Category: Gardens

Green side Up!

Today the sod came for the backyard project! This is the the very best way to grow a lawn. It’s a lot of work to get it ready BUT once that is done, you just call the people at Tasbow Sod Farm in the Valley, tell them how much you need, and they deliver (right to your door) fresh, healthy green sod.

It’s more work to lay it but then you just water and let it do it’s thing. And….Voila! Beautiful green lawn.

Gotta get at it, there’s lots of new green ready to lay.

‘Twas the night before sod arrived…

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Laying sod…

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Ahhh…mostly done. Just a few pieces to cover some stumps and to fix the gardens up. It was a great day!!!

Stump Sawin’

Haha, these pesky stumps! What do ya do with them?

We have a few since we cut some trees around in our yard 2 Falls ago…I wanted to keep a couple, you know for a bird bath and a fairy house…projects that will get done sometime.

David has been itching to get rid off them! Andrew and his saw to the rescue. We had a stump sawin’ time this afternoon. Boys having a little fun, but Oak stumps are the hard ones! It’s MORE like work than play.


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Oh but wouldn’t that make a nice table? Hmmm… 😀

First Taste of Spring

It’s a little early yet but I have been getting so anxious for the taste of rhubarb, ESPECIALLY since this is the first year I have my own plants.

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I have two of them and they are growing quite well, but not quite ready yet SO I went to Mom’s and took just a bit…enough for 2 cups so I could try a NEW recipe.

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Rhubarb Pudding Cake

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Yummmmmmm!!!! Just a taste BUT it is soooooo delicious!!!!!

I definitely will be making this again and can’t wait to make Rhubarb Custard Pie, Rhubarb Crisp, and Rhubarb Muffins. It’s soon time…

And we’re back at it!

Last Spring it was the front yard. New gardens and new lawn. And we started the backyard. New gardens, new walkway, fire pit, fence by the shed…

And it’s that time of year once again that we NEED to get back at it! This time…new lawn for the backyard…well just some places. So…Part 1 is in process. Scrape all the old weedy sod off, rake and lay a skim of top soil in preparation for sod.

If the weather cooperates we just may be able to get it ready this weekend to order sod next week! Fingers crossed!!!

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A Spring nuisance or a medicine for the body?

We have been enjoying beautiful weather this week. I have been trying to get outside and do some gardening. This time of year flowers and green plants are starting to sprout up and it’s exciting!! However, there is one colourful flower that isn’t so welcome, especially on our new lawn that we put in last year.

Dandelions! Hmm? Yep, those pretty yellow (flowers) weeds that pop up overnight on your lawn.

When we were living in China, we ate them! They were actually quite delicious. Ladies would spend hours in the parks gathering dandelion greens. And then cook them up. Maybe like we do fiddleheads here. Or…dandelion tea? It’s supposed to have many health benefits.

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But here at home, we collect them…by the bucket full… BUT more because they are a weed invading our lawns.

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My husband wants them GONE!!!! So we go outside and pull them out by the root…a little bit everyday. BUT We may have to rethink this a bit… Check out this site.

https://altnature.com/gallery/dandelion.htm

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What are your thoughts?

A little grace and elegance…

Orchids are my all time favourite flower!

Moth orchids. The most common type of orchid is probably the moth orchid, or the Phalaenopsis orchids. These are the plants that you can buy from a standard grocery store. Or if you happen to live close by an Asian supermarket, you will find truck-loads. I usually wait until they are on sale.

In the wild, these orchids are epiphytes and grow on trees in a constantly moist environment. ( I saw this in Brazil) They usually have long flower spikes and therefore look very graceful. These types of flowers have the power to add elegance to the home and brighten up a dull atmosphere. Even though they usually bloom only once or twice a year, their flowers can often last for two to three months.

A good choice for me. It reminds me of both China and Brazil and lasts much longer than cut flowers.

Wishing you a beautiful day.

Blossoms

The last couple days my newsfeed has been filled with posts of beautiful pink and white blossoms from around the world. It’s Spring, my favourite season and it’s peak time for cherry blossoms around the world. From Vancouver, Canada to Washington, DC to many parts of China & Japan. Such beautiful images makes my heart long for these places…especially China where I could walk amongst beautiful trees all filled with blossoms.

Last year we were in DC for the Cherry Blossom Festival. That was April last year. This year it is a little early because of the mild winter we’ve had. Oh how I miss it. I wish we had places here in Nova Scotia that were full of cherry trees. I guess I’ll just have to wait for our crab apple trees to blossom…usually in May.

Here are a few images of my favourite trees.

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Ahh… so pretty.

Today is Easter Monday and still a holiday for some. We are heading to my parents for dinner with some of the family. These days there is ALWAYS some one working. It’s hard to get everyone together.

Screen Shot 2016-03-28 at 7.27.42 PMHave a great week friends!

Winter … Spring…Winter?

Brrrr!!! It’s chilly out there!

This Winter season has been interesting to say the least starting with Christmas Day. Beautiful warm, no snow weather and then periodically for the last few months we have had snowstorms, melting, green grass, bike riding temperatures, freezing cold, snow, melting, want to get the rake out be in the garden kind of weather and NOW that it is OFFICIALLY Spring….it is cold and snowy again! Geesh!!!

I took a picture on the 1st Day of Spring…

And took another picture today…

My poor flowers. I am kinda happy I didn’t get around to planting daffodils and tulips like I wanted to…the poor things would be destroyed with this mix up weather.

On the bright side, it is March 22 and we don’t have the mounds and piles of snow we had last year and it is soon gonna warm up…meanwhile, I’m “Spring cleaning” and painting and sprucing things up inside so that when nice weather is here…I’ll be in the garden!

It’s time for bed…

It’s getting colder. The leaves have turned from red to gold and are now falling quickly from the trees. LOTS and LOTS of raking and clean up to do. YES, it’s that time again, it comes too quickly, but it’s time to put the gardens to bed! Cold and Snow will be here before we know it!

But yesterday was a gorgeous day. Sunny and warm ( at least 15 degrees) and a perfect day for cleaning and organizing the shed, putting away garden furniture, raking and fixing the gardens, mowing and fertilizing and even…yes even putting up a few Christmas lights. The hardest ones because it was so nice and I really don’t like doing this when it’s cold and my hands and fingers are cold. It’s hard to believe that it’s soon that time again.

And after all that hard work and fresh air, I was ready for bed early!!! What a great day!!!