Tag Archives: flowers

Update and a new adventure in Illinois

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Sarah in Illinois is back today with a bunch of updates on what’s happening at their home. Hint: some new additions are on the horizon.

This may be a disjointed post. I had been working on a project, and I thought I would be done before I had to send this week’s post, but it didn’t turn out how I had planned. (Argh. So frustrating when that happens, Sarah.) I will be sure to include why it didn’t work and I had to regroup in a future post.

This post will be a little bit of an update and share what I have in the works.

Kittens

Tiger stripe kitten

As of when I am writing this, the black kitten has been reserved and the tiger-stripe is still waiting for a new home. The mother cat has been to the vet and spayed so I will not have to be in this situation again.

The cutting garden

Zinnias in a mason jar

There are about a half dozen different varieties of flowers that are growing. Right now the only one ready to cut is the zinnias.

Three zinnias in milk bottles

Future posts

I hinted in one of my comments a while back that I am getting chickens! My neighbor has been raising several chicks and offered four of them to me. They will not be ready to lay until about September, but I can get them as soon as I have a secure place for them.

So my free time has been spent reading and reading about chickens and working on making a secure coop for them. I have never had or really even been around chickens so this is all a new learning experience.

Some of the books I have been reading include (not affiliate links):

I think I am ready to start this adventure. I have been told that I am overthinking everything and that chickens are a lot easier than I am making it out to be. I hope so! I will be sure to post about my adventure and in the meantime, any advice would be appreciated.

Cute kitten, pretty posies and exciting news–this worked out to be a post after all, Sarah. Congratulations on the chickens. I confess, I’ll probably take the same approach as you when it comes time to add birds to our farm. Your forethought just might make you a more successful chicken farmer.

Having grown up with backyard chickens, my best advice is to make sure to collect the eggs a couple of times a day. We got a bit lazy and our hens started eating their eggs. That was a hard habit to break!

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Peony victories and failures

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White peony bloom

Our peonies were spectacular this year. After lots of transplanting and splitting in past seasons, each bush is getting more established, and we had a beautiful mix of fuscia, blush and white blooms.

Pink and fuscia peonies

I don’t usually do cut flowers, but after a bunch of the white peony blossoms proved too heavy for their stalks, I cut them and brought them inside.

I don’t do cut flowers because they quickly turn depressing on me. I’m not one to remember to refresh water or pamper my plants. So blooms wilt, stems droop and the flowers look more funereal than fabulous.

But with these peonies, I think I beat even my own record. One day–just one day–after bringing them in, a blossom shed every single one of its petals. I scooped the white flakes into the composter and carried on. Three more flowers disrobed the following day. At that point the whole bouquet–or the remains–went in the composter.

Wilted peony bouquet

So lesson learned, I will focus on enjoying the peonies outside and refrain from any further florist failures.

And it’s Friday, so I will be spending a lot of time outside this weekend.

What do you have on tap for the weekend? Do you have any peonies either in your garden or in a vase at your house?

Dueling DIY – The Challenger’s Final Update

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Six weeks ago, Sarah in Illinois and I started a Dueling DIY challenge. Our mission was to get our gardens in shape for the year through some friendly competition. Today, Sarah’s here with her final update on how she did. To see how we got here, check out all of our previous posts.

I have to admit, when I first made my list of things to finish for the challenge, I thought that I made it too easy on myself.

I saw Julia’s list and thought that I was sure to win.

However, what I learned was: most projects take longer than what I plan for, weather does not care what you have planned, and I procrastinate just as much as I did in high school when doing homework.

So as you can guess from what I have written so far, I did not completely finish everything on my list. But I sure made a valiant effort!

1. Make some kind of designated area (possibly raised bed) for annual vegetables such as asparagus and strawberries.

I call this 90% done. Everything is planted. Asparagus and strawberries are planted, rhubarb is in the ground and seeds and bulbs are planted for my cutting garden.

Raised beds made of barn board

For the borders I used old rough cut barn wood. We have a large pile of old wood out in the barn but I did not find enough long boards. So I am going to have to keep digging to find a couple more boards.

However, I am happy to have the two outside beds defined so that there is no fear of cutting too close with the mower.

2. Neaten and define north flower bed and add mulch.

Clean siding

Nothing new has been done here. Steve and I are debating on whether to buy a couple bags of mulch or dive right in and get a truck load.

Now that he is in the field all hours of the day, we still haven’t made the decision so the mulch didn’t get put on the flower bed. But I am still happy with how this flower bed is filling out.

Hydrangea mid-way through spring

3. Divide mums and spread around deck.

Mums around the edge of the deck

This is the first thing that I finished, and the mums are really taking off.

4. Make a designated gardening area complete with workbench.

This was my favorite project!

Potting bench

We were tearing out a room in our pole barn and so I had the countertop and the top shelf ready. All I had to do was make the framework.

