Red Admiral Butterfly by Luc Viatour / www.Lucnix.be

All over Southern and Eastern Ontario butterflies like the Red Admiral and the Monarch are being seen in large numbers. It’s thought that the warmer than normal temperatures in the Northern US combined with the high winds that we’ve experienced in the last week or so has contributed to the early mass migration.

As I said in my last post it was a warm winter and an early spring so there’s quite a bit of growth already, but I hope there’s enough food for the butterflies to eat considering they’re here so early.

Have you noticed butterflies in your area earlier than normal as well too? Isn’t it a little strange?

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Everyday I go out and see what new plant is blooming or growing and I really should cut the grass. Normally we don’t have to cut the grass until mid May or so. The only thing missing this spring is the rain. I’m sure most wouldn’t complain about that, but as a gardener I need it for my plants to grow. I’ve actually watered a couple of times already. The first was at the end of March. Believe me, I’ve never watered the garden at the end of March before – well if I have it was in an effort to melt the ice off it, not to actually water it! LOL

How is your garden this Spring? Was it warmer in your area than usual as well? Is your garden well ahead of itself this year too?

Here’s a peek at how green my garden looked on March 28th of this year. See how many of the roses had tiny leaves forming? The lavender was growing, the Honeysuckle was fully leafed out and even the clematis vines were starting to get leaves. These are all things that normally don’t happen until mid-April onward.

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My dog is my garden companion. Just about every time I go out into my garden my dog accompanies me. I suppose it’s a good thing that I trained her from day one to stay out of the garden beds, isn’t it? I don’t know how I managed it, but she only stands on the stones surrounding the raised garden beds and she doesn’t go into the actually garden beds – well … she does in the winter, but I don’t mind then.

Now, seeing as my dog is so good in the garden I do give her a few treats to show her how much I appreciate her good behavior.  I grow strawberries and raspberries in my garden and when I discover ripe fruit I share some of it with my dog – right then and there in my garden.  She loves it when I do that.  She also loves cherry tomatoes and even full sized tomatoes!  I think she might even have purposely knocked a ripe tomato or two off one of my tomato plants this past summer!

My Lab is four years old now and shes been fed premium dog food ever since we got her as a puppy. She was a sickly puppy and she really needed a lot of TLC to get healthy back then.   Once she did get healthy – and it took some time – I was sure to continue feeding her the best diet that I could and to give her the best care possible. As a result I have a very well behaved loving Labrador Retriever who has the shiniest black fur in the neighborhood.  Everyone comments on how lovely her coat looks.

Do you have a pet that you dote on?  How do you pamper your dog or cat? Or do you perhaps have an exotic pet that you spoil?

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The Gladiolas started growing in June and sometime in mid-July I noticed that the stalks were really growing, indicating that they were going to flower soon. Unfortunately, just before the first flower stalk began to flower it literally fell over. I’ve never had that happen with any of my Gladiolas before.

Slowly as my Gladiolas began to bloom the flower stalks started to fall over. I’d go over to my plants and try to stand them up again. I even put flower rings around my two clumps of Gladiolas in my garden beds to help them stand better but I’m still having problems.

I’d originally thought that it was the drought that we were going through in July that was causing the problems with the Gladiolas, but I picked a lovely blooming stalk toward the end of July for my husbands uncle and several earwigs fell off as I was carrying the stalk toward the house.

Now I’m starting to think that my Gladiolas might be infested with earwigs! I’ve seen a few earwigs on the Gladiolas since that time, but without giving the plants a good shake they could be hiding deep within the plants. I think it’s quite possible that they’re eating the stalk from the inside out and that’s why the stalks are falling over.

I’ve read on other gardening sites that the best way to control earwigs is to pick them off the plants and crush them and or to go out after dark armed with a flashlight and look at your plants and if you find a plant infested with lots of earwigs spray them with a mixture of soap and water. The soap (just a little dish soap) will kill the earwigs.

A few earwigs in the garden can be beneficial as they will eat pest bugs and garden debris, but if they begin to multiply they will literally destroy nice plants and become pests themselves.

Do you have an organic way to get rid of earwigs?

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I’ve been giving my garden extra deep waterings this week since it’s been so very hot. This past Thursday it got up to 38 Celsius and due to humidity it felt like 49 Celsius which was 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Crazy hot!

