I know… this is the post you’ve all been waiting on…. what did I do with the catio yard???

Well first… let me tell you, like the front garden, I thought I could get it done in a day. It would be a long day, but I was sure that is all it would take.

I was wrong…. so.very.wrong.

This is what it looked like when I got started:

Around the edges were several of the perrenials I brought from the town house. But the rest of it… it was a disaster of grass, weeds and Star of Bethlehem flowers.

Since the flowers had to be dug up and disposed of, I decided it was best to start there.

It’s a shame they are so invasive, because they are very pretty. But also totally out of hand. In fact, they were so out of hand that it took me a full day to dig them all up.

This is what the yard looked like at the end of that day:

I was pretty pleased with the results. Since the flowers had taken up so much of the yard, I figured I’d have the rest of the turf and weeds up in an hour or so the next day.

Nope.

That took another full day.

But finally, I had the yard clear and could start laying out paths and garden spaces. But I had to wait for a new day to do that.

Finally, I managed to get all my garden edging staked down, marking out my garden areas. And all the mulch down to mark out my pathways.

I started laying out my plants, and getting them all in the ground, but I ran out of mulch and soil to finish the job that day, so I waited to take final pictures.

Finally… the next day I was able to top up the soil and mulch all the garden areas and I could finally say it was finished.

Now technically it’s not because a garden is never truly finished. Like the front garden, the plants need to fill in and several of those empty spaces actually have bare root plants just waiting to burst forth.

So far, the only things in bloom are a pretty purple sage, and this neat little bleeding heart I found. It’s a different variety than the one I have in the front garden. This one will only get about 8 inches tall.

I also have to bring out some of my garden ornaments… AND I have the coolest outdoor pet bed coming for my spoiled little furballs.

I did string up some fun solar lights though.

They aren’t the best pictures, but you get the idea.

All in all, I’m thrilled with the transformation of the space. And I look forward to sharing with the you and the cats as it grows.

My vacation is wrapping up. It went by fast, but I’m thrilled with how productive I was. In fact, I probably worked harder than I do when not on vacation. You saw my little driveway island out front, but now it’s time to show you the rest of the front.

You will recall, in an effort to save some time/labour, I covered the area I wanted to turn into garden with black plastic a few weeks back. This is how it looked just before I took it off.

As you can see, there were a few downsides to my little plan. The problem was, I didn’t have enough stakes to really hold the plastic down. I was only able to hold the corners down. Which meant to wind blew gaps open. and in those gaps, the weeds had a hay day! And I couldn’t weed whack them without wrecking the plastic.

So this is how things looked when I got all that plastic off.

Not bad, but not quite the free and clear space I thought it would be! So I got down on my knees and got to work!

It apparently also made the perfect home for toads. It took almost all day to get the space clear enough to plant, and in that time, I relocated SEVEN different toads

But all the effort was worth it. After weed removal, toad relocation, soil ammending, plant adding and mulching, I had a shiny new front garden!

Obviously, it’s got a lot of filling in to do, but I’m absolutely thrilled with it. And there’s so much in there… a rose (called Chrysler Imperial, which I bought for my Car Guy), bleeding hearts (pink and white, day lilies, a burning bush, irises, helenium, a peony, and so much more. Quite a bit of was bare root specimens, so it will take a little longer for them to make an appearance.

To dress things up a bit, I popped in some annuals (snap dragons and dianthans.

Ans before I go… here’s a little before and after, with the first pic from the listing when we bought the house.

It’s finally starting to look like MINE!

“How come we don’t have a catio on THIS side of the house too????”

Incidentally, today is also Baron Rupert von Scrufflebutt’s Gotcha Day!!! Can you believe it’s been SIX years since I brought this little Ginger Nut home??? I certainly can’t.

Although almost all my time this week has been spent in the garden, there has been a little knitting in the evenings when it’s too dark to play in the dirt.

