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I've been on a real clean-up binge inside and out. On the inside - my office and files. On the outside, planting, weeding, staking, bug picking and rain dancing.
As part of my clean-up, I rounded up all my pots, trays and tags and took them back to Loblaw's Flower Market. They've got a great recycling program. They take not only their own pots, tags, hangers, but everyone else's.
The bins are well marked at the front of the store - you don't even have to go in.
And it's great to see how many people are actually using them. From this point the staff loads up empty flower racks with the old pots. The growers take their racks back with the plastic to the nursery. They sort it and send it off to make next year's pots.
Even though I didn't need to go in, because the bins are at the front, I did. It's all looking very pretty. No plants on this trip, but I did get the individually wrapped fertilizer tablets (looks like the soap tablets you put in your dishwasher). I use it for all my pots. I've become addicted to the convenience of not having to scoop the 15/30/15 and not having to have to rescue my manicure from the turquoise menace.
In the garden, the tulips leaves have gone from not quite ready to remove to "does that woman not ever tidy her garden?" in a nanosecond.
Bloomerang is looking more like it should. I had spoken to a grower at Sheridan about my pathetic non-existent second bloom. She said it was because I wasn't cutting it back after its first bloom. When the blossoms are done, I'll be taking it back to the first set of small branches. It worked last year, and hopefully will do the charm once again this year.
The poppies are out - soooo lovely.
The allium are beginning to put on a show.
And as if on cue, just as the vegetation looks lovely, the bugs move in. I wonder why those aster leaves are looking so wiggly?
Lots and lots of aphids.
Below is Kolkwitzia 'Dream Catcher' - a Proven Winners selection from Loblaw. It took 3 years to really start to bloom. I'm a chartreuse fan and the form is excellent, so I really didn't mind. However, now that it's blooming, I'm really a fan.
A sweet little Geranium 'Tag-raked-out'
How's this for a multitasking pest - eating, pooping, and dare I say gooey web making as well?
So far, no other friends and family, but will have to check carefully tomorrow.
Echium rubrum volunteers from several years ago. It's a biennial, so I was pleased to find the bluish leaves last fall in amongst everything, knowing that I'd have a good show of colour this June.
Clematis 'Bourbon' - from Loblaw last year. Clematis are excellent performers in dry weather here.
In the back garden black aphids are attacking the Hydrangea quercifolia.
The Erodium has started to bloom and will continue straight through to September.
You know, I think I prefer the beauty of the blossoms to the taste of baked potato chive dust. And if you take a really good look, you'll see there's not a bug in sight. Not that I'm about to start chopping up my rose buds for dinner, but it does make you wonder who was the person who decided to chop up that first chive stock, and why did everyone else decide that they were going to do it too?
1 comment:
Hi Barbara, I have to say that Loblaws does a good job as a retailer with their garden centers. You can't put pots in the blue recycling bins so thank goodness for the Loblaw's recycling program. I would hate to see all that plastic going to landfills. Your poppy shot is glorious! I find it hard to catch a bloom before the black pollen ruins the flower. I have those same green worms all over my Explorer Rose. What they don't get the Japanese Beetles probably will. I have always wondered about the moment someone decides that something is good to eat. How was it decided to eat the rhubarb stocks and not the leaves? Wouldn't your first thoughts be that the red stocks look strange and perhaps poisonous?
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