Clivia Gardens

Trimming The Tree

2010-04-06T12:00:00.006-04:00

This summer will be nine years since we moved to this house. The Kentucky Coffee Tree was one of the first to be planted in the new garden. This Carolinian tree will live for a hundred years and grow up to one hundred feet in height. So, a branch veering off at only seven feet seemed wrong. At some point it would have to be pruned. Better to do it now when the scar will be small than later when a larger wound would have to be made.

It was a simple job involving only my husband and his sven saw. Here goes:

Winter Primula

2010-01-30T20:43:00.003-05:00

You can't keep a determined plant down. One week of warmer January weather and out pops a primula. Hope it survives this weekend's cold snap.

What's Left Over

2009-11-23T14:51:00.009-05:00

It's late fall. Even with this year's unseasonably warm afternoon temperatures edging towards 10C, Nature still follows its heart. Flowers shed their petals. Seed pods ripen and burst. The money plant's papery remains are one of the most unusual in the garden.

Only the hardiest leaves cling. This oak leaf hydrangea provides the last of the bright colours.

Less animals scurrying about at night gives the moss time to recover.

One last walk through the back garden begins here.

Here's the front corner, almost one colour, not green not brown not bare.

Every Garden Needs a Guardian

2009-10-24T17:21:00.003-04:00

What's in Bloom?

2009-05-25T06:49:00.018-04:00

After four years, Wisteria is having its best year covering half my pergola.

Doublefile Viburnum holds its lush branches out to offer these beautiful flowers.

Mertensia, Virginia Bluebells, peeps out from under the viburnum.

Here it is, the Chocolate Vine, Akebia quinata, that ate my fence. I had no idea this would happen. I'm still charmed by its delicate leaves and even more subtle flowers, but that could change if it starts to strangle my shrubs.

Here's a Chocolate Vine flower.

I thought my Kerria had died, so I moved it to a sunnier spot and voila!

I love the tiny ballet slippers of Solomon's Seal. Also, the plant reminds me of the old gardener, now passed, from whom I bought my first clump.

Soapwort. The sections that have seeded in my patio are even nicer than the main plant.

An early flowering White Clemaits climbing an old plum tree.

Full On Spring

2009-05-07T06:09:00.007-04:00

Take a walk down the path to my garden.

Ferns begin to unfold.

Snakeroot reaches for the sun.

The bees seek out the earliest nectar.

Pasqueflower is bold and full.

Trillium for my Canadian home.

When The Sun Finally Warms Us

2009-04-17T19:43:00.005-04:00

Two crows cawing and gamboling from one branch at the maple's peak to another until they find one that sways but doesn't bend under both their weights.

The red capped house finches flitting around the feeder for hours before one alights and then another and then they gorge.

Pistils lengthen, forcing the petals to reveal each gradation of colour.

It's the hunger season and I've got extra feeders.

Scattering Seeds

2009-04-14T07:57:00.003-04:00

It's still too cold to do anything but putter in the garden, so putter I did. Where the leaves looked matted, I gently stirred them. The ground underneath had shrunk and there was a tidy air pocket for sprouting. I needn't have worried about plants smothering. As well, stiffer sprouts like Solomon's Seal and the Spring bulbs were already pushing through the blanket of leafy mulch. Plants know what to do. Best to just leave them to it.

Nonetheless, it's not Spring if seeds aren't scattered, so I picked the fluffy tops off the Asters, cracked the pods on the Turtleheads and ended up with a handful of seeds. I pressed these into gaps between the bulbs. Now I sit back and hope for a success or two.

Let's Get Started

2009-03-27T16:05:00.002-04:00

The sun is absolutely shining. I am desperate to lift or at least shuffle around the layer of leaves protecting my beds and see what's happening under there.
Is it too early to lift the mulch? I think it might be. The frost is still in the ground and the forecast nighttime lows are still zero-ish. Darn.
Guess I can pick up the dog mess and hunt for greenery for another week.

