Gardening: wants versus needs

It's hard to be a gardener, it's even harder to be a gardener that works at a garden centre.

There is always something new, and must have coming in. All the time.

With plants, you can tell yourself, OK, there is no more room, NO MORE ROOM! It's my mantra, especially when you see all the rows and rows of pristine, straight from the nursery and perfectly in bloom babies. The ones crying out to you to take them to a good loving home.

And then you think, well maybe I can squeeze one more in...... and besides I know lots of people I can give the babies to.

I spent the entire day, talking myself out of buying these pots. And then because I felt so virtuous, I bought something else instead.

So it looks like I am going to have to sell a lot more cards, in order to buy all the things that I want. A lot more cards.

There were these gorgeous new door mats that had just come in, wouldn't Bootsie love those. And these lovely wall baskets, we could all do with a bit of color, maybe some petunias spilling down from them. Insulated pots for my special babies that need more winter protection.

So you see, its hard to go to work, and not come home with armloads of goodies, and piles of plants. It's a tough job, but someones got to do it.

PROUD to be a CANADIAN eh!

I am especially proud to be a CANADIAN tonight. Maybe its the thrill that hits the crowd, when we watch the Canadian Snow Bird Demonstration Team perform in White Rock. Or maybe it's just the noise of the jets. Canadians may be quietly patriotic, but we love our country. And we really love our snowbirds. Tonight they are flying for Child http://www.child.ca/ A free show to raise awareness about childhood intestinal and liver disease.

We are watching a 40 minute aerial ballet, given by some of Canada's top pilots.

They fly all over North America http://www.snowbirds.dnd.ca/site/airshows/schedule_e.asp .

giving over 60 shows per year.

The jets come out of no where, suddenly roaring overhead, the loud noise always a little behind, as they break the sound barrier. They dance in the sky, meet and fling themselves apart. Disappear, only to roar overhead from behind us. They leave smoke trails in the shape of hearts. And we love them.

Did I mention that they are Canadian?

After they are gone, there is a silence in the air, a ringing in our ears.

We start to walk back home, stopping to look at a gorgeous rose, perfect in its hot pink beauty.

A older woman pauses beside us, and says "my mother planted that rose years ago, she lived here in this apartment, and started all these roses from cuttings she stuck in the ground, now I live here, and look after her roses."

With a little wistfulness and a lot of pride in her voice she says, "she was a amazing gardener, and she could grow anything."

Two kinds of pride, both of them Canadian........

Knobby knees and ALL!

I water a lot at work, so my feet are always wet. It kind of puts a damper on things If you will excuse the pun. So I wear rubber boots to water in, and believe me it's a sight. But I hate working all day with wet feet.

I've always wanted to be a "real gardener", one who dresses in the hunter green shirts, with the khaki shorts, and heavy socks, in leather boots.

The kind that has the well used secateurs in their back pocket. Who doesn't seem to feel the rain trickling down the back of their neck, or the hot sun burning their nose a shade of red, that would flatter only a beet.

But somehow comfort, and convenience beat out, real gardenerism.

I try to finish the watering as soon as I can, so I can slip back into my comfortable shoes, and stop the " thawk, thawk, thawk ", noises that rubber boots make when my skinny legs walk in them.

Besides, I am tired of all the customers laughing at me.

A rude awakening

We woke up this morning to a dose of reality.

No not crows, or seagulls. Not even noisy neighbours. RAIN!

A unseasonably cool morning, dark, gloomy, and wet. Kind of like a winter day. No sun streaming through the garden, no birds happily chirping. Just the steady drip of water off of the balcony above us. The sound of soggy car tires zipping up the road, and wet weed whackers, trimming slimy grass.

The problem is we forgot, during this 7 week, dry and sunny spell of weather, that winter does exist at all. After a cold and wet winter, spring just never seemed to arrive. And then it did, but only for a week or so. We went right into summer.

And vowed never to return to winter again.

But this is truly a portent of things to come, granted they are not coming for 3 months but.........

well you know, WINTER!

No gardening, no flowers blooming, no sunshine, they don't call this the wet coast for nothing!

What am I going to write about? What kind of photos am I going to take? SNOW? Rain, wet gardens, there won't even be any slugs to shoot.

Imagine, "today's post is all about sticks with raindrops, and tomorrows, its about sticks with snow on them." Next blog please.

Bootsie is hibernating already, he is curled up on my expensive throw, having claimed it as his. My rain jacket has to come out of the closet. And the umbrellas have reappeared in the hallway.

All this, and its only going to be a week of rain.

But there are some good times during this rain, first our gardens need it desperately. My arms are tired from spraying the hydrangeas. My plants look more than grateful for the humidity. And I no longer have to run around after the sprinklers are finished just to get a photo of raindrop laden blooms.

So winter bring it on, but first let us have a enjoyable summer, and a extended fall. I'll deal with it when it comes.

Over the fence, FLORICIOUS, a best kept secret.

