Not Just Flowers My sister-in-law came for a visit recently and she commented on the decorations in the gardens around the pool. She thought they really added something to the look and feel of the garden. I agree. Most of the items I found at Berry Hill Ltd. which is a great little store in town here. They have many wonderful things to tempt gardeners, birders, farmers or anyone who loves the outdoors.
DLF Those of you who have read the Narnia Chronicles should be familiar with the name DLF. If not, it’s time to read the books again! I’m not going to explain it for you. I will tell you that this is the title my husband gave to the lovely little creature I’m going to tell you about shortly.
A bit of back story On the farm we had a huge bay window at one end of the house and it had a large garden in front of it.
Summertime We are now smack in the middle of summer. This one has been hot and dry here in SW Ontario. I’ve had to water the gardens most weeks and the planters every day. Some plants have already stopped blooming but most of them are in full swing now. The bees are busy and there are butterflies everywhere. The hummingbirds are also making their rounds of the gardens but are still visiting the nectar feeders regularly.
My Gardens I have a large city lot and it is full of gardens. When we bought this place the gardens were pretty basic. There is a lot of shade and part-shade in the gardens so the previous owners had lots of hosta lilies. Now, I like hostas but I mean that’s pretty much all they had! Very low maintenace gardening. I’m all for low maintenance but I want flowers too.
My Bird Feeders I love feeding the birds year round. We have a nice variety of birds in our yard because we have a ravine at the back with plenty of old growth forest. We get different birds coming through in the warmer months so I like to keep the feeders out to attract them as well as the year round birds. The feeders do more than attract birds though. They also attract rodents!
Hollyhocks I love hollyhocks! We used to live on a farm and the two large gardens beside the house were given over entirely to hollyhocks. It was a beautiful display during bloom time. When we moved to our current residence, I decided to plant a butterfly garden and bought a couple of hollyhocks for the back, along the fence.
I really like the double flower varieties and picked out a buttery yellow one and a dark pink one.
My New Ferns Today I went to my favourite store, Canadale, and bought 4 small ferns of different varieties. I got a Christmas fern, a Japanese Painted fern, an Autumn fern and a Lady fern. After finally finishing the new pond I needed to redo the garden surrounding it.
Since we made the pond much bigger I ended up taking plants out of the existing garden not knowing how much room we’d need.