Urban Wilderness

A Surprise Harvest

2012-08-21T14:29:00.001-04:00

At some time during the spring, I had some potatoes in the kitchen that had turned soft and had started to sprout and, for whatever reason, it was more convenient to throw them in the largely unused backyard composter (rather than into the municipal compost collection bin). They spent the summer there, out of sight, and out of mind until today. I had some garden cuttings that I wanted to toss in. When I opened the lid, I saw a lot of white potato vines and, just for fun, pulled on some. I was amazed to find myself holding a cluster of lovely, fresh potatoes.

When I'm asked "What's for dinner?" tonight, I think that, with a very straight face, I'll simply reply "Compost surprise"...

Slimy Saturday?

2012-06-23T10:47:00.000-04:00

I just went outside to check on some pots of herbs and flowers I have planted outside my front door. I was, apparently not the only one interested. A snail was busy exploring the stem and spent flower of a dianthus, and as the photo above verifies, was it ever slimy!

Slippers and Paws

2012-05-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

Last summer, I was fortunate enough to receive as a gift a (cultivated!) yellow lady's slipper. Much to my delight, it survived the winter and is now in bloom. With a little bit of luck it will not be flattened by the Creature who lurks (and sometimes stampedes) in the garden.

On Westmount Squirrels and Education

2012-05-03T11:30:00.000-04:00

Last summer I wrote about a particular young squirrel which had developed an obsession with the old school desk on our back porch (http://urbanwildplants.blogspot.ca/2011/07/this-squirrel-is-nuts.html). In the months that followed that post, the chair was the target of repeated bouts of its, umm, "undivided attention".

Was the squirrel in need of gnawing practice or expressing its "creative" side? Was it practicing "reverse engineering"? Did it have a dietary deficiency that it could only fill by eating aged oak and the waiting times to consult with a wise elder about its problem were too long? Was the desk just so delicious that it couldn't help but come back for "just one more nibble"? Or was its agenda deeper? Could it be that given that it had successfully completed its secondary squirrel ed., it was now demanding its right to pursue higher education but it didn't have the wherewithal to find the nearest mature oak tree? Having taken Gnawing 100 and Tree Climbing 102, was it now taking a stand against the mandatory Gathering/Storing 201 preferring, instead, to choose the infamous grasshopper as its role model rather than the industrious ant? Did it simply enjoy decimating that desk (and the chair beside it) and do it for sheer pleasure (and the "thrill" of having me run out of the house to chase it off)? We will never know for sure. The only thing we are sure of, however, is that it apparently consideres Tabasco on aged Oak Desk to be a veritable delicacy.

A new critter in The Wilderness -- OR -- Please don't eat/trample/otherwise destroy my Wakerobins!

2012-05-03T00:29:00.000-04:00

Lila, believed to be an Aussiedoodle, joined our family in late February. It was a delight watching her romp through the snow (what little of it there was this winter: I'm NOT complaining!) -- the whole yard was covered in pawprints (etc.). At just 9 months old, she was revelling in experiencing her first winter. I, on the other hand, dreaded what would happen once spring arrived and the plants started to come up -- I envisioned the Urban Wilderness being replaced by Urban Wasteland when subjected to Lila's enthusiastic romps. I wondered about how easily I could rename the blog. I mourned the plants before there was any reason to mourn. Now I realize that nature is pretty forgiving -- Lila romps and indulges in her curiosity about what's around her (the evidence is on her face, plain as cedar chips). The plants (somehow!) survive and thrive. I consider taming The Wilderness.

Beans Grow on Trees. Really.

2011-09-01T11:55:00.000-04:00

I planted some climbing beans this spring and provided a trellis for them -- 5 feet of vertical climbing room should be enough, right? Apparently not, as I discovered. The bean plants decided that the nearby lilac tree was a much more appealing place to grow and now there are beans around 14 feet (or more!) above the ground. Note to the neighbourhood birds, squirrels and raccoons: These beans are yours if you want them.

The first black raspberry harvest!!!

2011-07-21T15:53:00.002-04:00

OK, so there are barely enough berries to add to a bowl of ice cream. Nevertheless, given that I didn't have to plant them or fuss over them in any way and I still got delicious berries in my bowl, I'm a very happy gardener. Three cheers for urban wilderness and a nod of thanks to the birds who I suspect were responsible for "planting the seeds" as it were.

This Squirrel is Nuts!

2011-07-19T17:46:00.000-04:00

It keeps returning to this old school desk that's on the back porch and licking it and gnawing on it. We have to keep chasing it away. It seems young so perhaps it hasn't yet figured out that the desk isn't an exotic kind of nut. Either that, or it's a student-wanna-be, in which case its first lesson will be that a chair is not food.

