In my Garden

 It seems like everything in my garden is a weed.  That isn't entirely true. of course, but after spending a few hours outdoors, I couldn't find a lot of things that weren't weeds.  

There is a lovely white columbine.  I found a yellow one too, amidst the weeds, but it wasn't in bloom this morning.  I don't know if you can see the large green leaves in the columbine photo.  They are milkweed plants.  I have been keeping a few in my flower bed in the hopes of attracting some monarch butterflies.  So far nothing, but the plants are forming buds. They are doing well, but are weeds of course.

While pulling weeds and digging stuff out, I came across this crazy crane.  I thought I had lost him.  But there he was!  All covered in mud and dirt.  I cleaned him off and I think I am going to give him a fresh coat of black paint and a more prominent place in the garden.  I really like him.

Another plant that is not a weed, but closely resembles one is my maggi plant, also known as lovage.  It grows 6 to 8 feet tall and has large umbels at the top that look amazing against a clear blue sky during the summer months.  This plant can be used in soups and stews.  I have never cooked with it, but it tastes a bit like celery, parsley and anise.  In The Netherlands, it is used extensively because the flavour closely resembles maggi. A seasoning that is very popular.

Signs of Spring

 A crocus was blooming in front of my house.  Today was a warm day.  The first of this season.  This Covid thing has taken its toll on me.  I need more spring stuff to keep me going.  I just sat in the sun and admired the pretty yellow colour.  There are many more crocuses showing their green shoots.  I can hardly wait for more blooms to appear soon.  

I made this little journal quilt a couple of years ago.  It measures 8.5 by 11 inches.  

There were also some snowdrops blooming in the backyard, under the apple tree.  Yesterday they were covered in snow and today they are blooming.  So pretty.

It's supposed to get cold again.  But at least this is a start.

Lots going On. Nothing Terribly Good. Except the Garden.

 

I'm experimenting with the new blogger.  Hope this works. 

I started this blog a few months ago in an attempt to be positive.  No one wants to read a negative blog.  Right?   But it is difficult to be positive at the moment.  

I broke my ankle in March of 2019.  Unfortunately it was not set correctly.  When the cast finally came off my foot was only connected to my leg with some skin.  The bones had become separated.  I don't know if I am describing it correctly or not.  I saw a foot and ankle specialist.  He operated on my ankle immediately.  I was in the hospital for a couple of months.  From there I was transported to another hospital to recuperate.  

I had physiotherapy daily.  After two and a half months I was allowed to go home.   My leg had not healed as well as was hoped.  The surgeon had taken a large bone from the inside of my ankle.   The incision was not healing properly.  A VON nurse had to come to the house and put clean dressings on it every other day.  

During the surgery a rod was inserted into my leg from my heal to my knee.  Other screws and bolts were also implanted.  I was still unable to walk.  I had to wear a large black boot.  At the beginning of December the VON nurse told me the incision had healed and that she would not be returning to dress the wound.   Needless to say I was ecstatic.  But a week later my leg became painful and swollen.  No one could tell me why this was happening.  Since then I have seen more doctors that I care to admit to.  Everyone has a different diagnosis.  I even had a nuclear test done.  No one can agree on anything.  No one can tell me why my leg is still swollen and more painful than I can bear.  I need to take CBD oil to help me sleep.

I was also having trouble with my vision.  Last Saturday I saw a retinal specialist.  He lasered the bleeding at the back of my eyes.  I thought my vision would improve after hat but it hasn't.  

So now I am at an impasse.  My blog, facebook and gmail accounts were compromised when I was in the hospitals.   I lost everything and had to start over with a new computer and the creation of new accounts.  There is not much positive stuff going on around here at the moment.

But in keeping with my desire to stay positive, I have been doing some gardening.  All summer long I have been eating zucchinis, green beans and delicious tomatoes. Today I went out and discovered that my fall crocuses are blooming.  They are beautiful.  In the spring they come up as lush. green, shiny leaves. 

These die down after a couple of months.  Then all summer it is impossible to tell where they are growing.  In the fall they erupt from the bare soil in a riot of colour.   

I also have a huge sunflower that was planted by the squirrels that make my yard their home.  I also planted a couple of packages of sunflowers= seeds but nothing came up.  They were probably tasty treats for my furry residents.

More when I am feeling better.

Busy Busy With not Much to Show for it

I have been busy cutting 1.5 inch scraps for my waffle quilt.  But not getting any sewn.

Also selecting, cutting and sewing children's face masks.  Some are almost done.  But I found out that I can probably buy 1/4 inch elastic at Walmart or Fabricland.  Since I don't have any at the moment  I decided to wait until I can go out and buy some. 

My DD and William came over this afternoon.  That quickly ended my sewing aspirations.  When they went home it was time to make dinner.  After that I was exhausted.  I will try again tomorrow.

