Seed starting!

 

I was reading through my Canadian Gardening magazine the other day and they had a feature on seed-sowing techniques (check it out here).  I was very curious at the techniques so I decided to get a head start this year with the plantings.  So I went and got a whole bunch of vegetable seeds (by Urban Harvest) from the Big Carrot .  The first time I heard about Urban Harvest was at Canada Blooms a few years ago, they sell organic and heirloom seeds, and it's a great way to support local Toronto businesses as well as contribute to bio diversity.  I bought seeds for tomatoes (2 kinds), lettuce (2 kinds), radish, cucumber, onions, basil, arugula, chives, cilantro etc etc.  (yeah I must admit I kind of went overboard).

So here they are, day 3 since I started with seed sowing technique #1 (no action yet).... come on little seeds, grow grow grow!!! :) 

Spring is in the air!

I think I'm starting to get a hint of Spring fever.  The mild weather we've been getting in Toronto probably contributed to that as well.  The other day when I went and surveyed the backyard to see what's happened since the Winter, I was surprised to find new growth at some of the plants already, such as the day lily etc. 

And of course, our little raccoon and squirrel friends have Spring fever as well, as evident in the digging they have started to do around the tree stump and throughout the lawn....  argh.....those buggers....

Kind of not looking forward to the havoc they're going to cause in the Spring.... I guess all I can do now is just say "om"......

Winter arrangement

 

Update on the "winter arrangement" I created for our porch - here's the finished product!   I bought two bunches of mixed evergreen branches at a local hardware shop, as well as some very colourful branches from Sheridan Nurseries. 

A detailed view....

Even kitty cat was in the holiday decorating mood....

Winter arrangements

Check out this cool winter container arrangement I saw ay Sheridan Nurseries today.... Love the orange and green combination!   This totally inspired me to get some plant materials myself and attempt an arrangement for our place..... Stay tuned for updates!!

Fall bouquet

Probably last bit of blooms from the backyard this year - a few surviving pansies from the backyard planter which I cleaned out.  Fall yard clean up is going pretty well (at least in the backyard):

* mow grass
* cut down daylily and hosta plants
* cut down / pull unwanted plants
* raked leaves
* fertilize perennials

Now I got a few more things to do at the front yard... hopefully we can get a few more mild days in the upcoming week or two! :) 

Visitors

Some fun visitors in the back yard last week....

The white cat with dots has been frequent visitor in our backyard and front yard.... (he/she is a bit shy)... 

And a beautiful blue jay.... I hope it will come back again - it's absolutely gorgeous! 

Front yard - current plan doodle

Now that Fall is here and I've been doing some yard clean up, I thought it'd be a good idea to record what I currently have so that:
1) I can plan out (and dream about) my dream garden during the cold winter months....
2) So that I can remember and find all the plants I had without accidentally digging plants up....
3) Monitor how my plants are doing year after year....

So I drew up this plan over lunch break today as a mini-record.  I think my drawing is a bit out of scale (bigger than it actually is compared to the proportions of the plants - maybe it's my subconscious hoping the yard was bigger).  After some cleaning up the last few weekends, I managed to make some space between all the over-grown shrubs and now can start to see the plants individually.  I'm still not too happy about the positioning of the Viburnum and the Wiegla - I think they're too big to be up front like that.  Maybe I'll prune them a bit before winter to see if they'll grow back next Spring in a somewhat manageable size.

Now, the next thing to think about is to plant bulbs or not to plant bulbs.... I'll save that for the next blog entry :)