Random Thoughts about life in general, living in the big city of Toronto
Wordless Wednesday
I can see why this rose is called Morden Sunrise. The inside of the bloom looks like the rising sun doesn’t it?
The weather was cool enough in July that this rose actually started to set rose hips! I plucked them all off so we’ll get another round of blooms or two. Certainly this heat wave that we’re currently going through should wake this lovely rose up again and make it bloom it’s pretty little head off.
Well guess what? I got my gardening done. Or pretty much done.
Chris was puttering around outside yesterday evening. He was supposed to be doing one small thing then he was going to come back inside let me know he was done and then we’d go out and start working on putting compost and mulch down on the garden beds.
Well he puttered for two hours and by the time he finally came back inside it was at least 8 pm. So that’s when I went out and started working in the garden.
We returned inside at 3:30 am!
Yes I am a midnight gardener. Yes I am an extreme gardener.
The only problem was that when I took my shoe off I could barely walk on my left foot. It felt like what I’d assume walking on a toothache would feel like. Every step brought tears to my eyes.
Remember I said I’d injured both my feet in the past and that I thought the humidity was finally making them ache? Broken bones, sprains, strains and oh yeah a torn posterior tibialis tendon count as some of the past injuries. So the foot that was hurting like it’s never hurt before was the one that had had the torn tendon a few years ago. That was a gardening accident from overuse! I literally ripped the tendon while planting roses for 14 hours and didn’t know how bad I’d hurt myself until two days later!
My back hurts too … and yeah my stomach/abdomen is still aching as well.
Who says gardening is passive???
I guess you could say I’m a lump of pain today.
But the gardens done!
We’re having another heat wave. I guess the one we had last week never really stopped, but it was much more comfortable on the weekend since there wasn’t as much humidity to deal with. Now we’re back to heat and high humidity making it almost unbearable to go outside and work in the garden.
Yes … I need to get some work done in the garden. I feel terrible, but there’s so much to do outside. Do you believe that I still haven’t put mulch down on my garden beds? Stupid me! My plants would be doing so much better if they at least had a nice layer of mulch around them as it helps to hold the moisture in the soil and keep the plants roots cool.
So right now I’m waiting for it to at least cool down a few degrees so I can go outside. It’s just after 6 pm and the temp is still quite high. It’s 30 c but with the humidity it’s 36 c which is 96.8 F.
I also want to get all our remaining garden work done this week because we’re going to have house guests for a few days. Chris’ brother and two of his kids are coming from Chicago on Wednesday and they’ll be staying in our house from Friday until at least Monday I believe.
The way I’m feeling I don’t want house guests at all but this has been planned for months. It’s hard to say no when you have that much advance notice. Oh well, if I’m not feeling well they’ll just have to entertain themselves I guess.
Blue Gentian
I’ve been slow to get out and take photos of my blooming plants but the other day I went out for an hour and came back in with 279 photos! All but 4 were keepers.
The photo above is of blue Gentian. It’s a simple flower that blooms once or twice a year. It’s buds are interesting swirled cone shapes and then they open up into these delicate flowers.
The flowers above have a companion. Did you notice the ant?
Musk Mallow Malva moschata
The flower above is called Musk Mallow. It’s a North American native plant.
It’s very easy to grow, very hardy and as you can see it produces small delicate beautiful flowers. What more could you ask for in a plant?
Oh I know … did you know that you can eat the flowers and leaves of the musk mallow? The plant even has medicinal properties as well. I also believe that the root of the first flower, gentian is edible. See I grow a lot of plants that are not only beautiful, but edible as well.
Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.
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This weeks theme is Funky
This is my new honeysuckle vine. It’s just about to bloom. I thought the flower buds looked pretty funky so I snapped a pic the other day. Don’t you think it’s a little strange looking?
I also grow Bee Balm. I love the way this plant grows. It’s flowers grow on long stalks and new flowers grow on top of one another. Sometimes a stalk will have three or four flowers in a row.
This flower is fading, but to me it looks pretty funky while in it’s last stages.
The bees and butterflies think so too!