The fruits of our labour from Landscape Project 2012

I had created a landscape design at Olds College summer 2012 and implemented the design in the late summer/early fall. I've been promising photos of the project and here they are. Just imagine the before - grass growing up to the house everywhere. The new beds are located on the south and west sides of the house. Now, I must warn you - when looked at from a certain perspective, the dry stream bed resembles a certain piece of anatomy.... ( I did not do this! I laid the garden hose out in a perfectly lovely configuration and went off to work in the library while Chris, a friend and professional landscaper, provided the labour.) Everything is blooming now. I'll post those another time.

 

West bed: Ninebark, Japanese irises, various irises, foxglove, Juniper in the dry bed, and more

 

South bed: Lilies - Asiatic, Day, Tiger lilies, Primroses, and more

 

West bed: Irises in bloom

 

South West corner leading into the dry bed

 

Our Sandy checking out the state of the flowers - probably looking for something to eat

 

The *****-shaped dry stream bed - a conversation starter if there ever was one. Bea and Jeannette saw it much more quickly that I did. It took 2 weeks for me to notice. I think I'll keep it...

Pruning Your Roses: Why, How and When (from springvalleyroses.com)

I would not normally regurgitate information, but in this case, I feel this is very good information to know. I used this process myself this year, and my rose bushes are doing much better at this time, than in previous years. For one thing, I did not prune back my bushes last fall, and used these tips to prune them this Spring. There are only 2 of my rose bushes that did not leaf out from old wood. 

So here it is, straight from Spring Valley Roses: 

Why Do I Have to Prune? 
Why prune? Because it gives your rose an attractive shape, and keeps it healthy by removing dead, diseased, overcrowded and insect-infected canes. Don't believe me? Then, let your roses go without pruning for a season or two and you'll see why you should prune. 

When Do I Prune? 
In the early spring while the rose is dormant or when the buds are just starting to swell. If you prune your rose in the fall, the wounds are more open and susceptible to injury from winter cold and wind. And, you may prune more than you need to or not enough and still have to come back and prune in the spring anyway. 

How Do I Prune? 
The approach to take when pruning is to think about how you want your plant to look. It's like giving your rose a haircut. You need to remove canes that are sticking out in a way you find unattractive or are crossing over other canes and preventing healthy, uniform growth. Pruning is also like giving your rose a physical exam. You might find canes that may have died due to winter injury, insect damage or just old age and need to be removed. There really isn't any other time besides pruning that you give your rose a real good "once over" check. It's a good way to get to know your rose and understand how it grows. Pruning is not something to be afraid of. Just like a bad hair cut, a bad pruning job will usually outgrow itself. We all know that you can't learn to ride a bike by reading a book about it -- you have to just do it. So, think about why you want to cut a cane before you cut it, then just trust yourself and go at it. Understand the basic principles and you'll do fine. 

The basic principles:

1. Wear gloves. Forget the fancy $40 varieties and get a pair of welding gloves for about $7 at your local hardware store. 
2. Get yourself a good pair of pruners and keep it sharpened so it makes a clean cut and doesn't smoosh the cane. 
3. Prune in early spring while the rose is still dormant, or when the buds are just beginning to swell. 
4. Prune out dead, diseased, or insect-infested canes. 
5. Prune out canes that cross over and rub against each other. 
6. Make the cut at an angle so water runs off the cane. A flat cut allows water to sit on the wound, encouraging decay. 
7. Make the cut 1/4 inch above a bud that is facing to the outside of the shrub. The new growth will come from that bud and cause the cane to grow out. If you cut above a bud that is facing in, the new growth will grow in. 
8. Cut back shrubs by one-third every 3 years to encourage branching and new, strong growth. 
9. Cut out one-third of the older canes on climbers every other year to encourage new, strong growth. 
10. Always cut out an older cane before you cut out a newer cane, if you have to choose between the two. Older canes usually have a grey or brownish, weathered appearance.

