Gordon's Garden Diary

15 Jun '08 5:33 pm

Hi, all!

Here are today's pictures from my garden. Most are of my seedlings (now blooming!) I hope you like them!

Cheers!

gordonf

16 Jun '08 2:02 am

Beautiful. Smile

What is the story with the rescued plants? Very pretty, lovely colour.

16 Jun '08 5:16 pm

Nice garden you have there sir. I haven't had a good look at the front garden in a while. I especiallly liked 08.A that shows the yellow/gold rose on a trellis.

I wonder how Joey is doing? Are dogs welcome at the new place? Here are a couple of fairly recent pictures of Fletcher and Sophie. I like the one of Fletcher especially. The picture of Sophie is more remarkable for the shade of orange flower it contains. It might have been "Eye-Searing Orange".

We may not have internet service for the next few weeks while we travel so au revoir until then.

16 Jun '08 5:37 pm

Your garden is looking fab! Wish I could get my Lady's Mantle looking like that - mine always look small and never seem to spread out much. Smile

16 Jun '08 6:33 pm

Hi, All!

Thanks for the comments! In answer to your questions, here goes:

1. Yes, Mark, dogs are welcome up in the valley; in fact, Joey has already made friends with 2 others, Spot, who is his size but much older, and Storm, who is a giant, white Husky, and he gets excited when we turn up the road to the village there! By the way, I LOVED the portrait of Fletch! Here's a picture of Joey making his way along a trail on our recent trip through the Fraser Canyon.

2. Rescued plants - Well, MacFlax, there is a lot of rebuilding here, as older homes are bulldozed and replaced with shopping centres, etc., so I "rescue" plants from these sites before all is destroyed. I plant them in my nursery bed until I figure out what they are or until I find a suitable place for them in my garden or in someone else's. Those Chinese Gloxinias have been there for 3 years now but I still haven't come up with a good place for them. I don't want to give them up, so there they'll remain until either I move and take them with me or I find someone who wants them!

3. Lady's Mantles really love the weather here, Kerole. I think they enjoy the cool nights and relatively (compared with Australia) cool and damp climate in general. They actually can become rather invasive but are easy to pull out. I must have removed half a dozen seedlings today alone! I have one dwarf one called, "Alchemilla ellenbechii", which I bought a couple of years ago since I couldn't get seeds to sprout for me. It's remained in the pot ever since (I really must repot it tomorrow!) as I couldn't decide where it would look best. Now I'll just leave it in a pot so that I can take it with me when I move. Anyway, I'll post a picture of it tomorrow as it's currently in bloom, and the flowers have brick-red centres, unlike the regular Lady's Mantle.

Tomorrow I have some house painting to do (a window frame) and more little gardening jobs. Today I cut down all the geranium "Phaeum" plants as well as all of the geums, since they had already been trashed (you've heard THAT story already). By later in the summer they will all have regrown and should make a good display of leaf colour into the fall.

Cheers, everyone!!

-gordonf

17 Jun '08 12:33 am

I've heard of groups here in Australia that rescue plants from building sites. I don't think it's very common, or perhaps they just quietly get on with it without getting much publicity. What a great thing to do. I renovated MIL's garden and found that if you stop and think and do some research it's quite possible to reuse plants. I moved some within the garden. Some I was even able to divide. And I took a few surplus plants over from our garden. Agapanthus and nandinas are very tolerant of being tossed around. I was particularly pleased about moving a ten year old variegated euonymus. My gardening book said they are suitable for transplanting so I thought it was worth a go. It seems so wasteful to just send the bulldozers in without at least having a look, or giving people the chance to have a look, and see what's worth digging up. It makes me feel better about the world to know that there are people who slow down and take the time to notice the living things we share the planet with.

17 Jun '08 12:45 am

By the way, who is MIL?

17 Jun '08 9:50 am

Like Kerole, I can't get my Lady's Mantles to look lovely and luscious like yours, Gordon. I decided (rudely) that they need gloomy English summer weather to thrive, and New Zealand is just far too beautifully warm and sunny. Hmm...

I love the idea of plant rescue. Sometimes we gardeners (hee hee) are just too law-abiding and polite. We pass a development site with plants and bulbs - should we just stop and dig them out? Then the next day the bulldozers are in, flattening and scraping all these living things into a rubbish heap. I guess it's knowing who to ask, if you're timid.

Go Gordon - I love seeing your colourful summer photos!

17 Jun '08 6:33 pm

MIL stands for mother in law.
Moosey, I love seeing your winter photos. Your snow pictures were gorgeous. And I envy your energy! I run out of steam in winter at the best of times and autumn was a little stressful this year so I was already down before the cold weather arrived. I'm so enjoying seeing everyone's photos and getting some inspiration.

17 Jun '08 7:49 pm

Hi, everyone!

Well, I took so many pictures today that I'll have to post them in 2 parts, some tonight and the rest tomorrow, as it's already 12:30 in the morning here and I've just begun doing my email for the day!

The roses have finally begun blooming here so I took pics of almost all of mine. The only ones I missed are the mini-roses which aren't in flower just yet. Then there are the hostas, which needed pictures taken before the slugs get at them in a big way. The leaves have a few holes, but I don't think they're too bad yet. I've got more pics of rescued plants(I just ask whoever's working at the job-site if there might be a problem with my removing plants, and they always direct me to whoever's in charge. I've never been turned down yet!). Then there are my seedlings - I discovered a bunch more today that have just begun to sprout but I don't remember planting them!! Am I losing it?? I thought those pots were planted with Jack-in-the-Pulpit seedlings, but they look more like Irises to me - what do YOU think??

Here they are. . .

-gordonf

Gordon's Garden Diary

New Pictures

Its interesting how different two seedlings can turn out!

Nice!

Of Dogs, Rescues and Lady's mantle

Well said, MacFlax.

More Pictures!!!