Gordon's Garden Diary

26 Jun '08 3:42 pm

Hi, there!

The weather has continued to cooperate with me this week, so I have another couple of iris pictures for you today. One is the only flower I'll get this year from a large clump of Siberians that were broken down by the "painting neighbours". I bought 3 plants of this variety 2 years ago so that I'd have a good display when they bloomed (!), but, "the best laid plans, etc., etc.! Anyway, I don't remember the variety name, but it's my favourite, even though this picture doesn't really do it justice. It's a very Victorian-looking flower with shades of blue, violet, amethyst, etc. in it, and when i saw it, I HAD to have it. AND, I plan to take all 3 plants with me when I move!

The other one is one of my Pacific Coast seedlings - not outstanding, but a bit different from the others.

All the best, everyone!

gordonf

26 Jun '08 5:16 pm

Hi, again - Here is a copy of most of a local newspaper article that I found today in the local paper. I thought some of you might be interested in it. I hope it's readable!

Cheers!

gordonf

27 Jun '08 4:22 pm

Again, the white ravens are such beautiful birds! And being white gives them a totally different 'look'. It's the Snow White symbolism all over again! Aargh! I didn't mean to mention the word 'snow'. 'Snow' is not a suitable word for the vocabulary of a South Island of New Zealand gardener.

I've had a really garden-lazy week, must make sure the weekend is better. Gordon, give all your beautiful irises a message of thanks from me! And please keep posting. Cheers.

27 Jun '08 6:14 pm

Thanks, Moosey, for the best wishes for the irises! Today I gave each one its personal name tag with its picture on it so that I'll know which is which once they've finished blooming! The tags are the same size as business cards, with a picture and the name of the plant, pedigree, etc., and they are laminated to protect them from the weather. This way if I have to move them I'll be able to keep track for future breeding. I still have a few more tags to make tonight.

Other than that, it was a rainy, sleepy day for me.

All the best,

gordonf

28 Jun '08 2:06 am

Thanks for the article.
Smile

2 Jul '08 7:33 am

Hello Gordon, How go your plans for relocation? The story on white ravens was very interesting and your iris's are lovely. Your idea for the laminated labels is fantastic. I don't have a laminating machine, but I'll bet I could do the same thing with sticky-back film. I'll have to give it a go.

2 Jul '08 8:03 pm

Hi, Faith!

It's good to hear from you again!

Last year for labels I tried writing on pieces of cut-up old plastic venetian blinds with a felt pen and then covering the writing with transparent plastic tape. Didn't work - the sun faded the ink so that by spring I couldn't read most of it. So this year I tried the laminating trick; we'll see how THAT fares! As for straight names, I use a Brother label-maker that I read about in the BBC Gardening magazine a couple of years ago, and it seems to be impervious to the weather! I especially like the machine because you can vary the size of font so that as your eyes become weaker (like mine), you can enlarge the size of print!! How cool is that!!

As for my relocation, I'm off to the Valley again tomorrow at 4:00 a.m., so that I can catch the first ferry to the mainland at 6:20. That way, I'll avoid some of the traffic through Vancouver (I'll be traveling against the rush-hour traffic on the freeway) and it won't be so hot when I have to wait for construction along the way. It seems that there's construction at every corner in Vancouver, all in preparation for the Olympics, so it could take a while to get through the city.

I had planned to take the Trans-Canada Highway through the Fraser Canyon again but it has been closed for the last 2 days due to a major forest fire in the middle of the Canyon. So it looks like I'll have to take a shorter route on the toll expressway to get to Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley. I hate paying the toll, but with the price of gasoline here, the shorter distance will probably even out the total cost! Our carbon tax on fuels kicked in today and raised the price of gas to $1.43 per litre (that's $5.72 per US gallon!). And it's MUCH more expensive in the Vancouver area as they have an additional transit tax on top of that!

Anyway, back to the relocation story: while in Kelowna, I plan to visit a factory the sells precut holiday cabins. I'm interested in possibly getting one of those as a "plan B" in case my hope for the Earthship house falls through. After that, I'll be back in the spiritual village for Friday to Monday morning to attend the annual Ratha-yatra (Chariot) festival there. It sounds like a lot of fun! Anyway, It'll be good to see my friends there again!

