What's your favourite...

Do you have a favourite colour, number, food, season?

Columbine

When I'm asked what is my favourite this or that I rarely have an answer and if I do it's a favourite of the moment and if you ask me the next day it may have changed.

Centaurea

 But when it comes to the seasons I will always tell you my favourite is Spring. What is not to like about Spring, new life, fresh air, lovely breeze in the windows and of course new colourful flowers. 

Iris

While taking pictures of my Spring flowers the other day I discovered that in the garden, purple may very well be my favourite colour. I seem to have accumulated a number of purple flowers. 

 

Iris, birds eye view

 Although many of them are different varieties of Irises. I wish I new exactly what they are but I find it hard to distinguish one from the other and many were from other gardens with no name tags included.

Johnny Jump-up

 I'm not sure where these Johnny Jump-Ups came from but they like to pop up here and there in the garden, sometimes so much so that they have to be asked to leave or be picked and tossed into the compost pile.

Iris

 This is my largest and deepest purple Iris. Right now I'm looking for a new home for him in the garden since he's struggling where he is. He is a beauty though.

Siberian Iris'

 These Siberian Iris' are my favourite of the 4 or 5 varieties that I have. They're not as showy as some Iris' but I think it's their delicate nature that make them so special.

Siberian Iris and bud.

 Beautiful velvety purple tones with a deep purple bud.

 

Oriental Poppy

Even these Oriental poppies have a purple tinge to their centres. I think these are some of the most exciting flowers I have. It is always so shocking to see them explode from their buds.

Oriental Poppy bud

It's always hard to believe the beauty that will burst from this bud.

Peony bud

If only some of these Spring flowers could stay around longer. But as these fade more favourites will replace them. The Peony buds are full of ant which Dad claims is necessary for them to open to their full bloom.

So what is your favourite season?

Keep Creating!

Wendy

Late summer flowers.

I just thought I'd share a few pics of my flowers right now. 

 This is an Anemone that I've only had for a few years. I don't know much about them but it's done really well in my herb garden. I need to study up a little on it to see if I can move it to a very sunny spot in the front of the house. The bees are just loving it right now. So glad to see them busy at work.

 This Begonia was gifted to me from my Mom in the spring. I potted it up with some Lobelia and it's sits right outside my patio door so I can see it while I have breakfast each morning.

 This cutie is Borage and I started it from seed in the herb garden. I've had it before and it always makes me happy to see again. 

Here is a new squash we're trying this year. It seems to be very happy on the skid trellis the Tin Man made for it. I think it's also happy with the copious amounts of rain we've had this summer. I've forgotten what kind it is and will have to look it up to see what it's suppose to look like to know when to harvest it.

So those are my favourites at the moment. How is your garden doing?

Happy creative gardening!

Gardens and Butterfly's oh my!

As I said the Niagara Parks Botanical Gardens and Butterfly Conservatory were my favourite stop on our little Niagara Falls getaway. The Butterfly Conservatory is in the Botanical Gardens and holds more than 2000 tropical butterflies with more than 45 species. As soon as we stepped in it was like being transformed to another world. Although it was quite busy there was a peace and tranquility that was hard to leave again. The butterflies seemed undisturbed by all the attention and often landed right on people as well as the lush greenery all around. 

As you can guess I highly recommend the Botanical gardens and Butterfly Conservatory. I hope you enjoyed my little tour of it.

Wendy

January ATC meeting

Although here in the Ottawa area we under a thick layer of snow, the theme for this months ATC meeting was 'garden'. Definitely something enjoyable to think about this time of year. As usual the variations were wonderful to see.

Olive

Lucie

Maggie

Virginia

Wendy

Louise

Michelle

Nancy

Happy Creating!

Wendy

What have you been up to?

This is what people keep asking me and I just don't seem to have a good answer for them. I know I've been a bad blogger. I think I may have bloggers block. Yes I'm sure it's as real as writers block. I've been busy, I swear I have, I just don't seem to have much interesting to show for it. Since I don't think the bloggers block has completely gone away yet I thought I'd show you with photo's a few of the things that I've been up to.

Weeds, weeds go away, I just want to sit and watch my garden grow. My Siberian Iris' were beautiful this year. I wish I knew what I did right to have it happen again.
This California Poppy is the reward I get for being a slow spring garden. They self seed from last years flowers and if I don't get the flower bed cleaned too early(which I rarely do) they have a chance to sprout where ever they find a spot and I have to let them be because they do not like to be moved about. The only way to grow these glowing beauties is by seed but they are well worth the effort which can even be done in the fall for an early bloom that lasts all summer.
I feel like I've been as busy as a bee but what have I got to show from it. I'll continue to find some photos to tell you "what I've been up to".

So stay tuned while I try to recollect where the last month has gone to and maybe I'll share a little fairy secret of mine!

Gardens growing

It's always rewarding to see the first sprouts coming up in the vegetable garden.

I finally got everything in the vegetable planted and things are coming up all ready. Here are the sunflowers.Here are my green beans.

And these are my leeks which were started from plants that I put in a trench so that I can cover them up as they grow to get more whites on them.

I'm also growing tomatoes, onions, and squash.

How does your garden grow!

I've been busy in the garden the last few days. The weather has been wonderful and the bugs have been few and far between which is a rare thing for us this time of year. The vegetable garden is almost completely planted except for a few more Tomato plants and maybe I'll add some Marigold here and there to keep the bugs away.

These Giant Allium are in my herb garden. Although they are only ornamental I look forward to seeing them each year. They're about 3 feet tall with 4 inch globes of miniature mauve flowers all over. They're on of my favourites. They just fascinate me.
The rose below is a shrub rose but I don't know the name of it. I got it at a local plant sale a few years ago and if it weren't for the profusion of beautiful single roses it gets all summer it would have seen the garden gate by now. It is the most prickly thing possible which makes it difficult to weed around and trim. Sometime it even attacks while passing by on the lawn mower. It also spreads runners underground and has to be constantly kept in check so as not to take over the flower bed it's in. But what's a gardener to do with such beautiful roses...I guess just keep the leather gloves on hand!

May and June are my favourite months of the year. Their is so much new growth right now, that I find it inspiring. I think after the long winter months I need to get out and dig in the dirt to feel grounded again and be one with nature.















It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

I'm back

Yes I'm back and I wish I could say that I was away on holiday but sadly that wasn't the case. I've been having Internet problems and was completely off line for week and a half. I think it's rectified now and am so glad to be back. I didn't realize how much I enjoyed and was use to have access to this wonderful internet world. I've missed all my blogging friends and have been trying to catch up with all that I've missed. Thank you to those who have asked where I was. It's nice to now that some one is out there listening!

So what have I been up to? I'd like to say that I have a multitude of creative things to show you but alas it has not been the most creative time for me. I did spend a lot of time in the garden since the Tin man and his helper were around for a few days and we got a lot of outdoor spring cleaning done. It's amazing how much work you can get done with a few extra hands. I was getting a little discourage with my gardens and was thinking I would have to get rid of some because I just wasn't doing them justice with the amount of time I've had to spend on them. But now that the heavy gardening is done I'm looking forward to tending to it the rest of the summer. I haven't been out with the camera since we did the major cleaning so the picture above is one I took a few weeks ago of the property beside us where the Trillium's come up every year. I always watch for them in the spring and they never disappoint. We work so hard trying to make lovely gardens but we can never out do Mother Nature.

Have a lovely Victoria long weekend.