Nouja, ek wéét ons kan nie kers vashou by Harry se ma, en Cathy van Nanaimo se groen vingers nie, maar net om die bal aan die rol te sit vir die tuiniers onder ons, hier is so 'n paar fotos van die kleur wat dié tyd van die jaar by ons agterdeur pronk!



... en so 'n bietjie van die "ekskawasie" wat gebeur het om die agtertuin vol goeie grond te kry!



... en vir dié wat nog meer wil sien, hier!

Hendie

Pragtig! Julle het regtig 'n pragtige tuin.

Nou vir wat kla jy dat julle nie kan tuin maak in die kleigrond nie?

Cathy K.

Nee, Cathy...hy's bang hy tref olie as hy grawe!

Dis mooi, Hendie!

Hendie,

Hoe sal hierdie selfde tuin lyk in die winter?

Marius

Daar is ook 'n paar winterfotos in die Flickr Set waarna ek verwys, maar vir dié wat lui is ...



Hendie

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Hopefully, we'll be forgiven for not having half the garden the rest of you have...keep in mind though that we've just moved in and we have many years to get the garden the way we want it....

We have a steep embankment and Dana doesn't like mowing it, so we've started a little flower bed there. We aim to increase the size by next year. I even planted peas and swiss chard in between the plants and they're coming along nicely....

Liz,

I think you have a lovely piece of ground and it has so much potential - not that it is bad, even as is.

I so envy you that space. Much nicer than living on a postage stamp sized lot, but then again a lot more iupkeep, but it will be so worthwhile.

I think your house is a really pretty one, too.

Wow! I love what you've done with the garden, Hendie. I would love to do something like that in part of our garden, and also a built-in braai. Next year, maybe. Carlos still has so much work to do inside. All I can do is paint walls, although I am willing to give anything a try. I actually spent some time in our garden today, doing my all time favourite thing (not) - weeding. Our garden is a bit on the wild side now, and we have about a quarter acre of land which is not fun to weed or mow, but it is lovely when everything is in order - sigh. Here are a few pics - sorry, if I've shared these already. So far, the only edible stuff growing is: apples, strawberries, raspberries and lettuce. I will keep watching and hoping that what I planted will take root, and if not, try again next year.

Thanks, Karen...we live on a corner of a crescent, if that makes sense! We have a huge front yard and quite a bit on the side where you can see the gazebo (two biggish decks), however, on the other side there is only about 8 ft or so between us and where the neighbours lot starts. We also like all the trees in the yard, because in Winter it lets the sun in and in Summer we have the shade.

After almost 5 years in an apartment, we really love having a garden once again, and I'm back to taking a walk in the garden when I get home from work...after I've rubbed Tabard all over me!!

Liz,

julle is seker bly om weer in 'n huis te wees.!?

Ek kyk vir hom so die dêng! Soos ek dênk hom die ouwaas Dana hy gaan hom meer hou vannie gras as vannie graaf by daai steilte!

Harry, daardie steilte is erger as wat dit lyk! Die buurman oor die straat het vir hom gese hy moet 'n 'ride-on' kry, hy sal net moet rollbars opsit en 'n helmet dra! Ons geniet die huis vreeslik...natuurlik is 'n mens se werk nooit klaar by 'n huis nie, maar dit is ons s'n...ons betaal nou nie meer iemand anders se 'mortgage' af nie!

Here's a few of our favourite plants.



Pierre's clivias flowered for the first time this year. I bought a white peonie, which turned out to be very pink, and the blue poppy was bought at a garage sale. The flowers of the clematis are always striking and come in a variety of colours. See Harry's and Hendie's.



This is one of four proteas that survived the winter. The yellow rhododendron was a gift from Pierre's sister when she visited us a few years ago. And you can never go wrong with astilbe for a shady part of the garden.

Cathy K.

In our Garden this Morning



Apologies for the quality of the shot. It was at maximum zoom.

That is a very good shot for a digital....

Thanks, Johan! You'll notice the hummingbird had the good tatste to go for our South African Crocosmia!

I noticed, I have a similar a photo taken in Bellville with a Hummingbird going for the same..... (that was back in '91 or '92). At the time I used a Minolta with a 200? mm lens.

