Our Peach Trees

We were extremely pleased to discover fruit trees on our newly acquired property.  The property itself is a smaller, subdivision sized with a good sized house and above ground pool.  This will place restrictions on how we can set up our gardens.  There are some established ornamental front and side garden beds and a good size (about 10' x 20') traditional bed for vegetables.  I will be turning that area into raised garden beds using small space gardening methods.  I have a few new ideas I want to try but they will have to wait until spring.

There are three peach trees on the property.  I suspect they are Red Haven and know they are cling-free so will have our local nursery help identify them.  Two are nice sized but the third is small enough that we are considering moving it.  I think two peach trees will be sufficient.  The peaches were ripe to over ripe when we started moving in.  They were small but plentiful with a lovely flavour.  The biggest problem was the yellow jackets helping themselves to the over ripe peaches.  Within a couple of days both of us had been stung so I knocked the remaining partially eaten over ripe fruit from the tree to get rid of the yellow jackets.  It was a good decision as the fruit was not salvageable.

Over the winter months I will be researching how to care for peach trees.  With proper pruning we should get fewer but larger peaches.  I will also be researching on how to discourage the large number of yellow jackets that are not welcomed with a pool and outdoor entertaining.   I suspect on of the easiest ways is to do a clean pick each day as the fruit ripens as well as remove any over ripe fruit.  I can't tell you how excited I am to begin another new gardening adventure!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Major Gardening Changes Ahead

The past two gardening seasons have been rather bittersweet with our house on the market.  It's been sixteen months now, difficult to stay motivated for vegetable gardening knowing there was a good chance of not being abler to reap the rewards.  It was even more difficult at the start of this gardening season as my husband was quite sick so my attention was on him not gardening.  I pared down much of the planting this year focusing more on containers.

This past Wednesday, our house was officially SOLD!  The following day we signed the final papers for the purchase of our new house.  We also did another walk-through of the property.  There property is nicely landscaped with a swimming pool.  There are three peach (? apricot) trees, one small enough to move.  We'll likely move that to one of our kids' house.  There is one pear tree as well.  I'm quite excited to have fruit trees for the first time since our third house!  There is a good sized area that was used for traditional in-the-ground garden beds that I will change to raised beds.  I spotted a few herbs amongst various flowers growing in perimeter beds.  There are grape vines as well.  I did not see any rhubarb, strawberries or asparagus so those will be the first of the perennials to be planted.  There is a main deck and a pool deck.  The pool deck is backed by a gorgeous flowering vine that needs trimming back.  The main deck will be a great summer spot for houseplants and container gardening.  I definitely want to add window boxes on the main deck railing.   The interior of the house has a great natural light and we have plans to add one or more solar tubes.  It will lend itself quite nicely to add to my houseplant collection as well as the herbs and vegetables I want to grow indoors.


Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

New Edible Plants Planned for New Garden

As with any move I really start getting excited at the possibilities of growing new garden varieties. My first concern is planting asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries if those patches are not already in the new garden. I suspect they will be already established at the new garden simply because the previous owner is definitely a gardener! The whole back yard has gardens around the perimeter and there are even roses something I didn't have here. Here are a few new to me plants I want to grow at the new house:

• silver birch - There is a improperly pruned blue spruce that I want to replace with silver birch that will allow more light into the house than the spruce during the winter months.
• bright lights swiss chard - This is a pretty swiss chard with stem colours ranging from yellow, gold, pink, chrimson, orange, purple, white, green and white stripe.
• Burpee's golden beet - I traditionally haven't had good luck with beets so will be trying a few varieties including this golden variety.
  
• celeriac
• rainbow carrots - This is a blend of purple, red, orange, yellow and white carrots each with a unique flavour and properties.
• raspberries - Every house we've owned I have wanted to plant raspberries but never did so this time they are going in right after we move.
  

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

It's Official - We're Moving

It is official. Our house is currently listed privately for sale and we have purchased another house conditional on the sale of this house. The downside to this is I was still in the process of re-establishing and expanding raised gardening beds here. So that work will not see completion. On the plus side we will be moving if all goes well just in time to be right on schedule for planting this year's garden. I thought I would be upset leaving this garden behind but I've only been working on it not quite three years with last year being the first year of the raised beds so I'm not really attached to it.

I'm actually excited about the prospects of creating yet once again another gardening. With this move we will have the large garden at our permanent residence and a smaller garden at our vacation residence in an entirely different hardiness zone. So this is very exciting for me. I'm doing a bit of research so stay tuned to follow my newest gardening adventures.

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2010

A Final Goodbye to this Garden

My garden here as I knew is is no more and may cease to exist entirely after the new owners take possession of the house. This garden gave me much more than I could even begin to put into words. It was such a learning experience in all aspects. I have so many memories and pictures of this garden so it will live on in my mind, in our family discussion and in the scrapbooks. It will also live on through the occasional post on this blog when I'm not talking about my new gardens. So I bid this garden a fond farewell. I hope it lives on to bring happiness and joy to the new owners and if it doesn't it can rest easy knowing how much it brought to us. Oh and I should mention the gnomes, fairies and other mystical inhabitants in this garden have decided to move with us so all is well.

