Little House Hawthorn

 

 We were well rewarded!

Last September Miles took down two very large trees that were killing a smaller, much prettier, Hawthorn at the little house yard. Our little Hawthorn really bounced back! (I know that is an odd angle but it was the only way I could get it all in and still have it be relatively close.) We will have to wait a few years for it to straighten up but with regular trimming it will get there because not only is it alive, it is FULL of flowers. And even better? It smells FANTASTIC! It was a lot of work and we will be burning the wood forever but it was so worth it. The little house yard is so much prettier this year with the Hawthorn blooming at the same time as the iris. The Linden will be next and will bloom with peony. Then the columbine and cranesbill will take over for the summer. With the big trees gone you can actually see it all and the increase in sunlight hours, the flowering plants are looking so much bigger this year than last. It makes me want to go and find a tree to cut down. Oh happy day!!

Anyone seen my spade?

I have several spades. Several shovels, hand diggers and rakes. Our yard is big. I don't want to have to walk a block to grab a spade when I need to dig a small hole. I leave the spades upright and either leaning on something or stuck in the dirt and standing. It usually makes them easier to find.

Clearly, I have not been digging enough in the front if the Virginia Creeper had time to overtake my spade leaning on the tree. This kind of thing happens more often than you would think. For instance, I have at least 7 hand diggers and for over a month now, I have not been able to find one! I think most of them are out there somewhere under the plants but it is possible one dog or another has dragged a couple away into the fields. Not likely, but possible. Our dogs usually drag things into the yard, not out.

Oh, the weather!

 

There are days when I wonder how I became a gardener in Zone 3. How can I love something so much that is so dependent on the weather when I live where it is winter forever, it seems? I have been busy reading about how to diversify my greens in the kitchen garden, advancements in urban gardening and now, most importantly, how to protect my early flowers from frost. I have been doing all of this reading in preparation for the coming garden season and in anticipation of spring. Little did I know that winter is just arriving! We have had the most wonderful, mild winter in Saskatchewan this year. Last week the snow finally arrived and has not stopped since. The temperature is beautiful though so we have been in a cycle of melt, freeze, melt, freeze, melt, freeze.... which is great for ice photos of the trees but not so great for the spring flowers. I think they are likely getting confused. I hope I don't lose too many of them. The freeze/thaw cycle here can wipe out whole gardens if the temperature drops at just the right time. I am ready though. All of my sheets are steps away from the garden if I need them after the first buds pop out. This is a year when the Boy Scout motto is well advised - be prepared!

Everything Cucumber

I have only grown cucumbers once, for a lot of reasons. First, they are a vine plant and need something to climb or somewhere to sprawl. Second, they take a lot of thought. You have to think about what you are going to do with them. Do you want to pickle or eat them fresh in a salad? If you are going to pickle, do you want big pickles or tiny ones, sweet or dill? There are so many kinds of cucumber and each of them, by claim, are best for each specific use. It seems so complicated when I am getting ready to plant.

This year, I am breaking out of that box. I have a kitchen garden chain link fence they can climb and all my years of flower gardening have taught me that it is really not necessary to do every single thing that is recommended to get a good yield. I have also decided that I will worry about how to deal with the harvest when it is harvest time. This year, I am not going to think myself out of cucumbers. If you want to join me in planting them, Mother Earth News has an article here on everything cucumbers.

Cats in My Garden

I often mention the challenges of gardening with dogs. Particularly when I am newly planting things. Rarely do I mention the challenges of gardening with so many cats. We have 6 and all of them freely wander in and out all spring, summer and fall. In the winter, their usual door (an open dining room window) is closed. A couple of them will continue to go outside through winter, using the doors when they are opened to let dogs in and out. Most of them stay inside in the winter. They are less of a challenge for my garden than the dogs are because the cats never dig plants. They do like to roll in mulch and dry dirt so I am often kicking mulch flat and covering up bare spots but it really becomes part of how I walk through the garden and doesn't feel like too much of a bother. When we first moved here, our cat that came with the house, Hannah, was using two of the garden beds for an outdoor litter box.

I remedied that immediately with cayenne pepper and she is now using somewhere in the acres of bush that I do not go into because I try and avoid wood tics. Dogs or cats makes no difference. My rule is always... when you are gardening an unfenced bed and you have outdoor pets - you better wear gloves when you work! Scooping up is probably the least exciting chore that comes with pet ownership but I have been mostly lucky on that with my garden beds. Once I am able to convince them an area is part of my garden now, they rarely give me trouble.