The Gnome's Gardens

4 Jun '06 10:53 pm

Hello there,

Welcome to my garden. It seems big to me, but after seeing some of the gardens on this forum, I am almost shy about showing you what I have going on. Some of the gardens, like Moosey's and muddywelly's are so amazing and beautiful. It inspires me to do more with what I have to work with.

We live in Regina Saskatchewan. They don't call this the balled prairie for nothing. Drive across the landscape and see the giant fields of canola and mustard and wheat that go on for miles.You see gardening on a whole other scale. Tractors larger than my house. Almost every bush and tree was planted by someone. Sprawling beautiful farms. Uninterrupted horizons that seem to go on forever.

I'm from Vancouver B.C. I moved here from the ocean and the mountains about 8 years ago now. Love brought me here. It was the best move I ever made in my life! We moved in to this house about 6 years ago.

This house was built in 1952 right on the edge of town. Now we are near the center of town. The CN railroad main line is right behind us. This doesn't bother me as I am an enthusiastic model railroader and living this close to the tracks is fine with me. I just love our Elm trees. Their canopy goes right across the yard. Our lot is 50 feet wide and about 120 feet long. I built the fence myself from recycled lumber. Some 740 pickets, each one had to machined 7 times. Took me just over 2 years to compleat. Last summer I put in the gates and painted it.

Last summer we also started a new flower garden that runs down the fence.

This year I added another 8 feet to it and now it is 40 feet long.

There was an original flower garden on the front of the house when we moved in. The only thing that still bloomed was a huge Peony and it would sprawl all over the place. We shored it up with some big rocks to help it. I added a border to the garden and last year mom planted some Juniper trees. This year mom has taken over this little plot and is planting perennials and bulbs mostly. We have also moved the Peony, divided it in half, gave half to our neighbor and planted the rest in the fence garden. More on the Peony later.

There is also an original garden that goes down the south side of the house. Last year I had a bunch of Black-eyed Susan's there, all going crazy.

This is how it looks so far this year.

There is also a whole bunch of planters with more planters on the way. More on the planters later.

Last year I knocked together a green house on the front porch with an old plastic roof frame I happen to have and we planted our first seeds.

Soon the greenhouse was full of life. Mom was pleased to see our interest and helped a lot.

So this year I built us a new greenhouse on the back porch, bigger and better. All made from recycled lumber.

Someone left this old door by the trash cans in the ally, it made a beautiful table.

Now, there is plants-a-plenty!

We are growing:

97 Pansy, 28 Zinnia, 41 Violas, 11 Rose Mallow, 9 Cosmos, 75 Bidens, 73 Snapdragons, 11 Dahlia, 7 Lavatera, 14 Coleus, 12 Marigold Hero Mix, 43 Marigold Bonita, 7 Pumpkins, 13 Lupins, 12 Rain Daisy, 7 Iris and 1 African Daisy. Plus a whole bunch more plants, as mom keeps showing up with more every time she comes over here.

The greenhouse is about to explode all over the yard. I haven't even told you of the vegetable garden in the back yard yet, but this is the start of my garden diary. I will be adding to it as things progress and I will tell you of the different plants and projects.

I am so glad I found this forum.

Thanks for looking. That's all for now.

Christopher the Garden Gnome.

4 Jun '06 11:47 pm

Oh dear, Christopher, the bug sure has bitten you -soon you will need a farm to garden - and propagate!! I thought my kitchen was choc-a-block with plants, and half my refrigerator full of seed, but I think you beat me...

Keep sharing! what I love about the forum is what a diverse bunch we are: different climates, different scales, different seasons, different personalities. But the more the merrier!

5 Jun '06 12:24 am

Dear Chris,

I just want to add to Jack's comments, how I admire your gardening enthusiasm ....and order! All these babies in perfect order!

5 Jun '06 10:17 pm

Thanks you for the reply, Liza and Jack.

Planters was the word today. Or was that yesterday? I just gave all the kids a nice drink and now a quick post before sleep.

Planters! Yes. I finished construction on 2 planters today. One very big and the other a little odd.

