End of Season One

Composter and Leaves
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Harvesting Leaves

With three maples, two tall birches, two oaks, and additional maples, birches and oak trees on the fence line, not to mention shrubs such as serviceberry and elderberry, our property gets plenty of leaves in the fall. The question is, what to do with them?

The City of Mississauga has an excellent leaf pickup program -- you rake your leaves to the roadside, and the city collects them and transports them to its large composting sites. In the past we were happy to give them away. This season, however, we wanted to recycle as many of them as possible on our own property.

Oak leaves are known to be difficult to compost because they degrade very slowly, but, fortunately, they're the last leaves to fall. When the maple and birch leaves had finished falling, I raked them onto my side yard and spread them to a depth of about one foot high, then ran my mulcher-mower over them, back and forth, until they were chopped into a finer, denser mass. After they were chopped, I harvested the mix, though I had to wait several days due to heavy rain.




Harvesting the Leaf Mulch
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I cleared the fallen leaves from the corner of our back yard, and added the leaf mulch to decompose and compost over winter.




Mulch Pile
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Next spring we'll turn the compost pile early and by later spring we'll spread the mix over the plant beds in the back garden, returning the leaf matter into the soil.

End of Season Images

As autumn lengthens and winter approaches, a tour around the yard reveals some seasonal images. Hydrangea petals have turned into the papery, delicate browns that make them a special treat. We harvested one batch of hydrangea for our kitchen vase. The rest will stay on the plant as winter accent.




Hydrangea Petals
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The pods from the rose of sharon are, in their own way, as beautiful as the plant in full bloom.





Rose of Sharon Pods
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The highbush cranberry plant is in full berry.




Highbush Cranberries
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An oak leaf bids farewell to the season.




Lonely Oak Leaf
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Even Marion's bicycle senses that it's time to head into winter storage.





Bicycle, Leaves, First Snow
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Precursors of Winter

The first sign of snow, in November, provided a background for the oakleaf hydrangea.




Oakleaf Hydrangea and First Snow
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And Old Owl, a rough cedar totem, keeps vigil in the native-plant bed at the front.




Old Owl
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And another stray oak leaf sits on new-fallen snow.




Oak Leaf on Snow
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Everything is now ready for its winter sleep.

The Bunny & The Chipmunk

A Modern Fable

There once was a little bunny cottontail. She liked nibbling the violets growing around the bird bath beside our deck. She liked hiding in the foliage beside our house. One day I tossed out the stale heel of some multigrain bread, and she ventured out to investigate. She liked the bread and started nibbling




Bunny Cottontail
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Alas, the scent of the bread drew unwelcome attention from one of the resident chipmunks who darted at the bunny repeatedly until the bunny jumped out of reach. The chipmunk then claimed the prize.




Chipmunk Claiming Prize
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The bunny could but look on, philosophizing about the drawbacks of non-violence.




"Don't Even Think It ..."
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But for every aggressor, there's always a bigger aggressor nearby. Alas for both the bunny and the chipmunk, a large squirrel claimed the prize and carried it away.




"To the Victor ..."
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Moral: It ain't easy living next door to a superpower.

[This is a true story. I had to take this series of images quickly, hand holding a Canon 300D with a Tamron 60-300mm lens zoomed to 300mm. The quality, shot through a window and without a proper support, leaves something to be desired, but I was glad to catch these moments. It's great to have these little critters as part of the backyard ecosystem.]

The Planting Has Begun!

New Planting
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At long last, the planting has begun! Some of the material we culled from Humber College last spring survived being in pots all summer, and Marion and Gabriele found additional plants at Humber Nursery. Last Friday, Nada, Gabriele, Marion and Mike harvested plants culled from previously-planted EcoSource Mississauga flower beds, and they did it in the pouring rain. Service above and beyond what anyone might expect.

The following is a nearly complete list of what has been planted. Some of the Latin names are missing, and there are a couple of plants we're waiting for Gabriele to identify for us.

• Arrowwood (Viburnum dentatum)
  
• Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
  
• Beard-Tongue (Penstemon digitalis)
• Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta)
  
• Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium montanum)
• Canadian Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
  
• Compact Highbush Cranberry (Viburnum trilobum 'Compactum')
  
• Fern-leaf Bleedingheart (Dicentra ...)
  
