One Brave Soul

 

My garden is a cat death trap at this time of year. Everyday, I have to go out and knock down the icicles from the roof edge. I never do that in the dark. I wait until the sun is up and I am less likely to land one in my eye! So every morning Hannah takes a chance.

 

She is the first one up and always wants to go out very shortly after she wakes.

Weeping in the Sideyard

We have a lot of caragana here. It forms long drifts of bush at several spots in our yard. Every evening walk in the fall is accompanied by the pop-pop-pop of its seed pods dropping. I have never been a fan.

The yellow flowers are... well... yellow. And not one of the nicer yellows that I can tolerate. But the weedy yellow of every wild thing that runs rampant in the fields. The music of the seed pods in fall does not make up for the mess they make everywhere! I usually grit my teeth through that and try to remember that the wildlife appreciates it and I appreciate the wildlife.

Then I met this weeping caragana and it turned my head. It sits in the sideyard, on the other side of the bridge from the bird sanctuary. In the summer it is a beautiful fall of green and yellow. Somehow the yellow seems happier in its branches. In winter it is a gangly nest of snow covered branches where no one lives. It makes me think of the Headless Horseman.

It always catches my eye when I pass close to it, in every season. It earns its place close to the house and, although I would never have planted it... I am glad it was here when I arrived.

Hoar Frost Mornings

 

February was full of beautiful hoar frost mornings. I have to get up early to see this frost because the sun is not a friend of frost. As soon as the sun is up, the frost is gone.

 

It may be because I lived in the city but I don't remember such beauty in winter when I was young. Everything was muddy, slushy or icy and slippery. Winter always seemed to be a hassle and I had no appreciation of the season. Although it has been impossible to find appreciation for -50C, there are a LOT of wonderful aspects of winter. Hoar frost is one. Vast views of clean, white, pure snow is another. The entertainment of watching the dogs create new paths through deep snow after a storm... I could go on and on.

The winter here is long. I grow tired of it before it is finished so there is always an anxious wait for spring to arrive. But that anticipation of spring at this time of year is part of what I now love about winter. Another is the down time from my garden and all the social activity that ramps up in the summer here. When you only get 4 months of good weather, you tend to jam pack as much activity as possible into it. Add to that the time consuming joys of a large garden to the schedule and you can see... the arrival of winter is usually welcome. What I have learned is that aside from the many natural and environmental reasons for winter, there is also a mental reason for me. I relax in winter in ways I cannot in the spring and summer. The warm seasons are too full of activity to spend any real stretches of time relaxing.

 

Those relaxation hours infuse new enthusiasm in me, for my garden. Taking an early morning walk through the chilly dusk, when the dogs are still sleeping and the wildlife is just waking up, makes me notice how everything is very still. So still, the quiet whirr of my camera focus reverberates through the trees. It is at these times that I wonder why it took so long for me to appreciate winter. I suppose it was that -50C thing!

 



Smells of spring

I can smell those lily-of-the-valley. At the height of spring, the bird sanctuary path is full of them, blooming all along the walk to the feeders. They smell sweet and always make me think of rain. Judy's June table had Iris as well - the burgundy kind. They smelled like licorice. We are not sure where they came from or what they are, other than stunning! There are places in our yard that have at least 3 feet of snow and the firepit is completely buried. Along with its chairs. But my mind has already turned to the garden. Just one more hurdle to get through. The season of mud and molt. Wish me luck and if I don't drown in hair or break my leg in the mud, I should have the start of a garden plan to share this weekend. Who said I wasn't optimistic??


THAT isn't on sale! a.k.a. Memories of Last Summer

Isn't he pretty??

 

At the end of perennial planting season, all of the temporary greenhouses here that set up in the spring, start to close up. One in particular puts all of their remaining perennials on sale for $4/each. Judy and I always go check. What remains is typically the very common but every once in awhile, we find a gem.

 

We were shopping for Judy's backyard shade garden and maybe looking for anything exciting that might have been hiding behind something taller when early season shoppers went through. I move quickly at this sale. Judy likes to linger. So it was no surprise when I hit the back rack before she even got half way down the row. What I spied from the door was really what I thought it was. A variegated Jacob's Ladder. There was a single one and he was full, healthy and gorgeous!

 

I hovered over him until Judy arrived and I said... you think he's on sale? We laughed. We are familiar with perennial sales. You get a lot of common plants, a lot of spreading plants, a lot of invasive plants for $4/each but you never get the knock-me-out-with-a-feather-I-can't-BELIEVE-we-found-that! plants for $4.

 

Up to the counter I go... where the very nice hippie-ish dude that runs the place always has a smile for us... and asked how much the variegated Jacob's Ladder was. He tells me he doesn't have a variegated Jacob's Ladder but all his perennials are $4. I tell him I am pretty sure he has the Jacob's Ladder so how much would it be if he had one? He laughed and said if I have one, you can have it for $4. Score!