I don't think people realise how small a bird that is, that makes it even more difficult to get a good shot. Taking photos of birds used to be a hobby of mine.

That jogged my memory: When I was in the Malaysian Teman Negara (Rain forrest), I had my camera on a tripod with a 1000 mm AF lens with the aim to take photos of birds. Low and behold the most beautiful bird came and sat 2 meter in front of that lens, and it was impossible to focus as I needed at least 15 m for that - nothing I could do at the time.... Imagine me being cheesed off.

After the recent rain, our garden is just blooming....

Karen, it looks beautiful.

I just came to the conclusion that the most prominent posters on SAcanada are also excellent gardeners - or love gardening at least. Hendie/Lyne, Harry/family, and Karen+. There must be some deep psychological motive to see things grow and develop. A creative spirit perhaps.
Your gardens all look stunning!

En die Kotze's of course.

Pierre,

the climate here in Vancouver naturally leads to it. You stick it in the ground and it grows. From April to October it is basically a very mild climate ( with the odd hot hysterics in high summer, like now) and the rainfall is good emnough for all things to grow madly. And, usually, nothing burns to death like in Pretoria.

Harry dont be so modest. If plants grow easy, so do weeds. Getting rid of fast growing weeds is a big job. They seem to grow faster than plants. So to have a good looking garden requires regular/daily dedication and hard work. But if one likes it, it is not really work but pleasure. I see many gardens around from rented houses and they dont seem to care what it looks like around the outside of the house. If it happens to be your own, it gets attention if it's your pride and joy.
I feel it adds value to the house. If the garden is neat, the house is probably well kept as well. But the realtors probably dont think along those lines.

Pierre,

any credit that may be due, goes to my mother...HOWEVER, let me demonstrate the point as follows:

Look, for example, at the kind of mix my mother comes up with behind the house: Ferns, Rhodos, Day lilies, Asian Lilies, roses, shasta daisies, crocosmia ( 2 types), Lily-of-the-valley, spyrea, balloon flowers, hosta, kosmos and heaps and heaps more species out of sight. To me it is a jumble....she loves 'em all.



In winter that is bare, except for the ferns and the rhododendron that you see in the middle left. She talks to this stuff, waters it, and then it grows!...and everyone around here comes and gets plants from her. I'm constantly having to sort out something for her, but she watches me like hawk through the bathroom window. Just let my heel touch a plant, and I hear the tapping on the window!! If I then look around, I see a finger wagging at me.

At the other ( southern) end of the lot it looks like this...basically the some "assorted" story. She's not great on "feature" plants. She love's 'em all. The Shastas that came up in the middle of the staircase were NOT removed, for example!(?)



I'm more the the person for individual things, like this lavatera on the deck:



If it were up to me, there would be far fewer plants and they'd be strategically located. Nevertheless, the first two pictures, I believe, testify to how wonderful the Vancouver climate is for the job. Sure, my mother works like an absolute slave to keep it going, but she would NOT hav been this successful in Pretoria. It was very pretty there also, but she was vastly more limited in what she could do, given the dry climate and scorching dry heat for many months. This place is just simply great for gardening!

Some gardeners tend to go overboard and plant everything they can lay their hands on. Im sure your mother is in her element in Vancouver.
I also like just a few strategically placed feature plants. But with all the growing opportunity it is hard for a born gardener to contain themselves.
Just the fact that you cn spell the names of the different plants in your garden is allready impressive.
Do you remember the guy on tv in SA on saturday mornings who gets so excited about gardening (Keith Kirsten or somebody....) - he always seemed so excited and energetic about his subject, it was truly inspiring.

The variety of plants in Canada still astound me, and the foliage colours are something I've never seen before. You can have a brightly coloured garden with foliage plants alone.

I'm also amazed at how the Canadians plant stuff. Even a large tree never gets a hole that's bigger than the pot they buy it in. They always put a thick layer of mulch on their flower beds and most plants are merely stuck in this mulch. And everything grow.

I still believe in digging a large hole and filling it with all kinds of goodies like compost, bonemeal, etc. This might be why our cherry tree never even noticed it was transplanted and gave us our largest crop of cherries yet.

