3 Weeks Until the Tree Comes Down!

I had my pre-work confirmation visit for our Ash tree removal.  Crane secured.  Road permit in place to shut down part of MacDonald Road.  Starting process of ticket printing and selling to defray costs.  Got arborist to confirm he can do job by tankety-tanking the crane through Watson bed that has far fewer woody plants.  That means over the next three weeks, I'll be madly running around moving plants from the tank-zone to goodness knows where.

One tiny patch of that garden - lots of little Tiarella that are looking forward to being uprooted.

I had originally hoped that I'd have enough woodpeckers to keep the borers at bay - sadly no.  But these last few weeks they've been having a wonderful feed.  Can you believe the size of that trunk.  Makes me sad every time I look at it.

On to happier thoughts - this is our Canadian Thanksgiving.  Kevin and I went out for breakfast and did a short walk over at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Cherry Hill Trail.  So beautiful.  As you can see, we're still a couple of weeks away from full fall colour.

My poor camera really is starting to fade - it's seen me through almost 30,000 photos - see how these random dots appear and then disappear.  All of these photos were taken within minutes of each other - nothing on the lens, it's got to be the sensor.

A couple of weeks ago was the Oakville Horticultural Fall Garden Tour.    It was really lovely.  Too bad it wasn't better attended.  The tour started in Olde Oakville.

This garden is one I'd wanted to see for ages.

It has a great selection of annuals.

Beautiful perennials:

Lovely sweeping beds:

Vegetables:

Summer bulbs....and check out that house plant....this is gardener with a serious green thumb:

Beautifully laid out:

A hand of applause to the fine home gardener:

One of the older homes in Oakville - the gardener had kindly set up blossom-progress-shots for us:

I'd walked past this garden every day for years - so great to be able to step over to the grassy side of the fence:

Further over in South East Oakville, the Flowers's garden was on display.  Beautiful dahlias now replace sub-performing roses:

Bits and pieces of found objects enliven dull corners:

A former swimming pool is now an Asian styled garden:

Back in the car and 5k over to Bronte Road - a very busy stretch, but you'd never know it once you stepped inside the Clayton garden:

Beautifully designed and planted, it was full of things to see:

Really nice combinations of woodies, annuals and perennials - even without the fall mum, there's still colour late in September.

I confirm that I killed that Japanese Beetle post photograph.  You are welcome Mrs. Dahlia!

Gardens like this prove, you just never know what beauty is lurking in those backyards!

Back at home, I'm harvesting the last of the kale:

And, there's very little yellow left on this Solidago now:

As you can tell, I haven't been taking too many garden pictures these past few weeks.  I have not been lollygagging, nor (sadly) have I taken up the art of serious housekeeping,  I've been taking a Digital Storytelling course through the University of Houston.  It's a free course - 5 weeks long, 12,000 participants, and completely time-consuming - hence the few posts since mid-September.  This is my completed assignment - and not too surprisingly, it has a garden theme, so if you've got 4.5 minutes, and want to check it out.....here it is:

"The Best Gardens Tell a Story"

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!