Ann’s Weblog

Well, I don’t know if I’m REALLY catching up, but I have all the dogs fed and watered and some of them walked. I’m waiting for a friend to come with her gigantic German Shepherd and her comical wee Cairn Terrier, for boarding. I have to reserve two kennels for these dogs, only because Riley the terrier would ingest a fatal dose of food if he could get to it, and he will always push Mick, his big sidekick, away from HIS food.

I’ll share the few other pictures that I fixed for the ‘net. Obviously I am NO photographer.


Pictured are Scarlet Honeysuckle (a hardy climber), another view of Geranium ‘Splish Splash’, Blizzard Mock Orange (Philidelpha some-thing-or-other), Persicaria bistorta, and Tiarella ‘Chocolate Ruffles’.

This is a flower bed, mostly for shrubs and perennials, that I have struggled with for years. When I “installed” it, I dug deep, placed some sheet metal as a base, and then piled soil, spoiled hay and compost over that. It looked pristine at first; soon grasses, annual weeds and perennial weeds were thick. I blamed the hay for the problem, and I plucked and hoed and dug. Eventually I dug out the whole bed right down to the sheet metal and started over.

In the years since, my creation kept getting choked with quackgrass (the tenacious perennial grass which spreads by long roots). One of my gardening friends mentioned in a general discussion that, where she put plastic down over quackgrass on SAND, the grass died, and where she put plastic down on CLAY, the quackgrass survived and grew miles of roots. A light went on in my mind: the grass was THRIVING under the sheet metal, laid over top of clay soil.

Back to what I call my “sunset” garden (more about that in a moment)… I dug down and removed the sheet metal, which was obscuring, but obviously NOT killing… quackgrass roots! Ackkk, I dug out wheelbarrows full of the offending weed, and the roots looked like a barrow full of spaghetti. So, I have renovated the entire bed another time, and am trying hard not to let the weeds get ahead of me again.

The reason I call it my “sunset” bed is that, at one time, I was having trouble finding places for flowers that were carmine, scarlet, orange and yellow which didn’t jarringly clash with each other and cooler hues. I decided to build a flower garden which had the red, orange and yellow together on purpose. In the years since, I have decided that blue is also part of a sunset sky (delphinium and globe thistle), and I can’t avoid having green, obviously… so the plan is pretty much not a “plan” anymore. When I think of it, nearly any colour except, I suppose green, could be part of the sunset, including pink and purple.

I’m delighted to see that the lilies are blooming, finally. I took a large bouquet to my friend at the Beanery, to replace the peonies that I took last week. There is a phenomenum with the lilies that I haven’t been able to figure out: I have hundreds, and it seems that more and more are “reverting” to orange! I was given a few orange varieties of Asiatics, and I had the orange tiger lily, and I bought Orange Pixie Asiatic too, but I have orange lilies now where I planted PINK and other colours.

I keep trying to find information about this on the Internet, in forums and in Chat groups, and although some gardeners suggest that the lilies are “crossing”, I still don’t understand what’s going on. Most of the lilies are growing and increasing from the original bulbs, and not seeding themselves, so I don’t get how they could be crossing. If I had the dozens of varieties planted in the same place, I could understand how an orange lily might be stronger and overtake the others. But how, all over the yard, I’m getting the change in colour, I do not know. I resent it a little and it makes me feel a little “freakish”, but, at the end of the day, orange lilies are beautiful too.

Okay, enough about that… talk to you guys soon. ~ Ann

I was going to say that I was doing well to “post” in my blog two days in a row, and then realized that I haven’t been here since Monday.

Above are photos of our little orchard, with apples, plums, cherries, saskatoons, blueberries and more, and the rest of our garden, which particularly includes “Gary’s garlic” in the northeast corner there. Everything is slow and late except for the garlic, due to our weather this spring and early summer. These pictures were taken a few weeks ago… the garden looks “lusher” now, even though it is still not what we expect in mid-July.

I wish that I had taken a picture of Maverick, a large Golden Retriever who boarded here for a few days. He had been scheduled for grooming Wednesday, but due to a family emergency, arrived here last Saturday night. I could choose my long hours to groom Maverick up until this morning, and I was grateful for the extra time. Mav’s owner was quite anxious about how her dog would look after the spa treatment, as I had (in my own diplomatic way) threatened to shave him completely if unable to remove the matts by other means.

At 6 a.m., my friend picked up Maverick and was absolutely delighted that I’d been able to save her dog’s coat. I had scissored and shaved what I couldn’t comb or brush, but had worked hard to be artistic. I do my most earnest effort with every pet who comes here, and a Golden Retriever who came for grooming on Tuesday did have to be shaved short all over. I’m grateful if people trust me to do my best, and accept the situation if I have to shear an animal short: they can look at it as a “clean sweep” and a chance to start over. It’s very easy to keep a dog combed after one of THOSE treatments.

This week I groomed THREE Golden Retrievers. Taffy, who came on Monday afternoon, is a regular customer for grooming, day care and boarding:

This is a picture of Taffy which was already on file, but she hasn’t changed.

It has been raining almost nonstop for about a week. Gary has some hay reserved at a neighbouring farm, for our horses, and it is out in the field in this weather. The moisture might benefit the garden somewhat, but since we had a long, cool, wet spring, the vegetables and flowers need some HEAT. We had about 5 days of hot weather in total this season, and most folks complained about the humidity and heat, but we NEED some more of it!

I’ll share some more of the pictures which I discovered on the camera:

These would be considered very “ordinary” daylilies, but as the first few roots came from my Dad’s garden, I call them “Dad’s Daylilies” and they are precious to me. I wish that I had discussed lots of things with Dad more than I did. Gardening is one of the topics he could have taught me about, but he was gentle and quiet and didn’t push his ideas on anyone. By the time gardening was a great priority with me, Dad’s mind was … somewhere far away.

Okay… I have to run away again. People are bringing dogs, and one new customer gets the “prize” for shortest notice (phoning at 7:30 am and bringing dog for daycare and grooming “if possible”, at 7:45). I have grooming scheduled… a couple of small dogs and some of the boarders. Tomorrow is Market day again and I hope I can get ready ahead of time.

Thanks for visiting! Love, Ann