Potting bench

I say that was “all I had to do” but designing the work bench from scratch was time-consuming. I knew I wanted a top shelf and a shelf underneath. I also knew I wanted a place to hang my tools.

Tools hanging on a potting bench

I used mostly older barn wood but a few pieces are newer pine so I used the darkest stain that I had on hand to try to blend the different woods together. I really could not be happier with the finished project!

Potting bench

So here is my final list:

  1. Make some kind of designated area (possibly raised bed) for annual vegetables such as asparagus and strawberries.
  2. Neaten, and define north flower bed and add mulch.
  3. Divide mums and spread around deck.
  4. Make a designated gardening area complete with workbench.

I won’t find out until Julia’s post to see how I fared in this competition, but I’m feeling kind of good about my odds!

I am so happy that we did this challenge. I guarantee if I didn’t have the constant competition in the back of my mind, I would not have gotten as much done as I did.

I would have made excuses about how I was tired, or how I had so many other things to do, and I would have avoided all of the hard work. But I am proud at how much I got done, and I am happy with my progress whether I “win” or not!

(It would be nice to win though!)

Okay. I’m impressed that Sarah can cross everything off her list. And that potting bench is awesome. I’ll be back on Friday with my final post in this Dueling DIY challenge.

Trilliums, trilliums everywhere

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The trilliums are out.We see them along the roadsides, at the edge of the fields and–this year–in our front garden.

Last year, I carefully transplanted a couple of plants into the front garden. One of them survived and is blooming this spring.

Transplanted trillium

It’s a bit remarkable to me how many are around the farm. Growing up, I very rarely saw trilliums–Ontario’s official flower–and it was a special occasion when I did.

Trilliums in the woods

Now, even though I see them more regularly, it’s still special. Especially when it’s right outside my front door.

Have you ever successfully transplanted a wildflower into your garden? Do you have any elusive flowers in your area? What’s your state (or provincial) flower?

Forsythia failure

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I’m not sure I should even be posting about this, but it’s part of an annual tradition for me and something I like to track, so here goes.

Here is the forsythia out in bloom this year.

Unblooming forsythia

Impressive, n’est-ce pas?

Allow me to look back 4 years to our first spring here.

Forsythia by the drive shed.

Yeah. So apparently we have not been good for the forsythia. Our bushes are doing big fat nothing this year.

After a few years of less than impressive blossoms, I gave it a vicious haircut last spring. It didn’t bounce back the way I hoped. In fact, we have the fewest blooms yet–three. Yes, I counted.

Forsythia blossom

Even the green leaves don’t seem to be as plentiful. Some of the old branches that I trimmed last year have hollow centres. Anyone know if this is a symptom of anything?

Hollow forsythia branch

I’m choosing to believe that the forsythia is still in the process of bouncing back, so maybe new growth will come this year, which will bring more blossoms next year.

A girl can dream, right?

Any ideas of how to convince the forsythia to bloom?

Garden Dueling DIY Week 4

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Sarah in Illinois and I are in week 4 of our Dueling DIY challenge.We’ve been making slow progress on our gardens (you can check out the progress in our previous posts), but recently Sarah’s attention has been directed elsewhere.

Distractions. It sounds a lot better than: “I am really far behind and worried that Julia may very well win the competition.”

What has me distracted?

Bad weather:

Weather forecast

A full day of shopping at an antique/craft market and then shopping at a HUGE garden center with my mom and my brother’s girlfriend:

Antique shopping

Antique shopping

Plant shopping

My purchases: rhubarb, cucumbers, spaghetti squash, rosemary, parsley, fun flowers and a micro cherry tomato plant. (I can’t wait to see what it produces!)

And then finally a surprise litter of kittens:

Kittens

I mean, seriously, who can get any work done when you have this to cuddle?

Kitten

I knew that one of my cats was very likely pregnant and when one day she was noticeably thinner, I started searching. She hid them very well and it took me four days to find them. But now that I have, I can’t stay away. I will be sure to find homes for all of them as soon as they are old enough but until then, I get to love on them!

Thankfully I did take advantage of some beautiful weather the last few days of April, and I made great improvement to the landscaping on the north end of the house. I hand washed the siding to remove all of the green that has been building up.

Before:

Dirty siding

After:

Clean siding

My mom gave me two of the roses I had planted when I still lived at home and I transplanted to this bed.

Rosebud

However, until I get some mulch, I can’t mark this off my list. So I hate to admit it, Julia, but I cannot mark a single thing off this week.

  • Make some kind of designated area (possibly raised bed) for annual vegetables such as asparagus and strawberries — Area is tilled and asparagus planted but strawberries need planted and needs border
  • Neaten, and define north flower bed and add mulch — So close!
  • Divide mums and spread around deck
  • Make a designated gardening area complete with workbench

I am very aware of how few days are left in this challenge. So I am going to dig down and find the drive to make these last two weeks count (between kitten snuggles)!