Welcome Spring to the Garden

2009-03-19T19:00:00.003-04:00

The Witch Hazel is in bloom. It's late but hugely uplifting after this cold, endless winter.

Feels Like Spring

2009-03-07T06:53:00.003-05:00

Yesterday's raucous rocketing temperatures, eighteen Celcius, melted most of the remaining snow on my north-facing garden. I'm desperate for the sun to rise. I want to get out there and pick away at frozen mulch, not removing it but separating the leaves so that the Spring bulbs can think about nudging through to the sun.

Dog Day

2008-05-02T14:24:00.003-04:00

Dogs have an easy life.

They lick each other's faces.

Sam smiles for the camera.

Sophie gets some air.

Highlights From The Spring 2008

2008-05-02T09:40:00.004-04:00

Hepatica

Redbud

Trillium

Wake Robins

Epimedium

This is Spring

2008-05-02T07:31:00.002-04:00

The wind is driving in from the east. Fresh budding lace doily leaves on the Cut Leaf Birch flail and are pushed by the wind. The finches dart from inner branches to feeder and back. There's no sun. The rain pelts and stops and pelts and stops.

But all the protected corners of the garden grow steadily. The anemones and wood poppies; the trilliums; and finally, after four years, the chocolate vine!

Fall Blizzard Dec./07

2007-12-17T12:02:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures taken during and after the blizzard.

What to Do While Waiting For Winter

2007-11-18T12:19:00.000-05:00

It's the last third of Fall. I've covered the beds with fallen leaves, shored up the rose bushes and other tenders with leaves and dirt and filled the bird feeders. There they are - finally exposed for all to see - the branches of my garden. Because I dream about pruning, I've waited for this moment all year.

I know I'm projecting my life onto my garden. There are many things I'd like to prune that I won't get to this year - a little less tv, encourage my reading to grow in a different direction, bake more cookies. Instead I shift focus to the brown, grey, red and yellow stalks that shelter my garden and its wildlife.

Gardening wisdom has it that one doesn't prune in either Fall or Spring. Spring is wrong for the obvious reason that sap is flowing and buds are bursting and if your plant is the type that puts out water spouts, you'll be inundated. Fall is wrong because with all the leaves falling, irritant spores are everywhere and you don't want to leave a wound open that would draw in disease.

I'm left with the months that now pass for Winter in Toronto - December, January, February (before the witchhazel blooms).

I have plans. I want to remove the lower branches of all my major deciduous trees. The yellow birch on the front lawn, the tulip tree on the side front lawn, and the Kentucky coffee tree in the back are all due for having their three lowest branches pruned.

Shrubs can be more difficult. The doublefile viburnums are prone to water spouting, so I must be judicious, though I'd like to create space underneath them. The roses can be pruned or tied so the canes don't wave around or get weighted down by snow. It's best to avoid pruning both the witch hazel and the oakleaf hydrangea. I wouldn't dream of touching either. I want them to grow much bigger.

Lastly, the wisteria can be pruned back by as much as 90% of new growth, but not this year. I'm trying to regrow it after Sophie ate through the oldest stems in 2005.

Long ago I gave up pruning my clematis.

There's my plan. Now I sit back and wait for frost to slow everything down.

How Warm Will It Go?

2007-03-12T10:42:00.000-04:00

First week of March and we are pounded by the fat wet clumping snowflakes that signal spring snow. Ten days later and the temperature's heading for 9C.

Yesterday the mourning doves returned, followed hard on their heels by the crows. The snow is melting to rivers while the grates are still hidden by ice bergs.

What will spring bring?

Stay tuned for photos of the witch hazel which is about to bloom.

Snowy Day

2007-02-22T08:38:00.000-05:00

Curtains of thick white snow are falling heavily. Each flake is a plummeting moth.

The sky is simply a deeper white than the ground. I'm in an old fashioned snow globe. Out of nowhere, there's sheet of lightning, followed by a boom of thunder held down by the clouds. It was awesome. I don't think I've seen that ever before.

