Tag Archives: garden

Garden Evolution (2021)

Garden, Rural Life, , ,

It is my intention to add in updates and, in particular, progress photos over time so as to capture the garden evolution progress!

The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of ‘garden evolution’ activity. In Ontario, so often a heatwave follows rapidly on the heels of the last frost, making garden clearance and planting tricky. This year has been no exception, with the last few days at above 30C (86F) not much more than a week after the final frost. Thankfully we are back to the low 20s now, better for working and for the plants.

We’ve managed to plant four more native trees, six native shrubs and a number of perennials as well as starting my Three Sisters planting as is supposed to be traditional with the corn seeds going into the ground three days before the May full moon! Most of this year’s vegetables are now planted. Hopefully they will survive the run of three cooler nights (down to 6C) later this week.

Rockery

Rockery May 2021

Beginning to overflow in abundance. . . the rockery at the front of the house. As I have learned more about native plants and the impact of invasive species, it is irksome and somewhat overwhelming to spot non-native invaders, undoubtedly planted in good faith and often recommended, that really should be removed; Bugleweed(Ajuga reptans), Red Deadnettle (Lamium pupureum) and more. On the plus side, there are many natives forming part of this cascade, including Prairie Smoke (Geum triflorum), which I love and seemed to have lost over the winter; native geraniums, Spiderwort (Tradescantia), Echinacea, Mountain Mint, and Asters. There are also native cultivars like Bleeding Heart (Dicentra spectabilis) and Aquilegia variants. As well as the Prairie Smoke, I added Field Pussytoes (Antennaria nglecta) and Winecup (Callirhoe involucrata).

Native Perennials

Newly planted native perennials May 2021

This bed, new for this year, is primarily a cutting bed but also a place to try out native perennials to guide later plantings, not to mention a pollinator patch. Most of these plants are pink, purple, blue or white.

Cutting & asparagus bed May 2021

The Perennials bed flanks our asparagus bed, now in its third year, which has another cutting bed on the other side. This is currently a mish mash based on seeds I could get at the last minute last year! Next year I hope to fill this with more native perennials, probably focusing on the reds and golds. A few other perennials were slotted into gaps, notably Turtle Head (Chelone glabra), Blanket Flower ( Gaillardia aristata) and Cardinal Flower (Lobelia cardinalis), which I love not least for its ability to attract hummingbirds.

Reducing Grassed Areas

Another project we have begun to address is reducing the amount of our property kept mown. We are trying to do this in a way that is mindful of keeping walking and working space as free from ticks as possible. Where we need to keep an area cut, we are trying to interplant with clover and to oversow with slow growing, drought tolerant seed (Eco-Lawn).

One of the first things we are tackling is underplanting some of our trees. This has the additional advantage of removing some of the ‘awkward to mow’ areas. I hope we will manage to do this without too much damage to the trees!

  • Underplanting - Virginia Bluebells and Yellow Wood Poppy

We have started with just a couple of trees this year. One is underplanted with Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica), Yellow Wood Poppies (Stylophorum diphyllum) and ferns. The other has various Spring favourites from other areas of our garden.  I moved ferns, violets, False Solomon’s Seal, Canada Anemone and Canadian Wild Ginger, even a Trillium around the tree but have just seeded the rest with commercial wildflower seeds for this summer before planting more thoughtfully in the Fall or next Spring.

Over time, we also plan to add in swathes of wildflowers, cut through with mown paths. We will need to ensure that we smother existing growth where we want to do this, so it will take time. The cutting beds will help us decide on the planting for these areas.

Trees and Shrubs

We started our tree planting for this year with five white pines for succession planting in our pine grove.

Last weekend we added four more native trees and three plants each of two native shrubs.

Looking into the wood towards the Black Cherry Tree

We planted Black Cherry (Prunus serotina) in the clearing created by the beavers. It can grow to 60 ft at up to 3 ft per year and hopefully will give a blossom highlight in Spring and lots of fruit for wildlife.