The wild flowers in our area include sweetpeas, foxgloves, delphiniums, wild roses, shasta daisies, to name but a few. And then there are those pesky invaders: the broom shrub and blackberries. It's almost impossible to eradicate them.

Cathy K.

It was indeed Keith Kirsten - see the link. Still alive and well and doing shows.
My memory is not as bad as I thought.

Hi All,

Love the beautiful flowers.....

Aangesien ons nie 'n tuin het nie......(nog nie - trek in ons nuwe huis in as dit klaar gebou is in April) is Algonquin maar ons tuin vir nou!

Kyk tog hoe lekker......mens kan sommer my voels in ons tuin handvoed.

Ha ha...

These red maple trees seem to be everywhere on the island, and we have one in our front garden. Really pretty!

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment

My elderly landlady gave me permission to make use of her entire garden for the summer. The backyard is two plots wide and two plots in length, and has been turned into an orchard...pear, apple, peach and cherry trees, along with two vegetable gardens and a couple of grape vines against the fence. It is such a lovely space; an oasis in the middle of the city.

I have spent some of my afternoons sitting in the shade of my favourite pear tree; reading and doing art. This past weekend I went out there again...and for the first time I noticed a rugby ball-sized hornet nest hanging from one of the branches, just a few feet above my head!

I just thought to share a couple of pics of the nest...as I find it fascinating. I did a bit of a google search and as far as I can tell it is a bald-faced hornet's nest. The hornets are black with white/ivory markings on their faces and bodies.

Very interesting - I think I have once seen a similar nest in a tree down in the ravine near my apartment, but it was so high up in the tree, I couldn't see it clearly. I hope you have shifted your chair - you don't want to get too close and personal with those guys!

Hey Matisse,

I have shifted my favourite spot to a different corner of the garden...under one of the cherry trees. It just makes me feel a little "kriewelrig" and itchy-twitchy when I sit too close to the nest.

Luckily these hornets are not aggressive and will only sting in defense of their nest...so as long as I don't bug them, they won't bug me (hehehaha, I know...bad joke).

I think the most interesting fact about them (thanks to good old google) is that they are sort of omnivorous. They hunt insects (flies etc)...but they also like the nectar from flowers.

I still want to get a good pic of one of the hornets themselves...

Will post that as soon as I capture it...

Later
CeeEee

Have you checked to see what's up there inbetween the branches of the cherry tree?

OK, it is official...I am a geek. Clearly I have too much time on my hands !

I went back to the nest and took a few pics of the hornets. My camera is only a 5 megapixel aim and shoot...so I zoomed in as far as I could. That is why the pics aren't super clear. I also used the smart sharpen tool in photoshop to tighten up the wobbles a little.

But I am really interested in these bugs...so here you go...

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VEry interesting....CeeEee!

You need a Nikon 995 camera...vintage 2001. Still the best macro zoom point 'n shoot around, but has 3.2Mpixels.

You can get as close as 3/4 of an inch.

Maybe it makes at least two of us, CeeFee! But I enjoy it.

Here are our 2 year old Hydrangeas (Krismisrose). They don't get cut back before the winter, but rather after all the extreme cold has gone, about April or May. Otherwise the cold might just cause damage through the vulnerable cut wounds.

Here are two varieties planted, in alternating order.

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Harry, I have the old Nikon 950 here and it is fantastic for macro's too. Its practically the same model as the 995, but only 2.5mpixels. In fact we wanted to get the 995, but it was not released yet when we were shopping for our camera and were about to go on holiday so could not wait for it.
Here are two macros of some roses in my garden on the 950.




Of course now my husband has been dropping lots of hints for many months that it is time to upgrade - I think it was the D50 that he wanted, (which if memory serves is what you have?) I guess I will have to see what model is out by Christmas and maybe if he is good Santa will be kind to him

Harry

If I could supply you with a Nikon 995, would you go up to these nasty's and get me a couple of macro's at 3/4 of an inch? Komaan, wees eerlik!

Pierre K.

..ek hoor jou, Pierre!

Jen1,

the D50 I have has apparently now dropped to around $650, I believe. It is "now last year's news". It is already 14 months into its life as a product, and still no software upgrade.