Poem

2006-11-12T19:02:00.001-05:00

On the cusp of sorrow the pink
chrysanthemums fade to sour milk.
A struggling tree's sodden and
mildewing bark peels away.
There is no sanctuary. Weeds
threaten the labryinth.

The loss of you
is like falling in burdock.
A thousand sharp prickles
that won't release from my coat.
I'll wear it through to Spring, still
picking at the barbs.

Come next Fall, I'll retrieve
the coat from its Summer place
and there you'll be still valiantly
clinging to collar or cuff.

I'll pull you out. Secure you
in my pocket. Feel
your sting when I reach
for a tissue to wipe my tears.

Stupid Birds

2006-08-09T10:15:00.000-04:00

Oh no. The mourning doves are back and building another nest. Three or four times this summer they've built a nest in either of the thirty foot blue spruce trees across from my window.

Each time, they build, they lay eggs, they sit. And then the crows come. Or sometimes the blue jays. Anyway, a flock of birds with much squawking and flapping descends. They shatter the nest, they shatter the eggs. The doves sit helplessly on the hydro wire and watch.

And then, like today, they rebuild.

I don't know if can watch this unfold again.

All The Roadrunning

2006-06-20T07:46:00.000-04:00

For a guitar aficionado such as me, last night's Mark Knopfler and EmmyLou Harris concert was a treat. Knopfler led a five guitarist band through two hours of his signature rock roots sound.

EmmyLou has become the vocal heart of roots Americana. She and Knopfler are touring their new colaboration. The songs are soulful and complicated.

As well, each performer had dips into their own well of songs.

I adored Knopfler's playing style, especially when he brought out that steel guitar.

But the highlight for me was EmmyLou's 30 year old Boulder to Birmingham. At the first chords, the grey haired woman in front of me pulled off her glasses and put her hand over her eyes. I tried not to watch her shoulders heave. By the time EmmyLou got to the line "the canyon was on fire", I too was lost.

Thirty years were gone. I was sitting on a lumpy green corduroy couch, in a familiar old wood paneled livingroom washed by the memory of young love that burned too hot and was gone too soon. The pain lingering and the determination of - what - recapturing or rebuilding. I didn't know then.

All I know now is that life is a bedrock built of experience and time is an ever moving river and, for me, music is the hook that draws me down to touch memory.

Blue Jay Way

2006-06-09T06:51:00.000-04:00

Directly out my window are two 40 year old blue spruce trees. The city carefully maintains them. This year they are brimming with pinecones, both brown and green.

There's a pair of mourning doves nesting in them. They tried low on one tree and had their effort torn down by some squirrels. Now they are rebuilding higher on the second tree. They are stupid birds, but I wish them luck.

With the ripening of the pinecones, have come the Blue Jays. For a week, every day at lunch, I saw one working his way through the branches.

I'm not usually thinking about the trees at other times of day, but one evening I was telling hubby about the jay. At the moment when we were both looking at the spruces, trying to imagine the bird, along flew first one, then two and finally five Blue Jays, squawking louder than sea gulls.

A hopeful sight in the downtown heart of this city.

Do You Know Where Your Asters Are?

2006-06-09T06:39:00.000-04:00

With two weeks left until the garden show preview, this was a week of heavy weeding.
Everything unnameable has been yanked.

Hidden among the spirea and in certain corners of the garden I found those long weedy stems and narrow pointed leaves. My neighbour has a large clump bordering the sidewalk. I walk by and want to remove those reedy semi-leafless stalks.

They are not phlox. I have been stumped before and so pulled them. Then when Fall comes I'm wondering where all those outstanding shimmery purple blossoms have gone. An aster is wildflower, they can't be killed.

But, oh yes, they can be mistakenly pulled. But not this year.

