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Post by bjd on Sept 27, 2023 18:29:39 GMT
That's the Ottawa River. It's 2 km across at that point. It freezes solid in winter and ice fishermen drive trucks on it.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Sept 28, 2023 20:58:31 GMT
That's astonishing!
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Post by bjd on Oct 5, 2023 14:10:37 GMT
I have spent a week pulling weeds like couch grass, crab grass and others from this area. Now I have to amend the soil and go buy a tree or two and a couple of bushes.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 5, 2023 14:31:38 GMT
What a feat, Bjd! I hope you'll keep us posted on the evolution of that space.
I really like your border with all the gray and gray-green plants. What about the purplish bush to the left of it and the lush growth pinning the corner?
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Post by bjd on Oct 5, 2023 15:54:34 GMT
Bixa, the purplish bush is a loropetalum but it's less purple than another one that gets a bit less sun. The corner has a climbing rose, a couple of purple salvias and some agapanthus. The gray-green plants are mostly lavender and an artemisia.
You can also see the neighbour's hedge and the way he keeps it nicely trimmed! Not to mention the tons of passiflore growing all over it.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 7, 2023 20:27:38 GMT
Hard work bjd, well done. Jeff's obsession with order comes in handy sometimes. I watched him pick the last of the ripe tomatoes. I sighed..saying that I'd need to clear the GH ready for the winter soon...he immediately set to pulling up the spent plants, weeded the GH borders...he even tidied up my hand tools and pots . Then the other day I decided that a lot of the annuals were over so I started pulling out the straw flowers, cutting them up to put on the compost...Jeff came wandering out asking what I was doing and which plants were to come out..he took over (again) whilst I went and made him a cup of tea what a hero...
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 8, 2023 8:19:45 GMT
Cheery, without touching on the psychological principals of being (highly) organised there is also the Ovsiankina Effect where there is the urge to finish a task once initiated which is tied in with Completion Bias, its release of dopamine when the task is finished and the effect of completing a number of small tasks rather than facing the big task. These are not to be confused with the Zeigarnik effect which refers to remembering better the details of what you didn't finish than what you did.
Mrs M gets frustrated with how I am like all that plus I have difficulty not doing something that needs to be done as soon as I identify it does. Also the 'principle' of if it only takes a few minutes I'll do it now and can't leave it until later. Also my lack of being able to let someone carry on with a job if I know I can do it better. None of us are perfect but at least I don't put the bread in the fridge.
By the way, the opposite of procrastination is precrastination. I have this.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 8, 2023 19:56:20 GMT
Aha! Jeff is EXACTLY the same...I can be in the kitchen. I like to wash up as I go along when I'm baking...but obviously if I'm busy making a batch of say, steak and onion pies to freeze there will be pans on the stove bubbling, my big glass bowl for making pastry, scales, kilner jar with flour in, rolling pin, flour dredger, silicon rolling out mat etc etc...every time i put something down Jeff will wash it, dry it and put it away...even if I'm still using it.... Jeff believes that it is his job to tell me how to do a task more efficiently, even if he's never done it himself and I'm doing fine thank you. He will inevitably explain what I'm doing wrong. Bless him. We've been married for 46 years so he isn't going to change anytime soon.
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 8, 2023 20:08:22 GMT
If I did that I’d be 6 foot under years ago.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 8, 2023 20:25:07 GMT
Sorry to wander off the point of the thread...
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Post by onlyMark on Oct 9, 2023 6:45:14 GMT
It was me Cheery that wandered. Last comment though, Mrs M tells me there are sometimes things that don't require 'efficiency' in their doing. It's the pottering that is the enjoyable bit.
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Post by bjd on Oct 9, 2023 13:55:08 GMT
We went to a nursery this afternoon and bought 3 trees: a Forest Pansy redbud, a crabapple tree and a Persian Spire Parrotia We asked for trees that would not get too big, since the garden is not that big. Unfortunately, as the nurseryman told us, small trees also grow more slowly that big ones.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 11, 2023 8:09:32 GMT
Beautiful tree bjd..we were thinking of getting a small tree for the front garden. Jeff likes acers but we have 2 small ones in the back garden. I was looking at getting a crab apple called red sentinel or a midland hawthorn. I have a ginko biloba 'troll' in a big pot...that's a ginko on a dwarf root stock but it grows into a smallish shrub rather than a tree.
I've put the bubblewrap up in the greenhouse at last. I do it every year and now it's a lot easier than it was the first time I did it. I bought a massive roll of bubblewrap from Amazon (much cheaper than from a garden centre) last year and still have lots left. It's already significantly warmer in the GH. Just need to get my tender perennials in there today...if it stops raining...
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Post by bjd on Oct 11, 2023 11:10:47 GMT
A small tree was what we wanted too, Cheery. This parrotia is supposed to stay narrow and columnar and the redbud and crabapple trees are not supposed to top about 5 metres although they will spread more than the parrotia. Of course, these sizes are for trees aged about 10.
We planted the parrotia in the back this morning, in front of the veranda since we are afraid the neighbour is going to cut down his beautiful liquidambar. For now we get lots of shade from his tree but he is letting ivy grow all over the trunk and once mentioned that he wanted to cut it because he thinks it leans. (It doesn't.)
