Judith's garden flourishes, attracting pollinators to her lush beds.
There have been a few showers without the drama of thunder and wind, and I have been really enjoying them. The humidity we get goes straight to my knees and makes life miserable, so the cool rain is welcome. As most of my garden is in pots, I love having a morning off from watering duties.
This morning as I did my chores, I stopped to take a picture. The colours of my flowers were so beautiful. The Emily Carr rose that had such horrible winter damage is covered in deep red roses. One of my daylilies is blooming all sunshine yellow with red. And then there is my dahlia. This is the first dahlia that I ever grew and each year the flower blooms a joyful pink with a golden center. This dahlia, Deerhurst Sunrise, was a great introduction to the world of dahlia growing. The holes in the leaves of my dahlia are slug damage. The slugs were very bad this spring but now the toads are hard at work and the damage has stopped; I picked off a fair number of slugs as well. Those little purple bells are creeping bellflower which is a horrible invasive that came with the house. I continue to try to get ahead of them.
Morning Colour
As I continued my chores, I became distracted by one of my tomato pots. My tomato, Black Krim, is spectacular this year. The plant is big and strong, and it is starting to form fruit. I have a calendula tucked in with it that is blooming happily and a great quantity of alyssum to attract aphid predators. The nasturtium I planted is dark and mysterious which will make my salads sing. I make sure to water this tomato regularly, but I still worry because it underwent a huge trauma when the chipmunk displaced it this spring. I find that my Indigo Rose tomato that the chipmunk damaged is now showing signs of that trauma. While it is forming flowers and growing well, the leaves are curling in places and that indicates that the stress it went through may be its downfall. I live in hope.
There is a tomato in there, trust me….
The book that I have been waiting for has finally arrived. It is called A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee: Creating Habitat for Native Pollinators by Lorraine Johnson and Sheila Colla, with spectacular illustrations by Ann Sanderson. This is also known as the Ontario and Great Lakes Edition, so it is very relevant to our area.
A Garden for the Rusty-Patched Bumblebee
Many of us are trying to find or identify native plants species and this is the ideal book for that. Our horticultural club is planting a local park with native plants and this book could prove invaluable. Many times we are looking for the pollinators such as bees and butterflies, but we need to have the habitat to nurture them through their entire cycle. This book helps to explain that with clear illustrations and descriptions. The pages are laid out to show the plants with illustrations or photographs and a lot of detailed information. This will help you if you are trying to source a particular plant.
Cleo is helping to hold the book
Most importantly the book calls attention to the endangered rusty-patched bumblebee and how important it is to preserve areas for pollinator habitat. I find this to be a positive and helpful book and I hope that maybe someday I will find a rusty-patched bumblebee in my garden.
Cleo and I are watching the orioles eating the oranges I left for them and smiling at the bouncy chickadees as they bop up and down on the branches. Enjoy your week.
Judith (Email: sghorticultural@gmail.com)
Veggie Bites are available at https://sghorticultural.wixsite.com/website or https://gardeningcalendar.ca/articles/veggie-bites/
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