A Gardeners Forum Forums Members History Forum Life 2004 Hello from Ontario, Canada

Hi from Ontario! I look forward to learning lots of new information and gather knowledge from the experienced people in the forum.

Glad to hear that Terry, hope I get to have lots of fun in the process too! Gardening, sunshine and great helpers to keep me on the straight and narrow, what more could I ask for?

Hi Chrissy and JM! I will be checking everything out and getting lots of ideas I hope from the forum. We moved recently to a new home and I now have 2 acres to landscape, doubt I'll get it all done this year! If anyone is looking for a garden to hoe please feel free to come on over.....

Hi and Welcome from sunny Florida. Wow 2 acres to landscape! Sounds like you've got your hands full. You'll have fun though I bet.

Karen

Hi Karen,

It's a hand full to say the least but the plan will take years I'm sure. Half the fun is in the planing, any neat ideas you could think of that would help? I'm open to all suggestions.

Hey neighbor from Manitoba!!
Southwestern Manitoba to be more exact.

I would give you a welsome, but I don't think I've been here any longer than you have.

Hi Connie,

Hope your "snow" is darn well gone by now and your out in the garden getting ready for a great season.

Thanks for the welcome, great to have a neighbour on board!

Yes, the snow is finally gone, but my yard is now one huge mud bog!

Hi Connie and welcome

I know the feeling about the 2 acres. I get kidded by the family that I am running out of room - because I also take care of my mom's 2 acres and my aunt and uncle have me working on their two - - so when I see something I know one or the other will like - I get it for them - also splitting plants and stuff - - but 7 years - and still not out of room on my own acreage.

Wish you years and years of enjoyment in the garden.

There's a lot of good info on the site - especially on where to get plants at better than retail prices.

Jon

Connie, glad to hear the snow has stopped out west but seems the rain is still coming down. We've had our fair share of that as well and I'm sick to death of it, I want to get gardening!

Jon I love the "better than retail price", when you have so much area to cover retail is just out of the question. I've been busy since very early spring planting seeds to help fill these new beds up, some perennials and some annuals to get them started. Any suggestions for these sources you mentioned would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Everyone! I'm brand new to this forum. My name is Laurelann, and I live in Hillsburgh, Ontario. I've been an avid gardener for the past few years. Most of my gardens are raised lasagna gardens, plus two large mulch gardens filled with shrubs, ornamental grasses, bird houses, feeders and baths. My back yard is truly a haven for me and my husband.

I also enjoy doing mosaics, rock painting, reading, and my little grandson.

Hi laurelann, we're neighbours. I live east of Fergus about 20 minutes down the road from Hillsburgh. Isn't doing lasagna gardening so much easier than the old dig and dig and dig way? I've been doing it too with great results the last little while. Hope Mother Nature does us proud this summer and stops some of this darn rain we've been having so we can get on with gardening before everything floats away on us.

sibyl, lasagna gardening is where you put down either newspaper or cardboard on the ground where you would like a garden then start to layer it up. You can use leaves, compost or what ever you have then a layer of peat moss before putting triple mix on top. Instant garden beds, no weeds or grass in them and everything grows wonderfully. It's so much easier than digging up sod and trying to amend soil to get one started and they perform very well.

Sunkeeper - Hi.

For trees - - www.arborday.org

now - admittedly the trees are very young. For joining ($10 US) you get a choice of 3 packages - 10 flowering trees, or 10 oaks (each is 2 trees of 5 types each) or 10 Colorado Spruce. You can also sign different members of your family up to get say 2 packages.

Also - they have great prices on other trees. I've had pretty good success rate - - better in fact than most mail order nurseries.

For plants and seeds - - there is an active (or I think its active) "swap" on this site. I think Chrissy and Weezie are working on that one.

- - - - - - - - - -

What I found that worked best in my yard was to attack in major sections and start to whittle it down. Put in a couple of trees and roses and now - 7 years later -- I have 5 primary sections (all in the front yard - back will be animal type stuff eventually ).

Now I do have a heck of a lot to go though - - I intend to put in an arbor type walkway - which will have rose bushes on one side, rose trees on the other - with grapes as the primary covering. So, I've had the rose bushes and grapes getting established - and now have 2 of the trees - - next project that area will be the framing.

Also -- I definitely make a pain of myself at the nursery. I keep an eye for when things go on sale - such as 3 palms that I got (2 one time, 1 another) for 1/3 of what they normally sell for.

Also - I'm not skittish about buying the "dying" as usually they can be revived - - and the Wal-Marts/Home Depots like to really mark them down.

But - - the biggest aids on this list are the Arbor Day society and the seed/plant swaps.

Hope you enjoy planning, planting and relaxing in your gardens.

Jon

Thanks Jon, I'll check that site out!

Thanks Sunkeeper! Nice to talk to someone from the neighbourhood! I know a couple of people who live in Fergus.

You're right, the lasagna garden is the only way to go. They are neat, easy to mow and whippersnip around, extremely easy to work with the soil, and the soil is beautiful! I have 8 lasagna gardens of varying sizes, from 3'x 6' to 3'x 10', and a couple of corner beds.

I also have a couple of mulched areas. I had planted several shrubs throughout the yard, so that I would have a nice view from my deck, but my husband cannot be trusted near them with a lawn mower or whippersnipper, so I had to cut around them all by hand. What a pain! So, out of self defence, I took up all the sod in an area slightly larger than the area about the shrubs, lined it with bricks, added a couple of nice birdfeeders on posts, some garden art, and covered the whole thing in mulch. It truly looks marvelous! My DH gave me a lovely arbor for Mother's day, so of course I had to make another mulch garden for it, with a stepping stone pathway, weigela shrubs, a wooden deer, 3 large rubber geese, and various ornamental grasses. Goodness, I must be exausted! I think I need a nap!

Laurelann

WOW Laurelann,your yard sounds Fabulous

A nap, geesh, you need a full fledged sleep their girl after all that work!

Your yard sounds wonderful, while they can be a whole lot of work to establish, the end result is always so satisfying. If this darn rain doesn't stop soon I'll never get to the end result, my gardens have just become my mud pits! We tried to dig a pond on Sat and boy we sure have a pond now, it's 3/4 full of water with no liner. Looks like I'll be spending the next week with the pump rather than the rake.

So, how much rain have you gotten out there in Ontario? The sun is finally shining here. For now anyway.

Hey - you could just tell those rain clouds to come a bit farther south and west -- I certainly won't complain! (Course, I do need to get a window replaced in my car first - - haven't gotten it fixed yet - from that last big windstorm - but with the lack of rainfall here - haven't had to be in a hurry either.)

Jon

Rain rain go away! We've had so darn much rain over the past few weeks that now everything is floating and I think I should change hobbies from gardening to Ark building.

Inch wise I have no idea but there is water laying everywhere, slugs have taken over my gardens and some plants are just rotting in the ground from lack of air to breath. I live just outside a small town in southern Ontario where yesterday part of the dam broke giving way to torrents of water. They are hoping the rest will hold until some of the run off is gone and they can fix the broken part. Thank goodness I'm above the dam so it won't effect me at all but I do feel for those below as many may lose hours of long work in their gardens.

I'd be more than happy to send this stuff anywhere anyone wants it! Send zip or postal code and I'll pass it along to the rain people with directions to take it elsewhere.

Why is Mother Nature so upset with us???????? This weather is just crazy.