Cactus should wear Sandals!

I have had these hardy Alberta prickly pear cactus have been growing in the garden for the past 17 years. A couple of years ago, I put some into some old shoes. When we had the garden centre, on of the greenhouse growers would bring old shoes with hens and chickens (Sempervivum spp.) Well why not grow cactus in some old shoes? Especially since I had some old shoes. And the cactus root easily. This variety has yellow flowers.

I suppose since these cactus can survive the Canadian winters, they are quite comfortable in shoes. Just watch the thorns on these guys. They can be a pain.

Found a blog with only winter hardy cactus.

Winter is coming?

A little touch of snow flurries this weekend. The weather was cool this Sunday, but had to do some more work outside. Put the rest of the furniture and pool stuff away, tidy up some things that needed trimming, dug a few carrots, beets and leeks.

Made up 3 winter greenery pots- trimmed evergreens from around the pool- Hetz blue juniper, Mint Julep juniper, Japanese garden juniper. Added pieces from other parts of the garden. Hydrangea Annabelle, Miscanthus grass, Sedum spectablis, Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium), Asparagus fern, Hibiscus stems, Silver dogwood stem, Himalayan Birch, Corkscrew Hazel, Green Barberrry, Viburnum berries.

see our Turf King Website www.hamilton.turfking.ca

Soup Potluck

Had our soup potluck this Sabbath at Heritage Green. This is the second one this year and the fourth one all told. This time we had 10-11 soups from various people-Lentil, Panamanian split pea, corn chowder, cream of wheat, pasta and cabbage, veggie soup, 11 bean soup, squash/leek, carrot/vegetable, a red lentil and potato stew, a pot of chili beans.

Mom made 2 soups. One was Mulligatawny -a spicy Anglo-Indian soup. (Ken Deweltz says it means Pepper water.) Her vegan, wheatless, chicken noodle was also a hit. Chicken noodle- at some of the earlier soup potlucks it was the first in the line- so we thought that's why it ran out. But this time it was at the very end. This is the first time she made it wheatless- for Dillon- used rice noodles.