Best Stocking Stuffer Ever For Your Favourite Gardener

Every gardening season I look forward to finding new ideas, shortcuts and techniques others have lovingly experimented with. Sometimes, by stumble or sheer determination, you make a grand discovery yourself, a new method that will make life so much easier in your garden scape.
This year I discovered a common item which I put to a whole new use. Hair clips!!



In my garden I use the tiny ones and the next size up - for you fellas out there, there are probably seven or eight different sizes but you will know which will work best for you on first glance.
I use these little clips to support my plants. Whether a young tomato plant is needing a little tether to a bamboo stake for a couple weeks or a runner bean is being encouraged to grow up a stake and along fencing.



I used doweling in one of my gardens to accommodate runner beans. I placed three poles in a corner and tied twine between them so when the beans grew they filled in and made a little green corner wall. To secure the tendrils I placed them along the twine with clips and as they grew and twisted on their own I removed any unneeded clips to use elsewhere. The clips do not hinder or limit growth and I am no longer tying, twisting or replacing tight bindings. To loosely clip a thick branch to a pole I will sometimes place the clip on the pole, not around it, so the teeth of the clip actually grip the pole itself. This gives extra room for a plant to have wiggle and growth room.
These clips take the sun and rain well, when a plant no longer needs the clip I place it on the fencing or pole so I have it ready in the garden when it is needed next.
These “plant” clips are available in all department stores and hair care areas but I go to the local dollar store first and pick up a package of 10-12 for a $1. At the end of the season I give them a light wash and store them in my gardening tool bag for next year. You may choose the brown, black or dark green clips or funky up your garden with neon blues and pinks adding a little colour before the flowers burst forth. The bright ones are easiest to find at year end amongst the brown leaves and stems.
This is a great addition for stocking stuffers or gift baskets for any gardeners on your list.
This is my Big Discovery for the 2010 gardening season, a simple little clip that saves time and is gentle on my tender growing plants or taming wild runner beans. I was so thrilled with how well it worked I wanted to share it with everyone, and for those who discovered this before me… good for you, I hope you told every gardener you know!
With 9 days left 'til Christmas Happy Holidays to all.

Watch the Meteor Shower... or listen to it!

Tonight we plunge through the thickest part of the Swift-Tuttle dust cloud giving us a better than usual night sky show.
The crescent moon will slip below the horizon around midnight leaving us with a clear field of view so start watching the show as soon as it gets dark with it peaking between 2 and 4am.
The build up to tonight has been great with last night’s show giving about 20-30 per hour. Tonight could see 90-100! The further away from light pollution you are the better viewing you will have since the fainter meteors will also be visible. On a clear night smoke trails may actually be visible when baseball to basketball sized meteors shoot through the atmosphere.
For those in areas with clouds obstructing the show you can actually listen to all the action as the meteors sizzle their way through. Space Weather Radio has a great link to the Air Force Space Surveillance Radar where you can hear echos of passing dust and rock particles impacting the atmosphere. To hear the meteor shower tonight click here.
NASA operates a sky cam in Walker County, Georgia which videos anything bright that impacts the sky such as lightning, satellites, planes and of course meteors. Click this link to see the Meteor Cam.
The sky is predicted to be clear in both northern and southern Ontario tonight so grab a lawn chair and look up.

Luna glory

This morning an anticipated visitor arrived, a Luna Moth was clinging to my kitchen window frame. This marvelous creature has captured my attention since the first one I saw in 2005 fluttering in the dark at my living room window drawn by the flickering late night television. This mornings visitor was at the end of a hard journey. Not pristine as those previously enticed by light in the darkness, this male Luna had traveled a hard road. Winter weather returned with winds and snow which also left some very hungry birds on the hunt about the time it emerged. One ratty wing had lost at least a third of its green glory and the breeze that pleased me by keeping the emerging black flies from having breakfast on me (literally) had the Luna cling tight in the morning sun. Battered and torn he would not be able to fly off to a safe daytime hiding place so I gently collected him. He gave no resistance, no fluttering, just climbed onto the cardboard I slowly slid under the front legs and, protected by a clear plastic bell, I took him to the shelter of my log pile for a safe place to stay. I have often seen pictures of these large moths but until I moved north I was not fortunate enough to see one, now I look forward to their arrival and seeing a few of them in the late spring and early summer nights. Living in the winged form only about 7 days their beautiful light green long lobed wings are unmistakable and the four simple eyes are dynamic. The size of this beauty always takes my breath away and makes him a hard creature to miss. Late at night one may flutter at the kitchen window when I leave the light low so I don’t fall over a cat or the dog as I wander through or when I leave the outside light on I sometimes find one clinging to the door amongst the myriad moths and insects. A flashing glimpse is sometimes caught in the car beams during a nighttime drive down my road. It is usually later in the season, when the nights are warm, that I find a Luna, this fellow may not have even been able to mate if there is not a female around yet but batter and torn as he is he is no less beautiful than a newly emerged Luna on a warm July night.

