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Recent Entries to this Blog
Spring has almost made it to Southern Ontario
Posted: 19 Apr 2011 Posted: 24 Apr 2010 Posted: 19 Mar 2010 Posted: 13 Mar 2010 Posted: 09 Oct 2009 All Entries |
jillh's Blog
Spring has almost made it to Southern Ontario
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Tue Apr 19, 2011 12:01 am After a lovely winter with just the right amount of snow and some lovely cold sunny days we've almost made it to spring! I neglected to tell you about my gourd growing last summer and unfortunately lost some of my summer photos of the garden due to the computer crashing and not backing up. Lesson learned...the hard way. We did grow the bottle neck gourds from seeds given to us from the colonial garden in Virginia and they did very well. The squirrels loved them!! They ate all but 2 of this variety and even chewed through the only one of the original shape (the birdhouse gourd) that grew. I was quite upset by this but happy to have rescued 2 of the gourds before they were eaten. I had 13 in total last year, it was a good crop. This year I'll stick to the more useful birdhouse gourds and it's time to start the seeds indoors. I will do that this week-end. Here is one of our winter bird visitors: 
Carolina Wren on peanut feeder ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) This beautiful little bird showed up in late October and I had to look a few times at the light colored perky tailed visitor to make sure of what I was seeing. I thought it would just migrate through but it stayed all winter and as far as I can tell was alone. It ate a lot of peanuts, coming to this feeder many times a day, just outside of our kitchen window. In mid-March it disappeared and I haven't seen it since. It was well fed and did not look thin or sickly so I hope it just moved on with the better weather. I have never seen this type of wren before and we are the very top end of it's range. The house wrens were heard this morning so it's time to get the houses back outside in their places, ready for occupancy. We've also had this visitor: 
Sharp shinned hawk ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) I believe that this is the Sharp-shinned hawk rather than the uncommon Cooper's hawk which looks similar. It has been in the yard quite a few times, perching on the gourd trellis, the fence right beside the shrub where the sparrows spend their winter days tweeting (they are silenced immediately when he swoops down!) or the kid's trampoline enclosure. Here are a few more birds, the photos were taken while walking on a nearby nature trail. 
Cardinal on a cold day! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
My favorite, the chickadee ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
Another first sighting for me this winter, a red-bellied woodpecker. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 1200 times
The Birdhouses are Almost Ready
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Sat Apr 24, 2010 3:05 am The gourds are dried completely and we turned them into a few different things. With this one I cut a birdhouse hole and pulled the seeds and the slightly damp "guts" from the inside. It was loose and shaking around inside. 
Seeds! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Next the hole was cut perfectly (well, sort of, I eyeballed it with my Swiss Army Knife) and the house was left to dry out a little more. Seeds and guts from a gourd smell really foul. 
The first birdhouse. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) And here are our projects. 2 birdhouses, one water cask with a wooden stopper and the fourth gourd, which is the only one without a shiny coat of polyurethane on it, is going to be a bowl, drum and cup combination. My son is making that one and he's quite creative so it will no doubt be interesting. 
Finished products ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) I've planted seeds from these gourds in preparation for this years garden and while we were away in Virginia a few weeks ago (Williamsburg, what a great place) I asked one of the costumed interpreters at the farm if she had any spare seeds for the smaller bottle gourds. She did and happily gave them to me so I now have a bunch of those planted in a little seed starter. Let the fun continue! According to my calendar the wren arrived during the last week of April last year and the year before. The house will be out there and ready for him. While in Williamsburg we picked up a "bird bottle" to hang up in the yard as well. Check them out by googling that word and Williamsburg and you'll see some great images. This blog entry has been viewed 350 times
Scrub a Dub Dub, 4 Gourds in the Tub!
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:06 am The gourds dried out a lot in the last couple of weeks. It has been dry here and I put them in a sheltered spot. It also has warmed up to incredibly unseasonable temps for March so they are well thawed. The seeds move around in a damp clump inside the gourds when you shake them. The seeds and "guts" (think Jack-o-lantern carving) are free from the sides now. We brought them in the house and scrubbed off the remaining skin and the slight slimyness that became apparent when the gourds were wet. The shell is amazingly solid and seems to be impermeable to water. After scrubbing them they dried out again in a few minutes sitting on the heat vent. 
Scrubbing off the outer skin ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) We drilled a hole in one of the gourds for a birdhouse and shook and pulled the seeds (still a bit damp) out of the small hole. There were lots and lots of seeds which I'd be willing to mail to people as long as I know it's legal, perhaps I could only mail them inside Canada? I'll have to look into this. Once I find out what to use to shellac or seal the gourd I'll do that and then out it goes, into the lilac bush where the wrens love to build their nests. It's right outside our family room window and shades our dog house (crazy wren) so we get a perfect view of all the activity and the babies growing older. 
