Foundation - DONE!!

Smokey admiring the foundation - August 30, 2014

The Burn

Gilbert from Redtail Vineyards lights the fire

A hot fire for a Hot day!

This is where we get to destroy... love using that word in this context... destroy the Buckthorn that I've been cutting down for the past few years.  Common Buckthorn - (Rhamnus cathartica) - was introduced to North America in the 1880's from Europe.  According to Ontario’s Invading Species Awareness Program, it was used originally as a hedgerow (useful) and as a decorative shrub (doubtful).  It grows quickly in full sun or shade and its stems and branches have very sharp thorns.  I know... my legs and arms can prove it!  So perfect to use as a pasture border, right?  To keep sheep and cows in, and other critters out?  Problem is it sets a prodigious number of seeds every year.  By prodigious, I mean this year there are gazillions  of inch high seedlings everywhere on the property the lawnmower doesn't get.  Its roots quickly reach down and take firm hold of the soil making it difficult to pull out.  It chokes out other plants and, to top it off, even birds don't seem to have much use for the berries.

So I cut it down, treat the stump with a weed killer and last Monday burned the suckers into a tiny pile of ash.  The top photo is Smokey and our friend Mags and her dog Skeeter enjoying it as much as I!

It's Official!!

view from the back

view from the road

If there's a hole in the ground that must mean things will really happen, right?  Well, the hole got dug last week - here's the proof.  An added bonus - the Big Machine pulled out a few years (five or six years, really) worth of buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica).  I've been cutting it back and stockpiling it.  Not really knowing what to do with it.  Just happens my stockpile was in the way of the new driveway, so out it came and we celebrated with neighbours by having a bonfire yesterday.  Pictures of that to follow!  In the mean time everyone is very happy!  More good news - there was six to 12 inches of nice topsoil over most of the area - this will come in handy when it's time to spread some good soil over whatever gets built up.

Rattlesnake Master

I've changed my cover photo from the Rattlesnake Master(Eryngium yuccifolium) growing quite happily in the Lavender bed - here's an encore presentation, with a new picture of the Corner Garden.  It's now fully mature; in fact, so mature it's ready to start pulling out Echinacea and Rudbeckia and planting elsewhere.  Good news for the new gardens to go in around the house eh?

With thanks to our neighbours Pauline and Gilbert from Red Tail Vineyard who provided the toast after ground breaking, and to our neighbours John and Tara who provided the bubbly (from Red Tail) for the bonfire morning!

No construction update; a new Dayliy

The fiundation was starting to collapse - front door off its hinges... a few years ago

There's nothing new to report about the construction.  Things are proceeding 'behind the scenes' though.  We obtained a demolition permit to take down the old cottage that was on the property when we purchased it.  The real estate listing said "Two bedroom cottage in need of repair" and they weren't kidding!  It was quite pretty 10 years ago but time and collapsing floor joists have made it unusable.  Also, our architect will be bringing plans for the new house to city hall this week - with luck we should have our first permits within a week.  Excavation and demolition is penciled in to start the Tuesday after Simcoe Day.


















Here's another favourite Daylily just starting to bloom - a two toned one.  Plus another shot of that beautiful peach Daylily. 

Catherine Woodbury

I think, all in all, of the dozen or so varieties I have, my ultimate fave, the one I'd save if I had to move and could only take one with me, would be the elegant pink Catherine Woodbury.  It has a slight fragrance and is just so different from all the others.  I just read that it was registered in 1967 by someone named Childs.  Dave's Journal (http://davesgarden.com/community/journals/vbc/Joy/76561/) shows this Mr or Ms Childs producing registered cultivars from the 1950's through to the early 1980's.  How much fun he or she must have had!

The Mound, 2014

OK - here's what it looks like in the middle of winter.  Exciting eh?  I think that when the snow starts to melt and you're able to see the little creeping Junipers it might be a bit more interesting.  I should perhaps throw some large boulders here and there as well, to stick out through all that whiteness!