After casting off my mother-in-law’s socks, I grabbed one of the skeins of Knit Pick’s Static that I have in my stash. This colourway is Seascape. It’s a man sock… though I haven’t decided which man it will end up with. I’m just knitting and I’ll decide closer to gifting time.

I’m already at the start of the heel, and what I find interesting is that even though this sock is WAY bigger than the ones I made my MIL, it feels like it’s going so much faster. My only idea for why is because the yarn is much nicer to knit with than the Kroy.

Kroy is a great wearing yarn, but it’s definitely not the softest. The Static is right on par with Knit Picks’ Stroll and Felici. It makes the process so much more enjoyable. That said… it could still take me months to finish these… they are man socks after all.

This week, it’s time to discover some hidden gems….

One day, my walk took me up the north side of River Street. River Street one of the main roads through town, but I’d never traveled the north side of it. It has a lot of newer homes compared to the rest of the town (and by new, I mean built in the ’80s), and it gradually gives way to countryside.

The first hidden gem is a little park space:

There are no flowers, it’s a garden of trees, each one with a little plaque dedicated to someone’s loved ones. I’m looking forward to checking it out again when the trees are leafed out more. It’s a very pretty, peaceful space

Not far from there was this magnificent house…

There are quite a few Victorian manors in Alvinston, but by my account, this one is definitely the biggest.

It’s certainly the only one with it’s own carriage/guest house. (Which looks to be about as big as our house!) There was a sign out front that said “Hayter”, which is the name of the family that runs a local HVAC business. From the looks of the house, business is VERY good.

Just up the road, I found this neat place…

I can’t tell if it’s some sort of museum or what. I don’t think it’s a working concern. I can’t find anything online about it either, but I’m going to keep digging.

You can’t see it well in the pictures, but there’s a small lake in behind those buildings, and the frogs were singing away… It was a wonderful soundtrack for my walk..

It’s Tuesday! And I have made a start on the sewing kitty kit…

It defintely doesn’t look like much, but that is literally several hours worth of work. Unlike the few projects I’ve done recently, this one has large chunks of colour. It’s going to take a while before it looks like much of anything.

Another intersting thing about this kit is the floss. It’s a wool/acrylic blend, unlike the cotton floss I usually use. It has a fuller, slightly fluffy texture. It’s neat, but I do think I prefer my regular cotton floss.

It’s May 23rd, and I have finished my first Christmas present.

Considering I started them on January 3, they really should have been done AGES ago. Even more so when you consider they were knit for my mother-in-law who has even smaller feet than I do!!!! But, they are done, now and I’m quite happy with them.

The yarn is Kroy Socks, colour is Dad’s Jacquard, and as you can see, it’s very cheerful. The sock are just plain vanilla to really let the yarn shine.

And with those done, it’s time to start another pair!!!

As you know, one of my main goals in creating my gardens is to create better habitat for wildlife. One of the best ways to do that is to plant native plants – that is plants that naturally grow in your area.

I know some people who have completely native gardens, and I admire that. Personally, I’m not able to do that… there are just so many plants that I love, I can’t limit myself to only natives.

However, I am happy to incorporate them whenever I can. Luckily, planting native is becoming more popular, and native plants are easier to come by.

My grocery store garden centre had the best selection I’ve seen in years (And they were $2 more than all the other perrenials of the same size, so that tells you all you need to know about the rise in popularity).

I brought home a handful

I’ve seen several different asters in the wild, so I’m not quite sure how big this one is. But asters are always good bloomers so I’m happy to have it in my collection.

I had a cardinal flower at the townhouse, but it didn’t come back the next year. It was a shame, because it’s a stunner of a flower. That red is so brilliant. I’ve never actually seen one in the wild, but I’m very happy to make a place for it in my garden.

Related to it is Giant Blue Lobelia. I’ve grown the annual Lobelias many times, so I’m thrilled to have one that’s a perennial.

