A Plant Sale & Garden Tours

It has been a very busy month as far as gardening goes. The Brantford Garden Club had their Perennial Plant Sale on Saturday,May 17th. With a $5.00 budget, it was tough deciding which ones to buy: I bought 3 perennials but came home with 7 more. In about 3 hours, the sale was over and whoever brought plants for sale had the choice of taking them home or giving them away!

That was one very damp day ("spitting rain all morning") but what a learning experience that day was: identifying the plants when they are just in their early stages of growth or before the blooms come out! The Club made a little less than a thousand dollars that morning so it was well worth the effort.

That afternoon, I finally transplanted my tomatoes and basil together with the newly acquired plants. Of course, with the possibility of frost, they were tucked in snugly.




The peas (climbing the chicken wire trellis) like it cold but the tomatoes needed special handling. Bob had the pleasure of tucking the Romas in.








The cherry tomatoes were also covered with bags while the basil snuggled inside the juice jug (bottoms cut off)





Then there were 2 scheduled garden tours at the RBG for the new members like me. Instead of working in the greenhouses, I played hookie and visited the gardens instead.





The Rock Garden: tulips, Japanese Maple, water feature







Just a sampling of the Tulip garden at the Rock Garden.









Laking Garden: perennial beds including irises, hostas, peonies, herbs








The Laking Garden: a replica of the farm cottage at the site when the lands were acquired by the RBG









The cottage garden features "period" perennial plants before 1930






Aren't gardens fun? If you don't have one, visit one soon and often because it soothes one's soul

Toughing it out

Today was one windy& wet day, but it was good enough for the hardy Roaming Riders! Our scheduled out-of-town excursion was at the Dofasco Trail with its trail head at Devil's Punch Bowl Conservation Area in Hamilton, ON. Please view the highlighted links as I cannot do a better description of this place.

This is Devil's Punch Bowl with a shadow of a falls in the center of the picture.


View of the Hamilton Harbour from the lookout


Most of the Roaming Riders with our fearless leader in red jacket

At the end of the ride, we only encountered a little bit of rain and wind but an enjoyable ride just the same. We all headed for the nearest Tom Horton's/ Wendy's location for lunch and more socializing to get re-energized.

Going native

The more I read about native plants, the more it makes sense to have them in my garden. Last Fall, when I put in my perennial garden, I had "drought-resistant" in mind so, I promptly bought some in my list. However, I should have extended my research to include "native" as well.

The acquisition of native plants (or wildflower) is not as easy as it sounds. One can't just pull them out from the wild or any public trails, conservation areas, etc. One can rescue them from any place being developed or the possibility of being destroyed by other means. If a nursery has a native species, "be cautioned about its provenance".

Friends who are willing to share their "stock"is another way of acquiring them. I was lucky: with the generous donation from Bill and Carole's woodlot trail. (friends from our Roaming Riders bicycle group), I now have new native plants in my garden. Bill said that he almost mowed them down!

I just have the right home for these beauties - under and between the Blue Spruce trees in the north-facing part of the back garden. I hope they grow and multiply.




Here's Jack in-the-pulpit, Arisaema triphyllum.







This beautiful red trillium, Trillium erectum, is also called stinking benjamin.







Ontario's provincial flower, the white trillium, Trillium grandiflorum.

The Evil Garlic Mustard

For those of you who are unaware of garlic mustard , read this link NOW!!! It is evil and will take over the garden overnight if you let it.

It didn't exist in my Kitchener garden. I've first noticed it last year in our new Brantford location. Curious as to what it was, I let it mature and now has reseeded by the thousands. (Those innocuous-looking pods must split and self-broadcast)!

Last week, there was an urgent request for volunteers at the RBG to weed the Rose Garden and the adjoining woodland trails: the garlic mustard has invaded the entire woodland floor!

I joined forces last Thursday but still, the ground is covered with this invasive species as far as anyone can see.