It's going to be interesting seeing how many of the new plants survived this rather harsh winter, and how may Tulips and Allium come up again!

Plans for the year?  Finish taming the backside of this hill - pulling out the wild raspberry canes and the thistle and buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), while keeping some clumps of Goldenrod and Aster for colour and nectar.  Add boulders (see above).  Transplant more Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) and Black Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia) from the Birch Border and Corner Garden.

it's that kind of winter

Seems to be turning into a real winter, one we're not used to after four or five winters of above average temperatures and below average snowfall.  This year, in fact, we're running below the seasonal norms.  So far, at least.  And there's no relief in sight.  What makes this winter even more unusual has been the number of freezing rain incidents, and the number of days with winds high enough to produce white-out conditions.  Come April I'll have a lot more dead and fallen branches to pick up from the driveway and I may try getting a burn permit for the first time, to burn them instead of just piling them up.  Anyway, nothing new to report, really, so I think I'll just post a couple shots from earlier this year.  One is the twisted branches of a corkscrew Hazel (Corylus avellana 'Contorta') that I kinda like.  I'm going to try and get a few more artsy pic of this little bush later in the year.  It was a rescue from an old landscaping job about 12 years ago; I had to cut it back by about two thirds to move it and it has taken until this past year, really, to show any vigour.

This picture is Shileau inspecting mother nature's version of professional tree trimming.  This Black Maple (Acer nigrum) had sprung up by itself right under the hydro wires.  This past summer I had been contemplating the necessity of either chopping it down or pruning it back severely so that it wouldn't interfere with the wires.  The Christmas ice storm beat me to it.

Ice Storm Aftermath

The resiliency of plants is indeed remarkable. From the tiniest lichen to the giant redwood - plants have adapted and continue to adapt in order to survive in the harshest conditions imaginable.  In southern Ontario the weather and soil conditions are generally a lot more hospitable than, say, the far north or the equatorial deserts.  Even here; however, plants need to be resilient in order to survive.  No better example can be seen than how these white birch - Betula papyrifera - survived the recent ice storm.  Here's the before and after:

December 25, 2013

January 18, 2014

Another small tree, this Tamarack -  Larix laricina- hasn't quite sprung back all the way...

January 18, 2014

Perhaps that's the story with this pine tree - it has the most delightful spiral at the base of its trunk, as if it were planted sideways, or was somehow crushed when still a small tree.  It's probably my favourite existing tree  on the property.

The Mound, 2013

I don't have any more late 2013 shots of the Mound.  Hard to believe, I know, considering all the time I spent working it last year!  Here's a final shot from late May, showing all the Allium "Purple Sensation" - my favourite!

May 31, 2013; Iris and Allium

Also May 31, looking from the south towards the road, which is just behind the trees near the left of the picture.

But really, the gardening highlight of 2013 was undoubtedly the flowering of my Umbrella Magnolia - Magnolia tripetala.  It was totally unexpected and quite sensational - there were five of these huge flowers on the little tree.  I'm hoping this tree plus the other Magnolia I started from seed (Magnolia acuminita - Cucumbertree Magnolia, with its yellow flowers) will survive this cold, icy winter.

Magnolia tripetala - the flowers are about 10" long; leaves grew up to two feet long.

Saturday March 17, 2012

Spring has sprung a lot earlier than usual, thanks to the winter that wasn't. Made it out for the day and started the spring cleanup several weeks ahead of schedule - the fields weren't even flooded! Cleaned up some buckthorn from behind the mound - hopefully the stuff I planted/seeds I scattered will come up; cut back perennials from the newish corner bed where all the crocuses are now blooming and cleaned up a bit around the Magnolia where snowdrops have been enjoying the fine weather. Shileau had a great day too!

Crocuses - or is it Croci?

Snowdrops near the entrance garden

the 'Mound' - near the front - a pile of not too clean fill that over the past few years grew giant goldenrod and other stuff - trying to reclaim it!

Shileau