This Year's Garden

I've been keeping super-busy the past couple of weeks with work (on weekdays!), and yard or home tasks every other minute.

Last Sunday (May 22nd, 2016) I shopped for and planted my little veggie garden plants! I'm have such high hopes this year, and am already vigilant in trying to protect the little plants from rabbits, bugs and blight because I did not get even one edible item from last year's plantings, sadly.

But I admit, I had been lazy. I only planted three tomato plants and a few pepper plants, and I did not relocate the tomatoes even though the year before my plants caught blight at the end of the season. Duh.

This year, I am was not lazy, nor shall I become lazy!  I dug a new garden patch for tomatoes, peppers and herbs, and have planted cucumbers, eggplant and lettuce in the old patch.

I've also been reading my Vegetable Gardening for Ontario book to further help me tend my tender seedlings:)

Anyhoo, I've been watering the little guys daily, and am searching for ways to ward off pests and disease...

How to Split Hostas (When you Know Nothing about Hostas)

Just one of the four big hostas taking over my garden

When we bought this house three years ago, I loved it immediately. I loved the spacious back yard, and the attractive front garden of hostas.

Well, over time, those hostas a)got boring and b) got WAY too big. Heck, nobody told me you were supposed to spit (cut up) your hostas to keep them looking good and in a nice size/shape.

To beat it all, these hostas were the big, boring green kind, not the nice white-and-green kind.

Finally, this year, deciding I didn't want those monsters guarding the front of my house any longer, and armed with a heavy spade and the knowledge that I, indeed, had to split the hostas, I set to work.

Digging and chopping with the spade

Now, hosta plants are VERY hardy. I know everyone says you need to split them in spring, but actually, I did mine in summer. Spring would be better for a few reasons - the hostas can grow again that very summer, looking nice. But if you miss out on the spring because you're busy, do it any time of year!

1. I grabbed my spade, and started from the edges, digging and then pushing the spade into the middle of the plant to cut pieces out. 
2. Some of the roots were really stubborn and thick, so I used a small saw as well as snippers to help with the tough parts. 
3. All the pieces I dug up became individual plants afterwards. It was sweaty work (since, hey, I was doing it in high summer heat!), but not difficult and well worth the effort. 

 I ended up with quite a few separate plants, and of course, I really didn't want them all. I put a few in bags at my curb with a sign, imploring my neighbors to help themselves. And so they did!

Other plants I transplanted into my back yard, along the back of the house where there was nothing before. It looks better now.

The transplanted plants are all a bit floppy, unhealthy looking this year, but next year they will grow back as nice, small hostas!

Oh, and I totally transformed the front garden - no more green hosta at all. I put in flowers, and some cucumber hostas ;~)

Finally Taming my Front Garden

Since buying this house in July of 2012, I've been consistently working to keep up on all the tasks of home ownership. One task, which I had no skill or knowledge of previously, but which I totally enjoy, is gardening.

Back garden, June 30, 2015

Yeah, go figure - you actually have to prune trees and shrubs and bushes, and even trim and maintain the plants!

Well, it's taken a few summers, but my back garden is looking pretty darn good. (If I may say so myself!).

But - I admit - I let my front yard/ garden really go to seed. I do not have any before pictures, but basically, the section below where you see the flowers was totally overgrown with some kind of thick grassy weed and, once that was removed, I found a nasty, unkempt evergreen bush. I "evicted" the poor plant, which was no small feat as its roots had really taken hold and totally spread. But evict the bugger I did!

Then this morning I went to the garden centre at Provigo on |Main Street, picked up a few perennials and a few annuals, and, voila!

Front Garden, June 30, 2015

I also finally copped up one monster Hosta that was in front of the house and transplanted it in several places. Tomorrow I want to chop up and extract the other one. Once both giant plants are gone, I will buy a few small, pretty flowers and plants, and put them there. Hopefully this will make the front of the house look lighter and cleaner!

My Plant Garden

On Saturday, June 6, Aylmer Horticultural Society hosted their annual plant sale. I swung by after exhausting myself at garage sales and picked up three new perennials for my back corner garden.

I had no idea about the plants I was buying until I looked them up when I got home. I bought a "pulmonaire", which is, apparently, lungwort, and grows well in the shade. I bought a persicaria virginiana, aka Painter's Palette, which will have colourful foliage, be good ground cover and have nice flowers in fall. And, finally, I got an "Onagre", which I discovered is the French name (since I'm in Quebec) for Oenothera biennis. Which is maybe also the common evening primrose!

My little corner garden

I planted them on Sunday, but that was before I knew my pulmonaire was a shade plant and good ground cover, so I will replant when the mood takes me!

I also separated a couple of my smaller hosta plants, and dug up a few day lilies, and replanted to fill in bald spots and replace weeds.

Now, I am not at all an experienced gardener, and just basically do everything willy-nilly, but it seems to be working out pretty well. At least, I'm very happy with it!

My Little Vegetable Garden

This weekend is the long Victoria Day weekend, which is also the weekend for planting. And so, plant I did.

Very early yesterday morning (Saturday), I went to the garden centre at Loblaws on du Plateau, where I purchased some small plants for my garden, a few annuals for my flower pots, some black earth and some compost. In total, I spent $30, with the annuals costing almost half of that. 

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Yesterday afternoon, I turned my earth, weeded my garden patch, put down a bag of black earth and some compost, and was ready to plant.

I had bought six tomato plants, six celery plants and six onion plants, but as my garden is small and I really wanted to avoid last year's mistake of over-crowding the space, I only planted three tomatoes, four celeries and all six of the onions (since the onions don't require much room!)