Dear Blog

 My husband and I used to love working outside, growing flowers from seeds (many from seed swap group I once belonged to) and vegetable plants. The house and property were more than I could maintain after he passed. I purchased a house in the city to be closer to my family. I created a blog  and occasionally make notes to use as my journal. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also some trees we planted years ago. Our very old and large Catalpa Tree blew over in a windy storm. I planted strawberries in it for fun. Over time a tree formed on top of the downed tree. It grew snakes. In 2004 I removed a couple of seeds and stuck them in a pot and yet another tree sprouted (2nd image below).

 

 

 

 

 

2019 July 16 as of five years ago. I will go visit to see how it's doing.

 

 

Each year we planted a 3' Blue Spruce, my favorite trees.

I was upset...to say the least!

One of my two holly bushes planted in 2009--BEFORE being run over by mower (picture taken in 2010 and was much larger now):

AFTER ran over by mower

Of course I had to Google to see if it would grow back-- two of the many responses after posting:

ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5 
not many trees or shrubs die.. simply due to pruning .. no matter how the pruning is accomplished ... or how badly it was done ... and mostly that is because there is no impact on the established root mass ... this is why i call many of them ... 'run them over with the truck' type plants ... i simply never considered using a lawnmower ... lol .. i would also clean up all the rough cuts.. and just ignore it ... [if you can] ... and you might be surprised what it might look like by fall ... yes.. think in tree time.. rather than running out there every day.. and fixating on it ...

lovetogarden(z5a NY)
OMG! I think I'd kill him. I once had a guy do my lawn and one of the shrubs I just planted started to look really bad a few days after he left. On closer inspection I found that he cut the shrub off at ground level with the weedwhacker and just stuck it right back in the ground to hide the fact from me. Grrrrrr! I was so mad!

… calls from a couple of my many sibling’s and even a SYMPATHY card from one sister (I can hear her laughing).

…beginning to see the humor in it so I created a caution sign--which the mower’s dog demolished; I made a second one:

 

                                        










As for the bush growing back -  will be posting pictures every year for the next 10 years!

Caltapa Tree Started from Seed

Sometimes called Snake Tree--I started this from seed pod in 2012 (run your cursor over the image to see how it has grown).
 

Can't Wait To Start Mowing...

So Much Fun!

We took a ride in the tractor down our hedgerow to pick some apples. I picked dozens of really small apples and spent the day peeling apples and making some okay applesauce. Off we went to pick more apples from our neighbor's tree, made more applesauce and baked a five pound apple pie. YUMMY!



A basket of apples from our Tim Horton's Apple Man Buddy--these we ate!

Not a Complete Disaster...

Eight pepper plants yielded just four jalapeno and 2 green bell peppers. Out of six tomato plants we picked just two red tomatoes. Around three dozen beautiful green tomatoes, which I brown bagged to ripen (they spoiled before they ripened--frost damage). Saved by our Tim Horton garden buddy...dropped off three dozen beautiful large bell peppers, weighing a whopping 13 pounds in all. I made two dozen stuffed green peppers and froze the rest. Also, a dozen zucchinis from one plant and our corn was wonderful. We froze four dozen ears of corn and shared another four dozen. And, we ate lots and lots ourselves. We only had enough butternut squash for ourselves and a few for sharing with others.

The Tree That Keeps on Giving...Update!

Our hugh Catalpa tree was downed several years ago in a wind storm. My DH decided to saw it into pieces, ready for the wood pile. I put on such a face (I needed to grow a garden in it), he put the chunks back in place.

Soon thereafter, a thing that looked like a stick started to grow out of the top of the downed tree. I wanted him to cut off the stick--he PUT on a face. The stick grew into a tree, blossoms every year and grows seed pods (link to pictures in my Webshots album, top right corner of my blog).

In August 2008, I started two Catalpa trees with some of the seeds from the new tree I decided to winter my two baby trees in the furnace room this year. In checking them out, recently, I noticed dirt around the base of the containers. OMG! One tree was pulled out from it's container--not a trace of it was to be found.

What's left of the bark on the remaining tree:

A new sprout appearing:

Does this mean I still have a tree?

This year I will start seeds from previous year's pods along with this year's pods. I am determined I can grow a Catalpa tree from seed!

Before and After

Oh boy, thought I murdered my lovely peony bush. I could not get the plant divided using sharp cutting scissors, clippers and wound up hacking it into five pieces with a spade last year. I shared two of the five cuttings and am happy to say all three of the new cuttings are doing great!

Will Be Ready to Plant End of May!

Want to Know What a Sprout Sees?

From the Garden to the Jar...

When Will My Garden Grow?

I winter-sowed 40+ baggies in mid-February and set them out in the snow. Oooooh, can't wait for spring to arrive!