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 11, 2023 12:13:12 GMT
I can thoroughly recommend Cercis canadensis Forest Pansy as you can keep it to whatever size you want. I let mine flower in spring and then cut it right back after and by now it’s a fair size.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 11, 2023 14:17:10 GMT
I truly love redbuds! My guess is that in your climate, Bjd, the Cercis will grow somewhat more quickly. I looked up "Cercis canadesis in southern France" and got this. It's information you already know, but the whole website is rather nice. I've put the bubblewrap up in the greenhouse at last. I do it every year and now it's a lot easier than it was the first time I did it. The wrap is inside the greenhouse? How do you hold it in place? Brilliant idea to use it, but sounds like rather a chore to get it up. Do you have to replace the wrap every year? we are afraid the neighbour is going to cut down his beautiful liquidambar. Nooooo! That is such a stately, beautiful tree!
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Post by bjd on Oct 11, 2023 14:56:01 GMT
Thanks, Bixa. I know that there are redbuds for hotter climates, Judas trees, but I really like these. Perhaps the possible quicker growing will be held up by the drier climate here. I let mine flower in spring and then cut it right back after and by now it’s a fair size. Why do you cut it back, Mick? I thought they grow only to about 5 metres.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 11, 2023 15:56:32 GMT
I know that there are redbuds for hotter climates, Judas trees, but I really like these. ~?~ I linked to your redbud.
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Post by mickthecactus on Oct 11, 2023 15:58:56 GMT
5 metres is too big. Doing it this way it keeps to about 3 metres height and spread which is about all the space I have.
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Post by bjd on Oct 11, 2023 17:59:27 GMT
Yes, Bixa, I know you linked to mine. Just saying that there are more heat tolerant redbuds: Cercis siliquastrum.
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Post by cheerypeabrain on Oct 11, 2023 18:51:57 GMT
Bixa the bubblewrap usually lasts 4-5 years (I store it in the shed but sometimes family members use it for wrapping breakables or it gets given/thrown away without my knowledge ) The wrap is 1m width on a big roll 12m long. I put it up inside the GH. Jeffers put lengths of wire along the top of the sides of the structure and along the apex of the roof. I cut lengths of the wrap to tuck behind the wire on one side, under the roof wire then down the other side, tucked behind the wire there. Then I cut lengths that I hang from the top of the sides to the ground, securing them in place on the side wires with clothes pegs As you can imagine it's fiddly with me wrestling legths of bubblewrap behind the staging...I have the door shut as my language can get quite fruity, especially when I drop the scissors, or cut a length of wrap too short etc. To be fair, it doesn't take long to do these days as I'm used to doing it every autumn. The fiddly bit is putting 2 overlapping sheets at the entrance so that I can still open up the GH on warmer days to air the GH. . I do have gaps..it's almost impossible for me to get to the back of the GH because of the staging and the storage unit I have for my tools and seed trays...but it's pretty well insulated. I'll take a photo or three when I'm done.
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Post by bjd on Oct 13, 2023 18:26:47 GMT
Here are the first plants that I have put into the newly emptied area. Two small trees and one nandina but almost everything else has just been transplanted from other areas. It does look rather empty and there is a big gap towards the front of the garden but I don't know what to put there. I also have to figure out some sort of path going around so I can reach the plants in the borders.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 13, 2023 19:19:16 GMT
Cheery, thanks for the explanation. Your method sounds really efficient, although I understand about the blue language, etc. being particularly prone to mini meltdowns when trying to do stuff like that.
That already looks really nice, Bjd -- love how you brought the color scheme out into the middle. It's better to have it look a little empty for a while as you wait for inspiration to strike, isn't it?
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Post by bjd on Nov 1, 2023 12:43:13 GMT
I took advantage of a break in the rainclouds to take a picture of my front garden. There are some purple alliums underground too. I also moved a bunch of nepeta (catmint) but cut them back so they are not visible at the moment. I also sowed a bunch of grass seed along the pavers but it's not too visible yet.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 1, 2023 14:11:50 GMT
Good grief, Bdj -- you have made enormous progress! Once the nepeta gets going again, that area will be really lush.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 6, 2023 0:55:30 GMT
I just learned a new gardening word: nativar.
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Post by bjd on Nov 12, 2023 16:30:57 GMT
I took advantage of the lack of rain and mild temperature to garden today. I had a bunch of pentstemons under a small tree but they grew a bit too tall, or else the tree droops when it flowers. Anyway, I removed them and planted them in other areas of the garden and replaced them with hardy geraniums which I have a ton of all over the place. And I planted some tulip bulbs and white narcissus.
My husband raked up all the leaves that had blown into the garden and ran the lawnmower over them. I spread the resulting mulch into the flower beds but I still need lots more.
And I have sown grass seed twice already in the area I showed above but there are so many weeds growing and only a few small clumps of grass have come up. I guess turning over all that soil to remove the deep weeds brought all the other ones to the surface.
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Post by bjd on Nov 14, 2023 8:34:40 GMT
I checked back on this thread to see when I moved a rosebush that had grown too high. It is supposed to be a shrub rose but just keeps getting tall. I moved it last October and had cut it back but it is again about 2 and a half metres tall! There are roses but way up high. Don't know what to do with it. It's not a climber because the canes don't droop, except during the high winds we had last week when the whole plant tipped over. I have tied to to the fence behind but I really don't know whether or not to keep it.
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Post by bixaorellana on Nov 15, 2023 1:26:18 GMT
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Post by bjd on Nov 15, 2023 6:08:45 GMT
Thanks for that information, Bixa. I had begun to suspect mislabelling but you are probably right that it's a question of the rootstock. When I first planted that rose, the "top" didn't do much, but there were very vigorous branches with small leaves growing from the root below the graft. I cut them off on several occasions and there don't seem to be any now. But it does look as through the rose I bought was grafted onto a very vigourous climber root.
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