tardis gardens in 2022

I've been procrastinating on starting this thread as previous years got started and then neglected (kind of like some of my gardens :) ) but I feel like going on about my yard so here it is.

I started my peppers and tomatoes in late winter, as usual, along with a few other veg, and then I won a door prize at a hort society meeting and ended up with an odd lot of annuals that I would never have bought but appreciate anyway. May is normal planting time, but I had to go on two trips (family stuff), so I seeded what I could in the garden in late April, and my son minded the little plants. I finally got them planted out last week after getting home from the final trip.

I pruned the pear and saskatoon in late March, but didn't chip up the last of the branches and stuff until after my final trip, and today (hooray!) I finally got the last leaves shredded and put in a bin for later use as mulch or adding to the compost. My patio looks so much bigger without all that piled on it!

In April I also dug up a bit more grass in the front yard so I could extend one of the beds. It's a mixed bed of ornamentals, herbs, and fruit trees/shrubs so the new plantings are the same: lavender, creeping thyme, veronica "Pink Marshmallow", and a gorgeous rose "Aurora Borealis." There's room for a bit more but I'll take my time.

I also got a new hosta, "Vulcan," which I've planted next to my "Captain Kirk" hosta. Yes, I am a geek ;)

Today I got rid of a 7 foot obelisk that I've been moving all over the yard for years and it has never really worked. I posted it on the local "buy nothing" group, and a guy picked it up an hour later.

I also mowed the lawn with my new mower for the first time. The old gas mower worked, but I couldn't pull-start it because of the bursitis and ACL tear in my right shoulder (in fact, I wouldn't be terribly surprised to find out that it contributed to both), so I ordered a new battery electric mower, which arrived yesterday. Push button start, quiet, mowed the whole yard on less than one charge, and easy to maneuver. I'm happy!

The old mower has also been posted on the Buy Nothing group, and will be picked up tomorrow.

I also planted zinnias and did some weeding.

>2 tardis: I sympathize with the need to switch to an easier mower. Used to be, I couldn’t start the old clunkers I could afford and had to rely on kind neighbor guys to start the dang things. I cringe every time I pull the cord, expecting it to fail. My yard is too rough as yet to use a battery mower, but some day…

>3 2wonderY: I could always get my son or husband to do the mowing - they don't have trouble starting the old mower :) - but I enjoy doing it. My yard is fairly small and flat, and every year I have a bit less grass, so battery-electric made a lot of sense for me. The new mower is also smaller (cutting width is 16") so it's easier to store. I will just have to remember not to leave the batteries in the shed over the winter!

One of my volunteer things with the Horticultural Society is maintaining some perennial beds in the park near the Muttart Conservatory (4 glass pyramids of plants - heaven in winter and lovely year-round). There's a whole team, and we go down there every couple of weeks for a couple of hours and have a nice visit while weeding and whatever else needs doing. This morning we had some donated plants to add and some others to move around. At the end, I salvaged a small clump of pink pussytoes (Antennaria) that was in the wrong spot. Also, one of the other gardeners gave me a huge clump of echinacea and two Clematis integrifolia seedlings from her garden. Integrifolia is a non-climbing clematis with very pretty light blue flowers.

I planted all the new plants in the afternoon, mowed the lawn (really enjoying the new mower!!) and then sat on the patio and finished a book. We're due a rain, so I wanted to take advantage of the last nice day for a while.

Day 2 of rain. Nice to get the water (soil moisture content is low) but I already miss being outside all the time and have been reduced to cleaning house.

Ah, well.

I’m wishing for rain. June has historically been summer storm weather, but that may be changing. It’s not nearly as torrid outside my door today, so I may venture out.

>7 2wonderY: We've had a few years of low rainfall and the soil moisture levels are low, so this is badly needed, but honestly, it wouldn't hurt to spread it out more :) This past week has been mostly rain and next week looks damp as well. Nice for the weekend, though!

I spent part of yesterday (cool and rainy) chopping rhubarb, ginger, oranges, and a small part of my thumb for jam and THEN discovered that it needed to macerate overnight before cooking. Sigh. I guess I'm going to spend part of today over a hot stove.

Probably a good bit of the rest of the day will be weeding. We have beautiful elms and less beautiful green ash trees on the boulevard that produce absolutely insane quantities of seeds. Billions of them, and every one germinates. Where I can use the stirrup hoe it's not so bad, but a lot of the garden has to be done by hand.