Fruit Flies like Apple Cider Vinegar

2011-07-15T13:34:00.001-04:00

Our kitchen was invaded by fruit flies a few weeks ago. Even after removing all fruits and vegetables from the counter and storing them (yes, even the tomatoes!) in the fridge, there were still clouds of them on the counter, cupboard doors, etc. just waiting for the lid of the compost bucket to lift.

I tried putting some apple cider vinegar in a bottle to see if that would lure them in but that wasn't particularly effective it seemed. I tried a large flat dish but that was even less effective. What finally did the trick was covering the mouth of the bottle with a double layer of plastic wrap (from some grocery store produce), securing it with an elastic band, and poking a small hole in it with a bamboo skewer. Within 24 hours the majority of the fruit flies were trapped in the bottle.

I'm considering living dangerously and putting the tomatoes back on the counter.

Good Dog, Schnoodle! You were a very, very Good Dog.

2011-06-23T11:04:00.000-04:00

January, 1998 - June 23, 2011

"...(sort of) straight rows of veggies!"

2011-06-21T12:42:00.001-04:00

I wrote an entry entitled The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever! just after, you guessed it, Mother's Day and stated my intention of growing "...(sort of) straight rows of veggies!". Well, I guess some of the rows are "sort of" straight even though the overall look is somewhat chaotic: at the very least, a salad for dinner is an absolute necessity tonight in order to make room for the radishes planted next to the lettuces. You can, of course, see the row of radishes next to the lettuce, right?

Despite that fact that some of the veggies are clearly thriving, the beets, spinach, swiss chard, and possibly the carrots (the jury is still out on that one), all planted from seed, are a disappointment. The sprout rates on the spinach and beets were low and the rate of growth of all the seedlings unimpressive. The radishes, which were also planted from seed on the same day, are progressing more satisfactorily despite the crowding from the onion and lettuce.

The big decision is whether to officially give up on the spinach, beets and carrots and try to find some other vegetable seedlings to plant instead or whether to just leave that space for the other plants to take over. I think I'm leaning in favour of the latter strategy.

The zucchini plants seem to be very happy in their pot -- I'm even starting to hope that there will be a zucchini harvest in the near future. And, to my credit, the zucchinis (all two of them) are planted in a perfectly straight row.

Lesson Learned -- The Hard Way

2011-06-06T16:00:00.002-04:00

Well, I just learned a painful lesson: always wear gloves when weeding, especially in dense foliage! I was trying to get weeds out of a large patch of ground cover and decided to take my right glove off to give me more dexterity. I put my hand into the leaves in order to feel down to the base of the weed to yank it out -- and felt instant burning pain. A bit of careful investigation revealed not nettle (which had been my first theory) but a wasp or bee stuck in a spider's web and not feeling too happy about its plight. I'm not feeling too happy about my plight either -- my hand is swollen and discoloured and hurts! Hmmmm -- hold on -- there is a silver lining! I couldn't possibly cook dinner & do the dishes in my pathetic state, now could I?

(NB: The photo above is from my files and not depict the insect responsible for my misery).

Swamp Serenade

2011-05-23T22:08:00.007-04:00

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend the weekend in the Laurentians (Les Laurentides) just under 2 hours north of Montreal. True, it was next to a swamp complete with beaver dams and black flies, and the local nurseries didn't even have lettuce plants to offer yet, but the 24/7 sound effects were spectacular (the audio just doesn't do the frogs justice and the video is there just to make the audio possible -- the recording was made in pitch darkness).

For those of you who might have noticed a black to white change in the blog's appearance, the only thing I can say is that it was time. There will be tweaks and adjustments to "The Look" over the next couple of days -- any feedback is, of course, most welcome.

Garden Visitor in Sl-o-o-o-w Motion

2011-05-20T20:03:00.003-04:00

So here's the garden -- lots of densely packed fresh green growth with a lot of flowers, although that's certainly not visible in this photo. The ground ivy, forget-me-nots, brunera, Virginia blue bells to name a few are all contributing splashes of colour in addition to the tulips and bouganvillea.

While slowly wandering through it this afternoon, pulling a weed here, dead-heading a tulip there, I came across one of the garden denizens who was wandering through it way more slowly than I was:

The Best Mother's Day Gift Ever!

2011-05-08T17:57:00.004-04:00

A small part of Urban Wilderness is going to be experiencing some structure, namely (sort of) straight rows of veggies!

My kids prepared this small patch for me to plant vegetables in today. They worked the soil to a depth of close to a foot, I think, removing tons of roots and stones and adding some fresh topsoil and compost. It had started out looking like the ground towards the top of the photo.

I'm not sure if there will be enough sun for vegetables to grow well, but I'm really looking forward to trying.

Thanks N & N!!!

