Spring in the Don Valley

The farmhouse is still buried under snow and ice while spring has sprung here in Toronto, farther south and closer to the lake. And so a photo essay on the signs of spring - human, flora and feathered fauna in the Don River Valley.

The metal "detecters" are out

Buried treasure?

A fence festooned with DSV, the invasive Dog Strangling Vine

Each DSV seed head has burst open laying the ground for this season's infestation 

Scylla hasn't seen the light. The ice in the tunnel under the railway track looks like primordial concrete!

Dealing with fallout from the Dec. 22 ice storm

Moving the debris for chipping 

The arborists, back on the road again, after rowing across the river to reach the west bank

Scum caught in the relatively stagnant "ditch" between the DVP and the bike path

Ducks gathering on a sandbar in the sun beside the fast-moving swollen Don River

A Red winged Blackbird, the first harbinger of spring

The valley is filled with the distinctive call of Red winged Blackbirds

Spring is really underway when the Robins arrive

Trees stripped of their foliage reveal bird nests

A home of another sort on the bank of the river

Another invasive, Japanese Knotweed, which won't stay downtrodden long

Garlic Mustard, yet another invasive species to our woods and forests

Stinging Nettle, a biennial native to many parts of the world, including North America

Some welcome colour in the monochromatic landscape, a Highbush Cranberry with its red berries

And a stunning stand of Red Osier Dogwood

Back in Riverdale Park East squirrel nests are visible in many of the big hardwoods

a weekend of "selfless service"

This past weekend my good friends Avo, Edie and Diane came up to the farmhouse to help me out with their skills and company for a spell of "selfless service" as Alex would say. The big project was to rebuild the pumpbox by the pool. The plan was to use the original pumpbox as a template for its replacement.

The old box was falling apart but seemed upon closer inspection to have been built well. (When the box was originally built the pool people got the address mixed up and actually built it at the wrong property. They only realized their mistake when the owners came home and told them they had never ordered the work - although they did appreciate the effort!)

The corner of the lid broke off last weekend

 The plywood had warped over the years pulling the screws out in the process

The first step was to buy the materials; lumber and hardware. But before that a sustaining lunch was in order.

Diane and Edie admire the beautiful spread they have laid

The only real stumbling block Avo anticipated was how he would cut the notches for all the pipes that feed through the box. We bought a drywall knife but, not surprisingly, it didn't really cut it on 5/8" plywood. So, in true country style, I called my neighbour, Charlie, to see if he had a jigsaw he was willing to lend us. He came through so off we went to his workshop. While Charlie did locate the saw, blades were nowhere to be found. Luckily a neighbour of Charlie's, Larry, was at the farm cutting the  grass. Larry did have blades. So after nearly an hour at Charlie's, Larry's workshop was the next stop. This was the most beautiful, well stocked and organized workspace. Someone could spend many happy hours there and the evidence was all around in the form of plane mobiles made from pop cans and innumerable woodworking object d'art.

By mid afternoon we were back at the house ready to start. Avo worked single-handedly to cut all the lumber making a schematic for reference and labelling each part alphabetically for help in assembly.

Plywood beginning to be cut into the necessary proportions

Any job is made so much easier with the proper tools so Thea  takes a discriminating look at the selection

Avo using the jigsaw to cut the first notch

He scores!

In the time honoured tradition of adapting materials at hand for other uses,  the cooler finds new life as Avo's work saw.

While Avo worked in the garage Diane vacuumed the pool and I weeded.

Diane taking five from vacuuming

After inadvertently running my thumb down a rose cane, Edie got an opportunity to perform a little surgery to remove thorns from my left thumb.

As long as I can't see what's happening it will be fine....

By late afternoon it was time for sustenance in the form of appetizers by the pool.

Compliments of Diane; rose wine, smoked salmon, crostini, olives and Edie's traditional offering of Brie  

Cocktail hour also included podding the peas for dinner and the freezer.

Diane and Edie looking conspiratorial, or are they simply podding peas?

The next day it was time to start taking down the old pump box. Avo took many photos to make sure we had something to consult once the old pumpbox was disassembled. And then it was time to start assembling it.

Nailing down the battens

Avo worked tirelessly and with great patience (and very little help). My fractured wrist meant I was able to do very little "heavy lifting". There was a bit of a challenge removing the back of the old box but ultimately with a little bit of "brute force" it came off.

