Aug. 10, 2025

 In all this heat, I’m still working on perennial/ shrub beds. This will be a quick post, but for those of you who do your own gardening and end up having to clean up existing beds, I discovered a great “ hack” as they say. Well, likely others have discovered it as well, but it’s new to me. 

I have dastardly creeping bellflower in some beds and it’s nasty to get rid of. You must dig deeply to get at the main roots, not just the little spidery white roots just under the surface. Of course, I have established shrubs and plants like peonies and spirea that I am not going to dig up and then put back in place, but they are big and scratchy in the case of spirea, so I took some foam covered gardening wire ( or tie-back) and wrapped it around the whole shrub as best I could and cinched it in and twisted the wire closed. This gave me lots of room, let me see what was under all those branches, and doesn’t hurt the plants at all. 

I did this to try and control a giant Annabelle hydrangea, too. It worked really well! 

Also, I just planted a Rose of Sharon because I needed something that would be in bloom at this time. It wasn’t blooming when I planted it, but it had several buds. Well, look at this!!

Those blooms are huge! I couldn’t believe it. And… they were 25% off! I love end of season sales!

 

 

August 1, 2025 (gardens and a birding app)

 It's a new month and lots has been accomplished. I also have a free app that I'm enjoying right now, and if you are a bird lover/enthusiast, you will love it, too. 

As you may know, we are working on the property to ready it for next years (on this very date in fact) wedding of our daughter. It is very important now to look around the perennial borders and see what is in bloom, as I want to be sure to promote that for next year. 

Most of my jobs involve gardening, or should I say revamping existing beds and borders. Here is one that I literally dug 80% of the plant material out of it because it was overgrown, weed infested, and needing purposeful planning. Here it is after much work.

The perennial I gleefully dug up and tossed behind the chicken coop was Rudbekia (black eyed Susan). I have fought that flower mightily over the years. It has the ability to self-seed like no other. 

Now this bed has two cedars, two spireas (which were already there, but I moved one), three daylilies, two butterfly bushes, three hydrangeas (little lime, and little lime punch), one wiegela red prince, a handful of stella d'oro daylilies and one potentilla (yellow).  I just need to lay down weed barrier and mulch it. I'm still deciding where to purchase mulch. The cost of plants and landscaping materials has almost doubled over the years. I usually just divide what I already have, rather than buying new, but I wanted this bed to be really nice and balanced for next August. The daylilies, butterfly bushes, hydrangea and potentilla will all be blooming at the time of the wedding.

Prior to this I also worked on a very long bed that borders our property and has a rail fence behind it. It too, was extremely over grown, mostly with grass and the dreaded bindweed which is impossible to eradicate. I spent days and days and days digging up each section, dumping, covering with weed barrier and mulching. That particular mulch was the result of an arborist who came in late spring to do some work for us and he wood chipped some large branches that were taken down. This bed is a mish-mash of shrubs and some perennials. I added cedars and some divisions of plants I already had and it will be good for next year. 

The flat lawn area in the foreground is where the large wedding tent will be set up for the meal and the dancing later in the evening. Husband has been putting the lawn roller on the back of the lawn mower every time he mows to make sure things are as smooth as possible and will do that next summer as well. We have a "country lawn", meaning it's green and we mow it but it's not all perfect grass. We don't hire a company to spray, seed, and fertilize. Everything we do is done inexpensively and usually just by us. 

My gardening continues and my vegetable garden is doing very well. We've had such lovely heat and the beans have exploded. Yesterday I blanched and froze quite a lot of green and yellow beans for future meals. Also in my vegetable garden is something that makes me ridiculously happy. I planted zinnias and cosmos for the first time and I can't believe the zinnias! They are so bright and cheerful and are such amazing cut flowers. I'm sure the pictures on the blog won't do them justice, but here are some...

I always have a little vase of them in the house somewhere. The cosmos have not started blooming yet, but I'm looking forward to them.

Lastly, my sister told me about an app for your phone that identifies bird sounds. It is called Merlin (through the Cornell Lab) and it is amazing and somewhat addictive. It is free to install and then all you do is hold your phone and let it listen to the bird sounds wherever you are. It identifies the bird and gives you a little information about it and you can listen to recordings of the bird's different sounds it prove to yourself that it is indeed, that bird. You can make a "life list" of the birds you have heard. Here are a couple of screen shots of birds that I have heard.

My daughter now has the app, too. She's the one who showed me how to make the life list. If you enjoy backyard birds at all, I encourage you to try this out. (I get no money from promoting this at all, it's not a sell job, I just really like it). If a bird name is highlighted in yellow, that means that bird was being heard at that time. 

Happy August to you all, those who are still kicking around in blog land. I always think of August as the last hoorah of summer and associate it with vegetable garden harvest and the sound of crickets! 

It's July!

 It is now the second day of July and we've had some lovely hot days as well as some big rains. This year I planted my vegetable garden in rows, instead of my usual blocks. When you plant in blocks, you can fit more in, but I wanted a traditional look to my garden. 

As a result, things are growing and getting bigger. I still have many barriers in place to keep the bunnies at bay. They especially love tiny beet seedlings. I have replanted a couple of times. 

