The last touch of August.

Well there was a break in the rain today. Look who finally showed her head. This is the first bloom on my yellow dinner plate Dahlia's. Last year I had a cluster of 6 plants. This is the only one that survived the winter. I'm just happy it survived the summer.

Sigh.
I added in a few more succulents. I'm very excited to see what this will look like as they spread. Its right at the front edge of the garden.
The rain certainly has made everything grow. It seems I forgot this outside recently ;)
My pots are looking fab. I recently added a variegated grass and some pretty little yellow flowers that I cant remember the name of.......
The stonecrop Sedium is starting to blush.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend. September is knocking, and the garden is showing her season.

The last throes of summer

I must apologise for not being the dedicated blogger I aspire to be. Not only is summer waining, but my time too seems to be slipping away. Between the kids, the bears, the heat, the rain, and our busy family schedule, not much of the day is left for me to be taking photo's and updating my blog.
I wont be gone, Ill still be here updating when possible. Busy in the garden when the day permits.

Arrr, there be bear here.

Well another reminder to be on high alert. Its bear season.
This year has been a particularly bad year for the bears.
An extreamly cold and wet winter, lead to low berry's crops out in the bush. They are visiting neighborhoods like mine with all together too much ease. Mid day raids are no longer uncommon. . There have even been a few bear attacks in the lower mainland this summer. One particularly awful attack happened on my side of the mountain here, to a woman out in her front yard gardening. The bears are getting aggressive, panicking really. There food sources have dried up early this year.

This leads to nothing but tragedy.

Too many bears die as we encroach into their forests. As their homes get bulldozed and ours get built. Development is playing a huge factor in our local bear problems.

As is the poor garbage systems in the tri-cities. Port Coquitlam has excellent cans. An easy addition of two strong bungee cords and we are bear proof. There are a couple companies locally petitioning city to try to get their locking features added to the cans. It would be a small fee, but a great improvement. I for one would be happy to pay that cost. Especially if it helps ovoid creating a garbage bear. The other cities have different garbage methods. Up the street from me the city lines change. On that side of the street the owner's provide their own can(s) This is what we call 'dinner', the equivalent of Yogi Bear's Pic-i-nic basket. We need to be working together to solve the bear problems, not be working opposing methods.
As we all know, A garbage bear is a dead bear.

It looks like summer again.

The rain finally stoped.

I got out into the garden this morning and finally got those grasses planted.

It sure smells nice out there after a summers rain.

Glorious Grasses

The guest speaker at the garden club last night was Ewan Mackenzie from Exemplar Horticulture They specialise in gorgeous grasses. It was wonderful to get some detailed information on grasses, from the horses mouth so to speak. He had a lot of interesting things to say on a subject that I knew little to nothing about.

I learned that there are two main types of grasses, Cool season grasses and warm season grasses.

Cool season grasses actively grow in temperatures above freezing and up to mid 20's degrees Celsius, which means their growing season begins in early spring, stops through the hot summer and then continues through the fall and winter. Most cool season grasses that flower do so in late winter to early summer. Cool season grasses are evergreen, although a few are deciduous. They are also commonly low growers, around 2 feet as a maximum height.

Warm season grasses need the warm soil conditions of spring to start growing. They are at their glory when temperatures are upwards of 24 degrees Celsius. The flowers, if its that variety usually bloom from mid summer until first frost. In the fall they die back with the perennials to dormant buds beneath the soil surface. In general warm season grasses are tall. They grow anywhere from 2-8 feet, with some as high as 15 feet tall.

He even brought a large array of grasses that we were able to peruse through, and purchase at the end. I enjoyed the speaker, but I was giddy for the plants. I walked out of there with so many I had to snag a tray off of him. I would have never made it to the car otherwise :)

Cool grasses that came home with me were,
Lemon Swirl.
Siskiyou Blue
Variegated Moor Grass
I only brought home one warm grass. This one is perennial, however is not hardy for my climate. It should either be taken inside for winter, or treated as an annual. It sure is stunning with its auburn leaves. I cant wait to see it flower!Purple Fountain Grass
And of course it raining.

It will be at least another day before I can get them into the ground.

Hair down to his knees.

Come together- The Beatles.

Here come old flattop he come grooving up slowly
He got joo-joo eyeball he one holy roller
He got hair down to his knee
Got to be a joker he just do what he please

He wear no shoeshine he got toe-jam football
He got monkey finger he shoot coca-cola
He say "I know you, you know me"
One thing I can tell you is you got to be free
Come together right now over me

He bag production he got walrus gumboot
He got Ono sideboard he one spinal cracker
He got feet down below his knee
Hold you in his armchair you can feel his disease
Come together right now over me

He roller-coaster he got early warning
He got muddy water he one mojo filter
He say "One and one and one is three"
Got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see
Come together right now over me
This was what was playing on the wind up radio I had out with me while I was in the garden this morning. There is certainly no better way to get through the weeds in august, than with a cloudy day, some good tunes and the scent of the garden after a recent rain.

Many of the flowers are fading.
Yet wandering around the perimeter weeding, just gets me excited. Thoughts spinning through my head.....
I cant wait to see it next year.
Many of the the plants in my young garden, are becoming not so young anymore.
Their reaching a different level of maturity. Proving themselves to be not only stunning on their own, but fabulous companion plants to those surrounding them.

The old.
The new.

Fitting the song was.

This garden is really starting to come together.

Summer in the city.

Well despite the excruciating humidity and heat, we had a lovely weekend. Playing tourist in our own city, we wandered through the downtown doing something very un garden related, looking at classic cars. I have a lot of respect for the classic car, and nothing but confusion for the modern ones. Hummer's ? Who thought that was a good idea again?