Earth Day

April 22nd 2010, the 40th Earth Day, do something for yourself and the Earth.
Eco shows and fairs abound last weekend and this coming weekend with many projects and earth friendly activities today. The choices are many and the information is easily found to green your home, your work and your life. Simple activities are the best to start and implement on a regular basis.
Being aware of your surroundings and the conditions in your neighbourhood is a great start. Take a walk. Walking is relaxing and you become more aware of your community, parks, people and wildlife. Walking with family and friends is a great bonding time while you connect with your community. Walk the green spaces, knowing they are there and using them will help to keep them functional and safe. Pick up one piece of garbage during your walk and you help to clean your environment.
Washing just a few dishes? Use a bowl to wash them in and save water (& dish detergent). Shorten your shower by 2 minutes to save water, drive a dusty vehicle a little longer before you wash it. Set your lawnmoor to cut your grass longer, it will require less water to remain thick and green plus it will be able to crowd out weeds.
Find a cause and sign a petition. Check out www.savejapandolphins.org if you saw or have heard of the movie The Cove and disagree with herding and slaughtering 19,000 dolphins in a little cove each year.
Find a web site in touch with your local issues, in the Sudbury area I highly recommend Green Sudbury, the web site www.greensudbury.ca and the Facebook page. Locally written blogs, farmers markets, food cooperatives, local marsh conservation groups, and animal rehabilitation sites such as Wild at Heart www.northernontario.org/wildatheart the only place for injured and orphaned animals in this northern area. You will find something you believe in with all the choices there are.
You do not have to know everything or do it all, little things add up to a big difference, you just need to find the ones that fit you well.
Make every day Earth Day at your home or work by doing just one extra thing. Be a champion for those who have no voice. Enjoy and be kind to your neighbourhood, community and your Earth.

How To Decide What To Plant

Having a hard time deciding what to plant this year? Open up your cookbook!

Go over your favourite recipes, look for the common ingredients and write your growing wish list like you would your shopping list. If you like to cook Italian recipes plant tomatoes, peppers, oregano, parsley, onion and chives. If stir-fries are big part of your meal planning grow snow peas, peppers, onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes. Look forward to spicy dinners then try hot peppers, tomatoes, beans. Once you have your basic ingredients fill in the garden space with other types of interesting vegetables. Beans and peas are easy to grow and are good fresh or cooked and are so easy to freeze. Didn’t pick all of them off the vines? That’s alright let them dry out and you have not only dried peas and beans for soups and stews but the seeds for next year’s plants are ready. Plan your garden so shade loving plants are beside peas, beans or tomatoes to use their height as a barrier for sun or wind.

Choose what you like to eat most then look for varieties compatible with your growing zone and are dependable for a good yield. Look for different varieties within your vegetable of choice and fill in the extra garden space with other vegetables, aromatic herbs and flowers. Your garden will be a relaxing beautiful space in no time while your plants mature and provide you with seemingly endless food.

Have a hard time bending to weed and plant? A 12 inch raised bed makes a great place to sit while you weed, water, harvest and enjoy the garden.

Maintain Equipment and Save Money

While preparing tools and equipment for spring use don’t neglect the water sprinkler. If it is getting clogged with mineral deposits simply soak it in overnight in white vinegar. Place head down to make sure the holes are well covered. The next day give it a good scrub with a brush to loosen any hard buildup and rinse in clean water. An easy and inexpensive way to get the most out of a sprinkler.

Garden Vitamin Boost

Take your fresh kitchen scraps- carrot peel, potato peel, apple peel, eggshells, tea leaves, coffee grounds, lettuce leaves and place in a blender with enough water to cover them and puree. In the garden poke holes with the handle of a trowel or rake near the plants, pour liquid in and cover with soil. This is a great boost for plants or as a soil preparation before planting in an empty garden.

Eggshells can be crushed and sprinkled straight onto the garden adding calcium to the soil. This is especially good for brassicas (cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower...)

Mulching in Northern Gardens

Mulching has many benefits to plants and soil, from conserving moisture, encouraging earthworms to stopping mud splashing on leafy plants during rainstorms. Mulch also keeps the soil cool during the summer, this is not advantageous in the springtime to a northern gardener anxiously awaiting the soil warming up for the transplants. Early in the spring season rake the mulch back in the areas you plan to place warmth loving plants like tomatoes and beans for a week or two so the soil can warm in the sunshine. Once the transplants are tucked in the warm soil spread the mulch back and enjoy the new growing season.