Thursday we move to our new house so this will likely be the last post until after we are moved. Sometime between 4 and 8 am Thursday morning the phone service will be turned off here. Sometime between 9 am and 5 pm we on Friday the phone service will be activated at our new home. I should be back online Friday night if all goes well. Until then,

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007

My Garden - What I Will Miss

Sunrise on Greenhouse
May 30, 2007

One of my readers asked what I would miss about this house when we moved. Aside of the fact that I love the charm of the inside of the house of which I will think of fondly, I won't miss the lack of privacy the property has. What I will miss the most is my garden. The way the greenhouse glows in the early morning as the sun rises always brings a smile. I love being in the garden at day break. It's a magical time of the day!

My Vegetable Garden

This is a scan of my vegetable garden from a portion of an arial photo taken last September of our property. An arial photography firm photographed all of the properties in our area because of the water location. They gave each home owner a change to buy the framed photos for $200. I bought it because it showed our entire property including the waterfront and dock. The photo is a wonderful addition to my genealogy files!

I will miss seeing what we accomplished in this garden. Our property is in two portions with a road going between the main portion and the waterfront portion. When we moved here four years ago, the garden was an over grown patch of weeds approximately 8' x 10'. The location quickly made me realize that it wasn't the best spot for a garden. Two huge trees are on the eastern property line, one on the north corner and one on the south. Another huge tree (about 4' diameter trunk) is about half way up the main portion of the property but on the neighbour's property. The three trees provide ample shade. Despite this, I decided to keep the garden in the same location but use raised beds. After doing the research I made the paths 3' wide and added a greenhouse. The original garden consisted of five raised beds. We added three smaller raised beds last year. From the start the garden got a lot of interest from passerbys and word spred through the village so some made a special trip to see the garden and ask questions. I was the first to use the square foot garden method in the area. Now because of my garden success using the square foot garden method there are at least three others here using the method.

As the days grow closer to the move, I'm saddened by what I'm leaving behind. Part of this garden will live on in the next gardens as well with the few clippings and transplants I'm taking. I'd love to say that the garden will continue but it is doubtful given the person who bought it (arrogant, obnoxious and looking to flip for a quick buck). I do hope it will continue to exist and evolve. I'd like it to be loved and nurtured as it was meant to be. Still with my many photos it will exist in my mind and memories.

I'm excited at being able to create a new vegetable garden that will accent the mature landscapting at our new home. I already have several ideas so have been making sketches and plans for the new vegetable garden. I'm excited at the prospect of learning about some of the new to me plants that the previous owner planted. I spoke with her briefly the day we finalized the sale on that end. Her eyes misted over as she talked about her gardens and how she was so happy that they would be in the hands of someone who loves to garden. I'm glad I was able to make her happy. I hope she stops in from time to time to visit in the garden. The gardens there are absolutely beautiful!

Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007

Strawberries and Moving Plants

Strawberries
June 2, 2007

My strawberries have just started producing. These were the first of the season so I had to share them. The technique used on the photo is called selective colouring, combining black and white with colour done in Photoshop. I will be taking a few of these June bearing strawberry plants to the new house. Unfortunately I do not know the variety but they are very proliferic with large, juicy, sweet berries. I plan to plant some everbearing strawberries at the new house as well. Having had no experience with everbearing varieties I will have to do a little research to see what varieties are best for our plant hardiness zone.

By far the easiest way to bring along plants when you move is to bring established plants. However this can present a few problems. Potted plants take up a lot of room something that can be a major consideration depending on the type of move you are making. Even short distance moves can be problematic when dealing with live plants. A few years ago when we moved into our third house, we rented a large moving truck and had it ready for moving by lunchtime figuring we would get the keys by then. All my houseplants were loaded last so they could be unloaded first and since it was a short distance move I was not anticipating any problems. Unfortunately there was a glitch with the people that had bought our house to the point of the very real possibility of not being able to settle it before the close of business and it was a Friday with all our stuff packed. In the resulting chaos and stiffling heat, no one thought to check on the truck. I lost all but two of my houseplants and all my candles. We learned a valuable lesson that day!

The second problem with transporting live plants especially for the garden is you run the risk of bringing damaging insects and disease that will contaminate your new garden. The best way to avoid this is to take your clipping or transplants well before the move then isolate them well away from other plants. Cover them with garden cloth to prevent insect infestations. Check them daily and treat with a soap solution if necessary.

While I will be taking a very few transplants and clippings, the method I'm favouring for this particular move is seeds collected from last year's plants. Not only will this save a lot of space during the move, it will lessen the problems of moving live plants during the summer when temperatures can soar. The primary reason I decided to limit the number of live plants for the move is that the gardens at the new house are mature landscaping and in some areas overplanted. I have no idea what is planted where aside of the trees and bushed. The current ower was still planting more the day we finalized that sale!
Happy Gardening!

Garden Gnome
©2007