Serviceberry
Position of Serviceberry at the edge of the Pine Grove, where we have also planted five saplings for succession

Serviceberry (Amelanchier Laevis), a big favourite of mine, went in at the edge of our Pine Grove, a small tree with lovely blossom and berries. In Toronto the racoons tended to vandalised our Serviceberry for its fruit!

Pussy Willow

We already have Weeping Willows (not native, but I love them) and Bebb’s Willow, but I finally have the Pussy Willow (Salix discolor) I always wanted.

Spicebush
Hopefully the Spicebush will form a wall of yellow in Spring in front of the cedars.

Backing the edge of our pond we added three Spicebush (Lindera benzoin) that will hopefully form a wall of yellow blossom in the Spring (and more berries for wildlife if we’ve successfully managed to get both male and female plants).

Winterberry

The other new shrub is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata), our native Holly, not really like European Hollies. It does have red berries though (again assuming we have male and female plants).

Mountain Ash

I always understood that traditionally Holly should be paired with Rowan for protection against malevolent beings. So, on the other side of the driveway, there is a Mountain Ash (Sorbus americana). It’s another tree I’ve always loved.

Vegetable Bed to Kitchen Garden!

How did we come to expand from a vegetable bed to a kitchen garden?!

Original Vegetable bed and Hugelkultur bed

This was the original vegetable bed! To the right you can see the Hugelkultur bed we added last year. This year’s plantings include: zucchini, bush beans, broad beans, snow peas, lettuce, radishes, eggplant, cantaloupe, baby watermelon, spaghetti squash, delicata squash, peppers and herbs various.

New caged kitchen garden

We added more raised beds two or three years ago. These were fenced in last Fall and now have additional beds at either end, as well as built in planters outside at the front. Sunflowers to the fore, onions, chard tomatoes, a Three Sister mound (corn, pole beans, squash), cucumbers, more pole beans, with calendula, marigolds and nasturtiums outside in the front planters.

Inside the cage

Inside the cage . . . The makings of an irrigation system have just arrived! There is getting to be too much watering to do it by hand, plus it is wasteful.

Rhubarb bed

This, along with the asparagus bed, is really Paul’s domain. First and foremost it is the rapidly expanding rhubarb bed. This year there are also onions and a fallow area where we are trying to choke out the weeds with black plastic and mulch.

Lettuce as decoration on our patio step

I finally seem to have cracked growing lettuce and arugula! These pots just got brought up from the vegetable garden, with the next just started. Sooo good! To the right is our main herb patch – lemon balm, two kinds of oregano, sage, chives, two kinds of mint, two kinds of rosemary, thyme, with basils various and cilantro in pots.

Asparagus rhubarb and lettuce have all done well and are being much enjoyed. Let’s hope most of the other vegetables do as well.

Nature, connection and homecoming

Nature, our home, Rideau Lakes, ,

Our first year of living in rural Ontario has been truly special. I have had a sense of homecoming, of re-connecting more fully with nature. And, for me, that connection is the source of much wonder and joy.

Cranberry Lake in Fall

So I put together a book, A year in the life of The House at Turtle Pond. A kind of journal, it seeks to capture our response to the newness of living through the turning of this first year, looking out over Cranberry Lake on the Rideau system in Southern Ontario, Canada.

It speaks to a deep connection with nature, the rhythm of the seasons and the interconnectedness of internal and external realities.

I wrote it first and foremost so as not to lose sight of the newness as the years pass and familiarity potentially dulls our awareness. But it has been lovely to find that at least a few people find in it something to feed the soul. It makes it even more worthwhile!

The book

Below is a link to A year in the life of The House at Turtle Pond as it appears on the Blurb website. Here you can glance through a preview. If you happen to be interested in having a copy and live locally, please feel free to contact me direct. Blurb often offers discounts to the creator of a book, which makes it significantly more affordable.

