Category: My Learning Project

My flowerbed is complete!!!!

I was so excited to finish this project. It was terrific to accomplish a project I had been putting off for the last three years. Using different online sources gave me more ideas for creating the perfect flowerbed, and I was more successful because I used multiple online sources.

Learning Project Week One – Waving My Wand and Turning Red Rock Into Something Beautiful!

I started my project by researching the hardiness zone in which Kenosee Lake was located. I discovered that plants with a 3b  or lower hardiness would grow here. Al and I also started to remove all the red rock in the future flowerbed.

Resources

• Natural Resources Canada
• 25 Best Shade Perennials That Thrive Out of the Sun

Learning Project Week Two – When Life Gives You Ferns…..

This week, I wanted to learn what type of Ferns were growing in the red rock.  Using the Picture This App, I discovered that we had ostrich ferns growing. I also learned that the fiddleheads (produced when the fern first sprouts in the spring) are edible.  Next year, I want to sauté the fiddleheads to see if they are delicious.

Resources

• Picture This App,
• Flip 
• Food Safe tips for fiddleheads
• Sautéed Fiddleheads
• Fiddlehead Ferns Taste
• Fiddlehead Facebook Post

Learning Project Week Three – It’s Shopping Time!!!!

I went shopping! After watching TikTok and Instagram Reels, I figured out what Zone 3 plants I wanted to put in my flowerbed. I went shopping at Costco and our local greenhouse to purchase perennials for a low-maintenance flowerbed.

Resources

• Natural Resources Canada
• @brandonkoruna TikTok video
• @hamptonhousedesigns Instagram Reel

Learning Project Week Four – You Used What??💩💩💩

This week, I learned that some animal manure doesn’t have as many weed seeds as others. If I hadn’t received my soil from the farm for free, I would have added chicken manure to my garden bed.  The least amount of weed seeds can live through the chicken’s digestion.

Resources

• The Best Type of Manure for Vegetable Gardens 
• Is Horse Manure Good for Gardens?

Learning Project Week Five – To Fabric or Not to Fabric, That is the Question

Who knew that laying fabric in a flowerbed was so controversial? After learning about the different types of barriers to weeds, I decided to use landscaping fabric.

Resources

• Pros and Cons of Using Landscape Fabric
• @cc_lawn_landscaping TikTok video
• YouTube video

Learning Project Week Six –🔥 Burn Baby Burn🔥

Once the fabric was laid, I needed to make holes to plant my perennials. After trial and error, I discovered I had a different torch than the YouTube video. This was a problem because our torch kept blowing out. I then decided to cut Xs in the fabric to create a hole for my perennials.

Resources

• YouTube video using Clipchamp
• Burning Holes in Landscape Fabric YouTube video

Where my flowerbed started and where it ended. 

Conclusion

I really enjoyed this learning project. It was great to accomplish a project I wanted to do while also learning for my EDTC300 class.  I am so proud of how the flowerbed turned out and that I could research all the information independently.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for my flowerbed. Last weekend, Kenosee was hit with hail, and my flowerbed now looks a little different. I hope that I planted my plants in the ground soon enough to form a root system and that they will come back in the following years.

Twenty minutes after the hail storm.

Three hours after the hail storm.

Sharing online can help others out drastically, just like I was able to learn for our project. The skills I learned from different applications, blogs, and websites have helped develop my skills in our technology-driven world.

A quick review of where we were once the landscaping fabric was laid.

I decided to try a new video editing tool called Clipchamp. It was awesome! Adding the music behind the speech and close captioning to the video is so easy. It’s also super handy that I can edit the closed captioning.  I made a mistake while saying, “The landscaping mulch was in.” However, what I meant was the landscaping fabric was in. In the closed captioning, I edited the word mulch for fabric. After I was happy with the music, video and closed captioning, I saved it to my computer, or I could upload it to YouTube.  LOVED IT!!!

