I dream of lilacs

A beautiful surprise…

Everytime I would see a lilac tree teeming with beautiful flowers, I would always wish we had one in our garden. Lilacs are just so enthralling with those purplish colored flower and the fragrance!

So imagine my surprise when this seemingly insignificant, tall, bush-like plant we have in our backyard produced these cones filled with pretty little flowers! We’ve been in the house since last year but we didn’t get these flowers. I said to my partner “Don’t they look like lilac flowers to you?” She got all excited about it when she saw them too. I researched and true enough, they are lilacs!

My next question then was why didn’t it bloom last year? Since I do the layout for our 10 Neat Things weekly e-newsletter in the office (I work for the Manitoba/Alberta/Ontario Home & Gardener magazines, lucky me!) , I remember doing a 10 Neat Things about Lilacs. It turns out lilacs don’t bloom on new branches. I remember when we moved in, the top was trimmed to be as tall as the fence.  Now, we are not going to touch them till they fill up with blooms.

Maybe you have some tips for me to get more blooms from my lilac bushes?

Posted from WordPress for Android

Fungi in the garden!

It’s not exactly like athlete’s foot, but found these in the lawn when we got home yesterday. It freaked me out just a little bit so I got the spade and took them out. Then went to my friend Google and tried to find out all about this mushroom.

I think it’s called an Inky Cap mushroom which is commonly seen growing from early spring to fall in North America. It is also edible! As long as you don’t drink any alcohol within 2 days of consuming the mushroom because that’s when it becomes poisonous.

Also, mushrooms, in general, thrive in a shady, damp and organic waste rich environment (which is probably the result of the puppies’ “organic waste”). They may be unsightly,  but they are actually beneficial as it helps break down that organic waste that’s good for the plants.

Now that I know all these, i won’t freak out anymore when I see another cluster growing in the garden, I won’t let them take over the lawn though, but these are cool facts to know about mushrooms.

For 10 Neat Things about Fungus (By Dorothy Dobbie), Click here.

Alcohol Inky Caps (i think)