dadsaretheoriginalhipster: Your dad ate local, fair-trade, organic produce before you did and he’s still got the cultivation skills to prove it. With a leather tanned neck and a green thumb, he seduced Mother Earth into growing him the best vegetables anyone has ever seen. But, he wasn’t a gardener. Gardeners are old ladies with sun hats and bad knees. He was the John Wayne of farming that had a quiet confidence he could grow anything. He didn’t need even need pesticides because he was intimidating enough to keep pests away from his food babies.  So hipsters, when you’re sitting in a restaurant you found on yelp and you’re pestering the waitress to see if the tomatoes in your salad are fair-trade, locally grown, organic and sustainably farmed, remember this… Your dad wasn’t into eating local, fair-trade, organic so that he could smugly look down upon everyone else who doesn’t. He ate that way because it just taste damn better and all he cared about was enjoying the best things in life.  High-res

dadsaretheoriginalhipster:

Your dad ate local, fair-trade, organic produce before you did and he’s still got the cultivation skills to prove it. With a leather tanned neck and a green thumb, he seduced Mother Earth into growing him the best vegetables anyone has ever seen. But, he wasn’t a gardener. Gardeners are old ladies with sun hats and bad knees. He was the John Wayne of farming that had a quiet confidence he could grow anything. He didn’t need even need pesticides because he was intimidating enough to keep pests away from his food babies. 

So hipsters, when you’re sitting in a restaurant you found on yelp and you’re pestering the waitress to see if the tomatoes in your salad are fair-trade, locally grown, organic and sustainably farmed, remember this…

Your dad wasn’t into eating local, fair-trade, organic so that he could smugly look down upon everyone else who doesn’t. He ate that way because it just taste damn better and all he cared about was enjoying the best things in life. 

Ready, set, go! It’s the May Long weekend here in Canada and that is the starting gun for all gardeners as it’s generally a safe bet that we are done with below freezing overnight temps and the risk of frost is relatively low.

In order to avoid the May long weekend mayhem that occurs at garden centres, I dragged the boy out last night with the intention of something specific; perennial geraniums or cranesbill. Well, we came home with 2 flats of perennials and a shrub! I left J unattended in the shrub section and he decided that we needed a hydrangea for the back garden. He has this love of all plants that get huge. He is promising large puff balls. In addition to that, he also picked out some Elephant Ears for our shady corner.

So, what did we come home with? Yellow Tiger Lilies, double white hollyhock, yellow Lupine, the Cranesbill…memory is eluding me. I will update shortly with the 3 or 4 others.

Garden Centres are my kryptonite.

P.S.

more Foxglove, Guinevere Delphinium, Dwarf Blanket Flower, White Clips Bellflower!

The newest and last tree in our back garden is the Hot Wings Tartarian Maple. A spectacular new addition for smaller home landscapes, this is a smaller accent tree that features blazing red hot seeds in late summer and fiery fall colors; more tolerant of drought and alkaline conditions than the otherwise similar Amur maple. This is a relatively low maintenance tree, and should only be pruned in summer after the leaves have fully developed, as it may ‘bleed’ sap if pruned in late winter or early spring. It has no significant negative characteristics. Hot Wings Tatarian Maple will grow to be about 18 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 12 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 4 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 70 years or more. © Photo courtesy of Northscaping.com High-res

The newest and last tree in our back garden is the Hot Wings Tartarian Maple.

A spectacular new addition for smaller home landscapes, this is a smaller accent tree that features blazing red hot seeds in late summer and fiery fall colors; more tolerant of drought and alkaline conditions than the otherwise similar Amur maple.

This is a relatively low maintenance tree, and should only be pruned in summer after the leaves have fully developed, as it may ‘bleed’ sap if pruned in late winter or early spring. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Hot Wings Tatarian Maple will grow to be about 18 feet tall at maturity, with a spread of 12 feet. It has a low canopy with a typical clearance of 4 feet from the ground, and is suitable for planting under power lines. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for 70 years or more.

© Photo courtesy of Northscaping.com