It's Officially Time to get Gardening!

This is the first long weekend of the summer season here in Canada. Yippee!

Diehard enthusiasts like myself have already been gardening for a while, but for many Canadians the Victoria Day long weekend is the traditional time to finally get digging. The danger of killing frosts have passed and it is usually safe to begin planting tender annuals and tomatoes.

So for those of you heading to the nursery or garden centres for the first time this season, here are a few ideas to get you inspired:

Plant something pretty: Bee Balm, Monarda 'Marshall's Delight'

My favourite new plant of last summer: Dwarf Calamint, Calamintha nepeta ssp. nepeta

Plant something fragrant: Thyme or Lavender (below)

Create something whimsical

Think outside the box when it comes to container plantings

Plant a fruit tree...

even if you have a small yard.

Add some interest to the edges of your flowerbeds. This gardener neatly edged the grass and then she added a trough of pea gravel. Stones mark and elevate the permitter of the flowerbeds and...

low growing succulents keep the whole thing looking tidy.

Don't forget to think about adding some late season color with ornamental grasses and late flowering perennials like sedum, phlox and rudabeckia.

Plant some old fashioned annuals that nobody else in the neighbourhood has thought off.

Snapdragons

Lavatera

Don't forget to plant some Morning Glories

and maybe some Cosmos.

Some sunflowers would be nice too.

Have a great weekend!

Color Essay Number 3: Yellow

Watch out for sharks! Yellow ducks in the "Go Fish" Pond for kids at the Brampton Fall Fair.

I always thought that yellow was an unpopular garden color- that was until I did a post entitled "Poor Friendless Yellow". It turns out that I was dead wrong and there are lots of gardeners, who just like me, like yellow flowers.

In my garden, yellow blooms when the daffodils first emerge from the ground in springtime. Then it takes a bit of a break, only to come out in full force mid-summer. Yellow then carries on, taking the lead well into late fall. I can't imagine my garden without it.

With out further delay, here are my favorite yellow pictures taken both in my garden and elsewhere as noted.

Crabapples in a Brockville Ontario park.

Calendula

Yellow leaves float on the water. Fountain at the Kensington Flea Market, Toronto, Ontario.

Here and above: Yellow plums at the Farmer's Market, Brampton Ontario.

Elaine Rose at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Hamilton Ontario.

Daylily, We're in the Hayfield Nursery, Ontario. I have several lemon colored daylilies in my garden and they are a refreshing change from the more popular pink and orange varieties.

Goldenrod, Edwards Gardens, Toronto, Ontario.

Wild Brown-Eyed Susans, Blue Springs Scout Reserve, Ontario.

I count on yellow flowers, that emerge in late summer, to help see me through the fall.

Sunflower

Sunflowers from the garden at Lancaster Public School in Mississauga, Ontario.

 To reduce highway fatalities of Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes, signs have been placed throughout the Bruce Peninsula in Ontario.

The last of my creamy yellow groundcover roses.

Brampton, Ontario walking trail.

From my garden, a hosta leaf that has turned yellow in late fall.

I end with a personal favorite- sunflowers from the Brampton Farmer's Market.

Have a great Weekend!

The Learning Garden at Lancaster School, Mississauga, Ontario

The sunflowers planted by the kindergarden students at Lancaster Public School in Mississauga.

What was your schoolyard like when you were a child? So often in the past, most urban schoolyards were little more than a windswept, treeless expanse of rock hard concrete and asphalt, with maybe a little turf grass surrounded by a chain link fence.

Traditionally, we tend to think of schoolyards as a place for play, physical activity and socialization. The all important "learning" took place in the classroom. Perhaps that is why so little thought was usually given to the design of school yards. 

Enter Evergreen, an innovative, not-for profit organization dedicated to facilitating sustainable greening projects in schoolyards, parks and communities across Canada. Evergreen believes that, "by planting trees, shrubs and wildflowers, creating meadows and butterfly gardens on school grounds, learning opportunities literally come alive." 

Working in partnership with selected elementary and secondary schools, they have devised a program which involves the building of a Learning Garden, "a place where children can play, learn and develop a genuine respect for nature."

Now at recess time, the students at Lancaster Public School in Mississauga can roam freely through the Learning Garden they themselves designed, built and planted. The overall garden consists of several themed planting areas including a bird sanctuary, a canoe forest, and a vegetable garden. 

Take a look at what these kids have created:

Top: A view of the school from the Learning Garden at Lancaster School. Bottom images: Yellow daisies in the front garden (left) and a sunflower about to open (right).

The garden attracts butterflies, bees and birds to the school yard. In fact, Ms. Lavigne, the school's office manager, told us that one morning, a little girl came into the office to report that a "bird" had bitten her at recess. Ms. Lavigne thought this odd. Native birds don't usually "bite"! 

When the next day, a young boy came into the office with the very same story, she determined that she had better head out into the garden and check things out. What she discovered, amongst the native grasses and wildflowers, was a duck who had built a nest in the garden. The duck was simply acting to protect its young family. 

Wild asters (top and right) attract bees and butterflies. Seed-heads and wild grasses draws native birds to Bird Sanctuary.

In the vegetable garden, tomatoes the students planted ripen on the vine.

The teachers also use the garden throughout the school day as part of the regular class instructional time. They teach natural science lessons, plant flowers and vegetables, tend the garden and sit with the children on the garden's circle of stones for story time. 

A pretty nasturtium from the vegetable garden.

Now that fall has come to the Learning Garden, birds and squirrels will delight to discover seeds in the nodding sunflowers planted the kindergarden classes. In the coming winter, the garden's tress, shrubs and tall grasses will provide valuable sanctuary for native wildlife from the harsh winter winds.

To learn more Evergreen and their many greening projects in communities across Canada, visit their website at www.evergreen.ca