A little help from my son ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Last edited: Fri Mar 19, 2010 2:07 am This blog entry has been viewed 343 times
Gourds in Winter
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2010 4:28 am Since things have thawed a little bit here in Southern Ontario I have started to think of my garden and the blog again. The gourds continued to dry all winter. First the outer skin turned slimy, brown and black in places, grew some mould too. 
Gourds in Early November ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) By mid-winter the gourds were lighter and the skins had started to peel. 
Rotting of the Outer Skin ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) I picked them in late February and we brought them in the house to scrub off the skins. They were frozen and once thawed in the sink began to leak brownish liquid from inside. The pulp and seeds were still pretty wet so I put them back outside to dry further. The hard shell is formed now and they are at least 1/4 of their original weight. 
Gourds in December ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) They will stay outside drying another 4 weeks or so and then we need to start building bird houses so that when the house wren arrives, around late April, they are ready for occupancy. 
Gourds in February ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 394 times
Maturing Gourds October 09
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:35 am It's been a long time since I've written. The gourds stopped growing in size in late August. It was quite a sight to see them after we had been away for 12 days. 4 were huge and 1 was much smaller. It has now started to rot but the other 4 are quite large and healthy looking. They still weigh a lot (about 10 lbs I'd say) and some have nice darker green patterns on their shells. Now the waiting continues. The leaves are turning brown and withering and the gourds will start to dry up slowly and harden. I'll pick them around Christmas or I might leave them out all winter to dry on the trellis. We have a September blooming clematis which, had I believed the package instructions, would have been planted in the correct location. I didn't think that the tiny vine I bought 5 years ago could possibly ever by 15 feet long. It is! It goes in both directions along our fence in the middle of the yard and takes over those sections of garden. This week-end we will try to move it to our arbour at the back of the yard which means we also have to move a climbing hydrangea and a climbing rose. Wish me luck! 
Large clematis beginning to take over fence. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
Larger harvest (note nosy weiner dog) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Last edited: Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:36 am This blog entry has been viewed 346 times
The gourds are growing
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:11 am It's amazing how fast these things grow. They are kind of like those zucchini that you turn your back on for a few days and poof, you've got a meal for 6. On the website whose growing guide I have been following we were told that as of the beginning of August not to bother pollinating flowers anymore since they won't mature in time for harvest however I'm banking on the fact that I live 3 blocks from Lake Ontario and we get the lake effect so really, I am in another zone than the gourd farm people....I hope. By the time they said to stop I only had 3 pollinated gourds. As of tonight we have 10 or 12. Here's how we pollinated: 
Pollination! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) and here is the gourd trellis as of August 8th. I've cut all the ends of new vines so that the plant will stop making vines and will start pumping all the goodness into the gourds. 
Trellis August 8th ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) The gourds themselves grow rapidly. These 2 were pollinated on the same night, back around July 30th I think. 
( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) The second little gourd to the left of my hand was pollinated just a few days ago. I think they grow about 2 cm in girth and length each day. The poor veggies have been neglected in this year's blog. They are doing well except our tomatoes (terrible year for rain and not enough heat here in southern Ontario) and the runner beans which are taking up tons of space and not really producing much. I didn't trellis them properly and the vines are all over each other. Maybe they are knocking the beans off by being to jammed in. We're eating bush beans, zuchs, there are potatoes in the ground but this year I'm being patient and not digging any up. One good way to make your produce look good is to feed it to visiting pet rats (we babysat them, great critters). They each had a 2 cm carrot from the garden and I wish I'd taken a photo. It looked like I grew huge carrots if you used your imagination.... Last edited: Thu Aug 13, 2009 2:11 am This blog entry has been viewed 378 times
More Wrens and Excitement in the Gourd Patch
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 3:06 am Well, it's official. I'm addicted to my gourd patch. I come home from work and the first thing I do (after feeding the weiner dog who is doing a lovely dance at my feet and nipping my ankles) is check on the gourds. Here are the amazing springs that are holding my plants really solidly to the trellis and will hopefully be supporting some heavy gourds very soon. 
Springs! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Tonight we had some excitement. I think this female flower actually opened yesterday but I missed it (even with all that checking) so I pollinated it today by folding back the petals on the male flower and touching it a few times to the female stamens (is this the right name?). We could see some pollen that moved over so I'm going to hope that the little gourd that is already there will grow huge! 
Flowers (female, petal-less, in front, male in back) ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) There are quite a few vines growing now that are secondaries and from those are a few tiny female buds. 
Female bud ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) There have been 4 zucchinis picked from the garden and 2 large bowls of snap and snow peas. The weather has gotten a bit warmer this week and we had 1 dry day after 5 or 6 wet ones so maybe things will grow and not rot as much. The raspberries weren't too good, rotted on the vine and some zuchs blooms fell off. The tomatoes are not producing too many fruits but it's still July. The wrens have returned and are now occupying the house that the male stuffed full of twigs back in the spring. I didn't even realize that she was on eggs (she is very stealth) until I heard babies yesterday and saw her bring food in. The male is helping out again this time which is nice. Here he is with a neat looking bug and below he is passing the bug to the female who is inside the house! 