• Foam Flower (Tiarella cordifolia)
• Geranium 'Cranesbill' (Geranium cinereum)
  
• Giant Carpet Bugle (Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant')
• Hummingbird Summersweet (Clethra alnifolia 'Hummingbird')
  
• Indian Grass (Sorghastrum nutans)
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
  
• Mother of Thyme (Thymus serpyllum)
  
• Mountain Mint
  
• Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)
• Obedient Plant (Physostegia virginiana)
• Panic Grass (Panicum ...)
  
• Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis triplinervis)
  
• Pink Pussy-Toes (Antennaria dioica 'Rubra')
• Pitcher Plant
  
• Prarie Smoke
• Purple Coneflower
  
• Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea)
• Sea Oats (Chasmanthium latifolia)
• St John's Wort (Hypericum moseranum)
  
• Viburnum
• Wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens)
  
• Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata)
  

Sea Oats
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Black-eyed Susan
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Oakleaf Hydrangea
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Red Osier Dogwood
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The Hardscaping is Finished!

As a reminder, here's what the front of our house looked like in late March when we decided to re-landscape the front.




Old View from the Street
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At the time we decided on a new design, it was late in the season for engaging a contractor -- they were all committed to existing projects -- so we had to wait until July before the 'hardscaping' part of the project could begin. Those of you who have renovated will understand the mess and disruption that is inevitable.




The Renovations Begin
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Gabriele's landscape plan called for softening the look of the front, where native plants will be featured, and to achieve that the asphalt driveway was removed, to be replaced by a 'stone' (permacon) one, and a new feature -- a walkway to the street -- was added. Gabriele wanted to draw attention away from the driveway which is often the most prominent feature of a property, to allow the eye to follow the sidewalk instead.

The plan called for four planting beds: a large wildflower bed at the front; a second, middle-sized bed around the maple tree; a third smaller bed under the front window; and a fourth, tiny little bed at the front patio to accommodate some flowers or grasses. Two old shrubs were removed to open the space for the third bed.




New View from the Street
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Even without the plants, the view from the street has been transformed with new lines and areas of interest. There are curves and nooks for the eye to rest on, and the renovation removed a large amount of lawn.




Large Flower Bed
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The large flower bed at the front is the sunniest and it dips down into a small swale at the street. It will be a good bed for some of the sun-loving larger native plants.




The Medium Bed
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The medium bed around the maple tree echoes the large bed and a thin strip of lawn separates it from the new walkway. Except for the very front of the bed, it is a shadier area that will require plants that can tolerate partial shade. We trimmed up the lower branches of the maple to allow additional indirect lighting to filter through.




The Small Bed
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The small bed, directly in front of the front windows, was opened up by the removal of two aging shrubs. It exposes more of the front of the house (and reminded us that we need to re-stain the panelling that had previously been hidden). This is the shadiest bed and will require some adroit planting to be successful.




Walkway
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Although it needs the 'softscaping' and some cleaning, the new walkway feature leads the eye, and the feet, from the street to the front door. It succeeds, as Gabriele said it would, in taking focus away from the driveway. It's attractive and 'street friendly'.




Extended Patio
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Our previous patio was miniscule -- an uninspired narrow slab of concrete. We like sitting at the front of the house and wanted our patio extended as part of the renovation. This proved easy to accommodate and there is no longer any artificial barrier between the door and the rest of the yard.




View from the Front Door
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We love the new look, as we sit at the front. The feel is 'European'. Once the planting begins, the front will become a beautiful native plant ecosystem.

But there's the rub. It's now so late in the season that the pickings are slim for native plants. Once we've added some rockery to the beds, we'll plant what we can, but, alas, the majority of the planting will be delayed until spring.

Still, it's a solid start towards our eco-friendly landscape.

Mid-season Composting

City of Mississauga Composters
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July was a month of delays and extreme heat. The 'hardscaping' was not finished until almost August, and the hot, humid days, with no rain, turned the ground dry and the grass dormant. As a result we did very little lawn mowing with the hand mower, and even less gardening. We didn't water our lawn during the drought, allowing it to go into its natural dormant state, but we watered our flowers a few times to keep them healthy.

The hot weather, though, was conducive to composting and when I was turning composter #1, I could see that excellent soil was forming in the bottom. We lost our boxwoods during the renovation of the front lawn -- they died before we could find a place for them -- so I had a fair bit of new material to add.

It was time to move the advanced compost into composter #2, for further composting, and freeing up space in composter #1 for additional biomass. I undertook this job today and was delighted to see how far along the bottom half of #1 had progressed.




