Planting weekend

Josh and I spent about 25 hours today this weekend between the two of us, planting and weeding. I have no idea how the weeds are doing so incredibly well when everything else is so far behind. We are trying to do a very thorough and deep job of removing them on the theory that if we work extra hard and do it right the first time, they won't all come back. Iulia is convinced this works. I have a few years of catching up to do.  

A few  days ago my lawn was green and relative short. After a few rainy days, I found my back yard turned yellow from all the dandelions. I do like them, but I try to be a good neighbour, because if I let them go, they end up spreading next door where Ovidiu is having a constant battle to have a perfect lawn. So I asked Josh to have a go at rooting them out. It took him a good part of the day.


My nephews were visiting from Toronto with their parents, who dropped them off to stay with us, knowing that there would be pretty loose parental supervision. Kids were running in and out, with watergun and nerf guns and foam swords. We fed them breakfast and left them to their own devices, and they seemed to have had a pretty nice time. I barely left the back yard.


We did some work last week on landscaping the front yard as well as setting up new beds in the back. Josh picked up a few organic fertilizers from his parents and from Alex in Ontario which they credit for their unbelievable size and quantity of produce, so this week we will be trying it out. Some of it is made from fish, and I think there were epsom salts too. I will give a full accounting of what we are going to do and what results we have with it. Josh spent some time laying out paths in the front yard with the pile of stones he rescued last year from an underpass reconstruction (they were dumped in a vacant lot and Josh saved them from the dump. We had planned to put them out to kill the grass and then remove them to dig and put a base down, but Chloe and Abraham have recommended we just leave them on the surface and let them settle in over time. The also suggest that instead of getting a jackhammer and ripping up our cracked cement walkway, we just use the cement as a base and get some sand on top and build our stone walkway above it. I was very pleased to be able to shout at  the kids to use the pathways and not trounce on my flower beds!

I managed to get around most of the tomatoes I sprouted into the ground. Based on my map from last year I have around the same number of plants (same number of cages, anyhow) so I think we are okay. I put garlic in all the areas I had tomatoes and potatoes last summer, and in order to find areas which have not been tomatoed to death, I had to open up some new ground. We started a new garden bed in a part of the yard which may not have enough light, but I am trying anyways. We also decided to put one of the tomato cages on top of hay bales, beside the broccoli, sweet basil, thai basil and celery (found a place for them!!). I have another hay bale section to plant tomorrow. I also planted the onions, and fit about 70 of them in the bathtub.

My seeds are starting to sprout. I have seen baby calendulas and sunflowers coming out, and some cosmos sprouts. The lilac are starting to bloom, and the tulips are finally catching up to the rest of the city and blossoming. The crab apple is flowering, mostly along the branch bent to make the arch. The magnolias all over the city went into bloom quite late, but had their big show starting about a week ago. Most are dropping petals now. Mine is still quite stubbornly shut. We are really hoping the tree is doing okay. I have to do more research on what to expect from a young magnolia tree.
Julie came by yesterday afternoon to swap seeds and seedlings. I got two cucumbers and some tiny sprouts from the chocolate cherry tomatoes (she kept seeds from last year, I didn't and was grateful to have some!), and some of her extra seeds to add to my "seed bank" for next year. I told her not to buy next year before we go through what we have. I gave her some San Marzano tomatoes, basil, onion sets, and some periwinkle and other small perennials for her land garden and vertical garden, as well as the last of my brother's purple morning glory seeds (mine have been reseeding nicely for a while).


Josh and I spent some time today contemplating the corner of our property which despite much effort continues to be infested with creeping bellflowers. I had put down a lot of hay, which in some places accidentally produces some lovely, hardy grass where I did not want it, and in other places fertilized the creeping bellflowers so well that they are growing faster and bigger than ever. This did have the advantage of making them thick enough and the ground soft enough to be able to get them out by the root if we pull them up one at a time. This is an exercise to try the patience of a zen monk, but we are taking turns working a patch at a time every day. I am determined to do a fantastic and deep job of weeding by June and hopefully we will have an easier time the rest of the summer and years to come. Nothing that I have planted in that corner has done particularly well, it gets full light part of the day, is too close to the spruce tree which probably has acidified the soil, and I have really not been terribly generous with compost or manure in that part of the garden so I should not be surprised that the poppies never came back, the sunflowers were tiny, the oriental lilies did not thrive (I moved them to a sunnier spot), the dianthus became completely inseparable from the grass the grew into its area, and the occasional bicycle or snow plow do significant damage. I gave up today and moved some of the day lilies over the the corner to let them take over. If they don't survive there, nothing will and I will just have to go back to grass.  I am going to have to move some irises and tulips around once the lilies spread some more, but I think it will look a lot better.

I tucked sunflowers into every spare cranny I could find in the back yard. I think I had five or six varieties, including some Kong seeds from Alex and a few of the mini multicoloured variety I had a few years ago and have never found again. Josh picked up a few annuals including some pretty red sage flowers (not pineapple though). I gave Julie back her barely alive pineapple sage, with the hope that my carefully keeping it alive through the winter was not in vain. If it comes back, we will see if we can split it, although I am not sure I have the space for two of them to overwinter in my dining room. It is easier to expand my gardening space than my house.


Just as I finished planting today, friends of ours dropped by and said they had a couple of packs of seeds for us. Sigh. I just managed to fit everything in, even a few potatoes, broccoli, chard, bok choy, coriander, basil, four types of tomato (I think the Amish paste never sprouted, so we will have to try that one again next year), three types of peas, four types of beans, two types of strawberries, four types of mint and I heard a mourning dove in the lilacs (I have no pear tree, and no partridges in my neighbourhood).  We rigged up a new system for the cucumbers, by putting geotextile in a milk crate ziptied to my gazebo frame with chicken wire both above and below so it can climb where it wants to, but hopefully not succumb to cucumber beetles. I planted beans and peas along the edges, lettuce and bok choy underneath. I am hoping this year the system will work better. I even left some space at the back corners for the cherry tomatoes once the plants are bigger (Julie started her seedlings late. I am growing three types of cucumbers in hope that at least one variety is able to resist the beetles. A pickling cucumber, some English or lebanese cukes from Julie, can't remember which, and something called salt and pepper cucumbers. Wish me luck!

The crab apples were in full bloom with the arch thick with flowers. I suppose later in the summer there will be lots of crab apples falling on my head whenever I pass through, but right now it is breathtaking! It is still wired and tied to hold the position in place, but hopefully those will come off this summer.