Following that, I'm off to the Wells-Barkerville area up north to research "plan C" - buying a lot up there on which to build one of those pre-cut cabins as a retirement home. Barkerville is one of my favourite places in the Province and I used to spend a lot of time there when I lived up north. The big drawback to living there is that the growing season is very short (it often snows on July 1) and it can get very cold in winter. Also there is an awful lot of snow to shovel in the winter there. It's at 6800 feet in altitude and much further north than Venables Valley, where the Hare Krishna village is, and way further north than where I currently live on Vancouver Island. But I've lived in the area before, so I know what I'll be getting into, and, anyway, with global climate change, the winters there are nowhere near as severe as they were when I lived there.

By the way, Barkerville was where the gold rush began in B.C. in the 1860s. That's why the Cariboo Wagon Road (pictures in an earlier post) was built. It's now a historical site and park, and a major tourist destination in the province. Wells is the service town about 2 km away from Barkerville.

I'll be in the Wells-Barkerville area for only 1 night so I can look at some building lots that are for sale there. This is my one real chance to see them before attempting to sell my place here, which may take a while.

You see, some idiot re-sided the trailer years ago and covered up the C.S.A. (our equivalent to Underwriters Lab) sticker, and I can't sell it without the sticker, and nobody knows where it might be! I didn't know about this when I bought it 6 years ago - it's a new law. So now I have to have the whole place inspected and rewired, if necessary (at my expense, of course), in order to get a sticker! With all the construction here, it's really hard to get an electrical contractor to do this sort of job, so I may have to wait so long that I'll run against the winter before it's done. That'll mean waiting until next spring before I can list the place on the market. I won't move in the winter as I can't dig up my plants then!

So wish me luck on the trip! I'll take pictures along the way and post them when I return next week.

Cheers!

gordonf

2 Jul '08 10:09 pm

Hello there, Gordon!

I had to go back 5 pages and nearly a month to catch up with what's been happening in your garden! Although I've been on holiday for 10 days, I have been busy with domestic odds and ends and a trip to the city and I've not had much time on the net. On the other hand, there's a lot to be said for concentrated catch-ups! How exciting to watch your home-grown irises flower, and how lovely your garden is looking despite 'neighbourly' damage and odd weather! I think that after roses irises are my favourite flowers, and you have a magnificent collection. I hope they are all due to move with you!

I loved your gold and blue tradescentia and am very envious! It seems that unlike so many gold-leaved forms of blue flowers, the blue has remained intense and not gone an insipid mauve. I've often seen plants for sale where the overall effect is washed out and sickly - not yours! Your penstemmon seedlings are a treat, and something else I covet in your garden.

I love your alchemilla ellenbechia! We too battle to grow A.mollis and it has disappeared several times for me. However we have a tiny indigenous groundcover which grows wild on the farm, loving for instance our mown paths through the meadow grasses, which I am certain is an alchemilla!

Your frustrations with the electrical certification must be immense! We have a similar law which creates much annoyance in what is essentially a 3rd world country, whereby you must sell a house with a recent certificate; a perfect opportunity for corrupt electricians to either take you for a ride or, more dangerously, to accept bribes for providing the certificate. I've often wondered what happens in the slum and rural-suburbia areas, where electricity is unashamedly and dangerously syphoned off the network - sure aint no certificates there!! But then Africa is not for sissies. And it seems neither is Canada, for rather different reasons. I don't think I will ever get my head around the implications of a Canadian winter. Your report on Barkerville makes me shudder at the thought!

I look forward to your report on your latest trip to the interior!

3 Jul '08 1:39 am

Happy belated Canada Day Gordon!
Someone posted a few comments on Canadians on another forum, including this one.
"We have only a 2 month window to plant a full flower and vegetable garden every year before it freezes again - and we rise to the challenge."
Makes me feel bad about all the whinging I do about our comparatively mild winters.
I hope your trip goes well and I look forward to more wonderful photos.

16 Jul '08 3:50 pm

Hi, everyone;

I returned about a week ago, but, as I mentioned on Jack2's thread, I've been off the internet for about that long due to a software problem. But now I can report on the trip.

It was a good trip generally, but for me the highlight was the visit to the Wells/Barkerville area in the central part of the Province. I couldn't believe the rush that came over me when I opened the car door up in Devil's Canyon and smelled the air! It was like going into a kitchen where bread is baking in the oven, except that the odour was that of spruce and fir trees! I felt that I was home again after all these years! Needless to say, I took a lot of wildflower pictures on the spot and later had a great(albeit short) visit.

I think that today I'll post the pictures that I took there in the canyon, so here they are.

All the best, everyone!

gordonf

Gordon's Garden Diary

More Irises

White Ravens

Irises

White ravens and other interesting things

Labels & Relocations

Hi Gordon!

Home Again