Garden Rehab

By the end of July, the Dutch White Clover had come in and was looking green and lovely (especially compared to the sparse microclover we tried earlier ). We mowed it occasionally, and didn't water at all after it was established. Racoons and squirrels continued to regularly dig through the clover which did create some bald spots, but overall it has held up much better than the grass we replaced. Glorious green clover at the end of July According Zsa Zsa, one of life's great pleasures is lounging if sun-dappled clover, feeling a gentle breeze through one's fur... she might be on to something...

Wood-poppy  ( Stylophorum diphyllum ) Butterfly Milkweed ( Asclepias tuberosa ) Spotted Joe-Pye Weed ( Eupatorium maculatum ) Black-eyed Susan ( Rudbeckia hirta ) Virginia Spiderwort ( Tradescantia virginiana ) Cardinal Flower ( Lobelia cardinalis )

Beardtongue ( Penstemon digitalis ) is one of the best native flower species surprises this year. It produced a tall stalk of lovely white flowers. It would look better planted in a mass, and that will definitely be in my plans for next year.  Foxglove Beardtongue ( Penstemon digitalis) When we were in NYC we noted that the city is using Beardtongue in their plantings and it looked fantastic planted in big clumps with other native plant species. Beardtongue - New York City (can you see Lady Liberty?) Great inspiration both for our garden and to encourage the City of Toronto to use more native species in its flower beds. For more on Beardtongue, the Evergreen Native Plant Database  has great information about its ecological role and where it will grow.

After our first attempt to seed the lawn with microclover were less than successful, I decided to switch to standard Dutch White Clover seed. The OSC website states , it is "robust, adaptive, drought resistant and somewhat shade tolerant", so it should have no trouble with the clay in our yard. Dutch White Clover seed is also significantly less expensive than microclover seed. For comparison, Dutch White Clover is $11.00/500 grams which works out to $0.55/25grams. Microclover is $8.95/25 g, about 16 times more.  I also decided to add some Sweet Alyssum to the lawn after reading about Fleur de Lawn , an environmentally friendly flowering lawn mix developed with Oregon State University. Along with a number of other species, they included Sweet Alyssum in their mix. To jump start things, I planted 32 small Alyssum plants along the walkway where the clover was having trouble getting started. July 1, 2017 - Dutch White Clover and Sweet Alyssum. The clover see