White in the Garden

2006-05-30T11:04:00.000-04:00

Deutzia Columbine
Doublefile Viburnum

Spotted Wake Robins

2006-05-23T11:59:00.000-04:00

Mertensia

2006-05-23T11:53:00.000-04:00

New Bed

2006-05-23T11:50:00.000-04:00

Here are the before and after pics of the new bed dug on the north side of the house.

Parkas and Capris

2006-05-23T07:52:00.000-04:00

What a cold Victoria Day weekend!
Dining out on Sunday night, every woman who entered the restaurant was wearing Capris and a parka. It was darn cold!

Beloved Hubby dug out another patch of grass this weekend and behold - a new flower bed was created. It's on the north side of the house, so gets diffuse sun. I've filled it with Solomon's Seal, Columbines and Meadow Rue. I also moved a small shrub, Laceleaf Viburum. It gives that side of the house a complete look.

Gains and Losses

2006-05-17T17:14:00.000-04:00

Jack-in-the-pulpits in profusion! Tiny specimens sprout within the shadow of established plants. Epimedium galore! A miniature maidenhair fern is setting out a substantial miniature crown. Columbines are rampant. I must remove half of them - after they bloom.

The tiny Japanese poppy has flowered. Some other as yet nameless surprises are poking up.

The Diablo Ninebark is a glorious dark fountain in the garden's centre.

I have to decide whether to get rid of the strawberries or let them take over everywhere.

Now the bad news - my wisteria is dead. ::sob:: Three years of lovely growth over my pergola. Hardy hanging blooms right from year one. I watch. I wait. I scratch bits of bark and note the green underneath. But nothing grows. Hubby expresses concern. We follow the trunk down to its roots and see that there it is split right up the middle. Can it be wrapped? I don't know. But I'm pricing new ones.

Locust in Bloom

2006-05-17T17:04:00.000-04:00

Let me just draw your attention to the late-budding locust trees. Upon dark wood, mustard yellow foliage pushes out, looking, from the ground, like small downy feathers; in eye-catching harmony with all the surrounding Spring green.

Spring Rain

2006-05-17T16:37:00.000-04:00

Off our second floor bedroom is a deck. Really it's the flat roof of the garage, but with a nice wooden floor, we think of it as a deck, though it's proved to windy to enjoy for long.

But rain is another matter.

There is an aluminum roof over the deck - brown and white - an untarnished awning. When it rains, I enjoy nothing more than to sit on my bed in the half-light and listen to the rain pound the awning. Even a gentle fall produces a steady resonant drumming.

There is a clothesline out there. When we first moved in, I was inclined to remove it, but at the first rain, I saw that birds, mostly white-throated sparrows sought its refuge.

And there they were today. Thunder, lightning, a driving duo of rain and hail, and four anxious sparrows staying dry.

Merlin's Hollow

2006-05-12T10:00:00.000-04:00

Merlin's Hollow is a 25 year old English cottage garden in the town of Aurora. The owner, David Tomlinson, gives gardening courses and this year I am attending. There are 15 of us in the session, I've waited a few years for my turn.

His gardening philosophy is simple - laying two inches of leaves on your beds, in the Fall, will provide all the nutrients your soil and plants need. By July the worms will have pulled them into the soil and they will be gone.

Merlin's Hollow is divided into garden rooms and within each room are varied beds. David says "Think about the plants you want and plan for their different growing conditions."

Where he wanted a bog, he dug out the soil, lined the area with pond liner and filled in with peat and sand. He has treated every area this way and so grows many unique plants by providing them with their needed growing conditions.

Another useful point is that the area closest to your house is warmer than the rest of the garden. Rather than fill up this good area with foundation shrubs, he encourages more diverse plantings.

One final point - he divides his plants in Spring and this year with its warm days and cool moist nights is a good explanation of why.

More next month.

Trees in Bloom

2006-05-03T06:39:00.000-04:00

Hasn't this been the best year for Magnolia trees? Warm days and cool nights, following that hot week in April when the buds popped. Practically every time I turn a corner, I'm stopped by one of these old beauties in extravagent bloom.