I guess I shouldn’t be wondering why some of my Gladiola stalks are crumpling in the middle and falling down. I think it’s from the sheer heat and the drought even though we’ve been trying to make sure our garden is getting enough water. I do think we’re watering enough as our grass still has some green to it compared to most of our neighbors. Not that we’re watering our lawn all that much – just a little sprinkle when we water the garden, but we’ve been doing it all along during the drought, so I guess that’s why we have some green still and most of our neighbors don’t.

Are you getting any rain in your area? Are you also getting extremely high temperatures? How are you surviving the heat and drought?

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It did rain just a little bit early this morning, but it was barely anything. We really need it to rain for at least half an hour a day for a week to make up for the lack of rain. Most of my neighbors lawns have gone dormant and the city is urging people to water their trees. Yes, it’s that dry!

I’m glad my garden is fairly well established with long term perennial plants. That doesn’t mean that they don’t need water, but they have well developed roots and since I don’t make a habit of watering them daily my plants are holding up well enough.

My front and backyard gardens have more than 50 rose plants. Some of the roses are ten and twelve feet tall and one is at least eight feet wide. So you can imagine how much water my garden needs. I also have lots of Hostas, flowering shrubs, lavender, Rudebeckia, Heuchera, Astilbe and many other plants. I actually planted in layers so that something is always blooming or growing in each spot. For example where tulips or hyacinths might come up in April or May perennial Salvia might grow through the summer and fall.

While this drought is going on we’re only watering our garden every three or four days, but when we water we water deeply. That is supposed to be the best way to water plants anyway as it helps to develop a good root system. If I notice that any of my plants are looking a little wilty after a particularly hot day and the rest of the garden looks ok I’ll just hand water it – along with my hanging baskets and potted plants – those all need to be watered daily or at least every second day in this heat.

How is your garden standing up to the summer heat? How often do you water when it’s hot and dry out?

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Why?

Well it’s because we had a big delay due to our neighbors having a new fence put in. Part of their new fence was on our property line and that affected one “major” side of our garden, so we delayed a lot of our regular garden activities for about two months while we waited and waited for the fence to go in .. finally, around June 6th the fence started being put in and ever since then we’ve been furiously maintaining our garden and planting annuals and perennials to fill in any bare spots.

One of the regular activities that we were behind on was making up our batches of Alfalfa tea for the garden. We usually start brewing this up in two big garbage cans in the driveway in early May. It takes a few weeks to brew before it’s ready for the garden.

Our Alfalfa/ compost tea is a rich nutrient “tea” that we pour on our garden beds at least twice each season to give our plants a boost. Alfalfa is full of natural growth hormone for the plants and within about a week or adding it to our garden beds there’s always an amazing difference in our plants.

I’m not sure how much water our garbage pails hold, but the garbage cans are about 3.5 feet high and we fill them up to about three or four inches from the top with water after we’ve added all the ingredients. Now, I mulched my garden this year with red cedar mulch but before I did that I gave my garden beds another treat by adding a Little bit of sheep manure compost … there was a little bit of that left so I added perhaps as much as three cups of sheep manure compost to each garbage pail. It’s a little bonus in the Alfalfa tea since I rarely put compost in it.

The ingredients that I usually put in each garbage pail are:

4 cups of Alfalfa pellets
1 cup of molasses
1 cup of Epsom salts

Once all of the ingredients are in the pail I stir it up and then put a lid on it. I try to stir it every day. The ingredients will ferment a bit and it’s very important to stir it up well and aerate the mixture.

Depending upon the ambient temperatures outside it can take anywhere from two to four weeks for the mixture to be ready to use on the garden. For example since I live in Toronto, Ontario when I start up a brew in early May it’s still usually kind of cool in my area at that time of year so it could take three to four weeks. The mix that we just made a few days ago should only take two weeks since it’s starting to get fairly warm.

If you make a batch of Alfalfa tea for your garden I highly recommend that you put it on your garden either early in the morning or late in the evening because it does smell quite a bit. At least it does to me! I do find that if I lightly water the garden after pouring the alfalfa tea on my garden beds the smell dies down very quickly.

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In order to use the herbs you will need to harvest them first and timing is a huge factor. Did you know that the essential oils in the herbs can be leeched away by the wind and heat?. You should harvest them on a still and dry day sometime around midsummer. On very wet days, herbs make very little of their oils. So wait for a few hours for the early morning dew to evaporate from the leaves and then pick them just before the flowers open. Click here for more: grow herbs at home

When harvesting, you don’t have to remove the whole plant. At this point, you are just taking a certain amount of growth for use. You do not need to use the herbs that you are harvesting at the time that you pick them. You can preserve them to use later.It is important that you leave at least two thirds of the plants foliage ant any time. The plant will need a good amount of foliage to re-grow well. You should also inspect the plant for insects and damaged leaves before you harvest it.

