Common Merganser

I have 15x zoom and this was the best I could get. I seem to spot the mergansers at around 9 AM at the forks of the Thames. They stand out with their white bodies and they like to dive a lot, but they are never close by. If I go closer to the banks the geese get louder and closer to me and the merganser swims away. The geese and the mallards seem to locate people on the shore and swim closer hoping you are going to feed them. There are few things funnier than a Canadian goose's butt in the air :P

Hooded Mergansers

I was really excited to see these 3 Hooded Mergansers in the Thames River! One male and 2 females.

I am going to try and post more winter wildlife photos of the forks of the Thames on this blog.

Butterflies and flowers

wow! I am so happy with the photos my new camera takes! I was so worried these would end up blurry.

I don't spend enough time in the garden to smell the flowers and observe the wildlife! The Monarchs just love these flowers! To whomever planted these..what a joy!

I think these are Cleomes:

They are as tall as me!

It's a jungle out there!

OMG! my garden has grown out of control! I am so embarassed by this mess! Definitely will rethink my design! The tomato plants are so huge they were falling over with the weight! I removed one of the 5 plants that had fallen completely over; cut back the other ones severely so that the fruit can get some light. I tried restaking them but they fell over too...only one of the 5 plants has given me red tomatoes. The beefmasters were huge and cracked on the bottoms...I have no hope for them! It is so depressing and defeating!!

I tore out one of my rows of peas that also collapsed the pods were huge but the peas were not filling them out.

My cucumbers are taking over the free space on the ground and creeping into the boxes! however I have plucked quite a few cukes! have been eating a lot of cucumber and zucchini salads!

Of my four zucchini plants, one has given me lots of zucchini the others flowers but no fruit until this week, so there is hope.

My beans were giving me lots of giant beans, but I had to rip out a couple of the plants because they were choking out the eggplants.

Speaking of eggplants..voila!

Is this not a thing of beauty?!

Roasted sliced eggplant on the bbq with melted cheese with stir fried veggies and garlic! yummy!

My 4 boxes

Broccoli, beans, and eggplant

cucmbers

One box just of tomatoes

one box just zucchini, I planted one plant and 5 seeds, the more mature plant has 4 zucchini on it already!

peas, early on, they're 4 x the size already!

Sunflowers curtesy of Alexis (Thanks :)

What I like about the boxes, is that it cuts down on the weeding and the watering and walk around the plants fairly easily. Everything is within reach.

I've just planted another row of peas, beans and carrots seeds today. I think the boxes may discourage a few animals. I keep finding holes, that looks like a dog (judging by the paw prints) may be trying to dig up my sunflowers, which are in the middle of the garden and not in a box.

Boxes, Plants, and Seeds

These are some of the vegetable plants I bought. One eggplant, 2x broccoli, 1x zucchini, 4x tomatoes.

My dad and I put in 4, 4x4 boxes. Far left will be tomatoes, far right will be the zucchini, front left, I planted a row of peas and a row of carrots, leaving space for another row of peas in carrots that I will plant in a month. Front right has the egg plant and broccoli and I planted a row of bush bean seeds, leaving room for another row of beans in a month. In the middle I planted a mound with cucumber seeds on each side and a couple of sunflowers in the middle for fun!

Spring 2010!

So it begins again, my friends! Finally, found some time to haul myself down to the garden, so so busy, I almost thought I wouldn't be able to do it this year, but I am glad I did. All the plots are taken and if I didn't do it this year, I probably wouldn't be able to get in next year...so here goes!

They straightened up the boundaries and I think created extra plots, so I am about where I was last year, but I have a neighbour to the south of me. Don't worry neighbour, I've decided to skip doing the pumpkin thing this year, so it won't take over your plot!

I've weeded it and raked it...and roughed in 4 squares. My plan is to plant tomatoes, beans, peas, carrots, zucchini, cucumber, and eggplant. Radishes are fun, but don't really like them. oh yes and in the middle I want to plant 4 sunflowers, just 'cause!

wish me luck! stay tuned next week: trip to the nursery!