Garden Gnome's 2007 Garden Adventures

12 May '07 2:31 am

Excellent roof job, Christopher! Seeing all your babies in your greenhouse and on ground holds such excitement for me as I await eagerly to see their beautiful faces...I'm confident they'll be as spectacular as last year or maybe even better! Wink

Thanks for updating us on your garden progress! Congrats on your puppet job! Very Happy

12 May '07 7:57 am

I enjoyed your last post, Chris, the photos, everything! You are not "soar" at all! You passed to me all the joyful activity during this beautful day with Deb and Mom! Spring-er days are coming!

13 May '07 12:57 pm

Off topic:

15 May '07 9:30 pm

Thank you all so much for the nice comments on my roofing job. Did I tell you I fell through a roof once while I was working on it? It wasn't my fault, but I still get antsy when ever I have roofing to do.

Well, it has happened! We now have our first bloom in the garden and it's rather a surprise because it's an annual and it seeded itself. It's a beautiful dark velvet purple pansy with a bright yellow center. Of course, the rest of the garden is going completely nuts with buds threatening to bloom all over the place and our poor greenhouse is starting to bust at the seams.

We have a small problem with our mini roses. They have developed a white fungus on the leaves. Deb's mom says it is mildew. The same problem happened last year and I forked out a lot of dough for the remedy, which I still have, so I mixed up a litre tonight and sprayed them heavily. I hope this solves the problem. Any advice anyone could give me on this problem would be greatly appreciated. I also have special rose food and everybody will get a good feed after their transplanting tomorrow.

We had a torrential downpour last night and part of today. But the sun came out this afternoon and I was able to set up my forge and bend a little metal before the rain started up again and shut me down but Mother Nature did smile on me with a lovely rainbow.

That's all for now. Enjoy the pics!

Christopher

16 May '07 12:47 am

That velvety purple pansy is so intense in its tone - very 'rich' and beautiful! Wonderful too to see your seedlings bursting forth with blooms! Are all those potted seedlings in the green house needing to be replanted outside on ground, Christopher? An awesome task awaits you? Thanks for sharing! Very Happy

16 May '07 4:52 am

Very neat new roof, Christopher! Is it going to make a dramatic difference to temperatures as well? Do you use the area at all in summer? If I remember correctly it is almost like a back porch to your house??

Roses tend to diseases - but luckily they also recover very quickly from them. I read somewhere (and have often wondered if it is true) that rose leaves only function for about six weeks - thereafter they must be replaced by new leaves. That is why roses respond so well to regular feeding.

I think you need to invent a planting frame: something like a bed on wheels on which you lie on your stomach and then you plant with a swimming motion. Because there is a backbreaking job awaiting you... luckily there are Debs planters which will mean less bending and kneeling!

16 May '07 6:48 am

It is exciting to see everything ready for planting out and starting to grow in their beds.Roses will get mildew if there is not enough air circulating.Are you able to put them outside now?I really love mini roses too-the trouble is here that they are just the right height for possums,who chomp the tender new growth at the growing tips.
I spent yesterday planting out some tiny self-sown violas - a bit smaller than pansies but have such dear little faces.
Take care -Smiley fell through a ladder once when a rung gave way-he was OK but it gives you a scare.
Dixie

16 May '07 5:52 pm

Hi, Christopher!

Great pix! I loved the pansy and the new acquisitions! Do I see a Hosta called, "June" there?

I learned last year that for lots of rose blooms, a great, natural fertilizer is alfalfa meal, scratched around the roots and watered in about once a month through the flowering season. It worked wonders on MY plants! Also, speaking about rose problems, that wonderful miniature rose called. "Climbing Roller Coaster" that I spoke about on another thread a while ago was doing so very well last month. Well, I looked at it yesterday and it had no leaves left!!! Twisted Evil

Those @#XXX bugs have eaten them all!! So it was out with the insecticidal soap spray!! And it that doesn't work, and much against my general principles, it will be Raid!! Don't mess with my roses!! Twisted Evil

I chuckled when I read about you falling through a roof, as I had a similar experience once, when I was building a small goat barn. I had never built a building before, so I didn't realize how well the walls must be supported before the siding, etc. goes on to strengthen them., Anyway, I was up on top of the structure nailing on roof joists when the entire building suddenly leaned over sideways, throwing me down so I was hanging from my armpits. Not only did it scare the devil out of me, it scraped the skin off of my arms and HURT! My neighbour's 10-year-old son was watching me (he was a student of mine) and before I realized he was there, I let out a string of expletives.

Well, a couple of days later when I was visiting the neighbours' house, the boy's father laughingly commented that the "other day, Howard (that's the son) came home and said to me that he didn't know teachers knew how to swear like that!!" The whole group of adults then had a good laugh at my expense!!

Cheers, and have fun with all the transplanting!

gordonf

23 May '07 12:36 pm

Let me set the stage. A bright warm morning. Deb and I just having our morning coffee at the kitchen table. Mom comes in and proceeds straight out the back to the greenhouse.

Mom, "Shriek!! Chris get out here!"

I go out to the greenhouse and mom points to the garbage can vibrating wildly. I look inside. I see a crumpled piece of paper towel. Then a face peaked out! Then another!

Suddenly the whole bottom of the can erupted in a flurry of action as 5 mice darted about and tried, in vain, to jump out of the can.

Mom was fit to be tied! I removed the paper towel and put the lid on the can and took it in to show Deb, who went all gooshy and started to talk baby talk to the mice. "They are just babies!" she said. They were a cute sight to behold indeed. All those shiny black beads of eyes. Poor things were so frightened.

I took them out to the field on the other side of the train tracks behind our place. There is a stream that goes by there and lots of tall grass and shrubs and let them go. So amazed was I that I took my camers and caught the reliese on video. Here, for your enjoyment, is the video.

http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=-5960262945929111981&hl=en-CA

If you could stop the video when you see my foot, you would see the mousies running accross my foot!

On to other things. I moved the purple cone flowers over to the north garden and dug up some grass to lengthen the garden by about 8 feet. Deb and I planted geraniums in the front window planter. Deb just about has all her planters empty and the soil screened.

I have been working on my puppet job and fooling around with the forge a bit as well. I moved some of the big half barrel planters and we are still undesided about what to do with those as of yet.

Weather has been raining on and off for a few days now and so there isn't a lot of time we can spend working outside.

A few pix for you.

Christopher

23 May '07 1:37 pm

Well,Spring is well under way over there.How kind of you to care for the little mice!
I can't do videos on my computer unfortunately,as I would love to see them in action!
I do love window boxes -it is so regrettable that wooden windows are being replaced by aluminium windows here,as they have none of the style and cosy looks of wood.Lots of strawberries ahead for your family -yum!
Dixie.

Garden Gnome's 2007 Garden Adventures

Really good news!

First Bloom of the Season

The Gnome a-hammering

Lots going on.

Roofs & Roses

The Great Mouse Release!

Spring