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I like flowers . . . I like bright flowers in my garden
. . . I like fresh flowers on my kitchen table . . . I like to
photograph flowers.
So it's no surprise that my house is
surrounded by flower beds, the swimming pool is surrounded by flower
beds, there is a perennial garden and a water garden as well, just to
keep me busy. I have planted as many perennials as possible over
the years, but the local garden centers still look forward to my visits
every spring.
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Every day through the spring and
summer
I spend a few minutes, or an hour or two, weeding, trimming and
pruning. This summer has been very hot and dry and I have watered
virtually every night. |
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I really enjoy every aspect of
gardening except the weeding . . . but it has to be done. And I
just love the end result.
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Even though I have plenty of flowers
at home, I like to visit other gardens from time to time as well.
The quaint old historic town of Niagara on the Lake is full of
impressive flowers all summer, and I also particularly enjoy the Naturium
butterfly and hummingbird garden at Greenway Blooming Centre, north of
Cambridge Ontario. |
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While working in Vancouver, BC a few
years ago I fell in love with the Rhododendrons which were in full bloom
at the time, so I now have several "rhody's" in a sheltered
bed in front of my home. The Buchart Gardens in Victoria, BC are
spectacular, be sure to visit them if you are planning a trip to
Vancouver Island. |
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When
I'm not tending my gardens, feeding the fish in the flower garden, or
busy with my other hobbies, you can often find me snapping pictures of
my garden. |
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All
of the photos on this page are from my gardens, I hope you enjoy them!
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Alas, since I wrote this page, we have
moved and I tearfully left my gardens behind. Our retirement
plans involve lots of travel and the gardens were interfering with
our travel plans. So they had to go!
We are now in a larger home on a
much smaller property and we intend to landscape the new property
with "low maintenance" plantings.
Since I still love flowers, Gary
will have to keep reminding me to keep it simple! |
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August 1,
2009
Since
I wrote the notes above we have moved from Burlington to Kingston, with
the intent of downsizing our property and eliminating the need to
be tied down to the pool, pond and gardens. The first year was
easy living without a garden. There were more important things to
be done around the new house; we did not even have grass until
July. There was also a driveway to pave, curbs and sidewalk to be
put in, a deck to be built and then finallly the fence around the back
yard.
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The
second summer came along and I decided that we did need some sort
of small garden in the back yard. It would consist of mostly
flowering shrubs and require minimal care. Once the shrubs were in
then a few annuals were added for colour.
It
is now the third summer in our new home and the garden is
flourishing, I don’t see it getting much bigger, I don’t have
the room, but it does keep me happy. |
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