| Back to Back Issues Page |
 |
|
Garden Bliss & Blunder, Issue #59 July 07, 2026 |
JULY ROSES and FIREFLIES
"And the day came when the risk (it took) to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.”
Anais Ninn (1903-1977)
DEADHEAD ROSES...
Roses are now in full, or almost full bloom and are gorgeous.... when the blooms die, it is time to deadhead them ( cut off those dead blooms).. When you do, the rose says (yes, roses speak)... oh, it must not be time for me to stop blooming so now I'll send out more buds... If you want more blooms, take your morning cuppa with some clippers and snip off the dead... see how here: OOPS...Our beautiful, hardy Canadian climber "John Davis" entwined with "Improved Blaze" were gorgeous until the storm bringing heavy rain and wind last week. Here is how it looked on our Garden Tour Day.....
... and after the storm.... the blooms were so heavy on the canes, they are in danger of breaking....
It now needs some serious remedial pruning... when it cools off a little and the incessant bugs are not so nasty .... ON a GARDEN TOUR...
Last week, our Master Gardener group featured 3 gardens to visit in Peterborough. CLAIRE SULLIVAN'S (a local Garden Hero) The BARNARDO GARDEN and OUR GARDEN
Claire's Garden...
CLAIRE SULLIVAN - definitely a Garden Hero Claire has very unique and beautiful gardens, meeting challenges like full sun, and shade as well as a boulevard that gets no watering and tolerates sidewalk winter salt with both foot and vehicle traffic. She successfully grows perennial herbs like Sage, Story, Hyssop, Lovage, Mushroom herb, Parsley, Rosemary Thyme and more. Claire keeps her beautiful Pagoda Dogwood pruned to fit her “small” back shady garden and it blooms for pollinators in Spring. Her Horseradish grown in a huge pot is a perennial with 2 year-old roots she will harvest this year and her front garden has Kiwi vines on the arbour along with a huge Hascap bush she has already harvested a large container of its fruit this year. She's also a seed guru, she grows Marigold, Dill, Cilantro and Gallardia from her own seeds.
Claire's garden is full of Native plants that love full sun. The Barnardo Garden...A former asphalt triangle in the north end of the city, it is “managed’ mostly by Goutweed and a very small group of volunteers. Although full of many native plants that thrive, the biggest struggle is with Gout Weed and this small group of volunteers that varies from 2 to 5 now and then, have tried many things… According to some science from Washington State Univ, one of the best plans (and our present one) is to pull the GW from above the soil and replace it with spreading native plants and lots of wood chips. Busy schedules mean only a few hours a week but hopefully you can see some difference already.
Here you can see the GW is taller than some of our new grasses
Looking better. Our Garden...
I was lucky to get one... thanks to our local Horticultural Assoc.
THE FRONT GARDENS face north and although don't get a full 8 hours of sun, the roses still seem happy.
The climbing roses arch over the side garden with only a few hours of western sun However, we have run out of space and when the apple trees in the back struggled, (because of the Black Walnut) we planted them in the boulevard with some landscape roses and we keep adding cuttings from our spring rose pruning which take root and are also blooming.
Even Doggie pee-mail, winter road and sidewalk salt and debris don't seem to bother these. .... in the fall, we cover them with piles of shredded leaves and every summer they repay us with this.
IN OUR BACK GARDEN.... Challenges!! an 80 ft Black Walnut and a 3-sided Cedar Hedge… SO no roses, no Hydrangeas, no veggies …during the building of an addition, the contractor put in a French Drain to mitigate any future flood waters from the street in front as the back is almost a storybelow.
That Black Walnut is over 80 ft high and drops walnuts in the fall with alarming thuds. Plants that thrive are ferns, Hosta, Heuchera, grasses, 2 Redbuds, Phlox and some struggling Astilbes….and a continued education from Mother Nature what works and what doesn’t.
BOXWOOD MOTH..."The invasive Box Tree Moth (Cydalima perspectalis) feeds exclusively on boxwood plants, stripping leaves and bark which can kill the shrubs. Inspect shrubs from May to October. Look for green-black droppings (frass), webbing, skeletonized leaves, and lime-green caterpillars with black-and-white stripes and shiny black heads." Canadian Inspection Agency
Against new information about Boxwood not being native or friendly here, I still like their habit and the ability to prune them to add shape and texture to the garden. Sadly, one of ours was covered in nasty webs, with dying leaves and ultimately had to be dug out. We cut off all the branches, and stuffed them into a black plastic bag... leaving it in the hot sun for a week before carting it off to the dump... and NOT putting them into the compost to infect 'who-knows-what"...
Now, the white garden has a new rose to replace the sickened Boxwood FIREFLIES...