General Maintenance 
Once your roses are established, which usually takes three years, it's a good idea to do some maintenance pruning. Every spring, prune out the dead wood. Dead wood is brown and dry on the inside, so prune until you see green on the inside of the canes. In colder climates, some roses may die back to the "snowline" and you will need to remove the dead tops. If you're not confident about what's dead and what's alive, wait until the rose leafs out. Then you'll know for sure. Other than cleaning out dead wood, most Shrub roses don't need much yearly pruning. However, you may want to minimally prune some roses to control their shape. When you do this, be sure to prune once-blooming roses after they bloom, or you'll have fewer blossoms to enjoy. But, if you want rose hips, don't prune after blooming. You may find that some shrub roses may seem to bloom less after they are about five or six-years old. They may have lots of large canes that just don't seem to bloom like they used to. To remedy this, prune back the top of the plant by one third, and remove some of the largest canes. This will encourage the rose to grow new canes that will produce plenty of blossoms. 

What About Once-blooming Roses? 
Even though once-blooming roses bloom on "old wood" (last year's growth), they still may need some spring pruning before they bloom to remove dead, diseased or insect-infected canes. But, save all your pruning for shaping until after they bloom, or you'll have fewer blossoms to admire. 

Pruning for Training 
Yes, you can train your roses! For example, if you prune out all but about five to seven strong canes on a climbing rose, all the energy will go into those few canes and they'll grow taller than an unpruned climber. Climbers are usually the ones that need the most training. On a trellis, train the canes to grow at an angle, rather than straight up. This results in more blossoms all along the canes rather than just at the top. Prune back side branches so only about four buds remain. Otherwise, climbers can quickly turn into thickets that you wouldn't want to trip and fall into (you'd be stuck for awhile). 

End Results 
When you're done pruning, your rose should have a well-balanced appearance, with healthy young canes. If you have the time, it's a good idea to seal the cut wounds with Vaseline or Elmer's glue to keep out insects, such as borers, looking for a nice place to lay some eggs.

First Iris and Blooming Bleeding Hearts

More blooms from my garden. These are the 2nd and 3rd blooming plants. I had a Globe Flower as well, but the deer ate the blooms. [Sigh] Ignore the dandelions - haven't weeded that flower bed yet.

First Flowers

These lovely little primroses bloomed for the first time. They were in the old flower bed and I think they were just overwhelmed. Now they BLOOM! More on Primroses from Canadian Gardening: In Praise of Primroses

Friend Dorothy's New Greenhouse

Dorothy has had a plan to build a greenhouse with PVC pipe and heavy poly for a few years now. She had a plan and then one day she and I were in Canadian Tire where she say a small Utility vehicle tarp shed on sale at a good price. We discussed how well it would work for the framework and she decided to buy it. She took it home and it was the beginning of a beautiful friendship! First, Bob helped her get the frame set up and secured it with extra screws in the frame. Then she attached the 2 end tarp flaps that came with the package - the door end rolls up quite nicely. She built the raised greenhouse beds from scrap pallets she got from work and then she put poly over the center section so lots of sunlight can get into the plants. She is rockin' that greenhouse!

A Shameless plug...

The Seed Catalogues are here!

The first seed catalogue arrived in my mail just before Christmas (don't you just love that? Helps me through the winter blues when I can plan for the spring). My mom and I were talking about what we would need to build raised beds for her vegetable garden this year, and I started to do some research on the steps to do that, as well as collecting photos as examples for her to pick out what she would like to for the beds. Of course, this got me thinking of spring... and my seed catalogue beckoning from the top of magazine pile.

I spoke with Tara today and we thought it would be fun to start a 'Wish List' of plants and flowers to add to our gardens. I'm going back to my catalogue - I remember seeing a double lily in there that I liked...

I love my print catalogues, but here they are in online format, just in case you want to check them out:

Henry Fields Canada

Alberta Nurseries & Seeds 2012

Breck's

Veseys

McKenzie's & McFayden's Seeds

Prairie Garden Seeds

Prairie Originals

T&T Seeds

The Saskatoon Farm

And if you want to browse for other seed catalogues, the Canadian Gardening website has a list:

Canadian Gardening 

Enjoy!