Anyone into gardening here? | Page 30 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Anyone into gardening here?

For those that want to plant veggies but didn't start them from seed, there is a great place called Urban Harvest with 3 locations in the GTA where you can buy really healthy seedlings with many interesting heirloom varieties.

My front garden is coming along nicely in it's 3rd year now.

Front%20Garden%205-26-2018.jpg
 
Last edited:
Pops came by Thursday and planted the garden again. I plan to really stay on top of it this year.
My little guy started a bean plant at school and we added that. Technically the first thing I've ever planted lol
0fe71c4f9b76a1e850b86f366cf053e5.jpg


Sent from my purple G4 using Tapatalk
 
Looks great shanekingsley! And thx. I have the space for a good sized garden but I defer to many of the much better green thumbs in this thread than I. You've got to be good with a pine tree in the middle of that. I have a few Pine trees in my yard and can't even get grass to grow very close to them.

Good luck JB! Some good potential there.

I picked up another dwarf cherry tree for planting and will get another (when the variety I want comes in).

Cheers
 
The key for me is recognizing that I have many microclimates on my property and to try and locate the right plant in the right location for optimal growth with minimal effort.

It's a blue spruce that dries out the soil and also makes it acidic. So I try to grow plants that prefer those conditions or do reasonably well there. Most lawn grass types will hate growing under spruces and pines. You can look into using some fine rescues as they can typically tolerate the dry shade. There are a few varieties of which some will have better acidic soil tolerances than others. Once you have found the right variety for your environment, you can order some from OSC Seeds or Quality Seeds - both of which are local to the GTA and better than getting the mixes offered through Home Depot and other big box lawn and garden places.

Generally though, I would suggest using mulch or creating a small garden under the tree instead of constantly battling nature.
 
Last edited:
kwtoxman said:
Looks great shanekingsley! And thx. I have the space for a good sized garden but I defer to many of the much better green thumbs in this thread than I. You've got to be good with a pine tree in the middle of that. I have a few Pine trees in my yard and can't even get grass to grow very close to them.

Good luck JB! Some good potential there.

I picked up another dwarf cherry tree for planting and will get another (when the variety I want comes in).

Cheers
Click to expand...
Pines are tough to integrate with grass and gardens -- you have 4 issues that grass doesn't like: acidic soil, dry soil, and pine needles. To make the best of it, try the following:

1) Clean up the pine needles regularly. They acidify the soil, and as they bed, they block what little sunlight reaches the ground.
2) Sprinkle lime than add 2" of fine compost each spring to the area around the tree. This will neutralize the soil.
3) Prune up the tree a little, about 10% of the tree's height. Look at the pic above. The conifer is probably 100', it's pruned about 7' from the ground, it could be safely pruned up another 3'
4) Find some shady grasses, overseed with annual shade grasses each spring.
 
The things I don't like doing is adding lime and cleaning up the pine needles. Doing things like this takes away from what tree does to naturally support itself and most homeowners would add a disproportionate amount of calcium and magnesium into the soil. It's supposed to be acidic and the dropped needles support the soil habitat that the tree needs to sustain itself. It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Just havin some mulch or a simple garden is so much less expensive and time consuming.

I used to be one of those people that would rake up every last leaf and put them out in the yard waste bags. And then add soil or mulch the following year... What little I knew!
Now nothing leaves my property - it all flows back into the soil as amendments or mulch.
 
Last edited:
If you bag your lawn clippings can they be thrown onto the garden and dug in without being composted first. I prefer the mulching mower but suspect the wife doesn't.
 
shanekingsley said:
The things I don't like doing is adding lime and cleaning up the pine needles. Doing things like this takes away from what tree does to naturally support itself and most homeowners would add a disproportionate amount of calcium and magnesium into the soil. It's supposed to be acidic and the dropped needles support the soil habitat that the tree needs to sustain itself. It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul. Just havin some mulch or a simple garden is so much less expensive and time consuming.

