YARD and GARDEN 2023

Springtime brings a sense of renewal, hope and peace to my soul. I was overjoyed to see a tulip bursting out of the ground in April…only to find it covered by snow two days later. No worries, it pulled through.

DECOR

I decided to add new features to the yard, nothing too big and bold, just things to add warmth. I added a frog, a bunny, an owl, another birdhouse, a hummingbird feeder, and a wind spiral around the yard.

PERENNIAL & SHRUB FAVOURITES

Thank goodness for perennials and shrubs. I have amassed a good selection, and the mature plants are quite large. This year I purchased lavender, carnations, and dianthus to add to existing collections and new plants including bunny tails, false sunflower (cover photo), Irish moss and tickseed.

CONTAINER GARDENING

FRUIT & VEGETABLES

We grew a few cucumber, pepper and tomatoe plants but The Hubs was disappointed that the lettuce, radishes and beans he planted didn't do well. The strawberries that I relocated from containers into the ground two years ago barely produced either.

FLOWERS

I buy a variety of petunias each year as they are showy and fill containers nicely. I've noticed bugs in them the last two years. Although I treated the plants, they looked sickly by midsummer. I am a huge fan of daisies, begonias, and pansies so I think I will go with more of those in 2024. The cranberry-coloured daisies were beautiful, the light blue/purple bicoloured cineraria were stunning, and the balsam was massive at four feet and it bloomed all summer.

This was my first attempt at a fairy garden, my little village looked crowded, so I want to work on that next year. I have wintered the pink and lemon geraniums in the basement for years now. I bring them up in the spring when they start to show new growth and then put them outside for the summer. The pink one blooms for weeks in full sun and the lemon-scented one is good for keeping the mosquitos away.

GRANDMA’S LILAC

This lilac bush was in our yard when we came here 43 years ago, planted by my grandma when she lived here, so it is well over fifty years old. It was dying out and barely blooming, so we cut it right down to let it regrow. I was worried it wouldn't come back. Last year it grew to about five feet tall and had large lush leaves but it didn't bloom. In early June this year, it made its grand comeback and the flowers were big and healthy.

UNDER THE TREES

I struggle for ideas of how to enhance the appearance of the area under trees. It is extremely dry and acidic from the needles, so it is a challenge. I did one flower bed in 2021 which is slowly filling in and the two I did in the fall of 2022 will take a few years to get to the look I want. I plan to add ground cover plants around the ferns

to keep the moisture in, more rocks and some decor items.

AUTUMN

We had a long fall this year and the yard was so pretty as the leaves changed. In fact, when 2023 came to a close we still didn't have snow.

A LOOK BACK

We moved here in 1981 and planted a few spruce trees around the yard over the next eight years and had a garden area. In 1989, we built a large garage on top of the garden space so that was the end of that. In the late nineties, I started making flower beds around the yard and things took off from there. The house was built in the 1940s and over the years we built the backyard fence, the deck and re-sided the house twice replacing the windows the second time, and put tin on the roof. I’ve painted fences and decks more times then I care to remember. Inside the house, we knocked out walls, removed the rugs and lino and sanded and varnished the hardwood floors, painted several times and steepled the ceilings.

An impromptu family gathering in the 80s when the backyard was only lawn.

I made this bed by placing newspaper down in the shape I wanted and then covering the paper with a thick layer of wet mulch. The process worked to kill the grass and the bed is still there, somewhere.

A friend suggested that a corner flower bed would work great in our front yard. I am so glad I took their advice as community members of all ages stop to enjoy this garden.

We used various items as yard decor including a little wood flower bed, a wishing well, tires, a wagon wheel, an old barn stool, a cream can, handmade willow chairs, trestles, a bird bath, rope lights and a small waterfalls that have all come and gone. I coerced The Hubs into moving mountains of dirt and hauling in piles of rock to make my visions come to life. We moved shrubs, divided perennials and bought countless annuals.

The backyard project involved a lot of manual labour. It has evolved over time with the seating area now on a cement pad not as a part of the garden itself. I loved the original picnic tables and stools we had, they lasted a long time but recently I bought a metal table for the back so I don't have to repaint as often.

The tamarack tree claimed this bed as her own, although the orange lilies and yellow rose bush beneath her massive branches continue s to bloom.

The bottom picture is a new garden we started from grass last year.

There was a space between the garage and the lilac area that we never knew what to do with. We tossed around various ideas over the years but finally decided to add rock to the area and go with a fire table seating area. So depending on the day there are always sunny or shady areas to sit. It is the trees that I love, the privacy and shelter they provide makes it possible for us to be in the backyard and no one knows we are there. It's like stepping into an oasis of peace and calm.