Mmmmm dinner ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Here comes mom out of the house: 
( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) And mom returning with a really good looking caterpillar: 
( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Our weiner dog, Willy, had a rather surprising and stressful day. Usually he sleeps and eats and goes for walks. Today he discovered a skunk over the back fence and promptly got sprayed on the face. While he plowed (all dog owners will understand this term) to get the offending ick off of his face I went to the house for some cleaner. 4 cups H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide, 3%) to 1/4 cup baking soda and 1 tsp dish soap did the job really well of removing most of the smell and oil. During his cleanup I was checking out his ears, where he got a good douse of spray, and tried to smudge off a brown blob. Willy winced and I looked closer. It turned out to be a tick which I didn't even think we had around here. We live in a suburban neighbourhood with lots of bushes and trees but it certainly isn't the woods. It was not engorged, in fact I think it had just attached itself today. With tweezers and a steady hand I pinched it on the head and pulled (had to pull hard) to get it out. It came out clean and is still (8 hours later) swimming in a water and H2O2 solution in a bowl....amazing critters! The poor dog hasn't gone near the back fence all day and still smells a bit. His ear is also still rather sore. Talk about an exciting day! This blog entry has been viewed 301 times
July 21st First Gourd Flower!
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:36 am I now understand how someone can become obsessed over a plant and turn it into a livelihood! I just found a website today of a gourd farm where they produce 375,000 gourds per year. It's in California so they certainly a growing season advantage over me however...I have a flower! It's a male flower so I still have to wait for the females to be produced before I can work my paintbrush magic at dusk. 
The trellis on July 20th ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
Male gourd flower July 21st ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) The veggie garden is very green and bushy now. My tomatoes exploded in size, I just have to get out there to trim out the suckers. The runner beans are in full beautiful bloom. We've been eating snap and snow peas for a week now and since it's been really cool here the lettuce and spinach has lasted and not wilted or bolted. Next week I suspect we'll have 20 zucchini (neighbours, look out!) and a couple of raspberries ripened the other day. Summer eating is here! This blog entry has been viewed 438 times
July 13th, 09
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:17 am Lot's of things are happening now that we've had some sun and regular rain. The male wren is still out there singing up a storm and I think I saw the female and little ones in one of our shrubs the other day. The garden is producing lots of snap and snow peas and the scarlet runner beans have hundreds (maybe more) of beautiful flowers. The tomatoes have flowers too finally. They are a little bit late I think. I need to thin my carrots and have learned that the place i put my beets this year is the wrong spot. Not enough sun at all but once the peas are finished I'll yank them out and give the beets more direct sunshine. The gourds are my shining glory. I am loving watching them grow 2-3 inches per day. We were keeping our eye on the biggest vine which was creeping up the chain link fence so it was easy to tell how much it had grown each day. It is now growing side vines and in another week I'll cut the main vine and encourage more female flowers from the side vines. I am looking forward to being the fertilizer fairy with a paintbrush when there are both male and female flowers out there. So far there are just male buds on tiny stems. 
Potatoes, Zuchs and Herbs ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
Main garden ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
Sweet Pea Vine ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
The biggest gourd vine, making the bend. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) 
Smaller gourds, catching up. ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 316 times
June 24th, The wrens have fledged!
Category: Vegetable and Flower Gardens | Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 2:09 am This morning at 6:15 there was quite a bit of action out at the wren house. I had to leave for work so I couldn't watch for too long but the babies were sticking their heads out to get food from the mom and there was a lot of noise. At dinner they were still in the house but by 8 pm they were out and in a tall spruce tree making "chk" noises while their mom had a fit squaking at them (and me). Here she is on Monday afternoon after a trip into the house with some food: 
Mom Wren ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) And here is one of the babies (you can see a beak easily but not much else): 
Baby! ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) The gourds are growing now that we've had some heat. I put some ashes from our fireplace on them as suggested on one gourd growing website. They are supposed to have a high nitrogen food for the first month to get the root system strong and grow lots of leaves. I promise not to take another photo of boring leaves! The next picture will be a blossom...cross your fingers for me. 
Gourds coming along slowly ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Here are the potatoes which have grown exponentially and need to be mounded. The zucchinis have also grown a lot in a week. I think we'll have far too many zucchinis.... 
Taters ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) We ate some lettuce from the garden this week. The spinach has no flavour when it's in salad with a dressing and it got some strange disease or bug. It has beige dead patches on most of the leaves in a small section. Could it be water damage? The short variety of snap peas has produced some pods that are eating size. The 6 foot tall vines are massive with huge thick stems and lots of flowers. 
Snap peas ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) Mmmm, look at all that lettuce (up front) and the peas. I can't wait until they are ready! 
The main garden ( photo / image / picture from jillh's Garden ) This blog entry has been viewed 339 times
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