Anne’s Garden

God made rainy days so gardeners could get the housework done.

Archive for Resources

Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden Society

July 12, 2008 at 10:10 pm · Filed under Ramblings, Resources, To Do List

I’ve just added the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden Society website to my resources list. It’s full of great local resources including an ‘In The Garden This Month’ section which I know I will be referring to on a regular basis.

Here’s what they say needs to be done this month:

  • Slow down and give you and your plants a rest from the heat
  • Give plants a mid-season feeding or side dressing, to get them through to the fall
  • Keep tabs on rainfall and water as needed
  • Stay ahead of weeds
  • Replace mulch as needed
  • Check garden centers for mark downs on remaining plants
  • Keep lawns at about 3″, to protect from summer heat
  • Keep up on deadheading
  • Shear back spent annuals by 1/3
  • Focus on heat and rain resistant flowers like: coleus, hibiscus, melampodium, pentas, plumbago, portulaca and zinnias
  • Do a final pinching by mid-July, of fall blooming flowers like mums and asters
  • Harvest vegetables daily
  • Find a Plant a Row for the Hungry program to donate to the Food Bank
  • Reseed beans and lettuce
  • Start fall crops of peas and cole crops
  • Time to dig the garlic, onions and potatoes
  • Treat yourself to some new potatoes. Carefully loosen the soil under your plants to find a few small potatoes to harvest
  • Plant a cover crop in bare spots in the vegetable garden
  • Check berries regularly to harvest before the birds get them!
  • Clean up fallen fruits under trees
  • Check fruit trees for water sprouts (branches growing straight up from limbs) and remove
  • Prune summer flowering shrubs as soon as the blossoms fade
  • Hold off on planting until the fall. If you must transplant, keep well watered.

    • Yikes, looks like I’m going to be busy!

    Comments (1)

    Sunchokes

    April 22, 2008 at 10:35 pm · Filed under My Plants, Resources and tagged:

    One of my son’s parent-tot drop-in facilitators (I love these women) gave me some baby Sunchokes yesterday:

    Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of the Sunchoke aka Jerusalem artichoke aka Helianthus tuberosus.

    The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called the sunroot or sunchoke or topinambur, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, from Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate world for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.

    Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke, though they are in the same family. The name Jerusalem is due to folk etymology; when the Jerusalem artichoke was first discovered by Europeans it was called Girasole, the Italian word for sunflower. The Jerusalem artichoke is a type of sunflower, in the same genus as the garden sunflower Helianthus annuus. Over time the name Girasole transformed into Jerusalem, and to avoid confusion some people have recently started to refer to it as sunchoke or sunroot, which is closer to the original Native American name for the plant.

    The artichoke part of the Jerusalem artichoke’s name comes from the taste of its edible tuber. Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer, sent the first samples of the plant to France, noting that its taste was similar to an artichoke. (wiki source)

    More info on growing Sunchokes. Mine are just hanging out in the laundry room until they are ready for planting  I have to think seriously about where to plant them. Not invasive but ineradicable, they will have found a forever home in my garden.


    Comments (1)

    Flowering quince Pink Lady

    April 10, 2008 at 9:41 am · Filed under My Plants, Ramblings, Resources

    While weeding at the front yesterday I found this little beauty just starting to bloom:

    It’s a Chaenomeles superba or Flowering quince Pink Lady.

    I’m almost done my very rough clean-up of the garden. We have just under half an acre and much of it is planted so there is a hell of a lot of tidying to be done.

    Yesterday I also cleaned up this little area. I can’t wait until the mornings are warm enough to sip my morning tea out here:

    In the beds to the right of the fence, I planted Gladiolus Green Star and Grande Passion (Green Star pictured):

    Did you know that during the Roman Empire, the gladiolus was the official symbol of the gladiators that fought within the coliseum in Rome? In Latin the word gladius means sword, and it was because of the gladiolus’ sword-like leaves that it has the name we know this flower as today. Another ancient name for the gladiolus was “xiphium,” derived from the Greek word “xiphos”, which interestingly also means ” sword.”

    source

    Comments (4)

    Worm Farm

    April 6, 2008 at 6:06 pm · Filed under Green Thumb Sunday, Ramblings, Resources, To Do List and tagged:

    I slept most of the day as I’ve been working nights all weekends, but we had time late this afternoon to make the worm farm. Ever since our parent / tot drop-in brought worms in, Cailey (and I) have had a fascination with them. I figured since we only just started our composting this fall, it could use some help to get going.

    Under the guidance of one of the parent / tot facilitators as well as this online resource, we went ahead made this:

    My friend and Dominik’s Compare (godfather) Donato generously donated about 70 worms he plucked from his East End Vancouver award winning vegetable garden. I just hope the tough worms from the ‘hood get along with the native, tree hugging, vegan, crunchy, organic, dope smoking Sunshine Coast worms.

    Cailey upclose and personal with our new neighbours:

    Here is another informative resource I found online better suited towards children.

    What’s blooming in your garden this week?

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

    Comments (2)

    Pruning Roses

    February 15, 2008 at 10:48 am · Filed under My Plants, Resources

    Easy guide to pruning roses

    Since all of my gardening books are still packed away in boxes, I came online to refresh my knowledge on pruning roses. I only have one bush and honestly I haven’t had a good enough look at it to even know what type of bush it is. I guess that’s the first step.

    I don’t suppose anyone can tell from this close-up what kind of rose this is?

    I know it’s still early but I’ve been dying to get outside and play in the dirt. There’s still a fair bit of clean-up that needs to be done. If only the weather and my children would cooperate. Domink is 16 months has been walking proper for about a month but has also had a nagging cold all month and is very clingy. That makes gardening a little challenging.

    Comments (1)