Alright, now that I had fun editing a video, back to the project! Next step: burning holes in the fabric.  I searched YouTube to see how others burnt their fabric; I can’t be that hard, right? In the video, she talks about using a small torch (2:27), and then at 5:25, you get to watch her burn holes in the landscaping cloth. It worked really well.

Al and got to work! We started off by using the torch in the picture to the left, since that’s what we owned.  Apparently our torch isn’t meant to be turned on its side or upside down. So it didn’t work very well.  After a few attempts I decided to stick to basics, went and got the scissors and just cut holes of X’s in the fabric where I wanted each plant.  Sometimes fancier isn’t better.

So close to being finished!!!!!

Who knew landscaping fabric could be so controversial?

The internet seems to have two very extreme sides: those who swear by laying landscaping fabric to help with weed control and those who do not. The ones who disagree with landscaping fabric are very vocal! I have read a few posts about landscaping fabric’s pros and cons. I also discovered many options for landscaping fabric, such as newspaper, black plastic, wood chips, straw, pine needles and grass clippings.

Since my dirt came from the ranch and there was a guarantee that weed seeds were in it, I decided to lay cloth landscaping fabric.  The benefits of landscaping fabric, as outlined on LawnStarter‘s website, are:

•   keep mulch from sinking in the soil
• prevent weed seeds covered by fabric from sprouting
• reduce the need for herbicides
• works well to help with erosion on slopes
• helps soil retain moisture
• warms the soil in winter

Next up was to learn how to lay the landscaping fabric.  Where else do you go but TikTok?

@cc_lawn_landscaping

How to Install Landscaping Fabric! Very Simple! #flowerbed #lawntok #landscape #fabric

♬ Bank Account – Instrumental – B Lou

This approach seemed pretty easy, so Al and I followed along and laid our fabric.

We didn’t have any pins to hold down the fabric like @cc_lawn_landscaping suggested.  I didn’t think it would be much of a problem since it was a nice day out and we would soon be planting and laying the mulch.  I was WRONG!!

After we had placed the fabric down, Mittens decided he wanted to help too.

My recommendation get the pins.  We ended up using rocks, chunks of cement and our pots of flowers.

Below is an update of where the plants will go in my flowerbed.

Next up cutting or burning the holes in the fabric for each plant, planting and mulch.

Now that all the red rock has been removed, we’re ready to add soil.

I needed to find out what soil to put in my flowerbed. While researching, I found that chicken manure is best since weed seeds rarely reach the chicken’s digestive tract.  In second place was cow manure. Since cows have four stomachs, many weed seeds don’t survive the digestive tract. Well, guess what? I don’t have access to chickens or cows, so I used the third-best manure, horse manure.  This was very cost-effective since my parents still live on a horse ranch.  Our ranch has had horses for over 100+ years, so we have access to a lot of well-composted horse manure.

Al and I borrowed his uncle’s dump trailer and headed to the ranch to get our dirt/composted manure. I forgot to get a picture of my dad, Al, and I using the tractor to scoop dirt into the back of the trailer.  We had about six tractor-scoops in the back of the dump trailer.

We used over half the dirt we hauled in, and the rest was distributed in my backyard garden area. Using farm dirt/manure
comes with weird extras such as cement chunks and twines.  After picking out all the extras, we filled our flower bed and are now ready to lay landscaping cloth since horse manure has a high chance of having weed seeds.

This weekend, Al and I removed most of the red rock from the flowerbed, so it was time to go shopping! I know my flower bed gets morning sun and afternoon shade so that I will need plants ideal for part shade and zone 3 hardiness. I went to TikTok and Instagram Reels to research perennials in zone 3.

After some research, I decided to add some Hostas to my flowerbed. I had to consider that hostas are unsuitable for dogs, cats, or horses. My dogs and cats don’t seem to eat my plants, so I should be good there.

