Rod's Garden Report

The Garden Report #134

Sunday, June 2nd, 2013

Our garden- photographed yesterday

• Writers write: With six feet of snow in my back yard and no April showers to bring on the May flowers, I was concerned as to how my garden would turn out. Here we are now, early in June, and I can write that my garden, this spring, is: My best spring garden yet. I suspect the intensity of this spring, when it did arrive, jammed all the blooms into a shorter period. This week, I have had ninety per cent of my thousand tulips in bloom as well as my Dolgo Crab and all of my pots, filled with annuals. This is why I have included so many photos, courtesy of Maureen. My friend John C. has been over, helping me with the heavy lifting, and he reminds me and I in turn you, that ‘we’ do not grow gardens. God grows gardens, we only pull the weeds.

Saturday morning, many readers came by for the driveway sale of my extra flowers and Brad’s herbs and veggies. Thank you. While here, many of you toured my back garden, looking at the different varieties of tulips and the woodland part of the garden, which is growing an inch, every day. I enjoy having visitors. It is a treat and having visitors who are readers of The Garden Report is even better. Some of you, I met for the first time and it is great to put a face to an email address.

This photo is taken from our back steps with a pot of
annuals in the foreground

• Readers write:

• Ingrid Thiessen is full of praise for my back garden. She writes “Absolutely stunning! After such a long, hard winter it's so special to see those blooms. A wonderful example of correct scale, repetition to create colour unity, and lovely flowing lines. It's just like the Keukenhof Gardens in the Netherlands. I love the colour scheme.”

• Sarah Willis reminds us of the story of the shoemaker’s son. “Just read this week's Garden Report and am ashamed to admit my husband and I are among those dishing out plants and advice, while the weeds at home pile up. I did manage to over seed the grass on our boulevard earlier this month - but while working seven days a week at either Landscape Ontario or Cudmore's Garden Centre, there's not much time for garden maintenance in May. Will definitely get to it in June, however. Our garden looks great when we have the time for it, but just not right now.” Rod’s note: My doctor used to smoke and eat at his desk. Permission is granted to get to it in June.

• Pat McMullan is a relatively new reader in Winnipeg. She writes “I just had to send a note to say how much I am enjoying Rod's blog!”

• We have not heard from Alan Bratt for awhile, but he ensures that we know he has his priorities. “I always enjoy the pictures you include with your reports and I particularly admire that you also include nice dogs and cats looking for homes. I wish I could take them all.”

• William Hrycan is the Horticultural Editor for ‘The Gardener’. He really knows his stuff. I will vouch for that statement. William sent this along, explaining how you have to reach out to others to get it right. “I am honoured to be mentioned alongside such highly regarded horticulturists. Thank you. At my office, Dieter Martin is on our speed-dial - I too know when to ask for help.”

• Email glitch: For some unknown reason, those readers with emails that began with a ‘t’ or a ‘w’ were eliminated from the data base. So, if you are one of those people and you have not been receiving The Garden Report, send me an email so that I can reinstate you. Thanks.

We love our tulips-every variety

• Wow!: This past week has been one of intensity, delivered by Mother Nature. Blooms are breaking out everywhere and plants are growing at phenomenal rates, trying to catch up with the slow start. It is most unusual to have forsythia blooming at the same time as apples but this year, everything is bunched together. Even our peonies have buds on them. Maydays’ which should have bloomed a full four weeks ago are in their glory.

• Garden Tip: When your tulips are finished blooming, you need to do two things to prepare them for next year. First, remove the spent flower and the stem, right to the base. Second, wait for the leaves to ripen which means they turn brown and brittle. When the leaves are finished, then and only then, can you cut them down. If you cut tulip leaves prior to their ripening, you will ensure the following season that only leaves grow and not blooms. That is how you prepare tulips to re-bloom next year. Others, including us, treat our tulips as annuals. We pull up the bulbs when the plants are finished blooming and discard the bulbs. Then we plant our annuals in the tulip beds and replant new bulbs in September.

• Garden Tip: Some gardeners do this, others don’t. I do. I like my tomato plants to be strong and stocky. To accomplish that, I pinch back or prune the leaders and the lateral tips of the plant. When I pinch, I get tomato plants that are much tougher and able to withstand the prairie winds.

• Houston Pizza: Saturday night, we found ourselves at The Normanview Shopping Center. We don’t get there very often, as it is a good distance from our home. There was a doctor there we had to see. By the time we were finished with the medical thing, it was eight p.m., two hours past supper time and we were famished. Houston Pizza is next door to the medical clinic and voila, we were ordering supper, trying not to chew on the napkins. I had the liver and onions (no gagging sounds, please). It was as good or better than the liver I have had at many other places in town. It was tender, not overcooked, served with a salad, fries and garden beans that were also not overcooked. Maureen had the feta chicken, skipped the potato, but they filled her plate with lots of the garden beans, both yellow and green with a few carrots tossed in. They had two kinds of hot sauce sitting on the table, something I do enjoy. Supper, no drinks or dessert, tax and tip included, was thirty-eight bucks. My litmus test for any restaurant is: Would I go there again? Yes I would.

