June 8th and 9th, 2013

Just a quick overnight this weekend, we wanted to come up and make sure all the new plants were surviving and get things tidied up before Fathers Day weekend, next weekend.

We did manage to get out fishing once, but the water was very high and we were not able to walk very far.

We also managed to "drop" in at the farm on Concession #2,  Glencolton Farm and buy some barley straw to combat the pond algae. Some of you may remember the algae problem and my research on the Internet for natural products that would eliminate it without harming fish. We had been guided in the direction of the farm from a helpful home hardware employee, when we realized that the small bags of barley straw pellets would not be cost effective for the size of our pond.

So we headed (Saturday) a mile or so up concession #2 from North line to the large farm with the big "government keep your hands off our land" sign. We drove into the driveway slowly - didn't quite know how to go about this...we saw a couple of youths and we asked them who we might speak to. He said we should probably speak to "Elisa" at the house.  She seemed to be just saying her goodbyes to a visitor so we waited.  When she was free we told her our story and how we had been directed there by the home hardware guy.  She had never hear about the straw solving the algae problem but thought it would make sense as it would produce nitrogen as it decomposed.  I don't think she was particularly happy about having more people sent to her to solve a problem - just a feeling we got.

Anyway, she brought us around the back of one of the barns and showed us the straw and we realized we hadn't brought anything to put it in.  She suggested that they had some empty feed bags in the main barn and we went to the entrance and were very amazed to see a whole stage setup with huge pillars and a seating area.  She explained to us that they used to hold concerts through the summer until the "authorities" told them they needed upgraded safety systems in order to have the public in the barn.  Of course they couldn't afford these changes so the concerts are a thing of the past.

We also found out that they were nearly bankrupted from a legal fight that they had waged about selling their unpasteurized milk.

As we were walking back to the straw, I noticed some little sheds and asked her if her husband was selling these sheds.  She explained to me that they would host school children, mostly grade 4 and/or 5's through the Peel District School Board for a farm experience and that these were little cabins for the kids.  She did mention that they had received some inquires from the Halton District School Board.

So we stuffed our ten bags full, our $30 dollars worth (suckers/city folk born every day) and said our goodbyes and headed back to the cottage.  We moved the bags out of the truck, over by the pond and called it a day and I proceeded to get dinner started and Paul went for a quick fish.

New plantings around the front deck

Sunday, I worked like crazy getting most of the rest of my perennials planted around the front deck and I think it turned out very well.  Its a tough go when the soil is very rocky.

We also wondered what to do with our Barley straw, now that we had finally got it, and I threw in a few handfuls before I decided that I better revisit the web to find out exactly how to apply it to the pond.   Read this paper on controlling Pond Algae with Barley Straw.

In a nutshell I found out that a) we were much too late to apply it, b)it should be packed loosely into net bags, and c) submerged about 3 feet from the bottom.  Well we were NOT prepared to do any of these things! 

So we packed our bags full of straw into the front shed until I found some net bags and it was the appropriate time.

Other than that we are all cleaned up for Father's Day!

June 2,3,4, and 5th - Just the Girls and the Dirt!!

Planting Days at the Cottage!  Did I say dirt? Yep lots of dirt - shoveling, screening, carrying, sifting, packing down.  

After heading up to Gravenhurst last Friday afternoon, to help Mom with her planting (which by the way was mostly done), we left Gravenhurst on Sunday the 2nd and headed to Durham.  By the way I saw a funny quote - and since its just the girls :) I thought I should share:

A recent survey discovered that a woman's "I'll be ready in five minutes" and a man's "I'll be home in five minutes" are exactly the same.

How true!

Anyway...Monday we went on our plant buying mission.  I had brought some plants that I bought in Gravenhurst and also some perennials that Mom had potted, transplants from her garden.  I wasn't sure what I wanted this year, but was hoping to follow the K.I.S.S. method.  Its just too hard to experiment with interesting new plants up there, due to the fact that the plants get sporadic care,watering, weeding, bug proofing, deer proofing, etc.  I did decide that I would keep to the shade impatiens for the boxes under the master bedroom since they did fairly well last year and made a fairly good showing.

We headed into town, and in taking a different route, we discovered a garden centre/greenhouse at one of the florists in town.  They didn't have a lot of variety but the plants (especially in the greenhouses) looked pretty healthy.  Mom pointed out a pre-planted window box, with a mix of 4 different colours that I really was taken with.  I decided to buy this exact combination of flowers for the window boxes under the front windows.  The flowers turned out to be trailing calibrachoea  and I was only able to get the partial amount and colours I needed for the planting. 

This is similar but not exactly the colours that they had.  I was fairly certain I could get the rest of the colours at the usual flower market I go to, at the L&M market in town.  I continued my shopping and picked out some really interesting varieties of coleus for planting in pots by the front door.  

When I entered the other greenhouse I again discovered an really vibrant pre-planted container with 4 different colours of impatiens (colours I would never have put together) and they were quite stunning.  So I picked out the colours for the 2 boxes under the bedroom window.

These are similar colours

We finally made our way to the L&M market flower market, where I picked up the rest of the calibrachoea colours -  I also picked up a few perennials including some bachelor's button and silver mound.  The only thing I couldn't find was enough of the pale yellow colour of the calibrachoea.  So with Mom in tow, we crossed the street to the FS co-op store to see what they had to offer.  Luckily I found 2 more pale yellow plants and also some spikes (Dracaena) that I had forgotten to get.

Whew!! That was it - I had everything I needed for the window boxes, along with the creeping jenny or Lysimachia nummularia that mom had brought from her garden.  We came home in time to have a refreshing drink and think about what we would have for dinner!!  

Getting started

Next day, Tuesday, we set about getting dirt prepared and plants planted. Since my mother is an amazing gardener, I do let her give me directions for anything to do with flowers, and she said we should sift/screen the dirt from last year’s containers with the bagged dirt we got at the garden centre and some humus from the compost pile here.  This actually took a lot longer than I had ever imagined, simply because we didn't have a sieve for dirt - so (take heart friends that eat salad at our cottage) we use the salad spinner basket.  So we did a really good job but it took forever!!   It was a pretty beautiful day – sunny – not too hot.  We accomplished a lot but we were exhausted.

Sifting and Smiling!

Unfortunately when we went to start the bbq for dinner - it was a no go.  I even had Paul on the phone with suggestions but to no avail.  We ended up having to do our dinner on the stove so we were a pretty hungry pair when we finally got to eat.  We were so tired we didn't even watch one of the videos that we had rented.

Wednesday morning, it was still a pretty nice day when we woke up.  We still had more planting to do, but definitely the end was in site.  We realized that we had come away from Gravenhurst without the pots of seedlings that mom had started for me, which was just a well since we had our hands full with finishing what we had.

We managed to take the dogs around for a little walk before she headed out for home late in the afternoon.  I have decided to wait for a few weeks to take a picture of our plantings, in order to let them take hold.

Paul and I will head up again this coming weekend just to make sure that all these plants are watered and to try and finish more planting before the Father's Day weekend.