Country Gardener

Photos: our garden in late June

June 25, 2010

The garden is in a quiet phase, after the spring show of bulbs, crab apples, rock garden jewel tones, and the peonies of June. There’s a bit of lull until all the meadow flowers of mid-summer come into bloom, and all our ornamental grasses come into their own. Thankfully, we have had plenty of rain, [...]

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Summer night magic: fireflies cast a spell

June 21, 2010

On this the first day of official summer, it seems fitting to celebrate fireflies. For several weeks now, we have had an unusually active firefly season here. I have never seen so many of these magical insects as I have this year. You could almost take their show for a display of twinkling Christmas lights. [...]

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Barn swallow wars: Nature, red in tooth and claw

June 20, 2010

It seems to be the general feeling these days that man is malign and nature nothing but benign. Man makes war, but animals don’t. Not true, of course: over the weekend I witnessed nasty barn swallow wars. We always have barn swallow nests in the barn, but sometimes a pair insists upon making a nest [...]

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Upcoming garden events around Hamilton

June 9, 2010

The Hamilton & Burlington Rose Society Rose Show: Sunday July 4th, 2010 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and Monday July 5th, 2010, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. at The Royal Botanical Gardens Centre, Plains Road West, Burlington, On. at the Camilla & Peter Dalglish Atrium. Everyone is welcome to attend and participate. There is [...]

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Rainfall — we got a ridiculous amount this week

June 6, 2010

Oh-my, how the weather has turned! Not so long ago I was fretting about too much heat and not enough rain. This week has changed that in a big way: it has rained five times and we’ve had a little more than 5 inches in total. As I write this on Sunday morning, the temperature [...]

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What will rid us of this plague of dandelion seeds?

June 3, 2010

I was interested to read that a British train was brought to a standstill by a cloud of dandelion seeds. It’s been that way here in Ontario this spring too, although as far as I know, our trains are still running on time. Shelley, who works with me in the garden here, told me that [...]

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Dame’s rocket: sweetly scented menace?

May 28, 2010

Sweetly scented Dame’s rocket (Hesperis matronalis) is currently in bloom in a naturalized area around our silo. It grows under a patch of sumacs. As I walked my dog down the laneway in the dark last night, I was captivated again by this wildflower’s gorgeous perfume.But innocent-looking Dame’s rocket, which was introduced into North America [...]

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Found while weeding: Cecropia moths

May 27, 2010

The other day I was weeding in a bed very close to the house, when I spotted this pair of cecropia moths mating. I didn’t know what they were, so of course I checked with Dr. Google, and found out what I was looking at and photographing. The following information on cecropia moth (Hyalophora cecropia) [...]

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Record hot day – and it’s still May

May 26, 2010

I don’t love the heat, especially not when it arrives this early in the season. Temperatures in Hamilton today broke a record high, climbing to 29.8 degrees Celsius in the late afternoon, with a humidex of 35 (that’s 95 degrees F). The last record high for this date was 29.4 degrees in 1965. While it [...]

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Today in the garden: the crabapple moment

May 7, 2010

Our crabapple trees are in full bloom this week. This one is actually a just a tiny bit past its prime, but conditions were not great for photography all week with harsh light and lots of wind even early in the morning. But today was perfect for capturing this glorious crabapple in bloom, one of [...]

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