It's still raining a lot, and I'm tired of it, but I am able to get outside at least a bit most days. The rain is really bringing up ALL the weeds. Yesterday was absolutely pouring so I went to a greenhouse and bought some granite stepping stones. The problem with expanding garden beds is that one needs places to step without compressing the soil around the plants too much.

The rain stopped, and now it's too dry. Just can't win :)

Actually, there's a fair amount of moisture in the soil, except for the raised beds and pots, which drain more. I'm busy mulching those, and watering daily.

The veg are starting to come in. We've been eating lettuce and snap peas for a bit, the garlic is pulled and curing, the green and purple beans are coming, and I picked a cabbage yesterday. It's probably 15 cm diameter, so not huge, but so tender and tasty. I've even started pulling a few carrots.

I need to do some succession planting where the garlic was. Still have to decide what to put in, though.

Today, I'll be picking blackcurrants and saskatoons, which will then be washed and go into the freezer because it's too hot to make jam. The saskatoons may end up as pie, rather than jam.

The ornamental beds are looking great, and the front was nominated for Front Yards In Bloom, which is a City/Horticultural Society joint program recognizingyards that beautify the community. It comes with a little sign and a thank you brochure. That and $8 will get me a fancy chai latte, but it's nice to be recognized.

There's been a week of sporadic rain in my area. My house got rain on Tuesday. That's it. Every other day, it's been thunder and thunder and clouds...no rain. All hat, no cattle!

There's rain in our forecast, but so far no show. I'm watering every day because it's been hot (for us! I realize that our hot is other people's pleasant LOL). It was only 26C today (yesterday was high 20s or low 30s) as I spent most of it getting the garden ready for the annual Garden Competition. I only entered 2 categories - Decorative Front Yard and Edible Garden - and I won't win the former. The latter is possible, depending on the other entries. It's still worth it, though, because I love how my garden looks when it's super tidy. So lovely to sit and enjoy it afterwards :)

>12 tardis: Hah, the rain that's been threatening us since the heatwave has finally happened. Yesterday, it rained briefly early morning, today, we woke to puddles everywhere. The evening rain-making ceremony with watering cans finally worked...

Luckily we went to the Colchester Roman Festival yesterday (a long day, 3 hours driving, 3.5 hours at the festival, plus doing our weekly shop on the way home). The weather there was cloudy and somewhat muggy tempered with cool breezes.

Back in heatwave (30C); I'm not complaining because I'm sitting out on the front porch with my computer and enjoying the warmth, but there's a lot of watering required in the veg garden.

A couple of weeks ago I started doodling designs to revamp part of my front garden, adding some raised beds and a new pathway. I was just amusing myself but I ended up really liking the plan I came up with. However, building front-yard-worthy raised beds and laying path are jobs that need to be done properly, so I'm going to hire people to do it for me. They can't start until October, but that's okay - they'll likely still be done faster than I could do it myself and it gives me time to move the plants I want to keep, which can be plunked into the by-then empty vegetable garden until the new beds are ready. It's not going to be cheap, but I have a bit of money put aside, and I can save by re-using the plants I have and doing some of the prep and all the re-planting.

One of the new beds will be against the east side of the house and contain perennials - hostas and martagon lilies, mainly. The other two (one L-shaped and one square) will be in the sunniest area and I'll use them for veg and annuals. I always need more space for veg.

The heatwave finally broke, but we still need rain. The soil is very dry.

The surveyors came today to establish accurate property lines, which was required before the new raised beds can be built. I spent the afternoon measuring and pegging out the new beds and making lists of which plants I need to get rid of and which I need to store to replant in the new beds or move to another part of the yard.

Getting rid of: joe pye weed, because it's too dry for it to thrive here, the miniature mugo pine that isn't staying as miniature as I'd like, the false sunflowers that are coated in aphids, the big yellow daylily, annoyingly spready peach-leafed bellflower,

I'm still undecided about the Amur maple. It's a beautiful little tree that turns a stunning red-orange in the fall, but it's going to get too big for it's current location. What I wanted was a little Japanese maple, but they won't survive the winters here. I've been trying to prune the Amur to keep it small but I don't think that's going to be a successful long-term strategy.

When I say "get rid of" I mean give as much as possible away. The Horticultural Society's fall perennial exchange is coming up, so I'll pot up the smaller things for that. I will post the larger things on the Buy Nothing list for people to come and dig. I'm hoping that there won't be much left after that.

The "keep" list is much longer. I'm afraid some plants on it won't transplant well (sea lavender, sea holly, globe thistle) but I'll try.