New Vegetable Varieties and Spring Preparation

My website, www.naturesgardenheirlooms.com, is being updated with some exciting new varieties and should be ready to view in the next week or two. I am expanding the tomato, pea, bean, lettuce, cucumber and pepper varieties with many more great choices for us northern gardeners.
The starlings are back and picking through my gardens for newly emerging bugs. Moths are gaining in nighttime population and butterflies have started to flit through the warming sunny days. I even thought I saw a frog bounce from the beaver pond mud flat into a grassy hummock. Though the temperatures are going up and down, spring is here, we just have to wait until it.... ripens.
The garden soil is still nice and crumply from the snow and ice melt which makes it a great time to weed. Roots are pulling effortlessly right now making the job faster and so much easier than it will be once those April showers flatten and compact the soil again.
Time to get out and enjoy those sunny days, getting gardens prepared for spring planting is a bonus. For me there is another good reason to weed now, I am trying to beat those immense clouds of marauding black flies. Wildlife in the countryside comes in all sizes!

An easy way to dig a new garden

Planning on starting a new garden this spring? A little preparation now will make the digging and turning so much easier.

Mark out the area you want to turn into your new garden site then cover it with black plastic. Garbage bags work well for this held in place with a few rocks. Three or four weeks later all the plants under the plastic will die and the soil will be soft, moist and easy to dig. A new garden site could not be easier to prepare.

Some seedlings need warm soil to be transplanted into, to warm up the garden soil simply cover with clear plastic. This warms the ground while allowing the light to pass through so the garden will be ready for your transplants as soon as the seedlings and the weather permit.

Pest Control

We all struggle at one time or another with insects and bugs in the garden or in the home. There are many ways to deter pests, deal with the possibility before they become an issue, or after the fact with natural or chemical intervention.

Once again I found an article I would like to share on, well, what not to do. Sometimes an infestation can be so severe it is hard to think straight.

Uncle John’s BR 22nd edition brings us an article showing the level of exasperation a person can be brought to and the lack of common sense that may ensue.

“Tone Pina’s apartment in Citrus Heights, California was infested by thousands of cockroaches.

Because there were so many roaches, Pina got a lot of bug bombs. He said about 8 to 10; the police (I thought you would notice that) later said there were probable as many as 18. (One or two is usually recommended.) Pina set them all off at the same time and rushed out of the house.

A spark from his refrigerator (this is where I started laughing) ignited the fumes, triggering an explosion (now I was in full tears) that separated the building’s walls from its roof, caused three families to lose their homes, and cost more than $1 million to repair. Pina still has cockroaches.”

Well, what more can I say, besides the obvious, it's smart to read the directions?

The Receding Snow

The snow has just receded from the little patch of catnip I planted in 2006 for my three cats to party in. This morning I moved the fallen leaves and sticks underneath the dried stalks and actually picked a few fresh green leaves, and this in March zone 4b! Spring is coming, though probably not before another snowfall or two. For me, however, Spring is now fully ensconced in my heart, while my gardening fingers are itching. I already tried weeding, note to self: dig the dandelion’s root out in the spring once the ground has actually thawed.

Short Cuts: Planting with Easy Compost for Small Spaces

Gardening is forgiving, if a plant is not growing well in one area you can move it to another, but to have time to relax and enjoy your garden nothing beats a little planning and organization.

When you are thinking of adding a tree or shrub to a garden preparing the area in advance will make the transplanting go smoothly, lowering the trauma to the plant and yourself. It takes time and attention to add larger varieties successfully; this is the time to make sure the mature plant and the location are a good match, for both the plant and you.

Compost is so beneficial to transplants. Having a good nutritious hole to pop it into will save you a lot of work later on. Compost in the bottom of the planting hole will help to maintain moisture as well as provide vital nutrients to the new root mass. Many people do not have a compost pile in their yard to access for transplants but that does not mean you have to go out and buy it by the bag.

The summer or fall before you plant, pick the location for the new addition keeping in mind light and space requirements of the variety you have chosen when mature. Dig the hole. Make it larger than it will need to be, this will be your new in ground compost pile. Layer the bottom of the hole with composting materials: vegetable kitchen scraps layered with grass clippings, fall leaves, soil, sticks and twigs broken up small, any “brown” composting materials, water to keep damp but not soggy. You do not have to maintain a huge composting deposit, just enough for 12” – 18” of materials so they will compost down to a good 6”-10” for the spring planting. If you have pets who may be too interested in the new lovely scented hole, place a wire screen and couple baseball size rocks on top of the compost pile, you don’t want to squash the contents or block the air, just enough to be a bother to animals. This usually deters inquisitive creatures since the compost is in a pit and they can’t move the rocks or screen out of the hole to get down to the kitchen scraps. Late fall give it a good final mix and turn to aerate, make sure it is damp, then top with a layer of leaves or grasses and your screen and rocks again. If you have clover in your yard grass clippings this is especially good for the compost as it is high in nitrogen and wonderful for plants. Leave it over the winter, but plan on turning the contents when you are able to as spring approaches. No need to add more to the contents as you want these to be fully broken down to friable soil for your new addition.