 

That is when I discovered that I heart hippie dudes!! 

Valley of Fog

I rarely share photos taken with my phone but I came upon these today and wanted to share. The Valley full of fog on August 21, 2012.

 

 

Pristine

This is the trail to my compost. Beautiful, white, pristine and well over the top of my boots. In Saskatchewan, for gardeners who start them, seeds are the priority right now. I don't start seeds. I only talk about it. Some years more than others. The few years I have tried, they all died a miserable death. Usually dry and crispy. Plants have a lot of trouble getting my attention inside the house and seeds even more so. Seed starts are also a lot of work. Work I find I am usually unwilling to do. So, this year again, I will be starting seeds, but only the ones that I can start outside in the ground. The rest will have to come from the market. Its always good to have a reason to go to the market anyway.

Winter Weather in Nova Scotia

They say that if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. Well, these pictures were taken a few days apart but still a dramatic difference.

February 1, 2013

February 10, 2013

My Favourite Hosta

 

I love hosta. All hosta. Never met one I didn't like. But if I was forced to pick a favourite, 'Sun Power' would be it. The lime leaf colour is outstanding and the leaves themselves are huge. It stands tall and has a very pretty flower. It is reliable, beautiful and sits in a prime location outside my dining room window where I can see it all the time.

The Season of the Rose

Here are all the reasons I love roses today.

 

Morden Blush

 John Cabot

John Cabot (closer) with friend

William Baffin

unknown rose, saved from the trash at my aunt's garden

Marilyn's rose

That is going to look awesome once those buds open along with the baby's breath behind them. Plus, I can't even begin to describe the scents as I wander through them all!

Lament for Lost Plants

It doesn't seem to matter how well I garden, every new gardening season brings a few losses. This year I lost a garden staple: my centranthus ruber (aka red valerian). It was a centrepiece in my back centre garden since we built the garden. See the red patch below:

While this garden has changed a bit the last couple of years, I expected the red valerian to remain. It's beautiful dark pink blooms started in June and continued all summer. Now that it's gone, I'm discovering that apparently it's really quite common - so common in fact that I can't find anywhere to buy it!

Another loss this season was our agapanthus which, despite being zone 7, had survived for 6 years and bloomed for 2 of them.

Maps!

I have a myriad of notes and records of my gardens. I have more than one notebook, stapled together stacks of sketches, drawn maps with legends and plant lists plus a folding file of plant tags by category... each with a description of location planted and date notation. Yet, with all of this over-achieving record keeping, I can never find the map I am looking for. So this is my new map option. In hope that I can find things easier if they are handy on my computer and I can see where the plants are exactly. My sketches never do that for me. I hope this is finally the solution or I will soon be buried in maps of many varieties.

Battling Slugs

It's not a very exciting picture but what it represents is very exciting, at least for us. I've posted about our problems with slugs in the past and about a solution we tried with some success last year. This year we're trying coffee instead. Apparently slugs don't like coffee so we've been saving our used grinds and spreading them around the dahlias. Not all the dahlias are up yet but the ones that are show no signs of slugs at all. Since our dahlia selection has dropped from 20+ to 7, this is great news!

Mini Botanical Tulips

Puchella Easter Star

Of all the early spring bulbs, mini botanical tulips are my favorite. In zone 3, spring bulbs have a difficult time of it. They tend to try and come up when the snow is still everywhere and often do not bloom until they are well established. My puchella was planted in 2010 and this is the first bloom I have seen. It is a single bloom but gives me hope for the future.

Tarda Patch

My tarda, on the other hand are very well established and seem to be the one variety that I can count on to bloom every year, no matter what. They form huge patches very quickly here for me. As an example, I divided the boardwalk garden patches last year and they still doubled in size in that single year. I was commenting yesterday that I might need to divide them again! Not only reliable, they are real stunners. With a pale purple translucent bud that opens to a bright yellow flower with white tips. They look great with turkestanica, which has the opposite colouring. One caution though... turkestanica is much taller than tarda in my garden so it is best to plant them in patches beside each other rather than all mixed together. Puchella and tarda are the same height and could be planted together to form bright patches of multi-colours. I don't plan on trying that until the puchella are much more abundant here so maybe check back in 2050!!

Turkestanica

First Food

The first food is ready to come out of my 2012 garden! Rhubarb 'Strawberry Red' is up and almost completely red. I planted two in 2010 but today I can only find one. One is enough for us though and the second was really bought as back up. I plan to make rhubarb vinegar, rhubarb freezer jam and if I am really lucky, rhubarb crisp. Of course, that is all assuming I can get the stalks from the garden to the pot without eating them all. Hmmmm, maybe I need to look harder for the second plant after all...