Yawning kitten

Okay. Sarah definitely wins in the cuteness category. And some of the shopping and roses are in the gardening category, even if they’re not on the to-do list. I’m ahead for now. Hopefully it stays that way for the next two weeks.

Surprise pussy willow

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Growing up, an elderly lady lived next door. She couldn’t take care of her gardens very well, so things ran a bit wild. At the very back of her yard at the end of one of the overgrown flowerbeds was a huge pussy willow bush.

I loved that bush and its unique fuzzy flowers. And I’ve always wanted a pussy willow of my own.

This year I think I might have one.

What looks like a pussy willow is growing in the creek alongside the driveway.

Pussy willow

Pussy willow

Pussy willow

The flowers–can I call these fuzzy things flowers?–are perhaps a bit sparser than the pussy willow of my memories, but other than that they look the same.

Anyone know if I can transplant this from the creek? I’d like to put it in one of the flowerbeds that are closer to the house.

April 2

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April 2 has become my barometer of how spring is going to go.

The first year we moved to the farm, the forsythia was blooming on April 2. It hasn’t been that early since.

Each year I take a photo of the forsythia on April 2 and try to evaluate how long until we see blooms.

Given the mild winter we had this year, I’m thinking the forsythia might be close, but so far there’s no sign of the yellow blossoms.

You might recall that the past two years haven’t been great for our forsythia. The yellow blossoms have been few and far between. I gave the bushes a pretty vicious pruning last spring in the hopes that it might encourage some new growth.

We have what I think might be a few buds. And you can see where I hacked off the woody stalks.

Forsythia buds

Things were looking a little green around the farm, but then we got a dusting of snow Saturday morning.

Forsythia early spring 2016

It had mostly melted by afternoon, but then we got several inches of snow Saturday evening and more snow rolled in yesterday afternoon, so we’re back to winter now.

Forsythia bushes covered in snow

Looking at the pictures from April 2 going back to 2012, the snow rather than the forsythia tells the story of what kind of winters we’ve had.

Collage of forsythia through the years

Just a week ago, the forsythia was coated in ice, thanks to the ice storm.

Ice covered forsythia blossoms

So far, this spring has been very up and down. I’m not making any predictions of when the forsythia will actually bloom.

What’s spring been like where you are? What signs of spring are you watching for?

Planning a cutting garden

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Sarah in Illinois is back today, sharing how she’s coping with her winter cabin fever. Hint: warmer times plus pretty flowers figure in her plans.

One of my goals for 2016 is creating a cutting garden. Having a vase of flowers on my counter always makes me smile. Steve usually buys me flowers for special occasions and my mom gives me flowers sometimes, but the idea of walking out to the yard and creating my own bouquet just sounds perfect.

I’ve had the idea of a cutting garden for a while. We have a small ditch that is hard to keep mowed, and I considered planting wild flowers there. That is something we still might do, but I have decided to create a designated cutting garden in another spot. We have started receiving seed catalogs in the mail and email and planning a garden has been keeping my cabin fever away.

I have made up my mind to do a raised bed for my cutting garden. I will probably follow the plans that Kit shared with us over at DIYdiva. She was able to make some great looking beds that did not break the bank. And while I am making them, I will add one for asparagus and one for strawberries.

But I am going to have to talk to Steve and decide where we want to put all of these beds and plan them so that they are easiest to mow and weed around. So those ideas are still rolling around in my head.

I need to make a list of flowers that I want to include. This Old House website gave a list of fast-growing cutting flowers, and I thought that would be a great place to start.

It mentions that Black-Eyed Susans are good for deer deterrent, which I didn’t know. I occasionally see deer tracks in my yard and near the garden so it won’t hurt to plant Black-Eyed Susan. Plus they are so bright and cheerful! I know I want to plant cosmos and poppies, and I am sure I will be picking flowers by what catches my eye at the time.

I am surprised at how much planning there will be in this garden. Should I plant in rows like a traditional garden or in a more free-form design? I want to plant close together to keep weeds down and use as little chemical weed treatment as possible. I want to have a mix of colors, a mix of annual and perennials, and I will probably plant seeds along with plants. Since this is my first time with a cutting garden, it is really going to be an experiment, and I plan to take notes so that I can improve on it each year.

Have any of you created a cutting garden? Do you have any suggestions for me? Any flowers that you would be sure to add?

I plan to keep you updated through the year on how it is going.

Ahhh… beautiful flowers spread around your home. That sounds lovely. I’m never good at picking flowers to bring them inside, but I admit I’ve considered having my own cutting garden. And poppies are definitely on my list too. I’m really interested to learn from Sarah’s experience this year.