A hot, dry summer in Ontario. This certainly makes the garden grow, but oh the watering that is required. Like so many others, I don't have an automated watering system, so I have to water the garden manually. One day, I water the front and the next day, I water the back. Each takes an hour to complete. I tend to skip one day per week just to have a break. And this week, we actually got a thunderstorm that gave us 22 mm of rain, which is close to what you need per week. But this was the total rainfall for 3 weeks.
This is the first bloom on a dahlia that I started from a bulb purchased at the hardware store. It too needs lots of water; the leaves look so sad when it gets dry.
On the clothesline pole, I stapled chicken wire to support two clematis vines. The one with the small pink flowers has come back for a second year; it succumbed to clematis wilt the first year it was planted, which goes to how you shouldn't give up on a plant! On the other side of the pole is a large-flowered clematis called Rebecca. How could I pass that up when my oldest daughter is called Rebecca?
The hydrangea above is just chock full with blossoms; I said to my sister "it must be in the perfect spot". I think this one is called Strawberry Sundae, the blossoms turn a deep pink after a few weeks.
Phlox! I am so pleased to have phlox, I could never grow it in Halifax, too wet and too shady. Even though these plants have powdery mildew, I am leaving them until the flowers finish. Then I will move the plants somewhere to get greater air circulation. I think the fence and the wild plants beyond are keeping these too damp.
A bed with Shasta daisies, black-eyed susans and echinacea. Today, I added two more echinacea to the bed. That is all that will go into this bed. I love the combination of these daisy-type plants and, in particular, I love the gold of the black-eyed susans against the purple of the cone-flowers.
The black-eyed susans are ready to pop out in the photo above, just another day or two.
Another shot of the daisy, susans and echinacea bed.
Now, over to the veggie beds. If you look closely, you can see three small green peppers on these plants.
And in this photo, you can see the cherry tomatoes forming.
Larger tomatoes, BonnyBest I think, in the same raised bed. Just the other day, I watched a video on pruning tomato plants, I had no idea they should be pruned. Well, I enjoy pruning and I took a lot of branches off, opening up the plants to more sunlight. This is supposed to direct the energy of the plant into making fruits, rather than making new branches.
This is a raised bed with potato plants. I have no idea how they are doing, and am hesitant to dig one up to see. Some of the plants had flowers, but not all of them, but apparently that isn't necessary.
A view of the bed by the ramp up to the back deck. This only gets a few hours of filtered morning light, the rest of the day, it is shaded by a large maple tree. In the far corner is my most favourite plant, a climbing hydrangea. These grew so well in Halifax. There was one on a nearby house that scaled up three storeys and was covered in blossoms in August. A beautiful sight.
A far shot of one corner of the backyard. There is a bed with about 15 perennials in it, you can see the Annabelle hydrangea at one corner of it. There is also a cherry tree and a gingko tree, a raised bed with beefsteak tomato plants, another hydrangea (Strawberry Sundae above), a dahlia, a rosa rugosa. I am thinking that this entire corner should be one big bed, with a path to walk through it. This is the area that gets the most sunlight of any spot in the yard, so I can pretty much have my pick of perennials and shrubs to put here.
Most of the nurseries around here have scaled back for the season. And it is not really a good time to be planting. So I will wait to see what shrubs come in September. Meanwhile, I can be enlarging existing beds to take more plants next year. When I look at gardens online, it is amazing to see that some gardens have taken 20 years to reach where they are at now. My aim is to accomplish that much in about 5 years. After all, I turned 70 in April; I can't see doing hard work much past the age of 75, hence the 5 year agenda.
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