The Garden at Lucas House

Planting in the fall can work too, so I decided to go ahead with planting the rest of the garden: the part-shaded part to the north of the building. I did things a little differently: primarily, I planted more densely by creating a matrix on 12-inch centres of three types of grasses. Within this matrix,…

August was a month of weeding. The crabgrass started to flower, which made it easy to get rid of it. I think I’m keeping the weeds under control – enough. Highlights as of September 1:

There’s little bluestem and there’s big bluestem. Big bluestem would be too big for the garden. So little bluestem it is. As a warm-season grass, it gets going slowly. But now it’s flowing, sending out gorgeous spikes, some up to three feet tall.

A day of weeding in the garden yesterday. Mostly crabgrass – but it’s getting easier to spot now it’s flowering because the flowers (and I use the term loosely because it’s a grass) lay flat to the ground, rather than erect, like the little bluestem. Some weeds have fibrous roots, which spread out. Others have…

I was delighted to see this Monarch butterfly caterpillar on one of the Swamp milkweeds this morning. (Takes away some of the disappointment of the deer and rabbits nibbling off the aster buds.)

I’m delighted to say the garden is joining the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway Project. Thanks to the Haliburton County Master Gardeners for facilitating this.

I always knew the first year would be weedy. Until the plants are established and because I didn’t put a thick layer of mulch down (here’s why), weeds will pop up. I’m taking a pretty relaxed attitude towards them. In the main, I want to stop them seeding and creating more weeds, so I’ll keep…

This is what makes it worthwhile. A monarch butterfly on the Swamp Milkweed planted in the garden.