Gardening adventures, experiments and inspiration from my Zone 5b garden (and beyond).
Hi! I'm Margaret and I garden on 1 acre in Southern Ontario, Canada - zone 5b(ish) - and have been blogging about my journey since 2014.
------
I started off as a veggie gardener with 4 small raised beds. Over the years, the veg patch slowly grew. Then, in 2021, it went through a major overhaul - new layout, new beds (12 of them!), new fencing and a large ornamental border. My love of ornamentals has also grown - in fact, I've recently shifted from growing a lot of veg with a few flowers to growing a LOT of flowers/ornamentals with a few veg.....just as the garden is always changing, so is the gardener!
My philosophy? Gardening is more about the journey than the destination. ------- Would you like to support my channel? Just click on one of the affiliate links below and treat yourself to, well, anything. I'll receive a tiny commission at NO cost to you - thank you in advance!
Hi Margaret🙂 What a GREAT video review of the festival! Stephanie actually happens to be a cousin of mine, and she is carrying on a family tradition in agriculture (in the non-traditional field of lavender) with her husband and young son. She is an intelligent and highly educated person, and could have gotten a high paying job in the corporate world, but chose the challenge of farm life instead. The name of her company - Tullamore (Tull-a-more) Lavender Co, is a nod to the heritage of our ancestral farm in the old hamlet of Tullamore, Ontario. Tullamore used to be a thriving village at one time - a hub for agriculture, and an overnight stop for folks on horse and buggy going north from Toronto to Mono Mills, Orangeville, and points north. Much of the area has been swallowed up now by new housing, commerce, and industry. So sad for those of us that have fond memories of those days "out in the country". Thanks again, for this wonderful video!🥰
Hi John - thank you for the lovely comment and backstory! I know exactly how you feel - I'm always so saddened when I see a farmhouse, that was once a family home, all boarded up with a huge billboard out in front advertising the 'wonderful' housing development/apartment building that will be going in its place. Truly love the fact that the company was named after a town with such personal meaning - it really does make it that much more special❤
I searched the internet for the information that you have given me here! Great video and thank you. It is concise and precise information shared with such a natural approach. I really enjoy garden videos where the person delivering the information are natural, like yourself. 😃🌺😄🌷
**Correction - The last plant that I spoke about (the one without a tag!) is actually a delphinium, not a hardy geranium. I plucked it from a display of "hardy geraniums" and since the foliage looked similar to my eye, it never even occurred to me that this pot was in the wrong spot. Thank you to Roberta for the correct plant ID :) UPDATE: After a return trip to the nursery, I found out that this is in fact a 'Guardian Blue' delphinium. On that trip I, of course, purchased three ACTUAL hardy geraniums and transplanted the much taller delphinium from the front edge of the border to the middle, lol!
I'm not sure if there are varieties that are sterile (so they don't produce seed) but even on the 'normal' varieties, it seems that most of the flowers don't end up with a seed pod, so you have to really search. I would give the plant a once over whenever you are near it - good luck!
looks great! the rabbits in my yard seem to be eating the grass and grass seed, left all my plants alone for now, even the lettuce! They haven't even touched the amaranth or celosia... maybe they're just really well behaved rabbits...!
I have never grown them before either. I have invested in the actual long stringy bulb/root and seed in different areas of my yard. I am in zone 9A in Northeast Florida so I guess we'll find out...... Such a beautiful flower, I'm really hopeful but at the same time realistically skeptical.
You are welcome. My plant shopping list just got longer. 😊 I know it’s only mid-June, but I’m already wondering if they could be overwintered in the house or a warmish basement or garage?
@@joettedignanweir6893 I would definitely give it try! If the temperature doesn't get too cold (i.e. below 10C/50F), they may do just fine in a garage with a window. In my case, I need to bring them inside - the basement is perfect because it stays at 18C/65F all winter. I had good success overwintering the burgundy edged one in the video but the other two I had last year, not so much, but I'm planning on trying again with all of them this year :)
The peas are direct sow and planted way too close. They should be 1-2” apart. You have a bunch in clumps. But the marigolds look awesome. Can you update on those?!
The sweet pea roots were so intertwined that I decided to plant them in groups instead of trying separate them further and maybe killing them...maybe I should have risked it. Marigolds are doing well!
@@matchynishi I sow regular peas directly into the ground, usually in mid-late April, and have always been successful. It's rather unusual to see them being started indoors and then transplanted. When it comes to sweet peas, though, everyone seems to start them indoors, which makes me think they are quite a bit slower growing than eating peas. I have a feeling I started them too late this year.
@@TheGardeningMe I h ave too many slugs/snails/mice/squirrels/idek what that eat both the direct sowed seeds for any beans/peas, sunflowers, squashes etc, so I have to transplant all of them. But I agree with you, next year I'll tray again with starting earlier.
