Neighbours talking over the garden gate has long been a tradition. They share gardening tips, complain about the weather and pests yet are ever eager to discuss their gardens. That is what I had in mind when creating this blog. So stop by my garden gate to find out the latest happenings in my garden.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." ~ Madame Marie Curie"

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Clematis


Clematis
(Clematis viticella)

In a previous post I spoke of Clematis, a beautiful flowering vine. This is one vine my husband will let climb on the side of the house. It does not damage the siding or motar like English Ivy or Trumpet vine. Clematis does need to be supported usually by some type of trellising system. I had two clematis growing at our old house. One was transplanted from the house before and one was planted from a nursery potting. Neither did well until this past year so I was saddened to leave them behind. I took a few clippings without much luck so was quite pleased to find a blooming clematis between the archways of our covered patio.

Clematis comes in a wide range of colours and flower shapes and sizes. My experience is this vine takes a year or two to start growing nicely after transplanting. It likes cold feet and a warm body meaning that the roots should be shaded while the vining growth does well in the sun. They are tolerant to pruning but improper pruning will result in fewer blooms. My clematis has never really needed pruning but I suspect this more mature vine will need it. More about pruning can be found here.

Clematis can experience clematis wilt usually due to damaging the younger stems. A fungus, (Ascochyta clematidina, most common) can attack the damaged area causing wilting. The best remedy for this is to prune out the damaged area to 1-inch below the infected area. Mildew can also affect Clematis later in the season. This is more problematic for plants in areas without good air circulation.

The most common pests of clematis are earwigs ( Forficula auricularia) and slugs. Slugs attack the early shoots while earwigs attack the later blooms. Both should be controlled to prevent damage and in the case of earwigs an indoor infestation. This can be quite a problem when clematis is growing along the outside wall of a house and there are ground level windows as in our house. Slugs can be controlled using commercial slug bait (not my choice), homemade slug traps or manual removal. Earwigs while they damage the flowers are even more of a problem indoors where they will settle into anything damp. They do cause damage to the blooms they are a nuisance indoors. Control using a manual removal method is best. Roll up a wet newspaper and leave overnight as a trap. In the morning carefully pick up the newspaper and shake the earwigs into a bucket of soapy water. This method works well indoors or outdoors.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007


Saturday, July 28, 2007

English Boxwoods


English Boxwoods
(Buxus sempervirens)

English Boxwoods (Buxus sempervirens) are broad leaf evergreens. These are wonderful, easy to maintain shrubs that add a sense of formality to gardens. They line our laneway creating a welcoming entrance. These shrubs have densely packed light green leaves with a rounded, compact growth habit. They reach about 3 feet high at maturity.

We have a lot of boxwoods. Boxwoods prefer well drained soil to prevent root rot. While they will grow in full sun they prefer partial shade. Pruning is necessary to keep the proper rounded shape and formality. Pruning should be done at least once a year. Mulching is necessary because of their shallow root system. Mulching should be about 3 inches thick starting at the trunk then working outwards for about one foot. During the winter boxwoods may experience bronzing because of exposure to wind and sun. The leaves will turn from green to a reddish brown. To prevent this, spray the shrubs with an anti-desiccant in late November and again in late January. This will help stop water loss from the leaves. Any damaged (winter bronzing) foliage should be pruned out in the spring. Keep the shrubs well watered during the growing season.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007


Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Gnomes & Garden Lighting

The majority of the work in our new gardens has been the removal of an over planting of shrubs and other plants. Most of these have been under large shade trees. Some like an overgrowth of low growing evergreens were removed not only to enlarge the usable greenspace but for mosquito control. Others like English Ivy and Trumpet Vine growing on the brick of the house were trimmed back and removed from the brick to prevent damage. The only additions to the gardens so far has been lighting. The original and still existing lighting includes a large mercury post light over the driveway, a three lamp post light near the start of the backyard, spotlights on the garage and sunporch overlooking the backyard, covered patio lighting and enclosed entrance lights at the entrances. While all these serve a purpose and will be used from time to time we find that type of lighting too harsh and high energy consumers. The ideal solution I decided would be solar lighting.