• Garden Tip: To grow the most beautiful hanging baskets and containers, develop the habit of pinching. Simply remove the spent flower and its stem whenever the bloom is waning. This encourages new buds to develop and keeps your plant in a perpetual state of renewal.

Blooming tulips and trays of impatiens, ready to be planted

• Garden Tip: If not already done so, it is time to fertilize your lawn, your shrubs, perennials and annuals.

• Orange Boot: You cannot go wrong with the Saskatchewan Sourdough bread baked at Orange Boot. It is my personal favourite. It is my first choice for my morning toast and peanut butter, as well as my sandwich bread for lunches.

• Gourmet dining: John C. and I were busy delivering bedding plants to job sites on Tuesday. We worked through lunch, wound up at The Pasqua Hospital because I had to stop in for a quick UVB treatment and voila, there we were at Robin’s. Both of us had their interpretation of a roast beef sandwich. Here’s the review: We were starved, so we finished everything, crumbs and all. We have had worse sandwiches than that one, but not many. I think they get their roast beef from Arby’s which as readers know, I am not convinced is really food. Rather than call it roast beef, I would describe it as being legally edible, processed, food like material.

• Follow the basic rules: At the ranch/farm where I work part time, we had six and seven feet of snow on the lawn. The weight of the snow compressed the soil underneath, ensuring that the water ran off it. It looked dead, very dead. I had Drew Millard out to aerate the lawn two weeks ago, then I applied the fertilizer (17 19 0 with 14% sulphur) and we turned on the water. The grass has been mowed three times now and it is 97% recovered from the winter damage. Give it another two weeks and it should be looking picture perfect. No magic wands, no alchemy, just the basics of gardening and let Mother Nature work her magic.

• It’s a family thing: My cute as a button, great niece, Andi Reich, is one of the children featured on the new Roughrider television commercial. Andi is my brother’s granddaughter, for those of you keeping track.

Rayanna writing this week's blog-we start young in my family

• Rayanna’s Report: For all my friends back in Regina, good news! I will be in town the weekend of June 8th. It’s my Grandma’s birthday. I asked Grampa Rod how old Grandma will be and he laughed. He said “I tell her she’s a hot chick”, and then he laughed again. Do all old people act this weird or is it just my family? Speaking of getting old, I turned seven months, two days ago, and I am starting to teeth ( or is it tooth?) Do you know that my parents require me to cheer for The Roughriders, not The Eskimos? Once a Rider fan, always a Rider fan. Sorry, got to go. Just had a boomer and I need changing.

• Billy was back in town: Billy Patterson, who worked for me last year and the year before, was back in town for a week. He is continuing his apprenticeship in the wonderful world of horticulture with Dieter Martin in Langham (north-west of Saskatoon). Dieter is eighty years young and still considered to be the Dean of Horticulture in our province. Billy is enjoying working in Dieter’s greenhouse and the nursery. He stopped in and of course, I put him to work for several hours. After planting some flowers around town, Billy and I devoured a decent Lebanese wrap from Zsa Zsa over on 4th, near Park Street. Whenever I am in their neighbourhood, I pick up a few bags of the pita bread, baked in store. They have 60% whole wheat pita and it is very, very good.

'Emily Carr'-a great rose!

• Garden Tip: If you want to split your hosta plant, you still have time to do it. Best to divide hostas every five to seven years.

• Garden Tip: To grow a lovely fuchsia, do not place it in a windy or severe location. I have found that if you grow a fuchsia in an alcove, slightly protected, that is one of the secrets for its care. The other piece of advice is – do not overwater a fuchsia. Nothing will kill the plant quicker than too much water.

• Sorry I missed you: Mosaic was on this week and while thousands of you made it out to this multi cultural event, I had to regrettably, pass it up this year. Two reasons: First, I was a bit burnt out from last week’s Arts’ Festival and secondly, it was bedding plant week. I was run off my proverbial feet and perhaps my butt. My butt is something I am reluctant to discuss, unless of course you wish to note how small it is for a man of my age. ‘Tight Buns’ McDonald you can call me.

• Plants for sale, plants for sale: While I sold most of my extra plants on Saturday, I still have left a few trays of impatiens (great for the shade) and a few hanging baskets and clay planters (mainly for sunny spots). If you want to buy any of these plants, just send me an email and I will let you know when I will be home.

Our peony is setting bud with tulips blooming beside it

• Readership increases: According to the firm that tracks readership of The Garden Report, the online volume increased from 2,068 last May to 3,711 this May. That’s a nice jump. People are finding us. Add in our thousand or so email readers and the number is getting close to the five thousand mark. We are still advertising free, other than a few shameless promotions.   

• Thanks for reading...Rod McDonald in sunny but cool, Regina.