We did have a chance to go out in the garden where my DD picked a basket full of beans, several zucchinis and lots of tomatoes.  Thankfully she took home some beans, a zucchini and a few little potatoes,   I have been eating so many zucchinis lately I feel as if I an turning into one.

Here is an interesting picture of one of my zucchinis.  It was a large one I had missed the last time I picked them.  Someone, I think a squirrel or my resident chipmunk had eaten a hole in the seed end.  It was 2 inches wide and at least that deep.  That's okay.  I don't mind sharing.

I have a question that I hope someone can help me with.  Does anyone have any ideas for a bag or wallet-like device to carry the face masks in.  A plastic bag doesn't breathe well.  I cannot find anything on the internet.  I guess I could design something, but why invent a thing if it has already been done. 

Too Hot!

I have been trying to keep my garden alive during this heat wave.  But it is not an easy task.  I have to water at least once a day and sometimes twice.

On top of that my scooter is not working properly.  I called the people I bought it from and they promised to come and look at it either yesterday afternoon or this morning.  They never came.  I cannot keep it in the brake setting.  That means it rolls away from me on a hill or even a very slight incline.  On my ramp it just takes off.  It's very dangerous.  Also, I can't get off it because it moves.  I could fall flat on my face.  I wish I had never bought it.  Sorry to go on about this but it is really staring to bother me.

Okay.  So I will post about a few flowers instead.  I spotted my first day lily today.  It's a peachy colour.,  I love it.  I missed these last year.  So glad I get to enjoy them this year.

My Shasta daisy is also starting to bloom.   I thought I had lost it.  The creeping bell flowers were choking it out.  But now most of the bell flowers have been pulled out.  Still need to do a bit more weeding to get rid of as many of the roots as I can or I will have the same problem again next year.

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My phlox are beginning to bloom.  I love these too.  Last week William picked me a bouquet of them.  Oh, well.  I have lots more in other parts of the garden.

I don't have many roses.  But I do have one called 'Woman'.  It's so fitting.  It is strong.  Comes up every year without winter protection.  And blooms a lovely pale colour.  I have had it in my garden for over 25 years.  This year it is surrounded by spearmint from the neighbour's garden.  I have a lot of weeding to do!  The first blossom was almost done when I took the photo, but another bud is getting ready to bloom.

Now going back to do some sewing.   The AC is on but it is still super hot! 

A Productive Day

A super hot day today!  It was way too hot for me out in the garden, so I decided to stay inside where it was cool because of the air conditioning   It turned out to be a very productive day as I worked on some more blocks.   First I made two more pink blocks for my leader and ender project.

I also made a couple more blocks for the Framed Nine Patch.  I made the yellow and gray ones.

But most of my time was spent on the Sprouts quilt.  I pieced the first strip together and made a sort of primitive flower at the top.  I saw it on someone's blog.  I can't remember exactly what it looked like.  This is my version.   Sorry I can't give credit where credit is due because I don't know where I saw it.  When I figure it out I will put it in an edit.

This strip measures about 78 inches.  I think I will put a narrow border on it. I wish I had a design wall.  It is difficult to see how it will look just by putting the blocks together.


When I went out to check on the garden this morning I noticed a 4 -inch long cucumber.   That will be tasty soon.  Hope the squirrels won't beat me to it.  Everything else seemed fine except for the back corner.    The rain and wind over night had broken a huge piece of my Lovage .  Also, several pieces of Sweet Cicely were flat on the ground.  I decided to rescue them and take them inside so I could enjoy their beauty in a vase.

And bonus!  A photo of William when he was here last week.  He brought his bike because he loves to ride down my ramp.   I hold my breath every time he does it.  I told him it was dangerous, but he did not agree with me.

Mint Tea

Before I talk about my cuppa, let me tell you about the homemade spray to kill the weeds.  It didn't work as well as I had hoped.  It did kill some of the very small weeds, but it did not work on the larger ones.  It may have been the humidity in the air.  It was very hot and humid.  I will have to try again.  I didn't spray any yesterday because rain was in the forecast.  It never did rain.  Today we are supposed to get thunder storms so I guess I will have to leave the spraying for another time.

I pulled some more invaders that had escaped from my neighbour's property.  The spearmint smelled heavenly.  Too bad that stuff is so invasive.  I decided to have a cup of peppermint tea when I went inside.  It was very delicious and thirst quenching.  

I have some real peppermint. but I cleverly planted it in a pot, so it wouldn't be able to take over the backyard.  Mint is like that.  It multiplies.  I'll have to keep an eye on it in case it flowers and produces seeds.


While I was out there I noticed that my evening primrose was beginning to flower.  I know I said blue flowers are my favourite.  but yellow is a very close second.