A year in the life of the house at Turtle Pond
A year in the …
By Gina Bearne
Photo book

By the way, it was our predecessors who named our wetland between the house and road Turtle Pond. And our neighbour noted that this was therefore The House at Turtle Pond,  like The House at Pooh Corner. This seemed apt, especially when I came across this:

And by and by Christopher Robin came to the end of things, and he was silent, and he sat there, looking out over the world, just wishing it wouldn’t stop.

A.A. Milne

(Originally posted on my other blog, Passage to Joy, but so much a part of our Canadian journey that I wanted to include it here!)

Loving the land

Garden, Nature, Rural Life, , , ,

One of the things that has surprised me about our move is the intensity of my feeling towards our 2.5 acres of land.

I am awed that we have shoreline, Shield rock, woodland, wetland and meadow, all in this small space!

I had not anticipated the strong sense not so much of ownership but of stewardship that I feel. I want to do right by the land and the creatures that share it with us.

As winter approaches, we are working hard to get the external jobs done. Putting away kayaks and garden furniture, blowing and gathering up some but not all the leaves for compost (the layer on the grass would be just too deep otherwise and the compost will be so useful), cutting wood, replenishing paths . . .

Timber . . . !

We had something like seven trees felled last weekend, which sounds more drastic than it was.

A Basswood (Linden) was partly uprooted in our wood and had to come down for safety, taking at least one other tree (cherry) with it. Then there was a dead Elm in the wetland.

Otherwise it was what the locals consider a ‘weed tree’, four Manitoba Maples (Box Elder, Ashleaf Maple). They shoot up everywhere, are very brittle, don’t burn particularly hot and are perceived as a nuisance. We had one threatening our garage, septic system and the neighbours’ power lines and another that would have also grown through the power lines.

We now have a lot of logs to split (the start of our firewood for the winter of 2017/18) and smaller branches to feed through a wood chipper. The resulting chips are awesome for replenishing our path down to the shore and for creating our way through the woods.

On the plus side, the weather has been largely sunny and mild and doing physical work outside appeals to both of us so much more than going to a gym.

It could take a while though!

Maine Roadtrip 2014: 6 – Wild Gardens of Acadia

Beyond Our Borders, Maine, , , , ,

The Wild Gardens of Acadia provided a contemplative interlude, wandering the paths to the soundtrack of birdsong and a babbling brook.

Wild Gardens of Acadia
Wild Gardens of Acadia
Wild Gardens of Acadia
Wild Gardens of Acadia
Wild Gardens of Acadia
Wild Gardens of Acadia
Wild Gardens of Acadia

This is a delightful idea, a well-labelled garden of species native to this area of Maine.  I was happy to realize how many native plants I can now recognize (many of these plants are familiar in Ontario) and how many I managed to include when planting our own back yard!

Painting with plants . . .

Garden, our home, , , ,

All winter I have been waiting, gathering thoughts, learning about native species, thinking about colour, height, flowering time, scent and more. I have never savoured the process of creating a garden this way before.

At last the sun has made a claim on summer for the Victoria Day weekend; my muscles may be complaining, but my soul feels sated with the pleasure of transformation. A day and a half of planting and a garden has emerged from our back yard.

There is, too, a sense of the garden that exists for now only in my vision of it, of an ongoing process of transformation to be wrought by nature in the months and years to come.

Back garden
Back garden, before planting

Back garden
Back garden
Back garden

(Click into any photo for a mini-gallery and to see a larger view)

I still have the planting at the front to do that we were unable to complete in the Fall, hence the remaining plant pots. And Paul wants to give the deck an additional coat of protection, but we are nearly there in time for summer!

Last year’s efforts on our front garden are already repaying the hard work with the pleasure of breakfast on the terrace,  surrounded by tulips and narcissi, punctuated by fritillary.

Front garden in Spring
Front garden in Spring

Front garden in Spring
Front garden in Spring