Underneath the "ghost" are two zucchini plants. I have had problems with cucumber beetles for years now, to the point where I don't even bother to grow cucumbers. But I have enough fabric that I can cover the zucchinis and just lift it to pollinate and water, if necessary. 

Something different that I did this year was to plant a double row of zinnias and cosmos. I just put the seed in the ground in very late spring and they are coming up very well. I can't wait until they start blooming! I planted all of my tomatoes inside and had grow lights on them. I did the same with my peppers, but I did buy a four pack of jalapeno peppers. 

I also have green beans, yellow beans, two kinds of lettuce, carrots (they are not coming up so well), onions, beets, potatoes, basil and dill which self-seeded from last year. I did plant some strawberry plants but they are only just getting established. I will have to wait until next June to get some berries. 

Anything I didn't or can't grow, I can just procure from one of the many Amish farm stands in my area. How is your garden growing?

June 15, 2025

Yes, I'm still here. Happy Father's Day to all the great dads out there. We celebrated last weekend because that was when both "kids" were available.

We have been ridiculously busy. Daughter is getting married in the summer of 2026. She had chosen a venue, a very nice winery where events can be held, but they dragged their heels and didn't get back to her in a timely fashion, so the question was asked if the wedding could be held here on our property instead. Well sure! Yikes!!

Nothing like a wedding at your place to motivate you to do things that you meant to do for years.

As well, I have been working as much as possible before the end of the school year (we go to the end of June here). 

I will take you for a walk to see what is in bloom right now. There is nothing so wonderful as a June garden(s). You will also see what has been happening and is in the process of happening.

The Siberian irises are lovely at the moment. Short lived individually, but thankfully there are blooms still to come.

I think weigela is one of my favourite shrubs. I'm not totally sure which this one is. Red Prince??

I transplanted this cranesbill recently. It has decided to bloom a little bit. (I am completely digging out and overhauling an overgrown bed this summer). This is Johnson's Blue cranesbill (perennial geranium). I would really like it to flourish because it is a beautiful colour.

Here it is between two giant hostas . As you can see, it isn't very large. It doesn't spread the way my other cranesbill do. The hosta is Barbara Ann. 

This is the shorter of the two cranesbill that are mainstays on the property. I have no idea what it is called. The honey bees love it. 

This grows all over the place. Is it salvia? 

We had an excessively cold spring this year and the peonies are only just starting to bloom now. These white ones (they start out very pale pink) are always the first ones. I sink my face in them and breath deeply several times a day.

This is one project that husband has already finished. We have rail fences on our property. He made this "solid" rail fence to hide the burn barrel and other piled up garden refuse. It is by the covered chicken run and chicken coop which he also built (but not this year).

These bearded irises always put on a good show. They are larger than other ones.

The centaurea is always so pretty - one of the early perennials. It is starting to fade a bit now. Later it will look rather mangey and I have to cut the foliage back.

This is the taller cranesbill. It is reliable and hardy and fills spaces nicely. Again, I have no idea what its actual name is. 

This is my Hansa rose. I do not have many roses, but Hansa is reliable and doesn't get the usual rose diseases and issues that other ones do. It smells glorious.

Here is a close up of its blooms.

This weigela is absolutely gorgeous right now. I only know it is variegated, but I don't know the specific type.

There is another Barbara Ann hosta. It have it in a few locations. You can't go wrong with this big one! I plan on dividing some for my sister who is putting in a bed at her new place. 

Spiderwort is a really cool, spikey weird perennial. I have little clumps of it around the outside of a bed. 

This is another project which is happening now to be ready for the wedding in the summer of 2026. This is a line of tall cedars to form a hedge type division between two parts of the yard. More are going in further along, but that has to wait until the eaves trough guys come in August because they can only access the property from certain areas. You can see a wooden structure on the ground. It will be a poured concrete base for a covered arbour with a cedar shake roof and stone base. Yes, husband will be building that. 

This is a new rail fence that husband built. There used to be a falling down old wire fence with an overgrown collection of shrubs /perennials / weeds along there. It is not quite complete, but getting close. There is the trusty cement mixer which is also a mainstay at our place. The green tarp is covering a skid of concrete mix. 

Not to be forgotten is the pale yellow bearded iris. I prefer this to the very bright, golden irises you sometimes see. They are too harsh for me in the early summer. I also have dark purple ones, but not many and they have faded.

In this final picture, you can see my faithful rhubarb. It is always a great big, healthy plant. I don't do much to it, except feed it some composted chicken manure early in the season. In the background you can see the shed. There are two new window boxes (built by husband) that were just put up yesterday. Very soon they will have many flowers in them, as well as in those big iron urns on either side of the red shed door which got a new coat of black paint. Did I mention we have been busy. There has been a lot of clearing of invasive weeds and grass and digging out things and transplanting things and it just keeps going. Daughter didn't ask for most of these things to happen, they were projects that have been been already thought about and are now hurried up. We can rest in August of 2026. :)

Sunday, February 23,2025

 

Here are some pictures taken today. I finally got out for a much needed walk around the little village. There are now vertical snow walls sliced out by snowblowers and ploughs. There really isn’t enough space to push the snow anymore and intersections are dangerous because you need to nose your vehicle out pretty far before you can tell if the way is clear for you to pull out or make a turn. Soon front end loaders and dump trucks will come to take away some of this snow and make it easier to navigate. Our temperatures are supposed to be going up to closer to zero or even above in the next week. There’s my little part of the world. Have a good week everyone. 

