Ktown Gardener

urban gardening

The fox and the rabbit

One of the things I love about my kitchen are the big windows that look out into the backyard. They bring the ouside in, allowing me to enjoy the garden year round.
 
Last night after dinner we were sitting in the kitchen in front of the fire when Sasha noticed a fox run past the window. Rob ran to get his camera to see if he could get a picture. Unfortunately the picture didn't work and he didn't get a second chance as the fox took off when Rob flipped on the ouside light. It turns out the fox was after a rabbit, which Rob saw dangling from his mouth as the fox ran away.
 
Here's the spot where the fox captured the rabbit. 
 
9_jan_fox_and_rabbit
 
I see foxes occasionally when out for a run, so I was pretty sure if we ever got chickens we'd need a chicken coop with good protection. This confirms it.

The beauty of rain chains

I've always disliked the look of downspouts. Then one day I came across a picture of a rain chain in a garden book and loved the look. When we had to rip out a downspout on the south side of our house during our mudroom reno, we replaced it with a simple chain from the hardware store to create a rain chain.
 
Here's the rain chain, covered with a light coat of ice, dropping into a rainbarrel. This FAQ recommends taking down rain chains over winter in harsh climates. We've had this chain up for three winters in our zone 5b garden with no problem, but I'll keep an eye on it this winter before adding more rain chains to see whether I'd be better off taking it down. I suspect the major worry would be how it weathers an ice storm.
 
5_jan_rainchain_and_rain_barre
 
I hadn't realized rain chains are what traditional Japanese houses used until I visited my sister in Kamloops. Walking through an eclectic neighbourbood with lovely gardens, we came across a house with a Japanese feel. The house had a lovely set of black rain chains that really helped integrate the house more closely into the landscape. I'll have to get my sister to check and see whether they've taken their chains down for the winter. 
 
We still have two ugly white downspouts and a hole in the gutter. After seeing some of the gorgeous rainchains available on the web, I'm inspired to finish converting to rain chains this summer. In addition to adding another rain chain flowing into a rainbarrel (a copper one this time), I'm going to experiment with a rain chain that flows into a container.
 
 
 

Common hoptree in the snow

Today was my favorite type of winter day - only a few degrees below zero and big fat fluffy snowflakes drifting down for hours to cover everything in sight. Here's a picture I took around lunchtime of my snow covered hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata) in the front yard.
 
I love the hoptree. In the summer the hoptree is bright green, providing a wonderful constrast to the darker greens surrounding it. The flowers aren't showy, but they're followed by the wonderful hops that you see in this picture. You can hear the hops rattling when it's windy and as you can see they hold snow (and ice) beautifully.
 
4_jan_hop_tree
 
I bought this hoptree (it's really a shrub) about 7 years ago in Toronto and loved it so much I'd been wanting to get another but hadn't been able to find one until I stopped by Canadian Tire for their end of season tree and shrub clearance. They had a whole row on clearance as no one had been willing to give them a try... people tend to plant what other people plant or what they're already familiar with. Plus, I have to confess that the very young hop trees look leggy and uninspiring. But after a few years to settle in, the hop tree is a wonderful shrub.
 
Thanks to the sale, I now have three more hoptrees to fill gaps in shady areas in my backyard (hoptrees are happy in both sun and shade).
 
 
 

In the beginning

Part journal, part learning forum, part manifesto and part opinionated rant, this is my space to talk about my urban garden. Because I don’t like rigid boundaries, I consider occasional posts that zoom out to the wider community and zoom in to cooking experiments fair game.

My garden journey begin about 15 years ago when we first moved into our suburban Kingston Ontario home. For me, two of the most important criteria when house hunting were a big yard that didn’t back onto someone else’s yard and a big kitchen. We lucked in with this house with its large (though awkward) kitchen and approximately one third of an acre lot backing onto a soccer park.

The yard, while it helped sell us on the house, was also one of its most annoying features. Every week or two we had to haul out what I consider to be one of the biggest suburban noise polluters  – the lawnmower – for the hour and a half ordeal of mowing the lawn. And while I hated the vast expanse of asphalt in the front yard (the house had a big semi-circular driveway with big extensions running up each side of the house), it did save us from what would have been even more time wasted mowing the lawn (though we paid for it with snow shoveling in the winter).

Today I don’t have a single patch of lawn remaining. And while it would have been fun to have started this blog at the beginning of my gardening journey, better late than never.

Here’s a view of my zone 5b garden taken today from my kitchen window (during one of the few sunny moments of what’s been a pretty dreary month).
 
3_jan_backyard_from_kitchen_wi