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!

Lilacs

OK I know - I'm going backwards here.  The Lilacs finished blooming two months ago, right?  Right.  And wrong.  It's true the shrub most people call Lilac - Syrnga vulgaris sp. blooms in May, usually in the County around the long weekend (although this year a week or so later -my records show them starting to bloom on Partridge Hollow on May 26).  Another variety, Syrnga prestoniae, started a few weeks later and bloomed until July 1. 

The flowers of all Lilacs are in one shade or another of pink or purple, as well as white and sometimes two toned.  The difference between the two lie in the shape of the leaves and flower clusters.   You can tell the difference in these two photos - the regular common Lilac has dark green, sometimes glossy leaves and bold, vibrant, in your face (and nose!) colour and fragrance, while the Preston lilac (this one likely a James McFarlane variety) has a much more delicate perfume and and very subtle colour palette.  The leaves are paler green, almost fuzzy sometimes, and not quite as round as the S. vulgaris.

Syringa vulgaris

As far as origins go, Lilacs are native to the Balkans but quite easily naturalized throughout Europe and much of North America.  Preston Lilacs were hybridized right here in Canada, at the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa in the 1920's.  They're more cold resistant and mildew resistant than other varieties, I find, and mine have never had a 'bad' flowering year compared to some years where I get very few blooms on the S. vulgaris.

Syringa prestoniae

The won't grow just anywhere - full sun is best (otherwise they'll get leggy and won't bloom as much) and they do like moist soil but not wet.  I made the mistake early on of planting a bunch of them all around the back end - where the limestone was particularly close to the surface, creating drainage problems in the spring and letting the thin layer of soil get powder dry in July and August.  Only three of an original eight bushes survive, and none of them are terrible happy.  The Preston Lilacs, on the other hand, one of them in particular, seemed to have been able to adapt, sending down roots far enough to survive the summer, and I also happened to plant them a little higher instead of level with the normal soil surface.

 I don't think I could ever get enough Lilac and plan to plant many more in the years to come.  Properly situated, of course.

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, revisited

Nothing to do with the mound, just wanted to remember this beautiful Lilac.  I purchased two of them in three gallon pots from Canadian Tire at an end-of-year sale two years ago for $10 each.  They have a beautiful fragrance as well.

A friend remarked yesterday morning, while on a run with me and a few others, that sunshine in winter is like a free drug. So beneficial to the soul that it could almost be classified an illegal narcotic.  I couldn't agree more!

Today, another freezing rain warning for Prince Edward County.  That means it's a heck of a lot warmer this weekend than it's been for the past few days.  It's expected to get colder again Monday night through Wednesday, then warm up again next weekend.  In other words, a fairly typical winter.

April 27, 2013 - the first of several stair cases built into it.

A month later (May 21), the Alium had bloomed

It's probably time to update everyone (LOL!) about The Mound.  You may recall The Mound is a pile of soil created by a contractor friend when he dumped (at my request) several loads of soil from a home he was excavating/building five or six years ago.  I discovered early on some surviving reminders of that original house:  beautiful Iris, Paeonia [Peony]and Hosta; most of these I transplanted elsewhere in the garden, and let the pile of soil just sit there, untended.

The wild flowers had their way those first few years and I wound up with a colourful yet unappealing mix of six foot Solidago [Goldenrod], Aster, thistle and other things I don't know the name of but had tiny yellow flowers.  Three years ago I started to tame the Mound, section by section, by cutting down dead stalks, using Round Up (sue me...) on new growth and a shovel to round off and distribute the soil a bit more evenly.  Then I started transplanting things from my Toronto gardens, planting bulbs and scattering seeds.  In 2013 I finished about 80 per cent, I'd say.

Same day, wider shot.  Notice all the branches on the Juglans cinerea 

(Butternut tree) on the far left.

There are five paths through the Mound, and I've planted everything from Hemerocallis (Daylily) to Rudbeckia (Black Eye Susan), Hosta, Sedum spectabile, Veronica "Whitley's Speedwell" and may others.

 Here are three shots from the spring.  More to come in later posts.

It's a new year....

Picea pungens v. glauca

I want to start the year off right...I want to make a pledge (just to myself since no one else knows this blog exists) to write something here at least once a week, even if I haven't taken any new photos in the County.

So here's the first post of 2014, featuring a photo on my property taken by my friend Terry Shewchuck.  It's a Colorado Blue Spruce (Picea pungens var. glauca -- another pledge, to try and use botanical names as much as possible) I purchased seven years ago.  It was a foot high then.  This past summer it reached about seven feet - so a foot a year on average.  I mostly try to use Picea glauca - the native White Spruce - but couldn't resist this fellow when it was tiny and terribly blue.  Since then friends have given me a few additional Blue Spruces (after using them as small living Christmas trees).  One particular White Spruce on the  property grows much faster , in some years as much as a metre.  Pictures to follow.