Some flowers just speak to you more than others. The dahlia seems to be one of those. It has such intricate petals and is so lovely. There are so many varieties to choose from and sizes of flower. Some are even as big as a dinner plate!
My daughter lives in Montreal, and likes to go to the Atwater Market. It is such a beautiful market that is open year round and has the most amazing breads, produce, flowers, sweets, and more. During the spring the parking lot becomes a green house/garden centre and many growers sell plants, vegetables and hanging baskets. It is a sea of green with pops of vibrant colours everywhere, it is simply stunning.
I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to go this year, but my daughter was able to pick up these two beautiful dahlias for me. I love their rich yellow colour and they were so healthy. They have become a welcome addition to my backyard. I decided to plant some lantana with them as well for an additional pop of colour. I have planted them in pots and will see how they do, I may have to upsize the container if they are doing really well.
Do you have dahlias growing in your garden? Maybe this post will give you inspiration to try them, I guarantee you will love them!
This Spring I have been diligently working to improve our front porch. Slowly, I’ve added some new things that make it a place where I would want to sit and have a cup of coffee or tea, a place where I would like to stay a while.
Porches hold a special place in my heart. My grandparents had a front and back porch, both enclosed with lots of windows and filled with beautiful light. We would visit and have tea and eat homemade cookies on these porches. They were so well loved, and I have so many great family memories of them.
I wanted to try to recreate some of what I loved about those spaces on my own porch. Adding an outdoor rug, new pillows, and new plants has made a huge difference. It’s already starting to feel warm and welcoming.
My latest addition is these planters. I wanted to create a ‘living wall.’ Living walls are usually secured to (non-living) walls, but this one will hang and create some privacy at the open end of our porch. It will continue to grow and fill in as the summer progresses. I am hoping for healthy, lush, trailing plants that will fill the space.
I started by attaching a cedar board to the ceiling of our front porch (with the help of my husband, this is definitely a two person job). This provides a place to anchor in the screw hooks that will hold the new hanging baskets.
I then filled the baskets with a good quality soil, and planted a variety of trailing plants that I bought at my local garden centre, mostly different kinds of ivy. The hanging baskets and inserts were purchased at my local Dollar Tree. I plan on adding some baby spider plants that I currently have rooting in the house for a little more filler over the next coming days.
Overall, I am super happy with how this project is turning out. I am excited to see how my ‘living wall’ fills in and to watch it progress throughout the Summer. I will keep you posted on how it’s doing. Happy gardening!
While driving on a Sunday afternoon, we stumbled across this cute little farm called Harley Farms.
There were animals, an education area, a playground and a farm shop.
We wandered around and checked out the animals. Even as adults it was fun to walk around and see them. Sheep, goats, emu, chickens and bunnies were just some of the animals that were on the farm.
Then we went into the farm shop and were able to get farm fresh eggs. We also picked up a frozen chicken pie, goat feta, and some green beans and fresh asparagus. There were a number of freezers each dedicated to a specific protein. We were very impressed with the variety and great set up of the farm shop. They also had some other local handmade products such as soap and gifts. As well as a selection of fresh vegetables to take home to enjoy.
As a family we are trying to make more of a commitment to supporting local and finding little shops that we can support. This was a great weekend adventure and we will for sure be back again. What local farm shops have you discovered?
One vegetable that I have grown in my raised garden bed has been kale. I have dabbled with a few different varieties but my family and I prefer curly kale.
A few summers ago I tried dinosaur kale but the texture was just too tough for my liking. I seem to have great success with growing the standard kind of kale so I have gone with that.
Kale is so versatile because it can be eaten both raw and cooked. When you eat it raw, it is best to wash it in a salad spinner. Then remove the vein in the middle, and chop with a knife. I place my chopped kale in a bowl. Then add a small amount of olive oil to the bowl and gently massage it. This breaks down the toughness of the kale leaves. I generally leave the kale leaves to sit while I prep the rest of my ingredients for my salad. Kale is a good base as a salad and can either have vegetables or fruit added to it.
Kale is also fabulous cooked and used as a replacement for spinach. It is excellent in soups and stews and even adding it to pasta dishes for extra vitamins. I am able to freeze kale from my garden as well. It just easily goes in freezer bags to use another day.
Last summer, I planted kale in my garden and was able to continue harvesting right up until January. The year before had been December for the last harvest. I have a running joke with my Dad and Mom. It has become a challenge to see just how long the kale will last. It just seems to keep producing! Maybe next year it will be February? The funniest part is that my Dad never liked kale for his entire life until I started to grow it, now he comes with a ‘kale bag’ and we fill it up weekly.
This year, I didn’t get a chance to remove the kale plants before the snow fell. So I left them and didn’t really think about it anymore. Then the snow started to melt and Spring began to spring. Low and behold the one kale plant started getting green and looking pretty good! I removed the other plants that were definitely expired. The old kale plant had new growth and was looking really healthy.
I just harvested several great looking leaves from my lone kale plant from summer 2022. I did some reading and apparently there can be 2 year old kale. It has a sightly tougher texture. It may not last the entire season; however, kudos to me because now I don’t have to buy greens at the grocery store.
And so ends the tale of the kale!
Gardening brings me joy!
All I need is a good pair of boots, my favourite gloves and a great pair of garden shears.
Rain boots: Mark’s.
Garden shears: Fiskars Professional Pruning Shears.
My all time favourite gardening gloves: Atlas Nitrile Gardening Gloves.
Happy Gardening to you all!
So we have been thinking about replacing two cedar trees in our front flower bed.
