Spring Won’t Be Long!

Despite all the snow on the ground I can feel it coming…….spring.  My first chore will be to order the part (+spare) I need to fix my riding lawn mower properly. Last year it was left jury-rigged where the blades engaged but couldn’t disengage. Hard to pull a lawn sweeper to any good purpose when the blades scatter your clippings everywhere!

John Cabot Shrub Rose

This is a climbing shrub rose. It’s fragrant and will reach about 8 feet tall x 4 feet wide. It blooms quite regularly all season long and has a nice fall color.

It’s Here!

Gardening season 2012 has started on The Acreage!!!

Won’t be long…

We’ve had an extremely mild winter and I’m hoping we’ll have an early spring.   It would be lovely to be back out in the garden before the end of May!

It’s Definitely Over

     We’re in the midst of the first cold spell of the winter.  It’s been in the minus mid-20’sC for the last two nights and we still have another two to go.  That means the yardwork and garden are definitely over for the year.  As usual I brought in many of the pots containing my deck displays. Some, like the geraniums, will survive to be put out next spring.  The rest were because I couldn’t stand to let them all go.

The Season is Over

     Not a very good year for gardening this year.  First of all, my beautiful dog, Amy, died.  The spring and most of the summer was rainy and cold which did in my petunias in containers. (Money wasted there.)   The geraniums handled the weather better.  This was the first time I planted nemesia and I’ve fallen in love with this plant – it bloomed all summer! 

     Now that it’s fall the beautiful weather has kicked in.  Some plants in the big perennial bed have decided to bloom again, like the lupines.   However, I did finally build some new doors for the greenhouse which are doing fine and should make a difference for the winter.   They certainly look better!  So, all in all, I’ll just have to hope the weather next year will be a little better!

Flood

Have started weeding again.  There’s too much standing water left and the mosquitos are terrible.

The Yard in General

There’s a serious stand-off happening between a deer and my cat. Wildlife often cruise by in that spot.

 

Time to prune my John Cabot hardy climbing rose.

 

Fall colours. Time to clean up.

 

These are the poplars that make up my windbreak. Not a good choice. They grow quickly but die young and send out suckers everywhere for long distances.

 

Freshly mowed NE corner of the property. There’s white spruce, a golden weeping willow, junipers, a hardy rose bush and three weeping birch.

 

Here’s an often used part of the property – my two burn barrels and my composter. For those of you who don’t know what burn barrels are used for, it’s where you burn all the leftover garbage after you’ve recycled everything you can. There is no garrbage pickup out here in the country.

 

Here’s the rest of the nerve centre for any plant loving acreage owner – a greenhouse and a shed.

 

I loved having this Japanese willow ‘Hashika’ on my deck all summer. However, it died.

 

 

I keep these geraniums in their own pot and bring them inside every winter. This variety may come again but so far I haven’t seen another like it. Too bad I have no idea what the name is.

 

The results that I love – being able to bring in my very own rose blooms.