Hi everyone,
Today, I thought I would share a few photos of
our garden from previous years as I am still
rather impatiently waiting for it to return this year
after the worst winter we have had in years ~ we
officially broke our record for the most snow...ever!
So I was asked to answer a few garden questions
by a fellow gardener a few days ago.
Our garden is about 25 years old and did all
the gardening ourselves until a couple of years
ago when one of our sons started to help as we
got busier with tours from Japan.
We own 10 acres and garden on about 3 acres.
On the rest of our property there is a woods with
a brook running through it and a large pond.
In the spring it is a full time job getting it
cleaned up and ready for the season.
By June, we are probably down to
few hours a day and slightly less for the
rest of the summer. You really have to love
gardening to maintain a garden of this size!
of plants all jammed in together for our romantic
English Country Garden.
Here on Prince Edward Island we are in zone 5b and there are
no deer so that is not a problem in the garden....thankfully.
Some snowy winters voles are a problem chewing on trees,
shrubs etc. so we put guards on or paint them with scoot and hope
for the best.
We grow organically and usually don't have a lot of bugs to deal
with so I ignore some holes in leaves etc. We do have a lot
of birds in the garden to eat those bugs. Sadly, there were no bats
last year as they were wiped out here by a virus~ miss having them
busy at night eating mosquitoes..
mixed mushroom compost into the beds when we
made them. This year my husband promises to get
me a load of farmyard manure.....who would have
thought you could be happy about that!
I have been asked in the past where we got all our
plants and the answer is yardsales,local garden centers,
seedlings I started,family & friends and some I sent
away for.
This year I would like to add more azealeas and rhodo's.
I would love to add some naturalized plants around our pond,
but sometimes time gets away from me and it is busy enough
with what we have and it just possible that I have slowed down
a little in the past 25 years!
We do have some lupins growing on one side and
since they grow wild here they should spread nicely.
and fortunately my husband can build them.
I love having the beds packed full so there
is no room for weeds.
do like to use some annuals in new beds to
fill in faster the first year or two. One of
my favorite annuals for the garden is cosmos.
to have early season color. I love how daffodils multiply
each year. Soon, I will dig up some big clumps and
plant them in urns etc. to bring cheer to the doorstep etc.
Tulips don't seem to last as good from year to year so I
always plant some new ones.
The foliage of the perennials soon cover the foliage of
the daffodils and tulips when they are past.
I love small enclosed nooks in the garden.
This one is enclosed mainly by roses and
a beautybush. It is at the south of our
Gardener's Cottage.
I think the last question was how do I keepbugs off the outdoor furniture. Sometimes
earwigs might be a problem but I just swish
them off before I sit down and relax.
Thanks,Andrea for your questions and I hope
that this has been helpful to some degree to you and
other gardeners that were curious as well.
If you would like more info you can check out
The Making of our Garden from an old post.
Happy gardening!
Carolyn