The erection of the new box went amazingly smoothly thanks to Avo's unfailing good humour and his alphabetical labelling of all the individual parts.

The two more difficult (because of access issues) sides are up

And now the four sides await the two part lid

The next morning was devoted to final details; securing the chains for the lid, adding the trim to the top of the box, securing the latches.

Avo attaches the chains to the lid

We made a small miscalculation buying lumber and so the box awaits four additional battens.

Avo signing his name to his creation!

This blog is dedicated to Avo, with thanks!!

weeding

It seems that this time of year the major preoccupation is weeding. Every time I return here from the city, (what a mistake it was to come on the Friday of a long weekend - the drive took 5!!! hours) as soon as I've unloaded the car, I take a walkabout the garden. I'm always excited to see what has changed. And disappointed in equal parts to see how all the work I did the previous weekend seems for nought. The lawn is like a hayfield, the pool is green, the bottom covered with silt and the vegetable and ornamental beds alike are filled with weeds.

One bed of tomatoes I tied in and weeded this morning

A few years ago our tenant farmer at the time seconded the haying to a friend of his. Mike Smith was English, a sheep farmer and newly emigrated to Hastings County. I was out in the new bed I had made in the field, picking potato bugs. I had decided to try a no-till approach and in the spring I had mown the area to be planted, then covered it with layers of wet newspaper. I laid the seed potatoes right on top of the newspaper and "hilled up" by adding layers and layers of fall leaves.

As Mike swung by as he was cutting the hay in the field he stopped to introduce himself. I was thrilled when he said he knew I did everything organically. I don't ever seem to get enough compliments so I eagerly anticipated what he had to say. Was it the directness of my gaze, the clarity of my eyes?? Well neither actually. It was the proliferation of my weeds - only someone who didn't use herbicides could be as rich in weeds as I was. (But, nevertheless, he claimed, it was intended as a compliment...)

We had someone visit once who exclaimed, "Eileen, there's so much grass in this bed!" I could never understand that remark. Didn't he know that the weeds and quack grass kept me awake at night - when there was nothing else to?

A new bed of meadow rose that I transplanted last fall. It doesn't look like much now but

this is the original planting Alex gave us a few years ago. 

As per usual I have a list of about two dozen things to do this weekend. But since I've got a serious gardener and plant collector coming to visit on Monday I have shifted my focus from the vegetable beds to the ornamental beds. So after cutting the grass (no serious rain despite the prediction) and vacuuming the pool, disappointingly green after all my efforts, I have spent the day weeding. And that is literally, since I woke up at 5:30 and am just now making dinner at 8:30!

I have a theory that if you start by weeding the front of any mixed border it immediately looks better, despite the lushness of unwanted vegetative growth in the back. I think it is because without weeding, the border looks flat and two dimensional. Yet once the front is weeded the eye can see three dimensions, undulations and different textures and shapes.

The "white" bed - not yet weeded - impossible to discern any details

A little vignette with rose campion and campanula weeded this afternoon 

the purple and orange bed edged

Many people like to weed as the sun starts to set. The shadows are long, the birds have returned from their afternoon siesta, there is often a breeze and a certain stillness as the day settles in to become night. So, after picking potato bugs, I made my way to the vegetable garden in the field to pick the first snow peas and weed the sauteing greens. I know  the bed still doesn't look so great but I cling to the notion that the mulch of pulled weeds keeps the ground moist and the greens feel liberated from all the competition from the huge variety of competing weeds.

the sauteing greens feeling they can breathe just a little easier  

If one happens to have a friend who is willing to lend a garden-gloved hand to do some weeding they are worth their weight in gold. Last weekend my friend Diane turned her hand to weeding the succulents planted at the base and above the boulders by the pool. She has started the process of transformation - nothing less.

Diane with appropriately coloured gardening gloves 

And so, I know how the rest of my summer will go - weeding and more weeding. I always have a goal to have actually finished weeding all the mixed borders and perennial beds by the time frost comes. It has never yet happened. But they say "How can you know where you're going if you don't know where you want to be?" Maybe this year...

The "grass filled" yet still weeded  bed in the foreground, the long mixed border in the background