Gnorbet and Gnorman are the first gnomes to the gardens. Each stands under a larger solar bright white lamp on each side of the dock entrance. They are the welcoming gnomes for other gnomes arriving by boat while guarding against trolls who may try to do the same thing. Their cheery smiles welcome human visitors to enjoy the beauty of the water and gorgeous sunsets.

The gnomes are very much concerned with energy conservation. They love the new solar lighting highlighting the garden. It is a softer glow without the harshness and glare of the existing garden lighting. They can now go about their garden work during the night without being disturbed by bright lighting.

Solar Lighting

Solar lighting was the perfect solution for the looking I want for all the garden areas. Ontario has followed in the steps of Australia and ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012. Most of the existing outdoor lighting here is some type of incandescent light bulb. We will be replacing these bulbs as possible with CFL bulbs which means new fixtures in a few locations. I calculated the cost of each 15 W CFL bulb to be $1.32 at 8 hours per day for the entire year. In comparison, a 60 W incandescent bulb would cost $5.26 per year under similar conditions. Multiplying these figures by the number of bulbs in use shows that using CFLs make good economic sense. However, my viewpoint is that using no electricity where possible makes better sense.

I chose Home Brite Solar Super Bright White LED solar lights. These come in a 4 or 12 light pack with the 12 pack being slightly cheaper. Each pack was $39.99 with an additional $5 instant rebate when purchased before June 17, 2007. I bought three packs of 12 before the move to take advantage of the rebates for a total cost of $104.97 along with two gnome standards ($29.95), three copper solar lights ($14.98), a hummingbird solar hanging lantern ($9.99), 2 solar rocks ($9.98) and a dancing 5 flower solar light ($9.99) for a total cost of $179.86. Now this sounds expensive but consider that using the existing outdoor lighting would cost $47.40 per year the payback taking only operational costs would be 3.79 years. However, if you factor in the solar lights can be installed without further costs in areas that would be harder to access by conventional means, they will be on for longer periods than the eight hours as the days get longer and there are no bulbs to change, the payback period is likely closer to 2.5 years. Calculating the lifespan of each solar light at 100,000 hours and on for 8 hours per day works out to 34.25 years so overall, solar simply makes good sense.

The solar lights are very easy to install in any location where the solar panel receives eight hours of direct light daily. At first I thought this would be difficult in some areas but by watching the pattern of the sun through the day, I found meeting this criteria to not be a problem. The first area I chose to install the solar lights was the area between the house and garage. A large garden curves from the garage (right), in front of the porch (not shown), ending at the sidewalk leading to the backyard. Lighting the garden in this area would have involved installing fixtures and running wiring. I started at one end of the garden with a solar light then paced it of with about four of my foot steps and placed another continuing in this manner until the entire garden area including in front of the porch was laid out. Then I went back, tapped each spike into the ground, set the solar light and stake onto the spike, then removed the protective covering from the solar panel. The entire garden area took me about 20 minutes! I wanted a subtle glow on the front of the house so placed the solar rocks on each side of the front of the porch aimed on an angle towards the door. The overall effect is a nice, welcoming glow when entering from the laneway. More solar lights highlight a small garden in front of the kitchen window (lower level) near the stairs leading to the sunporch (upper level) and the patio (lower level).

The next area to be lit using the same method was along the cedar hedges hiding the breakwall on each side of the dock. Gnorbet and Gnoman provide lighting entering the dock while the dancing flowers sit on a table on the dock providing a bit of whimsy. The humming bird feeder has more of a yellow glow when lit. It found a spot near the bird feeders. The copper solar lights are still waiting for a home.

