The state of the garden the first week in June

After the traumatizing weather in May, things seem to have settled into a more seasonal scenario with regular rain, sometimes accompanied by thunder and lightning, bright sun during the day, although not yet hot and humid, and cool temperatures at night. There is heavy dew which is really good for maintaining moisture al long as plants have a dressing of mulch.

Things are starting to come back after the late frost; the wild grape is putting out new leaves, the ostrich ferns are green again and even the catalpa seems to be forming new leaf buds.

The ostrich ferns are now bright green again

The garden too is recovering. While the radish seedlings were killed by the frost, the later seedings have germinated and are looking healthy. Successive seedings of lettuce, spinach, kale and mustard are all looking robust.

New radish seedlings on the left, spinach in the centre and lettuce to the right

The first potatoes I planted, the weekend of May 10, have broken through the earth and I hoed up around them.

Potatoes planted three weeks ago now have been hoed and hilled up

I prepared the bed and planted the heirloom bush beans, mulching afterwards with straw and grass clippings.

The newly sown heirloom bush bean bed with a mulch of straw or grass clippings between the rows  

I planted 30 more tomatoes on Thursday. There are 20 left at home to plant next weekend.

Fledgling tomatoes planted against Josh's tomato frames 

There has been a little time so far to do anything other than planting. I remember a farmer I had not met before, coming to take the hay off the field. When he stopped to chat he said he knew I was organic. Feeling somewhat pleased I asked him how. He said, "Because all I can see is weeds!" Put firmly in my place, since then I have always been acutely aware of all the weeds. This weekend I finally got a chance to do some weeding; the red currants are now free of their previous enclosure of quack grass, in addition to the straw I used in the fall to mulch the garlic, they now have weeds pulled and laying at their feet instead of competing with them.

The red currants weeded and now recognizable

The ornamental beds also were in desperate need of a little care. There's never enough time to do everything that needs to be done, so I start by edging the beds. That seems to guide the eye and restore the beds to three dimensions rather than two. Without intervention the weeds and grass just seem to fill in all the gaps and make everything the same height, colour and texture. There are so many more beds to edge and more weeds to remove farther back but at least I have started and feel just a little optimistic about how they might look if I just keep at it.

The shrub border has a crisp edge now

And the purple and orange bed was a treat to edge since the soil always stays moist and easy to work

I also started a new compost. There is just so much raw material and I've never really been able to successfully get good compost here like I can in the city. So, ever the optimist, here's one more attempt. All this material was collected on Saturday from my weeding efforts!

The latest attempt at composting - all this material was the product of one day's weeding!

Our native tree nursery seems to be doing well - the red oaks have leafed out and spruces are putting on new growth.

The tree nursery - spruce on the left, red oak on the right

More and more insects are showing up. There are dragonflies and the Yellow Swallowtail butterflies seem to time their arrival with the blooming of the Preston lilac.

Yellow Swallowtail feeding on the Preston Lilac

This bumblebee systematically went to every single blossom on the columbine.

It's hard to see the bee because it disappeared totally into each flower

I had two other exciting sightings; one of an oriole going from one shrub to the next in the Highbush Cranberry hedge. The other was of a hawkmoth at the Johnny Jump-Ups. But in neither case did I have my camera. Sigh, sigh.

An Intervention for 100 in 1 Day: Seed Pollinator Bombs

A few weeks ago I volunteered to be a Citizen Activator with 100 in 1 Day 100in1day.ca/toronto/‎ which is happening on June 7 in Toronto. The project is headed by the indefatigable Aurelia Dalinda of Evergreen Cityworks. As a leader she is irrepressibly positive and enthusiastic and with a wealth of energy (all those 10 PM Sunday night emails!). The project has been wonderful to be a part of but it has challenged me as well. It has not been a great match for my strengths (grunt work and manual labour par excellence) and has highlighted my weak digital technology skills ( what is a Dashboard anyway??) But I have met wonderful people. As Andrew Simpson, another of our Citizen Activators noted at Tuesday's meeting, "We're a friendly bunch!"

So I was thrilled when Andrew invited me to join a local Intervention - Pollinator Seed Bombs to be distributed in the two parks, Riverdale Park East and Withrow Park, that border our neighbourhood. "Kids to make signs with pollinator fun facts to be placed in gardens and lawns.

Seed ball assembly (Farmer’s Market activity) and “distribution” in vacation lots and gardens." Finally something I can do! I volunteered to collect seeds from our farmhouse for the seed bombs.

We are lucky to have Dave Harvey of Park People as a neighbour. A few weeks ago he convened a meeting to see if there was interest in forming a group, Friends of Riverdale Park East. So this intervention fits in perfectly with our nascent Neighbourhood initiative.

Currently there is an initiative by the David Suzuki Foundation, Got Milkweed, to plant milkweed plants to expand habitat for the increasingly endangered monarch butterfly.  They have now sold out their plants. But at our farmhouse we have a whole milkweed meadow so I was happy to go out and collect seedpods.

Our milkweed meadow

At this time of the year many of the seedpods have burst and done their job of spreading seeds. But for the ones that are still intact there are many challenges to removing the seed. The milkweed seed is a perfect vehicle for distribution by wind with its helicopter-like fluff attached to each seed. Wearing a black turtleneck while separating the seeds from the floss highlights the aerodynamic success of the fluff.

A milkweed stalk with many seedpods still intact

A slightly less mature seedpod where the seeds can be easily rubbed off

A more mature seed with helicopter floss attached

In addition to milkweed I am collecting hollyhock, cardinal climber and garlic chive seeds.

Garlic Chive seeds

Cardinal Climber Seeds 

Hollyhock seeds

 I have always been interested in attracting birds and pollinators to the farmhouse. So we have many flowers and flowering shrubs to attract the maximum number of visitors possible. Pollinators are crucial to a vegetable garden, especially when using open pollinated seed. It is a win-win scenario;  the plants attract pollinators and the pollinators find the food they need. So bees, birds, butterflies are all welcome. The more the merrier. It is best to plant open-pollinated seeds rather than hybrids.

 Single hollyhocks with bee balm

Cardinal Climber

We have observed over the years that, contrary to the oft-quoted wisdom, hummingbirds really don't restrict their attention to red flowers, although they do love red bee balm and cardinal climbing flowers.

Big fat bumblebees positively bathe and cavort in many different flowers as the season progresses. Their buzz can be almost deafening.

Bumblebee at the bee balm (monarda) 

And then it moves to the hollyhocks

Bees, birds and butterflies all enjoy a variety of pollen and nectar and the best approach is to plant a diverse number of flowers and flowering shrubs so that they have food throughout the season. The buffet starts out with lupines and flowering shrubs moving on to hollyhocks, bee balm, sunflowers, milkweed, Joe Pye Weed and garlic chives as the season progresses.

Bumblebees at the Lupine in June

And at the Mock Orange in June

The Mock Orange also attracts butterflies - here a Yellow Swallowtail

A monarch butterfly at the Preston Lilac which blooms about three weeks after the common Syringa vulgaris

Butterflies at the Golden Ninebark

Butterflies need various plants for their caterpillar stage.

A butterfly caterpillar on the parsley - I think it's a Yellow Swallowtail

Wouldn't it be wonderful if Parks and Recreation could be persuaded and inspired to plant their flower  beds with flowers for pollinators and add flowering shrubs to their planting plans for our parks.

My pollinator friendly vegetable garden in August

Join a March Against Monsanto on Saturday May 24 at 11AM at Queen's Park.