@brandonkoruna

Hostas : Zone 3-9 , shade loving summer bloomong perennial flower #garden #gardening #plants #flower #dailyplantshowcase

♬ original sound – Brandon Koruna

I also want colour in my flower garden, so I’m looking for flowers that work in part shade and zone 3. On Instagram Reels, I found many flowers that will work in this area. I love Dianthus. They are so pretty! Hamiltonhousedesigns on Instagram reviewed many perennials that will work in my space. 

My first stop COSTCO did I buy lots of perennials? Yes!  Are they all hardy for zone 3? definitely not, opps I got a little carried away

but decided what the heck I thought they were beautiful. I may need to replant a couple of my plants next year.

This year I will be planting a bleeding heart (zone 3 hardy), hostas (2 out of the 3 are zone 3 hardy), Dianthus (zone 3 hardy), Penstemon (zone 3 hardy), and Columbine (zone 3 hardy).

I am so excited for the next step, getting dirt from our family ranch, landscaping cloth and mulch.

Well, the May Long weekend continued with its tradition. It rained on the days I was home over the weekend, so I did not get to dig up more of the red rock.  Instead, I started counting ferns in the red rock bed.  I counted over 20 of them. So, moving on to saving the ferns! The first step is establishing what kind of ferns are in my rock bed.  I snapped a picture of my ferns and uploaded them to the app PictureThis and what I found out……….. I have a lot of Ostrich ferns.

Now that I know what I am dealing with, what do I need to do to these ferns to keep them alive? Well, my Facebook algorithm now wants to show me everything and anything about Ostrich ferns.  Lo and behold, what do I stumble across?  A Facebook post telling me that Ostrich ferns are edible.  I started digging deeper because I realized you can not believe everything on Facebook.  I found a Government of Canada website reviewing food-safe tips for fiddleheads, which is what the curls from the Ostrich fern are called when they first sprout. In the video below, I will show what my fiddleheads look like in red rock.  Mine are too far gone this year to try sampling.  Next year, I want to sauté fiddleheads for a sample.  I have read that fiddleheads can taste similar to asparagus, broccoli, spinach or green beans.  I can’t wait to try them.

Returning to my app/webpage

The perfect time to transplant Ostrich ferns is mid-spring to early summer.

Lucky for me, it’s curretly mid-spring. Ostrich ferns need partial to full shade.  I plan on returning them to the area they are currently in, so they will still have partial shade.  I have started moving my ferns from the red rock bed to flower pots until I can remove all the red rock and transplant them back into the flower bed.  Two down and eighteen more to go!

When pondering what to do for a blogging project, I wanted to incorporate something I wanted done around our home.  What was a project that I have been putting off because of the time commitment, research, purchasing, and manual labour that made me say, “Hmm, maybe next year?” Welcome to my red rock bed; I find it hideous and always pay no heed to it. I wish I could wave my wand and have a beautiful flowerbed.

However, that will not happen, so bring on the manual labour. I’ve enrolled Al to help me and he is super pumped about this project (nope, not at all).   We bought our home three years ago; the previous owners had filled the space beside the house with red rock and ferns.  This weekend, we borrowed my father-in-law’s skid steer to see how much rock there was. We removed two skid steer buckets of red rock from the bed. It barely made a dent.

Over the May long weekend, Al and I plan to remove the rest of the red rock and repurpose it at my in-law’s place.  They wanted to add more rocks to a parking space.

Now for the fun part: researching all the pretty perennials I can place in the flowerbed.  I want a flowerbed that I do not have to replant each year.  Perennials come up yearly, so I won’t need to plant new plants continually.  After living in our place for three years, I observed that the front of our house has little sunlight.  So I need some shade-loving plants. According to Natural Resources Canada, Kenosee (southeast corner of Saskatchewan) is in the 3b zone for hardiness. This limits the perennials that will work in my space.

For the next six weeks, I will be researching and purchasing different shade-loving plants, removing and repurposing the red rock, finding the best dirt to fill in the large hole, and discovering the best mulch to reduce the weeds while keeping the soil moist. Wish me luck, and hopefully, Al doesn’t hate me by the end of it.