With the car show in town for the day, the streets were shut down to traffic. Which allowed for a wonderful stroll down the centre of the road. Such a wonderful thing to be able to see your city from that perspective. The buildings look all the more magnificent. You hardly notice the tree's while driving by, but while walking all you can do is gawk at their gorgeous canopy's. Not to mention the hanging baskets, in full summer glory strutting their stuff for all to see.
There wasn't just cars to look at for sure. It was as if a master painter had been let loose on the city centre. The pinks, yellows and purples were bursting all around us. The live music echoing through the streets only added to the ambiance.

The city's gardening staff deserve a big congratulations on such a beautiful display of colours and textures. It left me paying more attention the the foliage surrounding me, than the cars. They even had the main courtyard outside city hall filled with patio tables, so you could sit, have your lunch and enjoy the gardens all around you. We found a lovely shaded table and ate our hot dogs and hamburgers, while butterflies and dragonflies danced on by.
I am lucky to live in such a gorgeous city!

GTS Sedium

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The Sedium is just starting to blush. It should make a lovely fall display! We are out and about for the day. Hopefully everyone has a great weekend! Happy GTS!


Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Hot enough for ya?

Well its hot out there. So hot that all I can acomplish at the end of the day is a good soak for the garden. I havent the energy for anything more in this heat. The flower's need dead heading, the weeds are smug in the knowledge that Im not comming after them. The spiders have even had their way tracing webs across my pathways, staking their claim.

I braved the sizzling sun today to take a few of these snaps. Stick in hand I sliced my way into the garden, as if some trail blazer deep in the rainforest. I always wonder what my neighbors must think of my stick waving routine. Im sure they get a good laugh.

Worth the trek though. It is amazing how much of the plants just bear and grin through such ferocious weather. Just another summer's day I guess. Yet there were still a few surprises out there for me.Gaura is in full bloom. I love the seemingly never ending cascade of white fluttery flowers.

The butterfly bush. This one was given to me by a friend. I have yet to plant it as I know how horribly invasive this plant can be. I have on in a barrel pot in my back yard. This one will probably follow suit and find its new home in something big and above ground. I would love to hate this plant, if it werent for the gorgeous blooms, and of course the butterflies. How can one hate anything that brings such a majestic critter?
My Hailey Jane Dahlia. The first of my Dahlia's to bloom.

Ive had no luck with these this year. They once were a staple of my garden. Now.....well we will have to see. I love the blooms, but I'm still feeling the harsh sting of too many of these plants that fell last winter. Certainly they will remain a part of my garden, but maybe not in the same manor.
And the surprise!

One last poppy hiding in the foliage. I would have never noticed her had I not taken a walk through the garden in the awful heat.

Have I mentioned its hot.

Yup, that kind of hot!

A project unfinished, as per usual.

I spent a good part of yesterday in the garden, working on my path, edging it with small rocks. I finally got to a point where I was able to get rid of the awful pavers.They worked fabulously when I first started planting, but recently they just get on my nerves, not to mention the corners and edges that scuff my knee's when I'm trying to weed.

Bye bye path of pain.
And hello to future planning! I'm not quite done laying everything out. Mostly I have a bunch of gardening storage (tools, empty pots etc) cluttering up my future patio, getting in the way of progress.

It seems to never end.

Maybe that's because I didn't finish!

That is for another day.

Today is for day dreaming. Right now I'm looking at a beautiful crushed granite path...... Can you see it too?
Oh well, maybe its just the exhaustion setting in.

Time to sit and soak in the ambiance.

At the end of the rainbows.

Well the weekend was wet, to say the least. After a week of hot sun, it was refreshing. I'm certain the plants enjoyed the cool dip after basking in the sun for so many days. Of course it led to a lot of inside projects, and not alot of outdoor ones.

On the way to and fro my errands, I managed to snap these lovely rain and sun blurred photos.
A lovely weekend.

A beautiful day in the neighborhood.

Well we had a lovely week of fabulous weather! I spent a good deal of it outside working in my mother's garden.

We added a rock wall, gave it some definition and added a few new plants for seasonal interest. We planted some White Swan Echineachia, some Goldstrum cone flower, a lavender plant and a Emerald City Gaitey. We topped it off a few days later with a couple of shiny blue glazed ceramic pots filled with Sedium Stonecrop. It looks amazing. Sorry, that would be my daughter's mucky thumb on the lens. Ill have to go back soon and take some new pictures.

Before:
After:

Ill take some better pictures later. Everything should be blooming soon, that should certainly be photo worthy.

You thought this post was going to be about Mr.Roger's, didn't you?

Admit it.

Well. just for you.

Pictures De-layed.

A few days ago, we had the privilege of wandering around Deer Lake on a sunny morning. The band was setting up

... okay, maybe the roadies.

I had no clue what would be the show that evening, but it was interesting to watch anyways. We spent our donut breakfast at the top of the natural amphitheatre, while they set up the stage below.

Once finished our treat we took a walk by the lake and spotted this beauty.

Sigh, I love the Blue Heron. Beautiful animals. Somehow they remind me of Pterodactyl's when in flight. (Probably just the really big wing span!)


Yes I know, I'm a little odd.
It was a beautiful day.

The lake shone, with all the Lilly Pad`s poking their edges to the sky. Like coins, just below the surface.
A little oasis in the middle of the city.

GTS Lilly's

Green Thumb Sunday

The late blooming Lilly's have just started to break open. What a delight. The smell from the stargazer is phenomenal, and the white one is lovely.


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Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.