worms and soil textures,  I'm seeing rain drops.    Hope it doesn't rejuvenate that little ground cover weed that is kinda pretty but definitely covers everything.  It must like water as it is especially around stuff I had watered. 

Well, first course could be water but he who likes to eat wants to smell something better than the kettle boiling!  snicker-  The book says good soil looks like chocolate cake.  Maybe we could head right for the dessert course and I could have the worms carry it in!!!  I'm with Marie what's her face!  Let them eat cake!   What's that?  Well;  then have  donuts! 

 

 

Essential Steps!
Oct 29, 2007 | 4:18 PM PST

Posted a question to general garden questions and then I had to go to the big city.  I was checking out the gardening books and by golly, it was meant to be- How to Make a Garden  The 7 Essential Steps for the Canadian Gardener by Marjorie Harris.  I dunno if an Ontario gal knows about zone 2 but it does have some pretty pictures!    And I wasn't even deterred by my DD's statement that I already have at least one just like it.  I didn't tell her I shall return for the 2 others that are specifically for Manitoba.  

Hmm, I shoulda got a note book for all the good ideas.   But I'm thinking that her paragraph on learning not to rush for instant effect could/should be my garden mantra.  You can leave things and watch how things slowly evolve.  That is probab;y the p p p ppatience word!  so:  breathing deeply, unclench the book,  123,  123,  1 2 3 ...........VBSigh

 

 

Boggled
Oct 28, 2007 | 3:16 PM PST
I don't know where to leap in!   What a humongous amount of options.   I'm not sure where I've been or where I need to go so here I am blogging away so I can get discomboggled.  LOL   I'm going to keep on digging away until I can dig a few times in the same spot.  Added something to somebody's line but I'll be darned where all that went.  Bet it is gonna be a good thing I started now and not at the spring seeding rush.   hum, hum  Not too boggled that I can't make happy noises.   hum, hum hummmmmm

Bright and early! Not!
Oct 27, 2007 | 5:43 AM PST

It is early but quite dark and I'm not the brightest bulb in the lamp most days.  lol  They are messing with our daylight saving times so I'm not sure when we get to 'fall back'!  Ground is white with frost.  Time to bring in the Brussel Sprouts.

I'm so impressed with the stuff I'm learning here.  Marvelous!  DS-i-L has a bag of sawdust for me. A quick search and I have options!!!  I have a jut out along the north bush.  Looks like one northern light azalea may still be living and breathing.  Perhaps I'll try to get that a bit more acidic. 

Fall supper season.  Last night and tonight.  Ya wanna be early for the line up so it cuts into yard time but sure beats banging pans in the ol' kitchen!  Yay!!!

 

Skimming the surface
Oct 26, 2007 | 7:47 AM PST

I'm still checking out the general info.  I'm hoping to kinda skim over things and then have some light bulbs pop when I'm pondering a specific question.  I'm a great collector of bits and pieces of papers.  The computer area is slightly buried under them and it doesn't help that this is also my sewing playroom.  I'm learning to prune paper as well as branches because it is faster to click the mouse than try to find that green paper or figure out my filing system.    So lets all clink our coffee cups in hopes of a simpler way of doing things!  yay!

No wind this morning and slightly balmy, only 5 degrees Celcius.  I do believe this'll be a weeding day.  With the frosts the ground has dried considerably.   My call ducks are calling.  I imagine they want the water in their kiddie pool changed.  I use it to give some of my plants extra vitamins!  Next spring I'm going to get Dh to put in a drain plug. I did raise it and disquise it a bit with rocks.  I'm also thinking some wet types of plantings might appreciate all the splashing and carrying on that the 4 ducks do.

Hmm, I wonder if spell checker is hiding behind any of these icons.  If not I'm going to have to put a dictionary close by.  One more sip and Hi,ho hi ho, I'm off to find the wheel barrow!

Prairie Winds
Oct 25, 2007 | 7:19 AM PST

Very Windy!  And this is par for the course.  Wish we had a good shelter belt to the west.  We did try.  The lilacs towards the north are very short.  The  ashes which are straight west are struggling and once again we are trying to get willows further to the south end.  I did manage to root some willow cuttings and  in an 'aha' moment shared with my farmer that perhaps we should pot them up and dig  them into the garden for the winter.    Kinda give them a fighting chance.    The trees around the yard drop their leaves but the wind sweeps them away pretty quick.  Hmm, and I'd read such good things about leaf mulch!   Perhaps I should give up on compost and try to catch leaves for those two bins.  But the wind seems to be drying things quite a bit and that would enable me to dig more dandelions out of the beds.  The grass is all cut and after reading up on the pros and cons decided having it short over winter was the best idea.

But that is enough from this old wind bag.  Time to grab the to-do list and rush off myself! 