I used to be one of those people that would rake up every last leaf and put them out in the yard waste bags. And then add soil or mulch the following year... What little I knew!
Now nothing leaves my property - it all flows back into the soil as amendments or mulch.
Click to expand...
Thing is you've already taken that tree out of it's natural environment - I'm guessing that big tree in the pic isn't a native Ontario tree, and it's clearly not in a natural habitat -- it was planted for it's ornamental value over it's environmental value. Same goes for the rest of the garden.

In my yard I do value the circle, but I also understand that I'm not living in a forest -- my plants and trees need my help to live healthy. I send about 100 bags of leaves to the composting yard each fall, then collect a few yards of refined compost back from the composters each spring -- my flower and vegetable gardens appreciate that. My giant maples appreciate the pruning they get every year -- without the support of a forest they could get blown over. My cedar rows appreciate that I channel the rainwater from my roofs to their feet, makes them feel like they are in the swamp where they were born. My grass appreciates aeration and a light dusting of compost each spring.

While it's possible to have a complete urban garden that has no external inputs -- it's hard -- and it probably won't be a healthy as one that has managed inputs.
 
^^
Agreed - it's about intentionally managed inputs in the urban landscape. In my experience working for many clients doing this sort of thing, too many people are too far removed from what makes sense when it comes to maintaining their landscape and they swing too far away from finding a healthy balance between living in the urban environment.

That garden I have has about 60 different sourced specific native species growing there and climbing. I planted it to show that you can have aesthetic beauty while having a high volume of native species that support the local environment. So if anyone thinks that my garden was planted for aesthetics, then I have achieved exactly what I set out to do. The amount of wildlife that visits our garden is pretty impressive for our area. The trees were there when I moved in and are as old a I am, so I decided to work around them.

Time to go plant my veggies:)
 
shanekingsley said:
^^
I have has about 60 different sourced specific native species growing there and climbing.
Click to expand...

My mom collects plants native to the neighborhood.
She walks the block all summer keeping an eye out for the pretty plants. Then in the fall she goes and collects the seeds / heads from the ones she likes and plants them at her place.
 
empty said:
My mom collects plants native to the neighborhood.
She walks the block all summer keeping an eye out for the pretty plants. Then in the fall she goes and collects the seeds / heads from the ones she likes and plants them at her place.
Click to expand...

Hello 911? There is someone crawling around my garden. Looks like they are armed with scissors. Send the police quickly.
 
empty said:
My mom collects plants native to the neighborhood.
She walks the block all summer keeping an eye out for the pretty plants. Then in the fall she goes and collects the seeds / heads from the ones she likes and plants them at her place.
Click to expand...

I have a bunch of seeds if she wants some. Last year I collected seeds from about 20 native species and didn't use any of them.
 
shanekingsley said:
^^
Agreed - it's about intentionally managed inputs in the urban landscape. In my experience working for many clients doing this sort of thing, too many people are too far removed from what makes sense when it comes to maintaining their landscape and they swing too far away from finding a healthy balance between living in the urban environment.

That garden I have has about 60 different sourced specific native species growing there and climbing. I planted it to show that you can have aesthetic beauty while having a high volume of native species that support the local environment. So if anyone thinks that my garden was planted for aesthetics, then I have achieved exactly what I set out to do. The amount of wildlife that visits our garden is pretty impressive for our area. The trees were there when I moved in and are as old a I am, so I decided to work around them.

Time to go plant my veggies:)
Click to expand...
True. I live in busy an urban setting, I'm very lucky to have a yard that's more likely found in Norther Ontario than the heart of Markham.

I get countless wildlife visits to my yard -- from my deck I regularly see coyotes, foxes, skunks, raccoons, possum, red/grey & black squirrels, chipmunks, and probably 50 species of birds. A get rare visits too; the odd turkey, a snowy owl for a few weeks this winter, a deer bathing in my pool 2010, a black bear hiding in one of my trees 2012, an injured eastern wolf hiding in my hedgerow 2012, a weasel (or otter or mink) who layed a beating on my 20lb tomcat in 2012. Cheese and Qwackers showed up today, a pair of ducks that hangs out in our pool for a week each spring and fall.