There is an amazing garden that hides behind a high fence. It might be enough for the curious passerby to gaze up at the beautiful 90 year old farmhouse, in it's now urban setting. Or to peer through the iron gate that guards the front doors. With its outdoor pots of small evergreens that line window sills high up, and luscious plantings dotting the fence, this is a house that is dressed for company. And you are invited to visit. The first thing you notice is all the flowers, and they are everywhere. Almost every window is colored with blooms, there are hanging baskets, and containers spilling over with blossoms.

The yard is made up of a series of garden rooms, each leading onto the next, and the garden is lush and full this time of year. It starts in the early spring with masses of bulbs. Tulips, daffs, Alliums of all types. The southern magnolia is a new addition, this year it only had a few flowers but they were enough to delicately scent the entire back yard.

Honeysuckle, lilacs, roses, and viburnums. There is rarely a time without blooms. FLORICIOUS dresses the window boxes seasonally, celebrating each holiday in flowers.

Her favorite color is blue, and its echoed in the ceaonothus and lavender hedges that line her sidewalks, and the numerous blue ceramic pots, water features, and ornaments that are scattered throughout. Nothing is wasted, this broken shovel is now doing duty as a garden ornament. She calls the garden her decompression chamber. Saying time spent there relaxed her the most. " It's my sanctuary! " she says. And her favorite room? A gorgeous private walled deck visible through the french doors of the kitchen. This was shot early in the spring, and is now lush and full of flowers and vines. Another favorite place to eat is under the shady grape arbor. But it's not just her and her friends who enjoy dinner there, the raccoons have been know to nibble on a midnight feast also. FLORICIOUS feels that there is enough for all, with the apples and pears, raspberries, and strawberries she grows.

A metal plaque on the shed wall reads The Kiss of the sun for Pardon.

The song of the birds for mirth,

One is nearer to God in a garden,

Than anywhere else on earth.

This is a garden in which a great deal of love, and heart has been planted, and it shows. Thanks FLORICIOUS for letting us visit.

The garden of FLORICIOUS, coming later today.

Later today, I am posting the garden tour, of FLORICIOUS. It's a beautiful garden with mature fruit trees, and younger beds that are really coming into their own.

A perfect compliment to the antique house that she lives in.

You should have seen it last week....

As gardeners we seem to be our own worst critics. And I am sure if anyone commented on our garden the way we do ourselves, we would be rightly upset.

Touring our garden with fellow gardeners we always seem to either point out the flaws, or try to hide them from prying eyes. What is with us? Every garden has good and bad points, but we seem to always apologize for some imperfection with a "you should have seen it yesterday, or last week, or even LAST year, it was REALLY, REALLY beautiful last year!"

I know that I am one of the worst, I really don't like to show off anything during the hot months of summer. The tattered and battered perennials faded, like a over the hill pair of gardening gloves. The burnt, and the dried out, the forgotten, and the fried. I stand in front of half alive plants hoping that no one notices them. Nothing to see here folks, move on.

Sometimes I try distractions, "Oh look over there!! A CROW."

Whooooeee, that was close, you almost saw my slug eaten hosta.

And since gardens are collections of plants that all perform under different conditions, and bloom at different times, well.........there are ebbs and flows.

As for me, I am going to show off my garden warts and all from now on. You are all gardeners, and you know what reality is.

Just don't look over there please. NO, OH NO, NOT THERE!

You should have seen it last week!

Formatting the card ?

I know, you thought I was having technical difficulties again, didn't you.

Well kind of.......

See this time it was my camera.

Formatting the card, [for the one person in the world who doesn't have a digital camera], is when you completely erase EVERY single cherished photo, in the cameras memory card. Sounds pretty straightforward. Erase it and move on, right.

I however have not done that for ......... oh about 2 years, or almost as long as I have had the camera. See there are some very very favorite pictures on it. And when I go back and individually delete the hundreds of photos that I took that week, [I am not joking, about it being hundreds, multiply that by 2 years, and you get the idea] I always have some more favorites that I want to leave on the camera.

There are some wonderful memories there. Of course they are all backed up on my computer, and then CD's, and THEN DVD's. And online storage. Then the best ones are on the screen saver of my computer. The list of favorites has been growing, and there is less and less room for new photos on the memory card.

This morning Bootsie was at my window patiently waiting for me to open the patio door, and when it took too long he started to frantically paw at the window in the cutest photo op ever.

But when I grabbed the camera to take the shot, the screen read, "memory card full".

Then the other day, I was taking a walk and found the most perfect rose, tried to take a shot and the screen read "memory card full". One warm night, when the light was that perfect shade of light apricot that makes everything look so vibrant I was inspired to get up off of the couch and take some shots of my garden. The screen read " memory card full".

So that it! I broke down and formatted the card. All the favorites are gone, and hopefully be replaced by more summer memories.

How many pictures do you save on your camera? Are you a hoarder? Or are you a deleter? Or do you just throw the camera into the drawer and forget to take any pics. Maybe you are like me and have sooooo many photos that it's overwhelming. Let me know, what kind of photographer you are...

My computer is about to start hacking up a hairball if I put anymore photos on the hard drive, what system are you using? What do you suggest? External hard drive, bigger hard drive? I'm lost! Jen