Last week I began to notice a Mama Robin making frequent trips to said cedar tree. Her mouth stuffed with sticks and twigs. And sure enough, she was building a sweet little nest in the tree.
The other day I peeked into the tree. There were four beautiful, perfect blue eggs nestled in the nest all snug as a bug. I’ve noticed that the Mama takes breaks. She leaves the nest for brief periods of time, but comes right back and settles in over the eggs. Just like a lid on a cookie jar!
So as you can imagine, the trees are staying. It is amazing how nature can create something so beautiful and simple. What a lovely moment to reflect and appreciate the world around us.
My zinnia seeds are growing! These seeds from West Coast Seeds are on the move and looking healthy.
I over planted the initial pots with seeds and most of them sprouted right away. Once the first set of leaves had developed they needed to be given more space. With the help of my Mom, we transplanted each individual plant into its own mini pot. My Mom and I had great fun and lots of giggles while transplanting these into their larger homes.
While we were working with the seedlings, my Mom asked what type of seeds we were repotting. I told her it was a wide variety of zinnia seeds. She then shared a story that warmed my heart. She told me about the day that I was born. My Dad had brought her a bouquet of hand picked zinnias to the hospital from their garden at home. She smiled and I could tell that those garden grown zinnias had been special to her just like my Dad.
I guess this is a very good reason for why I adore these flowers so much, because they were the first flowers I ever saw! Interesting how life leads you along and you develop favourites and then someone you love shares a story and ties it all together in a neat little bow.
Most of the transplants have done very well, with only the loss of a few. Some are even developing their secondary set of leaves and the stems are getting stronger.
I purchased an amazing cart from Ikea for my indoor gardening trays. This three level cart on wheels is wonderful for seedlings. It allows me to spin the cart daily so that all the sides are receiving equal amounts of sunlight.
Once these little darlings grow a little bigger, I will be upgrading their homes to larger pots for greater growth.
Planted by hand, with love.
Do you ever get really excited about something? Well on my latest adventure to my local garden centre I soaked up the wonder of the West Coast Seeds display.
I perused the great selection of seeds and was so excited to find some ground cherry seeds. I had recently seen these on Instagram and was hoping to be able to get my hands on a package. Every year I try to plant something different that I have not tried before. My daughter has brought home ground cherries from the Atwater Market in Montreal and I’ve had them in desserts in fancy restaurants. I am so excited to be able to add them to my dessert plates later on in the summer.
I also found scallopini squash, rainbow blend carrots, and golden beets, all of which I am excited to grow and enjoy from the garden.
Another great find was the West Coast Seeds 2023 Gardening Guide. This booklet is jam packed with an abundance of seed choices, as well as great gardening content. I also checked out the their website and it is a great resource for the home gardener. It has tips and tricks, resources, seeds, supplies. You can even take a seed quiz to see what types of seeds are good to grow in your area!
One of the gardening tools I added to my collection this season is this seed sprayer from Lee Valley. This German made sprayer is gentle enough to use without disturbing seedling roots or soil.
If you have never planted seeds or had a garden I encourage you to try it. It doesn’t have to be big, and you can even create your home garden in pots or containers. Growing your own food, nurturing it, and then being able to harvest it and share it with the ones you love is a wonderful thing. Go plant some seeds!
Did you know that the pussy willow is the first plant to flower in spring? When spring comes, I’m always on the hunt for pussy willows. They just remind me of new beginnings and the promise of the growing season ahead.
When I was young, the women in my life always had some type of arrangement containing foraged pussy willows. It was just one of those things you looked for in the Spring. Rubber boots were worn and a pair of good clippers had to be in your pocket. Then we were set to collect a bouquet of these ‘Spring Only’ treasures.
In my teens we lived in a house that actually had a pussy willow tree outside my bedroom window. I always thought this was rather magical. In the past we had always had to go hunting for them in boggyish side roads in the country. What a treat!
I still like to go hunting for the infamous Spring pussy willows with my daughter. We came across these beauties not far from our home. It still amazes me how soft and delicate these wonders of nature are.
This is just one of those little things that can brighten your day. When you find them you know that Spring weather is just around the corner.
I love gardening. It is a chance to spend time outside, an opportunity to nurture seeds and grow food for our family. Over the years I have developed my skills in the garden and have enjoyed sharing my gardening knowledge with others.
We usually like to have one or two projects for the Spring and Summer season. This year my husband has requested to try to create a pollinator garden. We have lots of bee and butterfly friendly plants in our backyard now, but we wanted to extend this into the front of our home as well.
There is a large amount of available land in the front of our home. We are getting the wheels in motion and making plans to create a new garden in this space. The main goal is to make a garden specifically that will attract pollinators. It is a protected area with a fence running along the west side, with lots of sun.
On our last visit to our local garden centre, there was a great selection of West Coast Seeds. West Coast Seeds are a premium quality of seeds and they are a Canadian company. They have a great selection of hard to find seeds as well as traditional selections.
We were excited to see that West Coast Seeds had already created a Bee Garden Blend by a Master Beekeeper. In my mind this is a win for us and a win for the bees! This package contains a wildflower mix that will attract bees and other pollinators to our garden. We also picked up a xeriscaping blend that requires little moisture once established, which will also attract pollinators.
Preparation will start for the new bed in late April for direct sowing in May. We will create the bed about 4 feet wide and approximately 20 feet long. Our plan is to amend the soil with rich mushroom compost, and triple mix. We also had some inspiration from our visit last year to a local sunflower patch. So we will add in a few varieties of sunflowers with the bee blend.
I am certainly excited to see if our new project will “BEE” amazing! Stay tuned for step by step photos of our newest garden project.
