This afternoon Rick and I did a walk-about around the property to check on our trees.

It was nice to see the little red signs of spring growth on most of the trees. However—dat darned wabbit—the pawpaw tree is gone (that’s our second attempt), the three heartnut trees are gone, the fringe tree is half-gone, a special sumac tree is gone. Oh and my blueberries – they are still there but they’ve been pruned really, really well. Dat darned wabbit.

Next year – they get wire-meshed.

In the drawer under the stove, I keep bakeware, turned upside down so the mice don’t ruin them. Cleaning it out, however, I found a toy tart tin that I was upright.
But – I also had a surprise

A mouse had brought cat food into this perfect storage area and filled the tart tin. There were no cat food pellets in the bottom of the stove—nowhere except in the tray.

I’m still laughing at it.

I heard and saw a redwing blackbird today!
And we saw a flock of swans go overhead.

Spring is approaching
:)

Yesterday was my birthday (I am now a full-grown woman, according to Native beliefs) and my daughter gave me a gardening book. :)

”The Organic Garden” by Allan Shepherd

It is a great book, filled with lots of gardening wisdom. It focuses on the UK but gardening strategies are gardening strategies. It is written with a sense of humour and a bit of poetic flare. This would be a perfect book for someone thinking about starting a garden, walking you through the space, to the soil, the plants, and the organic components.

Anyway, this morning I was skimming through the book and I found this information on Comfrey. It labels the plant as “the closest thing we have to a compost plant” because it has almost the same chemical composition as compost plus high levels of something-or-other that is the same as worm cast.

The deep roots draw up the nutrients, take it to the leaves, which then can put the nutrients back into the topsoil.

Planting: suggests planting it from a cutting and start it in a pot, protected from slugs. When it is about 15 cm high, plant it in the garden. In 6 weeks, you can cut it to a few centimetres from the ground and then repeat every 6 weeks.

Composting Options
1. leave the leaves where they lie
2. spread them under plants such as potatoes
3. add it to compost bin
4. add to rain barrel (as discussed in another blog)—this becomes smelly eww
5. pressure-squeeze the leaves to make a “tea” (see the following)

Comfrey Tea
1. you need two buckets (stacked or the top one on a stand); put a drip hole in the bottom of the top bucket
2. cut the leaves just prior to flowering—best nutrients
3. place the comfey leaves in the top bucket and put a weight on top of them to gently squish the leaves
4. put a lid on the bucket to keep the bugs out
5. as the comfrey decomposes a thick syrup tea will drip down into the second bucket
6. in about a month you have the tea to mix with water (1 part to 15 parts water). It suggests using this on tomatoes and peppers three times a week and other plants once a week

Note: this method doesn’t involve water during the composting process and does not stink; when you have the plant decompose in water – you get the smelly-wellies.

Could it be?

On my way home from town this morning I saw a robin.

Yes, indeed. A robin!!

Hello Spring!

My goal with my winter sowing was to grow some really good onions this year. At the time of planting, I only had a package of seeds for last year. I put some seeds in the winter sowing jug and some, a while ago, indoors in a tray.

Last week I also planted some onion seeds that I received from an order placed this year.
Overnight, this new batch popped up. Success! However, that means that my first plantings are a “no go”—and thus the winter sowing batch as well.

Good news: I have some onions started.
Bad news: wintersowing challenge for the onions will have to wait for next year

Now, I just have to keep these little babies growing until I get them outside

100 Easy-to-grow Native Plants For Canadian Gardens, by Lorraine Johnson

I purchased this book at the Stratford Garden Festival yesterday. I like having a quick visual reference to help select native plants for my yard.

At first and second glance I was pleased with the book as it provided photos of the plant and the technical information re: the plant needs etc.

Today, I read the introduction section and found it really interesting. The author had been asked to record the amount of time spent caring for her natural gardens throughout a season. The result: for a 16×10 yard she spent a total of 3.45 hours “labouring”; 8 gallons of water for new plants, 0 fertilizers and chemicals (slugs prefer the compost pile to the native plants); 0 grass to cut. Overall $$ spent: 0.
Doesn’t that just entice you to go “natural”.

I then started reading information provided for the plants and I was very pleased to find that not only information regarding environmental requirements and propagation information, but also a list of companion plants and native alternatives, in case the item isn’t native to your region.

I can’t wait to use the book to work on my native gardens. :)

• put a few shovelfuls of compost in a burlap bag and suspend it in one of your barrels; let it steep for a couple of days and you get a great fertilizer tea
• comfrey tea: cut comfrey down to 2 inches from ground and put it in a full rain barrel; leave it for 3 weeks until your nose tells it is done= perfect nutrient tea for gardens; the best time to cut the comfrey is just before it flowers, when it is highest in nutrients
  
  Any more rain barrel tips?_

Information from a pamphlet I picked up at the gardening show

• when the temperature is above 10 C, and before buds break out, apply dormant oil spray to fruit trees to smother over-wintering insects that will cause damage to tree/fruit
• 5D’s of pruning: remove limbs that might be Dangerous, Dead, Diseased or Damaged as well as affect overall Design/shape desired
• don’t prune more than 1/3 of the tree in one year
• prune fruit trees when they are still dormant
• also add about 5 cm of organic matter to the root zone (but do not put it right up against the trunk as it will rot the bark and kill the tree)

Any other pruning and spring-care tips for fruit trees?

I went through the flyers that picked up at the Stratford Garden Festival yesterday.

• June 5th: 13 Annual Garden Fair, Water St. St Mary’s (free event) – sounds interesting
• pruning information (I will create a new blog about this as it is a whole topic in itself)
• grass: don’t start mowing until it is actively grown and is at least 8 cm tall
• ponds: start feeding fish when temp of water is 10 degrees C
• lawn: aim for healthy soil and avoid adding anything that kills organisms (including vinegar)
• lawn: add white clover to the lawn to enrich the nitrogen levels in the soil
• leave grass clippings and plant matter on lawns and flower beds (compost)
• grow plants such as lupines, laburnums or redbuds—ntrogen fixing plants
• grubs: they are there becuse the soil is stressed: rake, overseed, topdress and mow high for a healthy lawn
• more pollinators: more blooms; encourage visitors: bees, flies, moths, butterfliew, wasps, beetles, some emiptera; avoid use of pesticides, plant habitats and food for the pollinators,
• 99% of the insects are beneficial to gardens
• mix garlic powerder and cayenne pepper as a repellent

• Gray-headed coneflower
• black-eyed susan
• Canada Goldenrod
• evening primrose
• butterfly milkweed
• new England Aster
• Ironweed
• Swamp milkweed
• tickseed
• joe pye weed
• bergamot (beebalm)
• dense Blazing Star
• foarm flower( Canada anemone
• Cranesbill (wild geranium)
• Woodland Sunflower
• Jack-in-the-pulpit
• Wild Ginger
• Virginia Bluebells
• Dogwood
• Witch hazel
• Serviceberry
  Note: Monarchs MUST have a milkweed wed plant for their larvae