Other solar lighting projects I'm considering include: A solar operated, two spotlight, motion activated security light would be ideal and eliminate the need for conventional lighting in the garage/laneway area. This type of fixture would also be good for the stair area leading to the backyard. A solar powered multi light, one panel system would be great for the dock if we decide to light that area more. Some type of solar lighting would be nice for the garden area between the garage and road as well. A similar multi light, one panel system would also work for the upper level sunporch since the roof gets good sunlight exposure. All things considering, I will be looking for solar ideas as much as possible throughout the gardens.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007


Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Purple Martin House


Purple Martin House

The Purple Martin (Progne subis) is a member of the swallow family. It is a medium sized, migratory song bird much desired in gardens. The male is entirely a glossy dark, purplish black sheen while the female is purplish black with a duller sheen and lighter underpants. Several Purple Martins will nest in a multi-compartmented birdhouse much like a bird condo building. They return to nest in the same area each year. Purple Martins get both their food (insects) and water while in flight. While they do eat a wide variety of winged insects they fly relatively high enough that mosquitoes do not form a large part of their diet.

In our area, Purple Martin houses and dried gourds, painted and turned into birdhouses to attract these birds are a common sight. The houses are normally painted white with blue or green roofs while the gourds are painted white and hung in groups. Both need to be monitored to prevent the invasive species House Sparrows (Passer dometicus) or Common Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) from taking over the house. These birds need to be actively removed from the house or the Purple Martins will abandon it.

I was quite excited to find a Purple Martin house in our garden. It sits on the north side of the back shaded by a lovely silver maple tree (Acer saccharinum). It is in need of repair and monitoring. A family of house sparrows has taken up residence in the centre compartment. Once the nest is empty we will clean out the house in the hopes of attracting Purple Martins to nest there.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007


Thursday, July 05, 2007

Last Thursday was moving day. It was an extremely long and tiring day yet I was up at the crack of dawn to explore our new surroundings. I did a walk about the gardens with the camera noting some of the plants that I haven't grown before or have very little experience with.

Greenspace

Our property is on a deadend road. A greenspace dotted with a stand of trees separates our road from the main road. The greenspace buffers any noise from passing traffic while creating a wonderful scenic view when leaving the house.

I took this photo just as the sun was rising on June 29. Sunrise is one of my favourite times of the day. The air was cool with little humidity promising a beautiful day.

Laneway

After walking back up the laneway I turned to take this photo. It was the first photo of our new house to appear on my other blogs. I think it is majestic and peaceful. The boxwood (Buxus) lined laneway beckons exploration. Not shown in the photo is the garage. The laneway ends with an asphalt to the front of the garage for extra parking and a pad at the side of the garage for driving into the garage. I have no experience with boxwoods so will be learning a lot about them in the very near future. Watch for a post focusing on boxwoods soon.

A large weeping willow (Salix babylonica) with a trunk diameter of about four feet or more graces the garden area between the garage and road. I have never had a weeping willow of my own but I grew up with weeping willows. We used to swing on the branches Tarzan style over the river until my mom caught us. These beautiful trees are quite popular along water banks. Years ago we rented a house with a weeping willow so we know from experience that these can be dirty trees for vehicles. Prior to this house, the last experience with a weeping willow was from my neighbour's property. Spring storms clear out a lot of the dead branches and some new ones as well. The only real maintenance for these trees is removal of dead branches and pruning underneath if they overhang laneways as ours does. Saturday we pruned the bottom to allow the vehicles to pass underneath.

On my walk about I noticed the following plants that I have no experience with: buttercup, hostas, miniature rose bushes, coral bells and silver grass. There are a few so far unidentified plants as well. There is a lot of English Ivy being used as ground cover. If you read the previous entry on English Ivy, I can attest it does provide a good habitat for rodents. Other potential pests I noticed were: grackles, squirrels, earwigs, and carpenter ants. Measures are already underway for rodent and ant control.

Stay tuned to see more pictures and read about my new gardening adventures.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007


Sunday, July 01, 2007


Happy Canada Day



Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007