Photo by Mark Magnerella from Firefly.org Fireflies PRESTON MONTAGUE: ...is a landscape architect and artist who developed a passion for the natural world while growing up in the rural foothills of Virginia. Currently, he practices in Durham, North Carolina working on projects that encourage stronger relationships between people and the natural world for the purpose of improving public and environmental health. He is concerned about losing Fireflies and offers some lessons learned from Fireflies WHAT CAN WE DO? 1. Conserve: leave places alone; cover the soil with plants as corridors of vegetation 2. Manage: remove invasives 3. Restore: recover from losses and disturbances of land and soil 4. Generate habitat: urban plants are used to disturbance. HE SUGGESTS FORMING: PATCHES: the edges of our gardens; our boulevards full of plants CORRIDORS: it's important to connect stretches of plants (gardens) as fireflies cannot travel long distances PATHS & OPEN SPACES along trails or walks FIREFLIES NEED: habitats... plant diversity food... nectar and pollen water.. in and on plants, fountain etc darkness:...tree shade; reclaim the night, evergreen pockets stillness ... screen out humans....don't we all?
Become a Citizen Scientist and report your Firefly sightings at Firefly.org
BOOKS...I am going to do something a bit different here because every book I suggest, I actually read and this time I want to share some of those things I have learned because so far, they all made me think. Some of these things you may already know but what if some of these are new? Wouldn't you want me to share? (I confess as a Master Gardener we sign an agreement to share what we learn... so here goes..
I confess I picked this up and put it down a few times but I read a review and looked again.... It is one I think you really should find and read....(being a bit bossy here) And here's why: Some notes and quotes: NATIVE vs INVASIVE: What and Why it is important to know Native: every species that was a native to a region likely had a role there; a check to control other species... or for food or medicine NATIVE PLANTS: need less maintenance, are more resilient as they have natural defences against native fungi or insects because they have evolved with all these …. but non-native horticultural plants often fail because they have no natural resistance to our native pathogens and bugs. NON-NATIVE: …”most are horticultural plants have been created, are entirely disconnected from the land, regions and surrounding life forms where they will be planted” p.77 "…and consistently fail when planted in landscaping due to their lack of resistance against native fungal pathogens and insects.”p96 INVASIVE: “the greater the distance between a plant’s native habitat and its introduced (new) range, the more likely it is to become invasive.” Invasive in the ecological sense, does not always mean aggressive. Native plants are not invasive although they can become aggressive due to landscape mismanagement like over-grazing. Therefore: “Not every non-native plant is an invasive plant but every invasive plant is a non-native” Worth thinking about this as we choose plants MORE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT… On earth, 96% of mammals are humans and livestock, the other 4% are wild animals Causes of majority of deforestation = cattle, agriculture, soil palm, soy, cocoa and rubber in last 20 years 70% of birds are chickens/poultry and only 30% of birds are wild: These are some of the ideas that make me see and think differently.... There is so much more to this book....
Of course I ordered this one because it had Dragons and Gardening in the same title. I was surprised there is not much about dragons (of course) but the premise is all about seeing, observing, slowing down, and using our senses.... And gardening? wow... so much: Here's just a bit: Gardening demands your energy and heart and gives back more “ A poor farmer grows weeds, a mediocre farmer grows crops and a good farmer grows soil”… Japanese proverb TO CULTIVATE: “Cultivate” comes from the Latin ‘colere’; to culture, to worship, to respect, to till and to take care of…. it is what we do as gardeners.. and keep doing. WHY SLOW DOWN? This is a bit long but really struck home with me: How does gardener learn about the "raw truth" of place? "Every spot has a voice, a particular taste, a great of wind unique to itself, a shadow, a presence. The best gardeners I know, slow way down in order to receive the tidings of the land they are bound to work. We notice where the prevailing wind comes from and how strong it is, learning from the sculpted listing of bent trees. We notice when the sunlight comes up in the morning, every season of the year and where and when it fades red in the west at night. We track rainfall, the first and last frost dates snowfall and sleet and how long it takes the land to dry out after winter ends. We pay minute attention to the grit of our living mantle of soil. We taste the waters of home with discernment and unearned pride. All this is second nature to gardners
And then, there is this: A great reminder when we get to the garden centre or plan a new bed.... Wisdom from a man called Harry Roberts whose sayings come up a lot in the book: "Whenever you do something, anything at all, make sure you ask yourself these three questions: 1. What do I want? 2. How much does it cost? 3. Am I willing to pay the price?
The cost is not always about money.... time is money, effort is like money... 'It is always the garden that makes the gardener, never the other way around" Alan Chadwick (from Dragon's Gate).
ANOTHER THING TO THINK ABOUT: When you plant a single TREE, you plant a whole ecosystem.
J.C. Raulston - a nearly legendary figure: a favourite apostle of plant diversity... a generous spirited giant among horticulturists" I cannot wait to read this one.
Suzanne Simard wrote "Finding the Mother Tree" that was one of the best and most thought-provoking books I have read... I am saving this one as a treat when I finish the others..
UNTIL NEXT TIME...
LUCY SAYS...
Lucy says it is important to keep an eye on your humans when they are in the garden... and to remember, walks are a very important break. Back Issues for Garden Bliss & Blunder
|
| Back to Back Issues Page |
