Convergence of Passions

It's great when one's passions complement each other.  Like my current obsessions with creating pottery and gardening.  There is nothing better than being able to use a piece of pottery, not just admire it on a shelf.

Like these Japanese anemone, which I was fighting back in a section of my garden today, where it's spread too far.  It looks great in contrast with my handmade ceramic vase :

That same vase came in handy for displaying crocosmia which I was also cutting back a few weeks ago :

This crackled vase (the effect achieved with sodium silicate) looks pretty natural holding back some ribbon grass which I was also fighting back in my garden.

I have a number of platters which I use to hold fruit on my countertops.  This large swirly one is the most practical, and here is holding pears and asian pears from my garden :

That same platter is also great for floating camelia flowers, which tend to fall off their stems too easily if displayed in a vase :

Garden Glimpses : Mid-August 2010

Before I show off photos from the garden, I was reminded yesterday about how important friends are.  Sometimes in the busy-ness of life, I tend to forget about the imporant people in my life.  I was driving home at 3:20pm to pick up the kids from camp at 4pm, which is normally about a 35 minute drive, across the Knight Street bridge from Richmond into Burnaby.  But as soon as I turned onto Knight Street, I knew something was wrong.  It was a parking lot.  I had a sinking feeling, that there was not even any way to turn off (without doing something illegal and dangerous), so I had to just inch along and hope for the best.  But within 15 minutes, I realized I had no chance to make it back in time to pick up the kids, so tried phoning my parents.  No answer.  So I phoned my friend Andrea. 

By the time I explained to her where they were, and she looked them up on Google Maps, and headed out, needing to pick up gas along the way, she arrived about 15 minutes after the camp official end time.  But still within an acceptable period of time.  Meanwhile, back on the bridge, I was just crawling along, approaching and crossing the bridge (which usually takes 10 minutes) in 1 hr 50 min.  So if Andrea hadn't saved me with her quick action, to pick up the kids and take them out for pizza at the Mall, I can't imagine what would have happened if I had left them there for almost 2 hours!  I didn't even have a phone number to call anyone at the Camp (which is an outdoor adventure/canoeing camp this week).  Thank you Andrea!

Tonight I picked some more tomatoes from the garden.  I started some from seeds I collected from a small container of specialty tomatoes (purple, striped, etc) which I bought at the grocery store last year.  I seem to remember a few plants of a small purple variety, but they must have been hybrids and not have come true from seed, since the tomatoes I got are considerably larger and less purple than I remember.  But they were still juicy and sweet.

The yellow pear tomatoes (bottom right) are one of my favourites for their unique look and mild flavour, and I grow them almost every year.  The turnip-shaped one on the bottom left must have been one from my specialty tomato purchase, although I don't remember it.  It is very pretty also.

The Italian Plum tree is doing very well again this year.  There are lots of small plums lying under the tree, as it goes through its self-pruning process, but it looks like there will still be lots of fruit for our family to sample also.

This is the first year I bought a number of flowers and seeds through mail order, and I have to say, the results have been quite disappointing.  I may expand on that in a later post.  On the other hand, I made some purchases in the Spring plant sales which have turned out very well.  I also picked up a small pack of bulbs (corms) of the crocosmia "Emily McKenzie" at our local garden shop, Gardenworks, and I was pleased to notice it blooming tonight.  Although maybe a bit deeper orange than I expected, it is certainly as beautiful as the photo portrayed, and I am surprised by the large size of the blooms!

This was a good find, and addition to my garden!  I may seek out some yellow crocosmia next year.  I already have the common orange one, and the tall red crocosmia "Lucifer".

Crocosmia Cleanup

Today was a perfect gardening day, mostly sunny, calm, and with 90% probability of precipitation tomorrow. Ideal weather for transplanting and dividing perennials. So while my husband and kids went to visit their grandma, I got their approval to stay home and spend the day gardening.

Here is a diary of my gardening day:

11:00 AM - Into the Garden
I finally got the family out the door, and slipped into my gardening clogs and gardening clothes (ones which will end up in the laundry for sure!), and started out. First I did some light weeding in the herb garden, took a few "before" photos, and got myself in the mood for the big project.

11:30 AM - Tackled the Crocosmia Patch
The crocosmia patch, which started as a few small plants maybe 4 years ago, has become a large patch, a couple of feet across, blooming handsomely in front of my buddleia each year (see 2008 photo - 3rd photo in the posting).

In the last couple of years, though, a nasty creeping grass poked its way up through the centre of the patch, and my attempts to pull it out between the blades/leaves have failed. I had this project on my mental list already last year, but never got to it. So this Spring, my patch looked like a hairy mess (as always, click any photo for a slighly larger view):


So I decided to dig up the whole thing, separate out the crocosmia corms, and then replant them. Little did I know how big of a project this would be. When I started digging, I found that the patch went down about 6" to 8" deep, and was a big mess of tangled, connected corms, shooting out sideways (which is why the patch spreads so nicely) but also vertically, forming little chains. Reading in Wikipedia now (see Crocosmia article), it indicates that the corms are able to dig themselves deeper in the ground (wow! weird!), so that the youngest corms are on top, the oldest further down. What an amazing survival strategy! And good reason to think about where you want to plant crocosmia, since it may be a bit difficult to remove later!

1:00PM - Break for Lunch
After 1.5 hr of heavy shoveling, cutting, tugging and pulling, I was more than half way through the patch, but quite exhausted. So I took a break for lunch, and then collapsed on the sofa for an hour.

2:30PM - Back to the Crocosmia Project
After my break, I want back to the task with renewed vigour. Even after cleaning the soil off the crocosmia corms, and pulling off much of the roots too (the fine grass roots looked very much like the crocosmia roots, so I wanted to be as sure as I could that I've removed those grasses), I ended up with an amazing pile of crocosmia. Probably 25 to 30 pounds worth! If they were edible, I'd be pretty happy!

I decided that instead of just replanting a patch, I would plant a ring around the base of the buddleia, and then about 12" along the edge of the grass. In between, I planted some daylilies which I salvaged earlier this week. I took the opportunity to also remove some of the grass, and expand the garden bed by a few inches also. I also removed a lavender which was dead. (This cold winter killed off a few lavender, one rosemary, and possibly a few other plants and small shrubs).

I ran into lots of roots of the buddleia, which I tried to work around, or push back into the soil. So I hope he will forgive me, and do well this year. The hummingbirds sure do enjoy his flowers. I think the garden looks pretty good now, and I think it should fill in quite nicely:

5:30PM - Cleanup and Wind Down
After the 3 hours of tough gardening work (5 hours total today!) I was beyond exhausted. But I managed to put away the wheelbarrow and buckets, and tuck the extra crocosmia away in a shady spot near the house (I must have some 10 or 15 pounds to give away!), and make my way back to the house. On the way, I overseeded the lawn in spots where it was too bare (it was recently dethatched, removing a significant amount of moss).

6PM - Dinner and Blogging
I managed to microwave a 5 minute Red Curry Chicken frozen dinner, but it was quite unimpressive. The taste was fairly good, but the chicken was rubbery. My body is aching all over, especially my feet. My plantar fasciitis was diagnosed just recently, but I guess I've been suffering for about 6 months now. I finally sought medical help, and am in physio sessions twice a week, to try to resolve this situation. It seems to be helping, but it may be some time to be entirely pain free, if that is even a possibility.

I am very thankful for my chance today, to spend the time in the garden. There are few other activities which I would enjoy more.