It was a brilliant weekend on The County – just above freezing during the day, just below freezing at night, a bit of rain late Saturday, a lot of sun on Sunday. Pretty perfect. Sunday morning there was a very light frost covering everything; I went out just before the sun hit and melted it […]
Month: January 2018
What the Bunnies Eat
We have lots of rabbits around the County. I see them every year, all summer long, hopping into the tall grass along side roads, or in the middle of the driveway at night, eyes bright and ears tall in the headlights before they disappear into the shadows. What I mostly see in winter are trails […]
Pruning Time!
Mid winter is often considered the best time to prune fruit trees: the tree is dormant so sap isn’t running; the cold means insects and fungal diseases aren’t going to enter the cutting wound; there’s no leaves so you can clearly see the branching structure I only have three fruit trees: dwarf sour cherry (Romeo, […]
Winter Sculptures
Part of the beauty of winter is discovering shapes, textures, colours and relationships in plants that you can’t see in the growing season. Tree trunks growing in weird and wonderful directions. Fat buds waiting to burst. Bronzed coniferous foliage or bright red deciduous branches. The weathered leaf of this Cup Plant (Silphium perforliatum) is […]
Elegant Edible Enclosure
I know – the title of this post is a stretch – but I do love a catchy tautogram! I’m always jealous of gardeners who can maintain a perfectly weed and disease free veggie bed beyond the end of June. You’ve seen pictures of them in glossy magazines (paper or virtual…) – lovely potagers […]
What I learned today – Dipsacus & Cynoglossum
I follow quite a few gardening related blogs, websites and social media feeds and I’m constantly learning new techniques, questioning the validity of horticultural practice and discovering new plants and products. I love it when something pops up unexpectedly, or an answer to a question I had never thought to ask suddenly appears. On Sunday […]
Searching for Colour in Winter – Staghorn Sumac
I was pleasantly surprised recently to discover that Staghorn Sumac (Rhus typhina) is native to my part of the world. There’s so much of it around here I just assumed it, like all the despicable buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), was introduced. The University of Guelph can provide a lot of information about this small tree, and […]
Throwback Thursday… January 18, 2014
The winter of 2013-14 was pretty bad — cold and a never ending series of ice storms. Blowing snow that closed local roads, trees down, shivering livestock. These swans seemed to take it all in stride.
2018 – Plant Trends
I love it when various gardening associations or plant companies come up with their picks for “Plant of the Year.” If you haven’t already noticed, get ready to see gardening pages, sites, tweets, Instagrams (is that a real word?), Pinterests (again, can the word be used as a noun?) loaded with images of ‘The’ plant […]
County Gardening 