>15 tardis: check with Pete about the mugo pine and the amur maple.

I am slowly getting the plants dug up and the garden cleared where the new beds will go. I have a couple of potential homes for the mugo pine and the Amur maple, assuming my brother doesn't want them. I haven't heard back from him about them yet.

I permanently relocated the gooseberry (which meant digging some other plants which had to be added to the move list), one hosta, one lavender, and the yellow lady's slipper. I also (with permission) moved the neighbours' hostas that were too close to the property line.

The other dug-up plants are in pots and buckets in the side yard as the veg garden hasn't been cleared out yet, but I'm out of containers and I still have over 2 dozen left to dig.

I think I still have a couple of weeks to get it all done, except anything that needs to go to the perennial exchange, which is next Saturday.

I've also shifted quite a few rocks.

The front yard is almost ready - I just have to lift the stepping stones, but I'll do that at the last minute.

The Amur maple and mugo pine are dug and will head off to their new home on Saturday. I took 12 plants to the perennial exchange. The stuff I'm keeping is in the back yard in various pots and buckets. We haven't had a frost yet, so most of the veg garden hasn't been cleared out and I'm a bit short of places to put the perennials.

I sent a query to the landscapers on Monday, asking if they had a date yet. In their last message they'd said "end of September/early October" and I already knew "end of September" wasn't going to happen. Alas, there are still 6 projects ahead of mine and they're now guessing "late October."

Aside from being disappointing, this is a bit nerve-wracking because the weather could be anything by then. It is unusual for us not to have had frost by now (average first frost is 23 September), and there isn't any in the forecast for over a week ahead, nor any rain or worse. So that's at least a week when the projects ahead of me won't be delayed. But after that? Anyone's guess. It could continue fine, or we could have rain, or a foot of snow. The ground could freeze. And once they're done, I need to get all the perennials back in the ground or they won't survive the winter.

Argh.

Delivered the Amur Maple and Mugo Pine to their new home today, along with some daylilies. Glad to have them out of the way, and also to have the containers they were in available to put other stuff in.

It's much too nice to be indoors and I've been trying to get a few things done in the garden: dismantling the pea trellis, taking out the tomatoes that are finished producing, tidying the shed so I can fit everything into it. However, I REALLY need to start doing stuff with pears. I gave about half of them to a friend who wants to make cider out of them, but I still have many to deal with.

The landscapers showed up last Thursday - two days earlier than expected! We had a bit of rain on Wednesday and it was too wet for them to finish off the job before mine, so they did two days of work on my project and now they're back on the other one for a couple of days. This is fine - the weather today and Tuesday is crap - it's currently 1C and there's a 90% chance of snow this afternoon. Wednesday onwards, the weather gets warmer again for a bit. They'll still finish Friday and it will be around 13C for me to replant my perennials.

The current forecast for Halloween is a high of 9C, which means it should still be warm enough by dusk that the trick-or-treaters may not have to wear snowsuits under their costumes :)

I spent the past weekend doing various small jobs around the yard - harvesting parsnips, mulching the veg beds, putting away tools and pots, etc. I've stolen about 14 bags of leaves from neighbours (so far) and I still have 8 to shred for mulch. I also put up most of the bird feeders and the magpies are already cleaning out the nuts at a great rate. I need to get to the Wildbird General Store and stock up.

My gardening season is done.

The landscapers finished up yesterday mid-morning and I spent the rest of the day replanting all my saved perennials and mulching the new beds. It was a long day but I got pretty much all of it done.

Today was cool (3C) and I went out again, did some tidying, drained and put away the hose, turned off the outside tap, turned the compost, raked a few more leaves over the flowerbeds, and that's it!

All that's left are the indoor chores like washing and storing various plant containers.

I think I've earned a "do nothing but read" day, but may not get it just yet.

Picture of part of the front yard with improvements :)

>21 tardis: I love it from this angle too!

It started snowing late on November 1st, so winter is definitely here. I think the new beds look pretty nice under the snow, too, and of course a good thick layer of snow is important for the survival of my perennials. No more outdoor yardwork from now until probably April, though, except snow shoveling and filling the bird feeders.

I have organizing of supplies, a few houseplants, and dreaming over seed catalogues for the next few months, and that will have to do until February when I start the tomatoes.

>21 tardis: Looks fantastic! Are the blocks around the beds mortared or just stacked?

>24 Karlstar: stacked and glued. There's landscape fabric on the inside to ensure soil doesn't filter out.