I get my seeds from a wide variety of sources, both in Canada and the U.S. One of the best local sources is William Dam Seeds. They have a huge variety of everything - annuals, perennials and veg!
Thrilled to find your RU-vid! Gardening in Southern Ont. In a 5b(ish) zone too! Thanks for taking us along you gardening journey 😊 love the idea of having a holding bed.
It is! This border is primarily going to be viewed from the side I'm working on, esp. as the false cypress grow bigger. That will take a while, though, as they are slow growing, so I am planning on filling in the gaps primarily with perennials - just haven't got that far yet!
Hi Margaret, This video offers a lot of inspiration. Your process is interesting - and a lot more effective than my usually haphazard approach. For your perennial holding bed, do you have to provide any protection to the young plants over the winter?
I was having issues finding anyone with follow up videos. Thanks for the video. I got a small roll of celery seed started just a moment ago. I figure they’ll take a while and I can put them in a shaded area somewhere in the summer. Hopefully parchment holds up for the couple months it takes to grow, as that is what I ended up using.
Parchment held up a bit better than the waxed paper, but only just. I'm thinking that it may be ok if you don't need to 'pot up' the celery and will just unroll it & plant when the time comes. Best of luck & hope you have a great harvest!
Growing some gaura from seed this year too & it was definitely easier than I thought it would be. Caradonna is a tall one, isn't it? Most of my other varieties of salvia are fairly short in comparison.
I recently planed the seeds from a plant I had 4 years ago and the plants are popping up beautifully! I had little expectations from those seeds so I’m more than thrilled.
I usually amend the bed at the start of the season & that's it. In addition to compost, I also add a few other things to really up the fertility such Acti-Sol (chicken manure pellets), kelp meal and soybean meal. If you don't want to deal with a variety of different amendments, a general organic slow release fertilizer (like Sustane) would also do just fine.
This is fascinating! Space and time saver. I'm in Ontario, North of Toronto, so maybe our frost dates are a bit different. Following you for this method, and the single seed challenge. Mine is the ground cherry.
Hi! My frost date is just around the corner on May 10 so I'm sure we are fairly close. I've never grown ground cherries but have eaten them - so delicious! Good luck with your challenge!
@@y.m.3555 My seedlings all turned out really well. Very nice root mass and none were tangled up in the roll. I'm only using this method from now on. 💜 ETA: I already have flowers on the cucumber plants and I'm getting tomatoes and peppers already. Hope you try it. Just FYI, don't use wax paper lol. It falls apart.
@@y.m.3555 You're welcome. I start mine whenever I can. If it's cold I will use soda bottles or milk jugs as a mini greenhouse out on the porch. If not I sit them in solo cups on the back porch. This year there were less solo cups to deal with using the snail roll and I just put them all into a metal basket I have. It all depends on when you start your plants.
@@TheGardeningMeexactly my question thanks!! Mine just finished pollinating so im probably good this week. Birds get mine..or squirrels. I used the bags last year too late when there were only About 10 apples remaining not stolen by animals
@@great-garden-watch Ugh! Birds/squirrels are pretty adept at getting to the fruit. Hopefully bagging earlier will work out better for you - good luck!
I found your video because as a long time gardener I've never grown hollyhock. Funny I have the same Baker Creek seed. Plus many more. Ive been collecting hollyhock seed and finally feel like I have the energy to make this plant grow this year. ❤thanks for the video
Thank you! I know what you mean - I'm a bit of a seed fiend myself and usually have packets that I've enthusiastically purchased, but then didn't end up sowing. Best of luck with your hollyhock adventure this year!
looks good, they should be fine! I'm not very precious with my seedlings and they seem to be fine with a bit of rough handling and roots exposing etc. :p
I grew them in a raised bed and they pretty much had full sun, which is what they prefer. So this means that you would need to give them a minimum of 6-8 hours of sun per day. Hope that helps!
You have a good variety of beautiful hellebores there. I'm reluctant to plant any because of my small dog who likes to to chew on bark and other things in the garden. Are there any hellebores that can take more sun that I could plant in my front garden. Bonny
Apparently, the Ice N Roses series as well as another series called 'Frostkiss' can take more sun - even up to full sun! I'm sure that this also depends on your latitude - full sun in Ontario is very different from full sun in Texas!
We've experienced the failure of the 'Deep Rootrainers' system - they are exceedingly FLIMSY and did not even last 1 season. This looks very promising, tho I learned of it 2 months too late for 2024 crops.
I bought pack seeds of these white thumberias couple years ago was bout 7$ for 16 in pack on ebay, none of them took waste of money many people complained bout this happening, problem is to you cant find the white or pink thumbergias anywhere only seeds are online which will not buy anymore.
I'm sorry to hear that! Ebay, especially is a gamble when it comes to seeds. I got my original seeds from Baker Creek, I believe - if they had ended up being duds, they would probably issue a credit or send out a fresh packet.