Hellebore update

2011-05-01T15:18:00.003-04:00

This is the most flowers that this hellebore has ever had! I'll have to look around for more hellebores to plant elesewhere in the garden.
The red trilliums (nursery-grown from seed) are also thriving and the clump appears to be getting larger. I'm looking forward to seeing whether the single white-flowered trillium plant will have grown as much as well.
Seeing the bloodroot open its delicate flowers in the morning and then close them every evening is always a joy. It has started to spread in the garden -- there are two new tiny flowering plants several meters away from the parent clump this spring! The foliage will be a welcome addition to the texture of the garden as spring changes into summer.

A reminder not to make assumptions...

2011-04-14T12:59:00.003-04:00

... that everything remotely purple (especially when viewing from a distance) is a crocus. Much to my regret, I only noticed this little "iris" after it had been knocked down.

On a positive note, however, the hellebore is soon going to be in its full glory.

Spring is definitely here!

2011-04-08T13:04:00.004-04:00

Evidence of the squirrels' passage along the fence-top is no longer easily discernible by casual observation although I can easily imagine finding lots of muddy paw-prints there should I look closely. The crocuses are providing vivid splashes of colour on the ground and distracting the eye of the debris & detritus left on the ground when the snow melted. (Could there be rakes and compostable paper garden refuse bags in my very near future?).

The one other notable early-sprouter is the hellebore. It's always a joy to watch its buds slowly unfurl and open into pale greenish-white blooms. I can't wait!

Squirrel highway

2011-02-16T15:10:00.002-05:00

The fence is their preferred path to the back of the garden, particularly in winter when there are no succulent tulip bulbs to dig up or shoots to nibble. It's interesting to note that after all the neighbourhood squirrels have passed multiple times along the same stretch of fence, they have nevertheless kept to the path made by the first one.

Oleander Revisited

2010-05-11T12:02:00.002-04:00

In September of 2008, I was unsure of how to prepare my potted oleander for the winter (Oleander Help Urgently Needed). I ended up trimming all of the branches, bringing the plant into the vestibule for the winter, and hoping for the best.

It survived that winter, although flowering was not high on its agenda last summer and it survived this past winter too (without another pruning). It's back outside for another summer and is showing buds on the ends of several branches!

Mossy Dreams

2010-05-04T18:11:00.003-04:00

While walking in the forest late last fall, I found some moss that I thought would be good for Christmas decoration. It didn't get used for that purpose, but instead spent the winter on the balcony in a plastic bag. I decided to try planting it today in hopes that, eventually, I'll have areas of bare earth covered in that lovely, mossy green. I loosened the earth, pressed the moss in, watered it thoroughly, and pressed it some more. It looks like it will rain this evening so it will get a second watering. Tomorrow, I'll mix up a solution of one part buttermilk to two parts water and spray it on the planted patches and keep repeating the process for a while (2 or 3 weeks?).

Temptation

2010-05-01T09:16:00.001-04:00

While weeding in the garden the other day, I lost count of how many maple and European buckthorn seedlings were happily sprouting throughout the garden. I started to wonder what the garden would look like if I let them all grow. I could imagine myself walking down the cool shady path through a grove of young trees. Then practicality reared its ugly head: what would happen when the trees grew large enough that there was serious competition for nutrients and space? How much damage would the large root systems do to the foundation, the driveway, the retaining walls? How many bags of leaves would I have to rake and carry to the front of the house every fall? And the list of potential future woes just continued to grow nightmarishly long.

A garden filled with maple bonsai anyone?

Garden Blues

2010-04-28T15:12:00.001-04:00

A day or two Before the Snow, I was admiring the blueness of my garden, and was yet again reminded of how similar the flowers of the forget-me-not and brunera appear. These photos really don't do the similarity justice. It's really pretty interesting seeing these plants flowering side by side.

Looking at the photos after having uploaded them, I guess I'm perhaps stretching the definition of blueness just a bit.

Garden on Ice

2010-04-27T11:35:00.002-04:00

Snow was falling lightly at around 8am this morning and has since grown heavier. What still looked like my sunny garden this morning now has a coating of white on it.

It is sort of beautiful, I guess -- the delicate ice crystals covering the leaves and flowers. I just wonder what today's snowfall and the one predicted for tomorrow will do to the garden before more seasonal temperatures return on Thursday.
What a different image of the Virginia bluebells than the one I posted a few days ago...

Monday's Mysteries

2010-04-26T14:05:00.000-04:00

I noticed something growing next to the path at the back of the other garden the other day. The leaves were familiar and I quickly realized that they were the same as those of another plant 10 or 15 feet away. I happen to like this plant -- its buds are the first part of it to come up in the spring. The white flowers open in the morning and then close at night. I don't recall seeing seed pods of any sort and although I'm somewhat puzzled about how I got two new plants so far away from the original, the fact remains that I just wish I knew what it was to begin with.

The other mysterious sproutings can be found in a number of patches such as the one in the photo below. My best guess is that one of the spring bulbs have seeded themselves. I can't wait to find out which...