SO, please check your garden now and don't let any of them go to seed. The roots are long; wait until a good rainfall so that it makes the job of pulling them intact that much more effective.

Remember, never put any perennial weeds which has gone to seed, in your compost as normal sized backyard composters don't get hot enough to destroy them.

Of course, if you really like the taste of mustard greens, this is another option of getting rid of these pesty weeds: eat them! There are actual recipes available on the internet. I must admit, being somewhat of a foodie, I had to try it in my stir fry. I was hoping for more of a garlic taste but got a bitter, mustard taste instead.

Revisiting Roma Tomatoes

I thought it's a good time to revisit my mini greenhouse tomatoes I seeded way back in March. I will be giving some away to Dad and Mayette & Oliverio this weekend so this will be the last documentation about this year's experimentation with indoor sowing.

Last April 4th posting , I had this 24 day sprout, a Roma tomato, measuring almost 5" - the tallest among them all.



I started to harden the 35-day seedlings off when the weather turned almost to summer temperatures around April 15th. Knowing that the weather will not sustain those balmy days, the only reasonable and practical thing to do was to move them indoors in the evenings when frosty mornings were predicted and then set them out in the outdoor "greenhouse" during the days when it was at least 7 deg C.

Three re potting later, these Roma tomatoes at 52days are feeling the constrained space. Hopefully, they will be transplanted in their permanent beds by next weekend which is deemed frost-free in this region.

A quilting retreat

From left, Sandy, Judy, Sharon, Jeanette, me, and Doreen.

On May 2-4 weekend, I joined my St. Mary's Hospital Emerg buddies at "Ladies at the Lake" quilting retreat held at Brentwood on the Beach. While some of us in our group had been coming to this annual retreat for several years, this was my 4th visit here.

After an afternoon of driving from Kitchener and shopping at various Quilt Shops along the way, we arrived on time for a "Happy Hour" in the screened-in porch. From left, here's Sharon, Judy, Jeanette & Doreen .

The sewing room is set up at the lower level which is the same level as the indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, guest kitchen and several bedrooms.

Meals at this B&B are culinary adventures which sometimes makes it difficult to concentrate on sewing when the aroma wafts down our way. Shown here is just a sampling for this particular meal; there were breads, beverages and desserts, too!

Besides the camaraderie and continuous "grazing", we did manage to be productive and worked on our perspective quilting projects. The pictures above were the "show'n'tell" items. Unfortunately, the photographer (me) couldn't take pictures when I had a "show'n'tell".

The facilities include an indoor swimming pool (windows in the sewing area looks into the pool), a hot tub and a sauna; a group can prebook spa treatments (massage, facial, manicure, pedicure) as well. One can work on a quilting project as much or as little as one wants and just do "nothing" and still have a good time.

The views are always terrific: The first picture was the view from where I was sitting in the dining room. (We usually have sunset views but not this weekend.) The middle picture is the beach "down below". The last picture is the view from the balcony off our room.

If you want to know more about this place or the retreat, make sure you click on the link above.

Going Ga-ga over plants

Only the serious gardeners come on the first day of a 2-day annual sale held by the Auxilliary of the RBG. It was pandemonium when the gates opened at 9:00 AM today. I was still parking my car in the middle of the field about 1/4 km away and the queue was almost as long!


The perennials were either in the "Hoop house" or outdoors, all alphabetically labeled by their botanical names. In the permanent peaked greenhouses, the annuals were housed in a heated environment.

While an outdoor temperature hovering around 10 deg Celsius is considered balmy when the sun is beating down, it's another story when the sun decides to hide behind the clouds for an indeterminate period. The hoop house (where I was assigned) got too cold for comfort so, I sometimes visited the greenhouse to warm up or get more warm beverage or goodies or just milled around. I discovered that if one bought at least 5 kinds of herb, one can get them potted for free! I might try that next time. (potting, not buying)

It certainly was a very happy and interesting day!