Favourite Spring Combo

dicentra spectabilis with brunnera macrophylla 'Hadspen Cream'

One of my favourite combos - bleeding heart and variegated brunnera. The bleeding heart is just starting to open. The two are planted side by side and grow together as they continue to bloom, with the hearts arching above the tiny cornflower blue brunnera flowers. These two like a bit of shade from the afternoon sun.

Perennial Containers

I love containers! Eventually, almost anything sitting long enough in my yard becomes a container. I have many that I fill with annuals and move around as the season progresses. Containers are great for moving around for a shot of colour as my perennials stop blooming.

I would need more than double my annual budget, or to start more seeds (which is work and consequently, never happens here) to fill all my containers with annuals. Years ago, I learned that perennial containers are the budget friendly way to go.

Almost all perennials will do well in containers. I wait until I see what is coming up that needs thinning or dividing and dig when they are small. I transplant them into containers and leave them for the season. Shade containers full of perennials are fantastic for filling up spots under trees where you want a garden but there is nothing left in the soil to support the plants. Soil under my trees is all dry and root filled - impossible to plant it and expect the plants to do well.

Next time you are thinning and dividing your perennials, look around and see if you can't find something to pop them into and sit back to enjoy the display!

dwarf iris, golden creeping jenny and hens & chicks sedum 2011, all of these survived the winter in this container so this year, it is coming up again, a nice bonus

Surprise!

Just when I start singing the praises of spring, we get hit with winter! It has been snowing for two days now. Not much snow and not that cold but it is cold enough to form icicles and not enough snow to cover the plants. I am getting a little worried about the tarda but so far they seem to be holding their own. We have better weather forecast soon so I am just going to hope they are right... and keep my eye on the green bits outside.

The Excitement of Spring !

In spring, I always say that spring is my favourite time of year. Then comes fall and again, I would say fall is my favourite time of year. But this year I am sure... spring it is! At least for now. The excitement in a new season for me is always the same - finding out what comes back that was new last year. In zone 3, new plantings are always most vulnerable over their first winter. The monkshood patch that came from Judy's yard when we relocated her patch, has returned and looks like it is going to be a healthy size. As I expected, there are already 5 or 6 delphinium coming up that need moving and by the time this season is over, there will be ten times that I am sure. Delphinium have gone crazy here and this is the year I am going to tame them! Ha! All these big plans. Easy to say when everything is 2 inches tall. I might feel differently when the delphinium are 6 foot plants!

Little Spring Bulbs

Scientific Name: Puschkinia libanotica
Common Name: Striped Squill

They may be small and common but I just love watching them pop up everywhere. I have little patches of this squill all over the place. They are second to bloom (after my heaths), along with crocus and lungwort. Next will be the blue and pink chionodoxa and that's just starting to open.

Heaths in Bloom

My heaths were swarming with bees all day so I decided to tidy the rock garden on another day. Some bloom late summer through fall, others later in the spring, and these two together early spring. Heathers and heaths are best planted together in groupings because you need to keep the soil much more acidic than other plants like.

Happy Spring!

This is the time of year that I can be left wondering why I ever chose to be a gardener in Zone 3. Everything seems a panic, it is wet, dreary and cold outside. I have been waiting so long for the garden to be uncovered that it is hard to resist the temptation to start working in it. I have learned that you do not want to dig too early in our soil. The excitement of spring is in the air and the bugs are starting to arrive along with all the garden magazine newsletters. They are urging me to start seeds indoors (which I hate doing) and get to my spring garden to do list (which I love doing). I am a list person so making my spring to do list is all kinds of fun. It is getting the list completed that is the struggle. Add 9 dogs with paws just like Moxie's above and it can quickly seem overwhelming. Good thing I am a lazy gardener. I will probably not start seeds indoors. I will think about it and maybe even talk about it but I won't get around to it before I can plant in the ground. I will get the important things done on my to do list - and even some of the not so important things. I will never get everything on the list done. It is the curse of a list maker. The list is a dynamic, ever-growing being. It isn't meant to be completed. I can't wait for the flowers so I have an excuse to stop and smell them. I still love spring!

Aloe

For those of you who remember my little aloe rescued from Judy's breakfast table, you will be happy to hear it did not die! It is having babies!!!

Tying it all Together

Our front yard was becoming a mishmash of gardens as we expanded to add new plants, so 3 years ago we decided to turn the whole thing into a garden, except for a 24' circle. We measured the circle using a metal stake and rope, then marked the whole thing with old hose hammered down with long nails.

front circle before

Kelly lugged in all the stones from back in the woods and lined them up along the hose. Then he dug out all the areas outside the circle to about 2' deep. Next came a big load of garden soil and, of course, plants. We preserve some larger sections at the front for dahlias and glads, which all have to be dug up and replanted yearly.

front circle after

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!