The odd one is made from an old kitchen drawer. I scrounged an old face plate off another drawer for the blind end, put it on some feet and fastened some old handles on each end.

The big planter is made from recycled lumber. It is 7 feet long and 2 feet wide. It stands 27 inches high. It's more like a raised flowerbed.

My wife uses a wheelchair and the big planter is for her to tend. She is in charge of all the planter pots, so I made her a little table to hold the planters at just the right height for her.

The table is made from an old cupboard door. We spent another evening in the greenhouse transplanting plants and watering all the kids. It's finally starting to thin out in there a bit. I got another 25 Bidens in the ground and mom nearly has the fence garden completed. Mom was over today and got a lot of planting done too.

Side note: This forum has broadened my mind. We have been discussing 2 new gardens in as yet un-planted parts of the yard. New plans for a compost bin too.

Yikes! I must sleep now. See you in the morning.

Christopher Wink

6 Jun '06 7:33 pm

Another day in the yard. We had a thunderstorm today. A motel about 4 blocks away was struck by lightning. We had a little hail, but no damage to the garden.

Mom and I went to the Home Depot to buy some half barrel planters I saw there. We decided the big planter I mad was to big for the front yard and we would get 2 half barrels to stand on ether side of the tree. When we got to the store, the half barrels were on sale for half price! Surprised

Later in the day I was chatting with Deb, my wife, and we made new plans for the big planter.

In a nut shell: Big planters go to the back yard to be used as raised vegetable patches. We went and bought 2 more of the half barrels for the north side of the yard.

Now all the plants in the greenhouse are falling in to place. Wink

Time for some sleep again.

Christopher

7 Jun '06 8:00 pm

I started out today all full of beans. Mom came over and set things in motion. With the new planters and all and all. We need a pile of soil to fill them and some gravel to help them drain. My trailer was full of old junk I cleaned out of the yard, so it needed to go to the landfill before I picked up any soil.

This was the plan, to buy some top soil from a supplier who sells it as well as most other things you might need like pea gravel, crushed rock and several grades of soil.

So I went to the landfill. Everything went fine. Off to Bruce's Garden supply I went. I never saw one yard of soil before or a half yard of gravel. Turns out to be very heavey. Broke the wheel off my trailer three blocks from home. Rolling Eyes

After that fiasco and I got the broken trailer home, of course, I couldn't park it where I wanted to unload, so I had to do the ol' multiload wheelbarrow trip thing.

So the good stuff was that we got the needed soil and gravel. Smile

The bad stuff was watching the trailer wheel go rolling down Albert street between a line of on-coming cars.

Oh well, a new axle will fix things up. No one was hurt or damaged (just my pride). Embarassed

It was so nice out tonight that we had a "burn barrel". That's what we call lighting the fire in our old barrel and burn up some of the scrap wood I have stockpiled. Not a whisper of wind, and just cool enough to enjoy sitting by the fire, drinking coffee while we made garden plans.

I hope you had a better day.

Christopher

8 Jun '06 2:41 pm

I don't know which I like better... the picket fence or the greenhouse!

And all the plants you've managed to start.... I am truely impressed. You and your family have created a truely lovely place! I love the raised planter box.... I'd have it placed in one of my garden beds so that I could plant things below it as well as in it! Very Happy

8 Jun '06 11:08 pm

Well... you've been a busy beaver, haven't you! You did a fantastic job on thet back porch greenhouse. You have a nice selection of plants as well.
You are right, this is a great place to show your accomplishments...and we love seeing them!
Well done, you!
Can't wait to see those flowers in their places soon and when they are flowering.
Keep up the good work.

9 Jun '06 7:53 pm

We were kept inside today by the rain and wet conditions when it wasn't raining. This was a day to catch up on inside chores and snoozes. Me body is liking a day of rest too, poor ol' akin' thing. I got some pix to show you what we got done as yesterday was a fine day.

11 Jun '06 3:20 am

Nice-looking flowers, Christopher.
When everything gets going...it's going to be great there!
Keep the piccies coming.

The Gnome's Gardens

The Gnome's Gardens

Need a farm soon!

Gnome at work.

More plans and planters.

Another day. Some good, some bad.

Rain today.