And their tiny echo, the double Flowering Almond bushes, are just about to open.
When else do we get to enjoy so much pink?

Both my fruit trees are also in furious bloom. One, I don't remember ever flowering before. Can't wait to find out whether its a plum or peach tree.

Get Growing

2006-04-28T06:33:00.000-04:00

My green thumb friend (GT) says that it's time to plant your Nasturtium and other large annual seeds.

Let's start planting!

Garden To Do List

2006-04-28T06:15:00.000-04:00

Compost, Mulch, Lay Hoses. Everywhere.

I think I can clean out the grass and plant something under the diningroom window without too much trouble. But what? Something big like ligularia or smaller like Solomon's Seal? Maybe a nice bed of Monkshood. The dogs walk through that area all the time. I'm tempted to move one of the double file viburnums there.

Then I have to edge the bed that runs around the front corner of the house. and decide what I want to plant on the side of that bed facing the house. I've been pondering that one for five years.

Then there's those sale rhodos in the brick bed. Are they alive? Do I cut them right down?
Also, the little rhodo I planted in the backyard last year, has no buds. Do I move it?

And what to do with ll the snowberry bushes everywhere?

Remove the grass from under the prune plum and replace the two clematis that didn't make it.

I'm still fixated on a small water feature for the patio bed in the back.

First Mission Accomplished

2006-04-24T06:24:00.000-04:00

As you will see if you scroll down, I spent yesterday learning how to size and post pictures on my blog.
Next task, wraparaound text!
Meanwhile, I hope you'll enjoy the first pictures of my puppies, as well as a peek at Spring in the garden.

Sophie @ 11 Months

2006-04-23T19:57:00.000-04:00

Spring in the Garden

2006-04-23T19:50:00.000-04:00

Samson @ 16 Months

2006-04-23T18:02:00.000-04:00

Hepatica - Pink and White

2006-04-23T17:35:00.000-04:00

My Home and Garden Part 1

2006-04-23T13:11:00.000-04:00

Here's a bit of our garden's - home's - history.

When we bought this house five years ago, we discovered that we were - amazingly - only the third owners. The first family was a doctor and his wife and son. I would love to have a picture of this beautiful house, which was built in 1926, with its original windows.

After almost 40 years of ownership, they sold the house in 1965 to an Italian family. I am most grateful that this family left almost all the original oak trim, wainscotting and floors intact. However, they replaced the windows with horrible cheap ones that I know we will never be able to afford to replace.

Now to the garden - This house is a corner lot, practically a double lot as well. When we bought it there were about a dozen fruit trees on the property. The backyard had a large, raised bed vegetable garden.

Now, we love trees. In fact, we hoped to recreate a bit of the Bruce Trail right here in downtown T.O.

But we don't love - or know how to tend to - fruit trees.

So, we cut them down. All but two - one I'd already planted a flourishing Clematis beside and the other tree bears purple plums, which are a thing of beauty. Let me say, in our defense, that these fruit trees were all relatively young - the surviving prune plum is definitely the oldest.

So, no great loss and a fresh palet to draw upon.

I Watch Too Much TV

2006-04-23T09:56:00.000-04:00

Maxim of the day:
Tell the truth and keep your sense of humour.

Welcome!

2006-04-17T07:18:00.000-04:00

Spring in early April, after the Winter that never was. Already the Witch Hazel's shredded pompon blooms have come and gone.

There's a small section of garden where I have Native Ontario Woodland plants. Liverwort (Hepatica Nobilis) is in bloom - both white and pink. The Spotted Trilliums (Trillium Cuneatum) are pushing up. Likewise, Lungwort. Fingers are crossed for the return of Jack-in-the-Pulpit. Last summer, the puppies ate through them like they were Snausages.

Hubby has now fenced in the entire upper garden and I can see the brave return of the Tree Peony that was eaten down to the ground.