Gene turning out Compost (photo by Marion)
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Just look at all that rich new earth created from cuttings, clippings, kitchen scraps, human hair, lint from the dryer, and guinea pig litter!




Mid-season Compost
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Come next spring, it will be further refined and ready to spread on the new native plants beds.

Getting Ready for Planting

Landscaping




Marion and Gabriele Gathering Plants
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As we pass from spring into early summer, we're getting closer to the 'hardscaping' of our front lawn. In early July, in all probability, we'll have the asphalt driveway removed and new stone walkway and driveway built. Then we start the 'softscaping' -- adding plants to Gabriele's landscape design.

Gabriele has helped us gather some beautiful native plants for the front yard. We're also taking trips to the nurseries to look at native plants that will tolerate the shade of our side and back yards. Soon we'll start planting flowers and shrubs that will be more drought tolerant and attractive to birds, butterflies and beneficial insects.

Organic Lawn Care




Side Yard
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All the work Mike and Soni helped us with is bearing fruit as the side yard looks healthy without the use of pesticides and herbicides. Organic lawn care requires us to search out and hand remove plants we don't want in the yard, such as dandelions and thistles. I haven't found doing so that onerous -- in fact I enjoy getting to know every surface of the lawns. A bonus is that I can cut grass clippings right off the lawn for our guineau pig, Piglet, without worrying about toxic chemicals.




Scotts Classic Push Mower
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The push mower is working out well. It's set relatively high to allow the grass to develop a strong root structure and pushing it is not as strenuous as I thought it might be. Our son Trevor likes using it more than the gas mower when it's his turn to mow. No CO2 emissions and it's very quiet. I'd recommend a push reel mower for anyone who doesn't have a large expanse of grass to cut.

Composting




Clippings for Compost
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One of our main goals this season has been to get the gardens in better shape. Because Marion hadn't been well for the past two years, it has meant lots of trimming and weeding of the existing beds. This, in turn, has given us plenty of raw material for composting, which we mix with our guinea pig's bedding material to obtain a balance of green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon). I'm happy to report that the composters are generating heat and the material is decomposing nicely -- composting is happening! I'm glad I purchased two composters. With the large amount of biomass we've harvested, we're already starting on our second bin.

Mike has also dropped off a large amount of commercial compost we'll be using to spread in the gardens to enrich the soil and reduce weed growth.

Birthday Present





Birthday Serviceberry
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On June 10th, Nada, Soni, Gabriele, Mike, Trevor, Marion and I celebrated my 60th birthday with a pub lunch at The Harp on Lakeshore Blvd in Port Credit. It was one of the warmest, most convivial birthday celebrations ever, and I considered myself lucky to be among such good friends and family. Just to be there was enough, but Mike and Soni surprised me totally. They had found out from Marion that my favourite shrub is the Serviceberry (aka Juneberry, Saskatoonberry), and they gave me one for my birthday. It will be planted in the side yard near the composters as the first major step in transforming the back of the side lawn into a shady woodland garden!

Enjoying the Garden




First Day Lily
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Of course gardening is not all planning, work and callouses. The joy, for any gardener, is seeing nature's beauty unfold in leaves and blossoms. The first day lilies of the season bloomed this week and the hostas are displaying their showy, broad leaves. Marion and I often sit in the swing and simply enjoy the breezes and the lush vegetation, and I am able to find photo-ops everywhere I look.




Variegated Hosta Leaves (Sepia Toned)
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Until next time!

Conditioning the Lawn

Mike spreading compost on back lawn
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Last Sunday we were rained out, so on Thursday evening (28-Apr-2005), Mike and Soni came by with another load of compost to finish the side and back lawns. Mike brought an aerator tool that you step on to pull up plugs and aerate the soil, but because the yard was not very compacted we able to proceed directly with the top dressing.

What I learned from Mike was that early spring and late fall are the ideal times of year to condition the lawns with a thin layer of compost to enrich the soil and encourage worm growth.

After spreading a thin layer of compost, we overseeded with fresh grass seed to top up the lawn for the start of the season.




Back yard conditioned with fresh compost
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Soni scattering grass seed
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Once the grass is ready for cutting, Mike will bring by a push mower for me to try out. He says today's push mowers are much better and easier to push than the ones from years ago.

Mike mentioned that running a typical gas power mower for one hour creates an amount of pollution equivalent to driving a car from Toronto to Montreal. Because small gas motors are highly polluting, Garden Gnome uses only hand tools.

