GARDEN BLOGGERS' BLOOM DAY - july

A walk through the Sun Garden, past the Rock Garden and out to the Monet Garden

View from the driveway of the Sun Garden

 

4 years ago there was no garden on the left-hand side, nor any cherry tree.

Yellow Heliopsis form a border around the whole are, not just this garden.

Blanket Flower, Poppy, Heliopsis, Sea Holly, Iris, Crocosmia, Liatris

 

Soon purple Liatris will join the blooms to make the colour combo complete.

Left, back to the driveway

Right, into the rock garden

Ostrich Plume Astilbe, year 2

 

Irish moss, year 1 and doing well between paving stones

 

Stonecrop ground cover (bottom right) all native, simply grouped together for effect

Entrance to the Rock Garden from the Monet Garden

 

The curved back border reflects where this garden was lawn 4 years ago.

A hot mess with Forget-me-nots taking over.

An endless supply of daylilies means they are always used in my planters.

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Sharing with Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, Nature Tuesday

END OF THE MONTH VIEW - june cottage

Sharing with End of the Month View & Floral Friday Fotos, Nature Tuesday

MOON GARDEN UPDATE - spring 2016

Above is the most up to date map of my Moon Garden, where 99% of the plants are white with the exception of the orange daylilies and the purple hardy geranium, making the bench a great place to sit and take in the garden in the evening.

Since the last update there have been a number of changes. No longer will you find Allium, Daffodils, Foxglove, Candytuft, Iris or Hyacinths.  Instead you will find more of what was working well, such as Bleeding Heart, Astilbe, Daisy and Goat's Beard.

To reduce the overall number of plants and focus in on those that work well in a garden's specific conditions is a natural process and far from missing the plants that did not thrive in this space (whether due to soil, light or moisture conditions), I am pleased to have found those plants that are thriving and to build on what I have learned about the space.

You will also find a couple of non-white plants!  I had extra Hardy Geranium and Forget-me-nots and did not think that their purples and blues would stand out too much. We shall hopefully see this spring/summer.

Below are some photos of the garden from last year to give you an idea of what I am expecting.

Each year fewer Impatiens will be required to fill in between Astilbe, Hosta and Bleeding Heart. 

Liatris may not be getting quite enough sun and Obedient Plant in the foreground was a new edition last year so we shall see what year 2 brings for them all...

Peonies, Bleeding Heart, Coneflower and Shasta Daisy are all doing well, whereas white Nasturtium turned out to be more pastel-like and is not welcome back. Impatiens fill in as needed.

Goat's Beard and Lamb's Ear take over at this end of the garden where foliage rather than blooms rule.

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TRAVELLING GNOME - and our first ever contest winners

 

I painted this cute little garden gnome as a fundraiser for the upcoming Winnipeg Home & Garden Show, where it will be auctioned off along with 9 others to raise money for the very worthwhile Winnipeg Harvest food bank.

Given how much we all know gnomes like to travel I thought I'd better show mine around town while we still had some time together but before I set him in his butterfly field.

Here he is buying tickets to the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

Then off to the Manitoba Museum 

Followed by a stop at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre

  

Getting his caffeine buzz on at Parlour Coffee

Checking out the Artspace building to wrap up his cultural whirlwind tour of Winnipeg.

 A well deserved rest with his pal Suzie

I also asked readers of my Facebook page to share what they loved about spring, and I got some really great answers that I want to share with you below to get you excited (as if you are not already!) about the change of season:

 It's a fresh start....

...a time to learn and change last season's trials.

...feeling that sense of community again...

...the smell of rain.

Spring is a blank canvas and a full pallet of colors just waiting to create a new "one of a kind" work of art.

I love to watch all the beautiful flowers wrenching their way out of the ground, grasping towards the warm sun.

Such promise for the season ahead in the spring.

I love the way colour creeps back into the landscape - from the first soft green blades of grass to the hint of green in trees as leaves begin to unfurl and then a symphony of all kinds of shades of pinks as shrubs and trees blossom punctuated with the bright cheery splashes of reds and yellows from tulips and daffodils...ah, spring is fresh colour!

I look forward to the wonders of spring.

I can't wait to get in the garden, with soil under my nails and the sun beating down on me.

...seeds starting to sprout...

I love opening all of the windows in my house while I'm spring cleaning!

 I love the thought of renewal, and a new beginning.

Everything!

Thanks to everyone who entered, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your eloquent and inspiring responses.  Congratulations to Heather Lewis Neill & Janice E Cournoyer, who have each won a pair of tickets to the Home & Garden show in Winnipeg.

'NATURESCAPING' - good for the environment, good for me

Fort Whyte Alive is an extraordinary space in Winnipeg; originally quarry and clay mine for the Canada Cement Company, the land has been reclaimed and since the 1950s and in the 80s

the Fort Whyte Foundation with a focus on environmental education was established.  There are wetlands, forest and grassland with a network of trails and programming and I was fortunate enough to be the summer camp director in 1995.

Now I am proud to have be a part of their innovative "Naturescape" program. To grossly paraphrase their brochure, the program encourages people to increase biodiversity in their own backyard. They actually pay me to do it, by giving me a $20 coupon for their gift shop, as well as discounts from major garden shops across the city.  Below are the conditions I had to meet, which I hope makes it clear that the program is fairly accessible with a little planning.

Section 1: Clean Water, at least 2 sources

(Birdbath; backyard pond; drippers, spitters, or decorative pots and barrel containing water; damp spot for butterflies)

Small recirculating water feature on cantina wall

Decorative fountain

Bird bath

Section 2: Food For All Seasons, at least 5

Spring/Summer 

(Nectar feeder; 3 types of nectar plants; Flowering trees, shrubs or perennials ; Rotting fruit feeder for birds or butterflies; Organic garden, a food source for your family!)

Nectar feeder

3 types of nectar plants (Rudbeckia, Coneflower, Milkweed)

Perennials for pollinators (Blanket Flower & Helenium)

Organic garden (I prefer perennial fruits over vegetables)

Fall/Winter

(Birdfeeder; Nut or suet feeder; Seed or nut bearing trees and shrubs; Seed bearing perennials left through the winter; Tree, shrub or vine that retains its fruit/berries into the winter months; Vines such as Virginia creeper and riverbank grape)

Birdfeeder

Suet feeder

Birdfeeder

Seed bearing Japanese Lilac tree

Seed bearing perennial left through the winter

   

 Grape vine that retains fruit through winter

Year-round 

(Compost bin [food source for decomposers]; An area of undisturbed leaf litter under trees or shrubs)

Compost bins 

3: Shelter

1 of: Plant a native tree or two; Layered planting (Tree layer, shrub layer, ground layer); Thicket (tangled cluster of tall and medium height shrubs)

 

Layered planting

+ 2 of: Evergreen tree; Hedge; Nesting cavity in a tree; Wood or brush pile; Rock pile or open stone wall; Nest box or nesting platform; Old log or snag (standing dead tree); Winter roosting box for birds; Bat roosting box

Nest box

Snag (standing dead tree)

Hedge

 Evergreens

 When my all-weather placard arrives I will proudly place it in front of my home for curious passerby, in order to help promote this worthwhile program.

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