Learning Curve
Oct 24, 2007 | 8:15 AM PST

oops, lost my post!  Lots of things to learn and try to navigate.  Thanks for the comments.  I am trying to articulate my first question for the forum.  I'm not unhappy with my garden or gardening.  I think this gardener needs some work though!  LOL 

Fall has turned out to be kinda soggy.  The leaves are pretty much history.  Most of us our waiting for that special time in fall when the breezes are gentle, the air slightly smokey, the geese noisy, the weather warm and the colours mellow.  We have a saying up here that if you don't like the weather, just wait a minute/day and it'll change!  Good thing variety is the spice of life.  Things indeed get spicey.

But fall shows me the colour gaps, bald spots and where the big guys are leaning on the small fry.  So I do lots of moving around in fall.  Now I had been told not to prune trees in fall as they need all their branches to get thru the winter but I just read an article in the local garden mag that fruit trees in our climate should be done in Oct.   It really would be nice not to have conflicting info. 

Ah well, life is a journey and who knows where the next bump is or what's around the next bend.  Good thing the scenery is interesting!  8)

A picture is worth a 1000 words
Oct 23, 2007 | 6:46 AM PST

I have been viewing the community discussion: Show us the most beautiful thing in your garden at the moment.  I'm rather disenchanred with the whole lot just at this particular moment in time.  But I think I have learned my first lesson.  The pictures were awesome. A close up of one blossom.  Exquisite!  Beauty is in the beholder.  8^) 

I shoulda known.  It took a bit to learn from my quilting obsession that once I got past the need to have a pile of projects, I settled down and learned to enjoy the process.  I think I need to take a deep breath and count to that 1000 and then bend over and really look at my garden as individuals that are making up the whole. 

I had also learned that I can't just plant what I like.  So I reluctantly added the not so welcome.  And guess what?  I can't imaginer my garden without hostas and sedums now.  And who'da thought hostas would provide such fall colour.   So I have dots of colour here and there and perhaps I can add other plantings to those spots so they can expand and then begin to connect the whole. 

What an amazing and inspiring site!  Large, too!  Phew, so glad I joined as the season is ending so I can be better prepared come spring when the sewing hormones collapse and the garden genes "gotta go'!

What's in a name?
Oct 22, 2007 | 6:17 AM PST

I chose 'leafette' because my new motto should be "leave it alone"!  8^)

I know it is good to move plants but dizzy, they should not be! VBSigh

This is all my dear hubby's fault.  He said I should not sit sewing all the time.  Get some exercise!  This is all a dear daughter's fault.  She planted a flower bed in annuals for me one summer, handed me the water can and fertilizer and said "if you don't water, they will die!"  I was still reeling from the sale receipts from our little trip to spruce up the yard so I did it.  (I was blissfully unaware that more and longer receipts were in my future.)  Now I quite enjoyed my morning rambles along that bed.  Next year I decided to repeat the experience.  I guessed at what she had purchased.  I planted widely and weeds filled the spaces.  I fertilized weakly and blooms were sporadic.   Morning rambles dropped off!   So I do what I do best; I bought books.  I enrolled in a landscape course.  I got Dh to drag his farm tractor about the yard and I grabbed a cheque book and headed off to the nearest plant sale.  I did not, I repeat, I did NOT start small as was frequently mentioned in the advice given.  It has been a few years.  I had barely got one thing done than I leaped at another good idea, and another, and another.  Last year I decided to pull the plants I had along the woodland walk and just keep the pathway open.  But I must admit that I am going down for the third time and it is time to ask for a life preserver before Dh starts adding up sales receipts and trys to tally the plants/shrubs that should correspond!  ;O

So first I must deal with zone denial.  2b or not 2b!  That really is the first question.  We are right on that line between 2 and 3.  My garden sources and sales people say 3.  My farmer says 2 not even 2b!  I like 2b better than 2.  Three really appeals and gosh, I do recognize some plants that have lived to tell about there survival at my place and they are rated 4 in some books!  If I could identify a hot spot on the yard that lovely arching grass (5) that is  winking at me could be on next year's must have list. 

hmm, you see my difficulty!  Leave it alone, leafette.  Get back to basics and figure out the secret to mulch.  You don't have old sheep manure sitting around for nothing.  If you had figured that out earlier you wouldn't have solid dandelions waving their leaves at you from where they are firmly entrenched in all the front beds!

I don't probably qualify as a newbie.  I've read far too much!  But I am not getting any younger as 'they' say.  I need to do this smarter.  So more shrubs in the beds, an understanding of how to mulch,  a strong plant base and a moratorium on ideas!

So the few stalwart members of my garden party, the peonys, lilies, native meadow rue, hostas and my lovely JP McConnel rose, which has surprisingly survived its dizzy regimine, have pushed me up to the keyboard and have said type! 

So: we/they/I have only one last thing to say-  HELP!!!

leafette