When we begin mowing for the season, we will leave the clippings on the lawn to compost directly onto the soil. Grass clippings can be added to a composter, but they tend to add too much nitrogen (green matter) to the mix unless balanced with generous amount of leaves or other carbon-rich brown matter. The consensus is that it's best to leave grass clippings right on the lawn.

A photographer from The Mississauga News dropped by to take some photos of us. The newspaper will be featuring some articles on EcoSource's Green Neighbour Program.

Soni brought along our composter -- a City of Mississauga composter that looks rather like Darth Vader's helmet. We assembled it and parked it in the spot Marion and I thought would be good because it will catch some morning sun to help keep the compost mixture warm and speed up composting.





New composter installed & ready
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On the bottom layer of the composter, we layered twigs, leaves, and a basketful of maple buds I had swept from our deck. Mike added a little existing compost as a 'starter' full of beneficial bacteria.




Maple buds gathered for composting
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We celebrated our efforts with a dinner of Marion's homemade veggie soup and some freshly baked loaves of wholewheat-oat-cranberry bread.




Homemade veggie soup and wholewheat-oat-cranberry bread
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The next day I composted the kitchen scraps we had been saving up: banana, orange and potato peels, onion skins, some lettuce bits, tea bags, coffee grounds, and coffee filters. I also roughly shredded and added any paper towels we had used. I popped it all into the opening of the composter and covered the kitchen scraps with some leaves and a bit of dirt.

I was amazed at how much of our normal weekly kitchen waste went directly into the composter, and I felt a strong sense of pride in this simple act of recycling.

We still have much to learn about composting and organic lawn care, but we're already deriving deep satisfaction from our first baby steps in going green!

The Project Begins!

Compost, Seed & Tools
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In the previous blog entry I mentioned two extraordinary individuals who have donated their time to EcoSource Mississauga on various Green Neighbour initiatives. It's our great pleasure to be working with them on the Green Neighbour pilot project as they help us transform our suburban yard and garden into a 'green' organic plot with a healthy organic lawn and flower garden, with a focus on native plants.

Gabriele Davies is a graduate of Humber College and is a certified Horticulturalist and Landscape Designer. Among her many accomplishments, she developed the Urban Wildlife Garden for the Humber Arboretum. Gabriele is helping us redesign our front yard from a rather 'blah' look into an inviting landscape dominated by native wildflowers and plants. This will take some time as it involves structural changes including extending our front porch and adding some stone walkways.

Michael Chudy is a physics grad turned organic gardener who runs a business called Garden Gnome, which offers organic lawn and garden care services. Mike uses only environmentally-friendly materials and uses no power tools that pollute the air. Mike is helping us condition our lawns and treat them organically with no pesticides.

Gabriele and Mike are both in the process of getting their new businesses organized. As soon as their websites are ready for public access, I'll add their links to this blogsite.

After a couple of preliminary meetings to look at the property and assess what the next steps would be, we started in earnest on Sunday, April 17 (2005).




Gabriele's Landscape Drawings
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It was a busy start. Gabriele and Marion concentrated on the landscape plans, fine tuning the layout and deciding on what kind of stonework would be best for the pathways. Mike started work on our side yard, showing us how to lay down a layer of compost and rake it over the surface, overseeding the lawn with additional grass seed. Soni Craik from EcoSource volunteered to help and worked with Mike while I finished raking another part of the yard to remove spring debris, with occasional breaks to take photos of work in progress. We looked like a miniature farm, with all hands busy. The weather was glorious -- a stunningly beautiful, warm April afternoon.




Mike & Soni Spreading a Layer of Compost
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The landscaping plans called for the removal of some boxy, uninspired-looking shrubs, to be replaced with flower gardens. Marion tackled their removal with Mike and Soni digging out the root structures.




Marion Removing Old Shrubs
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The hard work was interspersed with tea, coffee, cookies, fresh strawberries (thanks Soni!) and much laughter. When we finished for the day, we capped it with dinner of lentil chili and fresh salad. This coming Sunday, if the weather is good, Mike will bring additional compost for the back lawn and the flower beds. We will also be installing a City of Mississauga composter so we can start recycling our kitchen and garden waste.

It was an exciting start and Marion and I are beginning to learn some of the basics of organic lawn care. More photographs of the day's activities can be viewed here:
www.northernjourney.com/photo/ecogardening/17-Apr-2005/