Sneezeweed (or Helenium) is a plant I’ve wanted to get for a while. There are many fancier versions, but I love this “common” one.

You know how much I love Bee Balm… well this is the native version of it. I can’t wait to see those lilac blooms in the yard.

And last, I’ve never heard of, nor seen Pearly Everlast, but I’m happy to include it in my collection. Apparently it’s a type of aster.

I think it will be fun watching these grow… and see how much local wildlife they bring to the yard.

I am FINALLY on vacation and it’s a staycation that going to be ALLLLLLLLL about my gardens!!!! I am primed and ready to finally start the yard transformation.

I got a little kickstart the other day with the “driveway island”. It’s a little garden wedged between the driveway and the front walkway.

When we bought the house, it looked like this…

It contained some dead wood, a dead cedar, and an out-of-control Euonymous. Not long after we moved in, Demolition Dad took his sawsall to it all for me. The plan was to clear it all out and put in a totally fresh garden there. Of course, there was no time for that last year. I did my best to keep after the weeds that immediately moved into the cleared dirt, but other than that, it remained untouched.

My plans were to make it something of a wildflower garden, with coneflowers, daisies, and susans and the like. Earlier this year, I tried to dig out what remained of the cedar stump. It resisted all my efforts. And I noticed, that while it didn’t regrow last year, the Euonymous was now growing back. I decided to give my plans a little rethink.

And while I was doing that thinking… the weeds moved in..

I needed to do something about it, pronto!

You’ll notice at the back of the garden, it’s covered in those red, jagged landscape rocks. Well those rocks aren’t just on top… they are right through the soil. To get rid of them all, I’d have to dig the whole thing out, and probably down two or three feet.

Ain’t nobody got time for that!

Instead, I decided this would become a ground cover garden – similar to what I did with the tree garden at the townhouse. I hit the garden centre, bought up a pile of rockfoils, sedums, elfin thyme, and some creeping jenny – all things that will spread out and cover the ground, making a nearly impenetrable carpet. But they also wouldn’t care about all the rocks in the soil. In fact, it will probably help them thrive.

It took pretty much all afternoon, but I got the space cleared, plants in, and gave it all a good thick layer of mulch to keep those weeds at bay.

Quite the transformation, if I do say so myself! It looks rather sparse now, but those plants will all spread and create a wonderful carpet.

I decided this garden would also be a good spot for my weeping pussywillow.

She’s toward the back, and eventually she’ll grow tall enough to be the focal point of the garden. For now, I’ve got my welcome sign at the back, as something to draw the eye.

I tend to make my own hanging baskets, instead of buying them pre-made from the garden centre. It costs about the same, but I can use better soil, which holds the water better. In this one, I have some Calabrocha, Marigolds, and Creeping Jenny.

Since the cedar stump was too tough to dig out, I decided it’s going to become a garden “feature” and placed my broken pot garden beside it.

It’s full of ground covering sedums too (and a dollar store frog), so I figure it fits right in. Behind it, is where the Euonymous is regrowing.

Eventually, it’s going to cover the old stump any way. My only job with it, is to keep it tidy as it grows.

And while most of the plants are ground cover sedums, I did get a few flowering things.

The white and the pink bunches are both rockfoils. But the purpley-blue one is Watperry Blue Speedwell. I have other Speedwell in the catio, but their flowers are long, and bottle-brush-like. The only thing they have in common with this one is the shape of the leaves.

I also added in some Marigold and Portulaca for colour. They are annuals, but if all goes as planned, I won’t need to worry about planting more in a couple of years.

All in all, I’m exceedingly pleased with the transformation of this first garden space. Next I hope to tackle the rest of the front of the house.

While you wait for news on that… here’s a little side-by-side, before and after:

It really is amazing what you can do with a shovel and a can-do attitude!!!

There’s no doubt about it…

My rattan lounger is the hottest seat in the house!