Feb. 15, 2025

I’m not going to Doug’s winter party, haha, for those of you who get the reference. 

I am, however, calling “ uncle”! As a kid, that was never a thing for our age group. But apparently it was what you shouted when someone was physically assaulting you on the playground and you gave up and had enough. 

I’m calling uncle on the snow. Dear lord stop snowing!! This is insane. Our lake effect snow out here in rural Ontario is so constant that there have been over twenty bus cancellation days ( not due to snow on the roads, but due to the fact that snowploughs simply couldn’t keep up and clear roads quickly enough) and the banks are so high on either side of the road that when the wind picks up, there are white outs where you’re not really sure what side of the road you’re on. 

Here are some terrible pictures taken through glass door panes and screens. I put more bird food out because I felt so sorry for the little guys!

 

Saturday, February 8, 2025

 To catch you up: SNOW.

There, that's all you really need to know. 

But seriously, it has been an "old fashioned winter" in January and so far this month. We get lake effect snow coming off of Lake Huron so we usually get more than other areas, but this is crazy. There have been road closures due to heavy drifting and poor visibility, school buses have been cancelled, and schools have actually closed for the day (unheard of ). 

Here are some porch pictures. 

See the little path of footprints? I had been keeping up with shoveling that for the boys who still go outside in the winter but the amount of snow just got ahead of me, and then slid off the metal roof, and then froze solid, and then got more snow on top, and now it is almost impossible.

I have managed to maintain a bit of a path on the back porch. I am out here daily on my way to this:

My trek to the chicken coop. Often, my footprints get blown in between morning and late afternoon. Perspective: when I sink into the snow, it is about knee high, that means over the tops of my boots. Fun!

We were away for two weeks at the beginning of January. The first week was at a "resort" in Puerto Plata with our grown children and significant others. Although it was "fine", we feel that "fine" isn't enough for the money it cost us. We won't be coming back to Puerto Plata again (Dominican Republic). It is old and tired and not really what we would prefer. We think we will go to Punta Cana (same country) instead. We have been to Punta Cana a few times, but it is always more expensive. We think saving for it will be worth it. Although it was lovely being with the kids.

The second week, the kids returned home to work and we stayed at a "villa" in a gated community. We did like the villa very much. We did not like what the gated community had to offer. There was only one restaurant and nothing else. No little supermarket or a place to buy tylenol or sunscreen, no gym, no other restaurant choices. Instead you had to catch an irregular shuttle that would take you to the nearest town where you could purchase groceries or whatever you needed, but then you had to kill another hour or two before the shuttle could take you back to the gated community. The town (Sosua) left a great deal to be desired, so again, we made a decision that we would not go back there. 

Fun fact, even though we have been to the D.R. many many times, I experienced this for the first time:

Yup, it's what you think it is. That darling was in between the seats of a sectional that I had sat on many times on the patio part of the villa. This particular day, husband had sat at an opposite end and the sections were pushed apart. I had gotten up, don't remember why, and turned back again and saw THAT. There was a great deal of swearing and quick moving. It was as big as you think it is (a little less than hand-sized). Who was this darling? 

Pretty sure I saw a hispaniolan giant tarantula that day. Husband found a rake and encouraged it to climb aboard and he relocated it in the shade on the opposite side of a small building on the property. Regardless, I never sat on that sectional again. 

Lastly, even though it was nice to be away with the kids and to have adventures such as the one above, I would have enjoyed myself a lot more had I not been dealing with IBS (D). Nope, it wasn't something I caught on holiday because it started at the beginning of December. Yes, two entire months of it. I'm still not 100% sure it's not due to a change in my medication that I take to suppress hormones after my breast cancer. I had switched to a different kind a bit before that. So now I am experimenting. Although I finally got in to see my dr. (6 weeks wait - delightful health care here) she said not to overthink it and it just is simply IBS (I've had similar flares in the past) and even shared that she herself suffers from it. Feel free to chime in if you also deal with this. It's nice to feel like I'm not alone. (It's none of the other scary things because I had tests about a year ago that showed nothing). So I'm stopping my medication and seeing how that changes things. (don't worry, I won't stop it forever, and I have other choices, too).

I am back to doing a bit of supply teaching again (substitute, or whatever you call it in your neck of the woods). I'm happy to do that. It's my "normal" and usually my "happy place". I noticed I'm using an awful lot of quotation marks in this post. Must curtail that a bit. 

I've already been out to do my chicken chores and will be grocery shopping soon. Son, who has moved out four months ago, is coming home for a short visit, so I'll be sure to buy enough to accommodate another person for suppers. It will be nice to have him here. Have a great day, all!