The Owl & The Rose

I no longer feel guilty for the things I keep in MY car!!!

My teeny tiny blueberry bush has produced a massive crop this year. Will be planting more this fall. Nothing like fruit from your own yard, no matter how small!

This was a very delicious Strawberry Crepe Cake. I read a recipe in the local paper and was inspired to try it for myself. Quiet pleased with the outcome, and it looks beautiful. I served (and ate) it for breakfast.

These are my sumptuous “Polaris” rosa rugosa hybrids. They are gorgeous and frilly and smell so luscious and they bloom repeatedly. If it wasn’t for the darn Japanese Beetles! Any suggestions on how to get rid of those suckers?

If I could have it my way, I’d have no Japanese Beetles and a lot more roses… sigh….

We want to attract lots of butterflies, bees and birds, so we are planting accordingly… 

My Mum replaced the fiber lining and replaced it with hay and earth (much to the cat’s dismay). Now the basket contains a next of brightly coloured assorted annuals. Isn’t it beautiful? 

By June, we’d put down 30 bales of hay over my little less than 1/2 acre lot, planted and moved a bunch more plants, and  moved even more plants around. Here is a little taste (remember that barren front yard? Would you believe this is the same yard 3 months later?!!!)

We dragged the pesky, never before blooming rhody around back and stuck it in the shade, covered it’s roots with hay, and voila! Wouldn’t you know it? Blooms, and about 6 ” of new growth almost immediately. My Mum has convinced me to try gardening with hay. I admit I was a little (ok, a lot) skeptical at first, but I’m totally sold now. I’ve never had such an amazing improvement in my garden with so little work (and no weeds from the hay either!).

The cat took up residence in the as of yet empty “window” box… 

Notice the non blooming pathetic looking rhody’s in the background…

A few brave bulbs poke forth from dry and weedy ground