I also noticed some beautiful tiny white flowers coming up all over the place.  I had always thought these were chamomile, but now I am not sure.  They may be Sweet Cicely.  I am going to have to do a bit of googling

This is an interesting section of the garden, right under my sour cherry tree.  Here are some of the little cherries just starting to turn red and below that, a little peach coloured miniature rose that was gifted to me about 13 years ago.  I am going to let the birds have the cherries this year.  I am way too busy to harvest them and make jam.

Edit:  It is definitely Sweet Cicely.  I bought it from the Scarborough Horticultural Society a long time ago.    I had forgotten about it until I checked out my old blog, the one that was compromised.  This plant is an herb.  It  has never looked as nice as it does this year!

A New Leader and Ender Project

I spotted a cute quilt on Nann's blog.  She is at With Strings Attached.   Then the next day I spotted it on Kathy's blog.  I think this quilt would be a great leader and ender project.  It would also work with the So Scrappy Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  Besides the sprout blocks I haven't done many for that.

Do I need a new project?  No way!  But variety is the spice of life, or so they say.  And this quilt would use up all kinds of scraps.   So I think I will just make a few blocks each month in the colour that has been chosen.

I have finished two blocks and a third is almost done.  But my sewing machine started making sick noises.  And what I don't need right now is a broken machine!  So I turned it off and decided to go outside and do some gardening.

I was mostly weeding today.  There are a lot of those little suckers out there.  I came across a mixture for a homemade concoction that is supposed to kill them.  Here is the recipe:

8 cups of vinegar
1/4 cup of salt
1 tsp dish washing soap.

The soap is to make the vinegar adhere to the plant.
Only make a small batch of this stuff at a time.  Put it into a spray bottle.
Spray it on weeds during hot sunny weather.  If rain is expected shortly wait until  there is no rain in the immediate forecast.  Do not spray it on anything that you don't want to kill, like grass or garden plants.  It is supposed to work in a couple of hours.  I will go out later and see if it worked.


I seem to have a lot of Lamium.  It is growing everywhere.  In the sun.  In the shade.  In cracks in the patio and all sorts of other places I don't really want it to be.

It is pretty though.  I also pulled out a lot of spearmint plants that were coming from my neighbour's yard.  The smell was wonderful and it made me want some peppermint tea.  So I went inside.  It was too hot out there anyway. 

Surprise Flowers

A few days ago, while watering the plants in my solarium, I noticed an Amaryllis bulb that seemed to have a bud on it.  It was totally dried out and had been sitting on the floor for a long time.  I had planned to put it into the yard waste bag as soon as I could get it outside.  It had been at least 2 years since it had bloomed last.  Maybe longer.

The soil in the pot was the original that I had planted it in when I had first bought it.  It was hard and dry.  I couldn't believe that this plant was still alive.  But I was excited as I anticipated what would happen.  I decided to water it.  Within a few days it had grown a foot high and some leaves were starting to sprout on it.

It only has two flowers on it but that is enough for me.  I love them!

I also noticed that my pink peonies were in bloom.  I was unable to reach them from my scooter, but when my son was here yesterday I had him cut some for me.  The blossoms are very heavy.  They tend to fall onto the ground so I decided the best way to enjoy them was to cut a few and put them into a vase and place them on my coffee table.

I am also painting some rocks.  Sort of a Covid project.  William helped me.  I still have a few to finish.  I will post them as soon.as I get them done.

A Squirrel Suspect and Some Garden Photos

The pot with that beautiful Hibiscus that I showed a couple of days ago was totally destroyed when I went outside this morning.  All the flowers had been chewed off and the plants were uprooted.

I think it may have been a squirrel who did the damage.  Although we don't have many squirrels in the backyard this year I have seen some running across the phone line.  Anything bigger, like a raccoon, would have crushed the plants.  I replanted all the uprooted ones and then sprinkled some cayenne pepper on the soil.  I hope that will keep the critters away.  There are still several buds on the Hibiscus plant.




I took a few photos of the backyard.  A friend had never seen it after we took the pool out 12 years ago.  With the Covid isolation she was not able to come over.

The arbor with a Wisteria growing on it.  This is on the west side.

This is the east side.  My raised flower bed with vegetables.

The middle. There are a lot of weeds in this back section.  I will need to spend a lot of time cleaning it up.

This is the front yard.  

My Blooming Garden

Most of my spring blooms are finished.  But there is lots of colour right now from the early summer flowers.  Here is a gorgeous iris.  It is growing in the front flower bed.

I love Columbine.  It's the official floral emblem of Scarborough where I live.

Here is another one.  It's yellow.  My facourite colour after blue. 

