Middle-Aged Spread: Moving to the country at 50

November 5, 2009

“Moving to the country. Embracing a simpler, more environmentally friendly lifestyle. Growing your own food. Making do with less. These are familiar fantasies for city dwellers, especially in the wake of a worldwide financial meltdown.” from Amazon.ca. Visit Sonia’s website, soniaday.com, for more info about her writing and her artworks.

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Seasonal confusion: Don’t ya know it’s November?

November 1, 2009

e have a few cases of seasonal confusion happening here. Or is it seasonal delusion? I have just discovered that a few spring-flowering plants are doing their thing.
Most impressive is Arnold Promise witchhazel (Hammelis x intermedia ‘Arnold Promise’) which is in full bloom and looking very lovely indeed.
The trouble is it’s supposed to [...]

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The end of an era – in dog time

October 31, 2009

Aging sucks. Here they are – my boys in full flight the way they used to tear around all the time. Sadly, my dog can’t run like that anymore.oby, the white one is mine. He’s eight, going on nine. Buddy, several years younger, is my neighbor’s dog. Well, he was my neighbor’s dog – still [...]

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Autumn color – every year it’s different

October 24, 2009

his year the fall color has been slow to come for us in southern Ontario. I understand that places further north, such as Algonquin Park, have seen spectacular shows of color. After our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend (Oct. 10-12), photograper Michael Reichman of the Luminous Landscape wrote:
“In the Muskoka/Algonquin region of southern Ontario, where I’ve spent [...]

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Visting The High Line in New York City

October 18, 2009

One of the highlights of our recent visit to New York City was discovering a new park called The High Line.
I’m grateful to New York area landscape designer Susan Cohan for letting me in on it via Twitter. (When she heard that we were in New York, she sent me the link to her [...]

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Overwintering our non-hardy succulents

October 15, 2009

strong>- Overwintering non-hardy succulents can be a challenge -
I love growing lots of succulents in containers. They’re easy because they don’t need a lot of watering or fertilizer.
Many of my favorites are non-hardy, and that means if I want to keep them, I have to take them inside over the winter. The hardy hens and [...]

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Eco-lawn – Part 2: Why mow?

October 7, 2009

Eco-lawn can be left unmowed for about a month, and indeed some advocates suggest not mowing it at all.
So why not leave it to grow taller and more meadow-like? Our city friends often wonder why we country folks cut so much grass.
We experimented with this about five years ago when we let a big [...]

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Eco-Lawn: the ultimate low maintenance turf?

October 5, 2009

p>Eco-lawn is billed as “the ultimate low maintenance, drought tolerant lawn.” It’s said to require no fertilizers or chemicals and it’s supposed to be less vulnerable to grubs. And you can reduce your mowing time or not mow at all.
Does Eco-lawn live up to its billing? Well, judging from our experience since it was seeded [...]

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Adieu September, welcome October

September 30, 2009

With the end of September, we bid goodbye to summer, and say hello to fall in earnest. We’ve had to run the furnace the past two mornings. This morning I said to my neighbor that I thought the fall color was a bit late this year. She didn’t think so, and she’s right.
Interesting how [...]

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Who would have chipmunks in the garden?

September 27, 2009

We used to have crocuses. We used to have tulips. Now we just have chipmunks.
To be fair, these cheeky pests don’t steal daffodil or allium bulbs, so we still have those. But I’d rather have tulips than chipmunks.

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