When you are ready for your lovely anticipated tree or shrub, the hole is already dug with wonderful nutrient rich compost in the bottom. This also has given you time to assess the location. You live with the hole for a while so you can be sure of its placement, if not, dig another in a better location, shovel the compost out of the original hole and into the new. It is a lot easier to do it at this stage than relocating later.

Another tip for tree or large shrub planting: place the tree on a large piece of burlap. Some plants take two or three people to maneuver them into place, when it is on burlap you can pull it around or lift it with less trauma to the plant, and yourself. Next: fill the hole with water before you pop it in. If you put the tree in a dry hole it stays where it’s put, float it in water & you can give it a quick spin. So often I find a plant in a great location but the “better” side is facing the fence!

Some jobs are big but with planning they can go smoothly. A job is well done when you have time to sit and enjoy your work.

Happy planting.

Weed Removal

I am always looking for good tried and true shortcuts and tips to make the gardening season easier so more time can be spent enjoying the results of my efforts.
As well as tried and true I am also very interested in know what Did Not Work. Sometimes it is a minor “didn’t work” and I know with changes and a little alteration I can make a benefit of the method. However, the big Did Not Work’s can be a source of learning and of course, entertainment under the “Glad that wasn’t me” category.
I will let you decide which definition works best for you in the article I am including next.
According to Uncle John’s BR 22nd edition a German gardener was having an issue with weeds growing between his hedges and no doubt tried everything to control them.
“While it is not uncommon for gardeners to use a small blowtorch to clear weeds from cracks in a driveway or sidewalk, it’s not recommended when the weeds are growing among giant hedges. But that’s what this 54-year-old gardener tried to do.
The hedges caught fire….
….then the tool shed…
… then, the roof of his house.
Unable to extinguish the blaze with his garden hose, the man called the fire department. By the time they put it out, his house was so damaged that it was uninhabitable.”
I will file that under things not to do in the garden, especially during the fire ban time of a hot dry summer. Yes, a summer of sun, not rain!

Where are the Finches?

Well, 59 days late and still no show. Where are the Redpolls?

Of the 6 Januarys I have spent here three times the finches arrived on or very close to January 5th. Once they were about 10 days later and another year I did not notice the exact day of arrival. While inquiring of many people I meet a gentleman said the last week of February he read in the paper one had been seen in Lively (40 km west of me). It made the paper!! I am not the only one watching the nyjer feeder and wondering where these beautiful little birds are.

Last year a field sparrow arrived on March 10th and the starlings are pretty regular arrivals by mid March, (last year on the 16th). There are two Canada geese who nest at our pond each year, they land solidly on our driveway between March 23rd and 29th to claim their territory for the spring and summer. Later in the month between the 26th and 31st the amazing sound of the woodcock echo through the woods and bringing up the rear between March 28th and 31st is the traditional sighting of the robin.

March is the month of moths, last year they were at the nighttime window on the 12th. The last days of the month last year brought us iris and hawkweed aka my lawn!

There are lots of arrivals to look forward to in March. It will be interesting to see if the other birds are on schedule, but, I will still be wondering... Where are the Finches???

Gardeners in Winter

What do gardeners do during the winter months? Well, I'll tell you what the don't do... hibernate! Winter is the time to plan changes and new projects. While the garden snoozes through the colder months it is a great time to take a good look at it. Just looking out the window over the cold landscape you can see if you might want to add different shrubs, bushes, trees or items to make you wintering garden as interesting as the summer. Bushes with berries or interesting seed pods and twig structure can add an artistic element as well as a place for birds to eat and rest if you have a feeder. A bench seat or stone pile adds an interesting element in all seasons as is the choice of materials to define the garden area whether raised beds or borders.

Now is a good time to get a head start on preparing for any repotting you will be doing or seed starting. Old plant pots are a treasure to have tucked away for future use as one plant our grows its space and is transplanted into a new one or a newly germinated seedling is potted to grow safely until the frost has past. This is a very rewarding project but it does take some preparing. Previously used pots need to be scrubbed clean in hot soapy water with a little bleach added to kill any unwanted organism or bug that may have been in the original soil or found a home in the pot since. Many repotted plants do not survive because of unknown contamination. While the winter is still upon us clean plant pots and gardening tools and organize everything so it is ready to use. The first day the warm spring sun warms your gardening fingers you will be very glad your tools and supplies are ready to begin another gardening adventure.