I couldn't count the number of native plants, I know I have 20+ native tree species - a neighbor had to have an inventory of my lot done to clear forest for building. White Pine, White Cedar, Hemlock, Oak, Beech, White Ash, Manitoba Maple, Sugar Maple, Willow, Hawthorn, Apple, Black Locust, Silver Maple, White Spruce, Sumac, Raspberry, Buckthorn, Dogwood, European Alder, Hornbeam, & Pin Cherry.
 
shanekingsley said:
I have a bunch of seeds if she wants some. Last year I collected seeds from about 20 native species and didn't use any of them.
Click to expand...

I think admiring the plants and seeing what they look like before she collects them is all part of her game. She complains when the color changes on some of her collections. (Or maybe she remembered the wrong color)
Thanks for the offer.
 
hdsomeday said:
Hello 911? There is someone crawling around my garden. Looks like they are armed with scissors. Send the police quickly.
Click to expand...

If somebody was to call the cops it would probably start with her. Retired people roaming around the neighborhood see everything! She even tells me who's having problems walking around, who's working on their house, etc.

I have 3 houses across from me and 3 on my side of the street in this little section. We're the only household still working. Can't wait to join the neighborhood watch team!
 
Anyone grow azaleas or rhododendrons well? I have a 15 ft flowerbed that gets a reasonable amount of afternoon sun to fill. Seen an azalea that looked amazing, mandarin lights was the name. I know these can be a bit touchy to grow and I’ll need a lot of peat moss in the soil.
 
My mom grows a bunch up near Awenda Park off Georgian Bay. If she can do it, then I think Kingston are can do it well.

I planted a really nice Azalea last spring and it bloomed really well this year. I grow it under a 40' spruce.

I add no peat because I think there are more sensible alternatives and I'm lucky that the soil conditions are really good for it under the spruce. I do add a few handfuls of rich homemade compost to it each spring & mix it into the top 2" of the soil profile before an anticipated rainfall. This is also useful since the plant thrives in soil low pH - at least 6.0 in the root zone which in turn is less conducive to organic matter decomposition. If you can get some pine needles, cones etc and add them into the area it will help as a winter root zone insulation Sometimes the plant and buds benefit from being covered in from the cold harsh winters in exposed areas and this can be achieved with either burlap or something like pine boughs. So doing all this, it's really easy to create a nice little habitat for it.

Lastly, there is a place called Roan Mountain in North Carolina that has the world's largest Rhododendron gardens which are probably just starting to bloom right now. http://www.roanmountain.com/rhododendron-gardens/

And the road to get up and down there is amazing too!https://goo.gl/maps/br9x5autUwz
 
shanekingsley said:
My mom grows a bunch up near Awenda Park off Georgian Bay. If she can do it, then I think Kingston are can do it well.

I planted a really nice Azalea last spring and it bloomed really well this year. I grow it under a 40' spruce.

I add no peat because I think there are more sensible alternatives and I'm lucky that the soil conditions are really good for it under the spruce. I do add a few handfuls of rich homemade compost to it each spring & mix it into the top 2" of the soil profile before an anticipated rainfall. This is also useful since the plant thrives in soil low pH - at least 6.0 in the root zone which in turn is less conducive to organic matter decomposition. If you can get some pine needles, cones etc and add them into the area it will help as a winter root zone insulation Sometimes the plant and buds benefit from being covered in from the cold harsh winters in exposed areas and this can be achieved with either burlap or something like pine boughs. So doing all this, it's really easy to create a nice little habitat for it.

Lastly, there is a place called Roan Mountain in North Carolina that has the world's largest Rhododendron gardens which are probably just starting to bloom right now. http://www.roanmountain.com/rhododendron-gardens/

And the road to get up and down there is amazing too!https://goo.gl/maps/br9x5autUwz
Click to expand...

Thanks Shane. I was looking at varieties and saw there’s one Azalea that supposedly blooms twice, once in early summer late spring, and again last summer. That would be good if I can find it. I might give it a go. It’s difficult in Kingston since we have limestone right under most soil.
 
Then yes, it could be harder. You may have to dig an oversized hole, heavily amend the planting area and frequently to try and keep the pH low.
Only you know if it's worth it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom