Culture — Page 61 — You are in My World Now

Looking forward to fresh strawberries from the garden

April 20, 2008 by Tricia

I can’t believe that as soon as the snow melts each year my strawberry plants look pretty much like the picture above. Green leaves and all. Sure there are a few dead leaves that I have to remove, but the plants are thriving and ready to start growing by the end of March each year.

The strawberries thrive in my garden … each year they send out new shoots and new plants begin to grow … often in areas that I don’t want them to grow. I just cut them off and plant them near the edge of a garden bed. I end up throwing out or giving away a lot of the new strawberry plants each year too. However, since I’m always replanting new plants, and for the most part the older plants keep returning, I end up with more and more strawberries each year.

The best thing about these strawberry plants is that they start producing berries usually by mid June and they keep going often until October so I have strawberries all season.

The only foreseeable problem this year is the dog.

A week ago I saw strawberries on sale in the grocery store and bought some so that Chris and I could have strawberries for dessert. Well, I ended up letting Midnight taste the strawberries and she loved them. Now of course she knows what this delicious treat looks like so I’m hoping she doesn’t notice them in the garden or else she’ll end up eating them before we can pick them.

I know dogs and cats can cause havoc in the garden, but do any of you have a dog or cat that singles out a fruit or veggie that they like and eat it straight from the garden bed?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

Trying to work up the energy …

April 19, 2008 by Tricia

I’m lying on the couch watching the hockey game that I mentioned in my last post, Brantford’s winning BTW, and I’m trying to work up the energy to go outside and plant the plants I purchased a week and a half ago in my front garden.

I’m not feeling so hot today so it’s easy to just lie here and say I’ll do it tomorrow, but those plants (bare roots and bulbs) won’t last much longer. I’d better go out there.

As I sit on the couch I’ve been looking at the chandelier that we put up in the dining room … I swear when we finally finish putting in the tin ceiling, a drawn out reno project, I’ll be looking at chandeliers. I don’t think blue lighting will go all that well once we’re done the living room dining room renovation.

Ok, enough procrastinating … it’s off to the garden I go!

Brantford’s playing for the Allan Cup

April 19, 2008 by Tricia

My husbands all excited because he was channel surfing and discovered that his hometown hockey team is playing a game in Brantford that ‘s being televised on TSN. It looks like the Brantford Blasts are in the finals for the Allan Cup.

He’d talked to his dad earlier today and his dad is at the game, so we’re watching for him in the stands.

My father in law yells pretty loud so I’m sure we’ll hear him even if we don’t see him!

I can’t believe they’re advertising Rolex watches on the sideboards. In Brantford? Now that’s strange!

Anyone else watching the Allan Cup? Gretzky’s youngest brother is playing for Brantford. Have I mentioned that we know the family?

Our puppies growing up

April 15, 2008 by Tricia

Who couldn’t love this face?

Midnight is as excited about spring as I am. We got her at the end of November so she never really had much time to experience anything but snow.

Now she loves going outside and proves it by ringing the bell we placed on our front door all the time. She just wants out so that she can smell the grass, taste the garden beds, watch the birds, squirrels and pretty much anything that moves such as plastic bags blowing along the street.

I took this photo while we were sitting in the enclosed front porch. She was curious about the camera and I snapped a shot as she came up to me to take a look at the lense.

Isn’t she a cute puppy?

If you like funny puppy stories check out the post I just made on my main blog. Midnight got really excited about her food and showed us just how much she loved it!

New plants for the garden

April 13, 2008 by Tricia

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This past Sunday we spent some time cleaning up our back and front garden beds as well as our boulevard and it was nice to see how many plants had already started to grow beneath the leaves and yes, even under the snow.

We even discovered that some of the ground that had been covered in leaves and dead foliage was still quite frozen. Forget about planting some of the new spring plants I’d purchased that day! Hopefully I’ll get out and plant them today as I’m sure the ground is thawed now.

When we went shopping for some new garden plants I saw a lovely pink hydrangea that I wanted to buy. I’m not sure how hardy it is so I’ve been keeping it inside our front porch, but I’ll plant it out in the garden at some point and see how it does:

Isn’t that gorgeous?

We have a hardy pink hydrangea in the back garden and it looks like it survived the winter just fine. It has new sprouts coming up. Hopefully it will bloom for me this year as it didn’t last year.

What’s happening in your garden this week?