Typically there are three ways that people preserve their herbs for later use; drying, freezing, or preserving them in a medium like salt or vinegar. In order to dry herbs you need to bundle six to twelve stems together and remove any foliage near the base of the stems. You can secure the bundle with string. Hang the bundle in a cool location away from sunlight. For individual leaves, place them on a drying rack. Turn them  Remember to turn them often in order for them to dry properly. Some gardeners use machines like ovens or dehydrators etc. to dry herbs, although this may not be as good. For more visit our blog: Herb Gardening Blog

Freezing is a fairly easy method of preservation. Cut the herbs into ¼ inch pieces and place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Once the herbs are frozen, you can place them together in a bag and store them in the freezer until use.

The third alternative for storing your herbs is via a medium. For instance, you can cover herbs like chopped mint, basil or tarragon with vinegar and it will be preserved for several months. Or you can preserve your herbs by using alternate layers of flavored salt. The salt will completely dry out the herb and all that is needed is to separate them and store in an airtight tub.

Of course, people often use herbs fresh right out of the garden. Take care cleaning the herbs before they are placed fresh in recipes. In order to clean fresh herbs place them in a bowl filled with cool water. Use a sink if there are a lot of herbs to prepare. Place about two tablespoons of salt in the water. The salt in the water will drive away insects without damaging the plant. Remove the herbs from the water and dry them in a salad spinner.

Different types of herbs are used for many different uses. Each one will need to be picked and prepared in a slightly different way. So make certain you research the type of herb you are preparing beforehand to get the best from it. Click here for more: Herb Garden Guide

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For others it’s all about show and not so much performance.  Many like some foliage and color and enjoy a moderate growing challenge.  For this an ideal plant would be something like the Bromeliad, which is leafy with large red, yellow and orange flowers in the middle, it’s pickier than our previous Chinese evergreen. It is supposed to be the best indoor plant for giving splashes of color by some people.  No matter what your preference there are many plants to choose and personal taste is a big factor in your selection.  Some people really enjoy small potted tropical plants like Kalanchoes or African violets, they tiny little flowers are very colourful and the plants are hardy.  They are great accents for tables and window sills and are popular amongst children.These little tropical flowering plants are known to be the best indoor plants in various cases.  In the vast arena of horticulture indoor plants are numerous.  Finding the best indoor plant is only difficult for one whom is not open to the possibilities and options that all the different flowers bring.

Find The Best Indoor Plant With Local Greenhouse

Many local greenhouses have tropical plants and flowers for sale, potted and ready for you to take home.  Go and buy yourself the best indoor plant you can find and spruce up your living space with some tropical foliage and some color.  Maybe an African violet or a Chinese evergreen.  Whatever your choice, it will be a good one.

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Solar lights are maintenance free.

Solar lights are maintenance free, an infrequent wipe with a cloth to clear dirt on the solar panel, and can be bought in dozens of styles at amazingly low prices. You do not even have to think about about electronic timers, or turning the lights on. During daylight hours solar lights switch off and then charges the batteries, then when it gets dark, solar lights turn on automatically. Most come with an off switch so you do not have to have the lights turned on. Solar lights incur zero ongoing costs, no wiring to purchase and no extra accessories.

Solar lighting is extremely versatile.

As solar powered lights do not require any wiring, it means you are able to move them around to achieve various effects, highlight one plant during the summer, then use the same solar light to highlight another plant in the winter.

Solar lighting can be installed in areas where it would be impossible or difficult to install wired lighting such as on wood structures. Because there is no wiring, no heat, solar lights are safe and convenient to fit anywhere. A lack of wiring also means you don’t have to plan in advance your lighting in advance. Light up your BBQ grill, solar lights are perfect for an evening BBQ. Place solar lighting around your patio furniture and enjoy your garden after in the evening after dark

Solar lights are very safe.

With no electricity required, solar lights are very safe. You don’t need to worry about kids or pets finding a piece of cable with insulation bitten away by a rodent. With no wires, you can dig your garden without worry about cutting through a cable with your spade.

Solar lights are perfect for highlighting paths, especially when there is no other lighting and a path is hard to see and follow. Solar lights will come on as soon as it starts to get dark, making it easy and safe to walk up the path.

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