Oh Natural!

From the corner of Balmoral and Central Avenue, turn west past Robins's and the car wash place. A little farther along, on the right side is the Central Natural Enviromental Garden, a nice place to stop and walk about or sit for a while. A picnic table provides one of the few places to eat a picnic in the inter-city area. There is a small parking area at the back.

A set of wild flower gardens unfurl under the willows, spruces, pines and two lovely small gold tamaracks. Even in the late fall, there is lots of interest as the natural plants hold out their seeds and the birds arrive.

Evening primrose, prairie sunflower, pearly everlasting, golden rod, dame's rocket, brown eyed susan, anise hysop, mullein, hawk weed (also called devil's paint brush), pinks, flax and other wild flowers are identified by well-made signs. This is a good place to check out the looks of the wild plants that you might want to use in your own garden.

I was interested to see a pile of wood chips at the back of the garden and note the use of wood chips between the groups of plants. Wood chips make a great weed repelling mulch, much more attractive and enviromentally friendly than plastic or weed barrier cloth. Also I some of the paths are just made of mown grass, a very nice way to create a path in a heavily planted garden.

Garden, stil going on.

I cannot believe things are still blooming in the gardens around town. Today I was amazed to see a Stella d'oro day lily arrive with a few fat buds ready for the next few days. Stella is not my favourite day lily. It is not very florifierous and it is small. But if I ever fulfil my dream to make a garden room entirely of day lilies and Asiatic lilies, Stella would be there if only because it is tough.

The marigolds are amazing around town. My tiny yellow ones, (a variety called lemon gem grown from seeds fromT&T) may bloom all winter. They pay no intention to the frost at night. I gave away a lot of lemon gem plants which are blooming merrily where ever they were planted. They make balls of small yellow flowers and, in fact, do not look like marigolds at all.

Also hanging around are the bachelor buttons and a few Marie Bugnet roses. Don't these plants know it is almost Hallowe'en?

Is it my imagination or are the leaves also slow to fall this year. I am ready for them. I rake them into a tarp, gather up the corners and toss them on the compost. I also like to get a few clear plastic bags full of leaves to put on the compost as a sort of insulation. They rot a bit inside the plastic. In spring I use them to layer up with greener compost material.

I will spread compost over the garden now. I know that the garden magazines say to spread it in the spring, but these magazines are written in wussy Southern Ontario, a place where you can put a garden fork into a compost pile in April. We are lucky if we can clean out a compost pile in June without hitting ice. So I spread the good stuff at the bottom of the pile now and replace all the half rotten stuff for another year.

Bringing plants inside

What can thrive inside and what can't. Many herbs can make the transition to a sunny window. Some herbs such as the perennial, rosemary, do well indoors. The parsleys do fine but my basil falls apart. Maybe this Mediterranean herb does not get enough light as the days shorten.

Last year I brought pansy plants inside, sheared them back and hoped they would bloom again. They did do so but with such small short-lived blooms the experiment was hardly worth the effort. I remembering giving one pansy plant as a gift to be told later that blooms fell off and in a few days the plant died. Not a great gift.

This year I have brought in a few geraniums and they are starting to set buds already.

Ever since I had an infestation of aphids in the plants of my back porch, I have been very cautious about bringing in the outdoors. I was able to defeat the aphids with Safer's Trounce but recently I heard of a woman who brought in slugs (or the eggs) and they crawled around her basement. Yikes! Before I bring a plant inside for the winter, I pull it, shake off the excess soil and give it a quick bath in warm soapy water. (Soapy water kills aphids. ) I rinse it off under the hose and replant inside using a sterile soil mix such as Pro-mix. The plants survive this rough treatment surprisingly well.

Last Tea in the Garden?

It takes five minutes for the garden to arrive. When you are out there with your cup of tea or your lunch, your mind, for the first five minutes, continues to huffle along with its indoor thoughts: tasks to do, the upcoming elections, the book you are reading, the state of your life generally. But at the same time you are looking around and the garden world is permeating your brain and then it "arrives" and you feel yourself part of your outdoor place. You notice everything within view and the greenery becomes part of you.

I love variegated leaves on plants and in the fall the entire garden is variegated. There are many gold leaves among the green. The hostas glow golden as do have the leaves of many bushes. A few red leaves show on the high bush cranberry and the peonies. Tiny dots of blue mark the last bachelor buttons. A lone pink cosmos shines against the fence. The spikes of monks hood and delphiniums are brown. But the main colour now is green, dark green grass mixed with autumn leaves.

A Bird in the Hand

I once saw a chickadee eating from a baseball glove. The glove was on the hand of a friend. She had set up a sort of stick man and fed the birds from the glove attached to an arm stick. Later she held the glove and the chickadees gradually came.

Another friend tells me how he enticed the whiskey jacks. He put dog food on a small table outside. As many dog owners in the country are aware, whiskey jacks love pet food. My friend sat on a chair at some distance from the table. Gadually he moved the chair closer. Finally he was sitting at the table. Everything good comes in small steps. An arm on the table. An arm with an open hand with food in it. They hop right up. Now when he walks around his country property, he has to load his pockets with dog food.


The sad news is that few of us in town are lucky enough to have whiskey jacks come to our feeders. The good news is that the juncos, those weed seeding eating fiends, have arrived.

Trees and Landscaping

The south end of Syndicate Avenue looks lovely with its new pavement patterns and healthy small trees. Other places around town, particularly the down town areas and the west end of Bay Street are enhanced by small trees which one day, and not far off, will produce inviting streetscapes. Of course, once you move away from the business streets and into the residential areas, you find shady walks, lovely gardens, interesting landscaping.

But alas it is not enough. Our city planners and local businesses have busied themselves this summer dumping tar everywhere. Not on drive or walkways where asphalt is needed but any other place possible. On earth spaces where bushes, plantings and small trees could go, we in Thunder Bay get more black tar. It stretches along side sidewalks, on road medians and corners, around businesses and apartment buildings with, often, a dumpster or a pile of tires to complete the landscaping creating an instant slum look on our major streets.

Anything, anything, any monstrosity it better than planting something or pulling a weed. It seems odd to me that business staff can be asked to sweep a parking lot or pick up trash but cannot be required to remove a weed or water a planter.

I know that many of our local business owners would never consider paving their front lawns at home and adding a rusty fence or a dumpster or a garbage can or several large pot holes or a dilapidated sign. They would no more consider it than they would stand on their heads naked on their own roof tops. But the same owners turn their business into a slum and ruin our city. The idea that Thunder Bay will attract tourists is laughable after you take one drive along Memorial Avenue.

Half a Frost

Last Thursday night, after a family dinner, I said good-bye to the garden. I walked around in the dark zero degree air and said good-bye to the big hosas, the cosmos, the lavatera, and the nicotania. The next morning I saw a half frosted garden.

It was interesting to note what survived and what lived. The plants close to the fence and the shed fared better than those exposed in the centre bed. The front yard was not touched at all nor was the side garden between two houses. But an area in the back a slight bit lower that the main section was badly hit. Usually the hostas are most susceptible to frost but this year it was the cosmos.

Today I pulled out black cosmos. They were the biggest and toughest cosmos I have ever grown. Many plants were over 6 feet tall with stalks like small trees. I also continued weeding and emptying pots. I empty pots the easy way by pulling out the plants and then tipping the pot into the garden and spreading the soil among the perennials. This is easier than shovelling into a wheel barrow etc.