I also have a new Hibiscus.  It's to replace a yellow one that brought me joy for many years.  I love the colour of this one.  My son wanted to know if it was a perennial.  I told him it would continue blooming for many years as long as I brought it in as soon as the overnight temperature goes down to 5C in the fall.  That's too much work for him.  He will come here and enjoy my plant..

The Garden in Spring

My first early irises are in bloom.  

I love this purple colour.

Here is more purple.  I wonder if this is telling me to get creative and make a purple quilt.  

This is Lunaria.  Its common names are honesty, money plant or silver dollar plant.  In the summer this plant produces round seed 'packets' that look like coins, hence some of the common names.  Lunaria is a biennial, much like Forget-me-nots.  I usually don't let many of these plants produce seeds.  They provide a great deal of colour in the garden in spring.  But if I let them all go to seed my garden would soon be overgrown with them.

When they have finished blooming I pull them out, leaving only as many as I think I will need to keep this plant producing each year. 

The interesting part of Lunaria is that it can come up in white.  

My neighbour gave me a few seeds many years ago.  The plants have never failed to inspire me.  

Originally the flowers were all purple.  Then one spring I had a couple of white ones.  

I guess it was a dormant gene or something.  

Now I pull some white ones out, but always remember to leave a few to go to seed.

I sprinkle the seeds from both varieties in the garden during the summer.  They will start to grow, producing little plants.  Then the next spring they reward me with lots of colour!

I think the reason I have so many this year is because last year I was not able to look after them properly.

The following plants are a kind of Euphorbia.  This is a very large genus of plants. 
There are about 2000 members.

This is Euphorbia polychroma.  It's common name is Cushion Spurge.

The gorgeous yellow colour is not produced by flowers.  They are actually bracts.  Other plants in this genus are Poinsettias and Crown of Thorns.

This lovely hint of purple is my garden chive.  The interesting thing is that it is not growing in my garden.  It has actually taken up residence in a crack in the patio.  I have tried to move it but have had no luck digging the whole thing out of the ground.  So this is where it is going to stay.

In the Garden

I planted some tomato plants yesterday.  I was kind of worried about them because I heard lots of scary raccoon noises last night.  I hoped they hadn't pulled my plants up.  So I went out this morning to have a look.  Yay!  Everything was fine!

I was quite relieved.  I took another photo of one of the plants.  This variety is Early Girl.  Can't wait to harvest them.

I took a few other photos.  Here is my Bleeding Heart.  I love these.

Another blue flower.  I love blue flowers.  But I have probably said that before.  This is Mertensia virginia, Virginia blue bells.  When this plant comes up in early spring its foliage is a dark reddish colour.  Then by the middle of spring it has blue bell shaped flowers,

Here is a close up. 

The flowers turn pink after a few days.  By summer the plant has gone dormant.  It totally disappears.  Kind of like the fall crocuses.  I have to remember where it was so I don't dig it up and plant something else in its space.


It sounds like my time outside was good.  But nothing could be farther from the truth.  After I had taken the photos everything went downhill.  I pulled the hose up to the tomato plants.  I was able to water them, but I was not happy with the way the water came out of the wand.  Then I watered a small area in the back garden where a few catnip plants had come up.  I wanted to moisten the soil so I could remove the plant.  But then my hose broke!  It just split near the wand end, sending a cold shower all over me.  I turned the water off as quickly as I could.  Then I tried to dig up the catnip.  But the soil was still too hard.  I managed to get it out in pieces.  I hope it survives.  My daughter wants some for her garden because her seeds aren't working.  I will try to fix the hose this afternoon.  Or maybe I'll take a nap.

In the Garden

We are in the middle of a long weekend.  Yesterday and this morning were nice.  But we are expecting lots of rain tonight and tomorrow.  I decided to go out and photograph my latest quilt top in the garden.  The concrete ducks are holding it down so it doesn't blow away.

I know it looks very much like my other scrap quilt, but this one is made with longer strips.  Whenever I had those I used them to create a block that measures 5.5 inches square.  This is also a leader and ender project.  I have no idea how big I want to make it or what I will do with it once it is done.  I am just enjoying the mindless sewing.


While in the garden I took a few more photographs of my flora.  There is not a lot going on yet, but I do have a few interesting plants.  One of them is Pulmonaria or lungswort.   It's a perennial and blooms early in spring.  I love blue flowers!

This is my autumn crocus.  It comes up in early spring with many beautiful, lush, green leaves.  The leaves die down during the summer.  Then in the fall beautiful pick blossoms come up straight out of the ground with no leaves at all.

More blue flowers.  Forget-me-nots.  These things are more like weeds.  They come up all over the place.  After they have finished flowering I pull them up and shake some seeds over the garden.  They are biennials, so little seedlings grow that first year.  They come up the next year and flower and the whole process starts over again.

More to come......