NEW GARDEN CHANGES

It has been more than a year since my last post and for that I apologize. Much has happened in my personal life during this past year and a half with most traumatic being the death of my husband, Jim. His death put many things on hold including regular posts to this blog.
In Jim's memory I have made many changes to both the gardens and interior of my home. The image to the left is a great example of one of the many changes. I originally had a large pond and a narrow stream that flowed into a smaller pond. The large pond is gone - replaced by a sunken garden. The longer stream is gone  and replaced by the water feature shown in left image. I love it. To see more of the backyard changes, please visit my new website page My New Sunken Garden.  This new feature still has a stream and this shorter stream still flows beneath my new cedar bridge and empties into the smaller pond.

I am totally in awe of my new sunken garden. I can't believe that my design ideas came to flourishen. Take a look a the image below.

This image to the left shows the Grand Rosetta Flagstone pathway leading to the inground pool and new sunroom. Many new boulders were moved to this area as well as newly planted shrubs, CAST low voltage lighting and improvements to the original 10 ft. high waterfall. River rock was added around the new boulders and drainage bins were installed.

The waterfall now drops down into a small catch basin and recirculates. Fred and Wilma still stand guard and a great patio area waits for a new set of outdoor table and chairs. The larger flagstone pieces make for a great pathway and I decided to have the cracks filled with a polymor substance instead of just sand. The polymor hardens like cement and thus helps to prevent weeds from settling. Thankfully, the sound of the water rushing down the limestone and the croaking frogs can still be heard over the screaming kids in the new inground pool!

 



Creating A New Garden Path

I cannot believe that it has been 5 months since my last post. Sorry about that. I have been very busy building my gardening website.

One of our spring projects was to create a new garden path. Originally, (4 years ago) we had planted 2 spruce trees on our center garden mound. The 2 trees have grown very quickly and ergo, we needed to move one of them, which we did last weekend. More on that later.

Now that the tree was moved, we dug and moved the earth to get ready to lay down the fabric landscape material. Once the fabric was down we dumped yards of red cedar bark chips along the newly created path. We edged the new path with limestone, which finished the look.

I am quite pleased with the outcome. By moving the large spruce, it actually opened up the view of the ponds from our house view advantage. I am always surprised at how quickly our project come together.

I still have a shrub or two to plant, but I'll wait for the mid summer sales.

Good job, Jim!!

All The Surprise Visitors

Let me introduce Dexster. The winter in Winnipeg has come in with a vengeance of snow....and white-tailed deer! There are actually 4 in this family of brown fuzzy beasts. Are they cute? Yes. Are they destructive? Yes...they chew on my beautiful somewhat tall cedars in the front yard.

Now, here's the issue. Mr. Christmas (aka Jim) decided to wrap red lights around the 2 somewhat tall cedars. Nice.  Except for Dexster and the furry family members pulling down and nibbling on the lower branches. Would they receive a shock? Not likely, but who wants to take down broken light strings in frigid temperatures...not Mr. Christmas (or me for that matter). So, what's the solution? Feed the dam things, of course. I hardly had given this solution much thought when Mr. Christmas walked in carrying a large bag of deer food...a mixture of oats, twigs and sunflower seeds. Now, 6 weeks later, we have all gained a little weight. The humans from my holiday baking and the deer from their daily dose of grains.

Is Dexster and his tag along the only visitors this holiday season? Heck no! Just prior to Christmas and our anticipated visit from our son and daughter-in-law, we discovered Hubert...the mouse. He must have been in the basement for a very short time as droppings were no where to be seen except for the shower. Yes, the shower. Must be our goooood tasting water. Out came the trap and peanut butter. Placed ever so carefully beside the shower, Hubert was trapped within the hour. What a feisty little thing. Releasing him back into the cold was the only option. We are a no kill household. Jim carried Hubert to the front ditch and watched as Hubert scampered into the deep snow.

Whew...lucky for us. Our son and daughter-in-law were to spend their nights in the lower level of the house and sharing the space with a mouse was not an option. My relief was short lived. Low and behold, the very next morning, what do we see in the shower? Yes, Hubert was back. In fact, it had snowed lightly the night before and we could actually see his tracks in the snow from the ditch right back to the garage. What a bugger! Out came the trap and the peanut butter. Here we go again. Within the hour, Hubert was once again trapped. What to do next. Jim was getting somewhat attached to this little creature...this worried me, so while Jim relaxed in the tub, I woke my daughter with a certain catch and release adventure. She would be the driver. This time we would take Hubert to the railway tracks. No way he could find his way back from that location. Being safe than sorry, I covered the trap (so he couldn't see anything) and off we went into the cold car and night. Arriving at the tracks and just down the street from our house, I released Hubert.

Back at the house, Jim's plan for Hubert was quite different. Sad that his new found 'pet' was gone, he quickly shared his thought of maybe buying a cage and keeping Hubert. Not likely.

The First Winnipeg Snowfall

Image of smaller pond covered with snow!

WOW! What a difference a day makes! On November 18th (image seen in my last post), the grass was so green and the taller perennial grasses were swaying in the wind. On November 19th, the first mini snowstorm hit us. A few inches of the white stuff fell on the city and winter is here to stay.

Today is November 24th and we are about to expereince our second mini snowstorm. The weatherman is calling for another few inches of snow and blowing in open areas.

As the temperature drops, my ponds freeze and I am hoping to get out the old skates and start some winter exercising. I don't ski or snowboard (way too old for that) so skating it is. When I was little, skating was the only winter activity affordable to my parents. My sister and I were lucky to always have a pair of skates.

Soon the seed catalogues will arrive in the mail and I will begin to dream of my 2011 flower gardens...

Backyard Berming

Our new backyard berm in the fall

I can hardly remember how the area in the above image flooded each spring and during the heavy rains in the summer.

Besides digging the two ponds, we knew something else had to be done. Berming was a natural choice. Bring in the 'dirt', pile it up to make it look hilly and add the sod. Sound easy? Well, sort of. We did have help lugging all of the dirt or clean fill as it is called to the backyard area. The raking of the fill was done by our daughter and the sodding was completed by Jim and myself. The job wasn't easy, but well worth it. After adding the bark pathway, we are quite pleased that water no longer stands, turning the area into a swamp. Now blankets can be thrown down for sun bathing and lawn chairs can be placed and directed to face the waterfall for pure enjoyment!

The berm when we had just completed the sodding

The new berm in the summer planted with annuals and the Sumac shrub