Anybody had a look at the new Sony's - replacing the Minoltas.

Our gardens don’t look very well right now, but personally I can’t wait to get out there.

The lawn is a mess, with large patches of moss and some or orther obnoxious weed that I can’t identify just yet, growing everywhere. This time of year contractors wanting to aerate our lawn, beat a path to the front door. Has anyone made use of their services before, and does it actually help?

In South Africa we used to spread a decent topsoil on our lawns in the early spring; will that help for Canadian sod as well? How does one create a nice, lush lawn in Canada?

I’m sure Hary’s mom is just as eager to start digging and planting. (you do the digging, right Harry? ). The seed and plant catalogues have been arriving daily in our mail and all the females in this household are pouring over them.

The temperature has been above the freezing mark for quite a while in Nanaimo and it was a balmy 12°C last evening.

A neighbour suggested that we create little nestboxes to attract the blue orchard bees to the garden. They start their activities earlier than other bees and can help to pollinate early blossoming fruit trees.

Ahh! To have spring again!

Cathy K.

Cathy, it is not a bad idea to have your lawn aerated once every 3-5 years and especially if you have clay soil, like what I have here on the farm (DEEP clay). To kill the mossy areas, add some Lime to your fertilizer - my previous garden had a lawn that was totally moss covered. I aerated the soil and then added a good fertilizer with Lime and killed all the moss! Do NOT talk about Spring!!! I just arrived back from 6 glorious days in the sun and on the Beach in Florida and 30 plus centimetres of snow waited for us..... . I chased 7 Deer out of my garden this morning when I went out to fill the bird feeders . Spring would be VERY nice, right NOW!

Part of my "hidden" garden. A stone covered wasteland has been transformed into a little hide-away. The clematis and azalea always make a magnificent show.



Funny what one can buy at garage sales. Nobody knew what kind of plant this was, so we got it for $6. After a little TLC it produced this uniquely coloured clivia flowers. It's a first even for the guys on the Clivia Forum.
See here.

Cathy K.

That looks really good , Cathy. Congratulations.

Over here in Vancouver our clematis' got killed by the winter...no flowers.

There's a difference between Azaleas and Rhododendrons in Canada. In South Africa they're all called azaleas. Here's a few of the rhododendrons in our garden.









Cathy K

This is the Silver Dollar Plant or the Lunaria Annua. I have a lot of seeds, if anybody is interested.

They are biennials and only flower in their second year. They prefer shade to semi shade and moist conditions. Hardy to Zone 4A.

The pods must dry on the plants. One has to remove the outer parts of the pods to expose the beautiful silver membrane inside.

Cathy K.

Cathy I am not great gardener but I am learning. I would love some seeds but not sure if zone 4A would include Calgary or not.

Barbara, you could always try. Send me your address and I'll mail you some seeds. The plants thrived after Nanaimo's worst winter in living memory.

Cathy K.

Thanks very much I have sent you a PM.

Have anyone else had this experience? You buy a beatiful flowering orchid in the shops and within a few months you sit with this!



Don't lose heart. I took them out of their pots and discovered that their roots were squashed into little polystyrene cups filled with a little bit of wood shavings and lots of polystyrene peanuts. I made a mixture of pine bark and peatmoss and transplanted them into larger plantpots and this is the result.





There's nothing that a little TLC can't do!

Cathy K.

We left our clivias outside until fairly late in winter. They immediatly decided that summer was here when we brought them into the nice warm house.

This picture was taken today.



Cathy K

Dear Kathy K,

Now I feel really homesick after seeing your beautiful clivia... my mom has a garden full of clivias back home, orange ones and she has a big yellow one just like yours....

Beautiful picture. Thanks for uploading it. We don't have a garden right now because we live in an apartment, but we are moving to Corner Brook, NL in the spring and hopefully will be able to buy a cottage on the edge of town once we have enough money for a downpayment (we are a young couple and have only been married 1 1/2 years) and with all the spousal sponsorship expenses we have been unable to save up ... bah...

anyhow I can't wait to have a little garden where I can 'plotter' around! Wonder where I would find clivias ... I sure would love to have some too! A nice reminder of home ...