rebuilding the site and joining the Cult of Mac

I still can’t get pictures on here but I will keep on trying.? To explain what’s going on:?? we are really in the middle of rebuilding the site.? The categories at the side don’t mean anything? yet but they will once all the material I’ve written over the years has been loaded on.? Stuff from Gardening Life, the Globe and Mail and the perpetual tippy tapping I call life will be there to consult.

Thanks to the people who got in touch yesterday.? I now have a new computer and by tomorrow I should actually be on it and maybe all this will be a whole lot easier.? Once my daughter heard I’d gotten a Mac she said: “Welcome to the cult.”

Well it better work.? I’m borderline Luddite and technology was designed to drive me straight up the wall. It think it’s why I took up gardening.

It’s another glorious day here, and the garden continues to look incredible, nothing disappointing or baffling here. It?s either my lack of attention but this is the first time I?ve noticed the wonderful bloom you get on the potato vine—like the palest of moonflowers which is what it is and precisely what you’d expect on a plant called Ipomea ‘Blackie’. I love this annual and it pays off at this time of year. It holds the black colour of the leaves all through drought and hot days and then on these cooler days produces a few of these enchanting flowers.? If anyone has a balcony garden this is the one to get.

The other one I?m crazy about is Plectranthus ?Mona Lavender? which is in bloom right now and will stay a brilliant?neon? blue?until frost kills it off.? You can take cuttings from this plant and keep them in a cool well-lit place all winter.

This is a good time to make a list of all the annuals that can hold up in containers in spite of? heat and drought and, now, increasingly cool evenings. Frost and cold days seem a long way off in our area and I hope people aren?t messing about planting any bulbs yet. It?s just a bit too warm.

I’ll show pix of these in my own garden I promise because it doesn’t make sense if you have one of these powerful machines you can’t do something as simple minded as show off your own pix.? This may be a learning curve on a daily basis for a while.

If you’d like to get the occasional newsletter just send me an e-mail with newsletter as the title.? My column in the Globe is put off until the next week or the week after because it’s so warm.? Not the time to put the garden to bed just yet.

yours Marjorie