Blueberries and Raspberries

This weekend we bought ourselves some blueberry and raspberry bushes.  They have happily been transplanted into our front gardens where they will get full sun and lots of TLC. 

Raspberries!

Blueberries

We lucked out and found several great varieties for home gardeners:  For the blueberries we got Northland, Blueray and Jersey and for the raspberries we got heritage and boyne.  I'm mostly blogging their names to help me remember what we got!

We found our plants for 50% off so we got 3 raspberry plants and three blueberry plants.  The plants had been living in pots all summer, but they seemed healthy and were definitely willing to leave their pots to live with us!

I also picked up some daffodil bulbs that I will plant when the rest of my bulbs turn up.

We were quite happy with the nursery I selected.  It is the Carleton Place Nursery and we will be going back there for sure.  Everything was really healthy, well organized and the staff was very helpful too.

Fall Bulbs

This week I went ahead and ordered a bunch of fall bulbs that will make my gardens beautiful next spring and summer.  I know, the things I ordered are not edible, but they will bring in lots of beneficial insects that will help to pollinate my fruits and veggies.

Every year I say that I am going to order bulbs, but I never do.  The fact that I got organized enough to actually order some things this year is very exciting.

Rainbow Alliums

Tulip Blend (purples and pinks)



Coneflowers

Dutch Iris Mix

Border Lilies

Dizzy Oriental Lily

Mixed Windflower

I can't believe I have to wait a whole 6 months before I will see all these flowers blooming!  How do people stand the anticipation?



Giving Thanks

Today I am thankful for my parents. I am thankful they are on their way home again from a 5 day visit. Visits are always hard for me, and I often lose my temper more than I should. I am thankful for their visit too though, it was nice to spend time with them. They put together a fabulous Turkey dinner with all the trimmings for us and Alain's whole family. Their methods are a little unconventional, but everything turned out alright. Our dogs were well behaved angels and the children (our nephews) were okay too.

My parents have a knack at turning leftovers into something great - like squash risotto or turkey fried rice. I pretty much would have pulled out the bowl of cold turkey bits and called that dinner. I could learn a lot from them.

This week I am thinking about our garden and how to make it great. I am thinking about fruit and veggies to grow next year too. I hope to get some garlic planted this week, maybe even a few raspberry bushes. I also just ordered a bunch of fall bulbs to plant.

We spent a good part of the weekend watching The Edible Garden, which was aired on BBC2 in the Spring. It's about growing food to eat alongside flowers. It is something I have been considering for a while and plan to start implementing soon. We have fairly generous flowerbed around the front of the house and it seems a shame to let all that full-sun go to waste. I also like the idea of having everything where I can see it, where I will walk past it every day and where I will be forced to pay attention to it. There are definitely worse things than being forced to pay attention to the raspberry bush, or a cherry tomato plant. I can think of a lot worse things!

I highly recommend watching the Edible Garden if you can find it and and if are interested in that sort of thing.  The host Alys is a little kooky, but I found the whole series very inspirational (it made me wish for spring all over again!).