And it goes on...

Everyday is a new wonder. I have a new latest plant date! December 6. Today I planted tulips. It was beautiful weather with the temperature at +5. The tulips I planted are all mixed bulbs. The mix is made up of every tulip I had out in the garden this year and last. It should be interesting to see how they come up because when you are just looking at bulbs, there is no way to tell the flower colour. I am looking forward to what these patches might look like. There are a lot of them too. I planted about 100 of them today and if the weather holds through tomorrow, about that same amount will go in again. Then all my tulips will be in ground.

Still Planting...

I planted again today! I stopped by Judy's for coffee and when she heard that I had been able to dig the other day, she handed me a container of 'White Lion' Daffodils I had given her. So out into her yard I went. She has more snow than I do here but underneath it, the ground was not frozen. I was easily able to dig a hole and drop them in. New latest planting date for me and I think if the weather holds, my tulips may go in yet.

From the Realm of the Fantastical

The ground is not frozen and yes, that is a hole in it! Today I was working in the garden. It is definitely the latest date I have ever dug in the garden. We have snow left but not a lot of it and the weather has been beautiful. Just for fun, I kicked the dirt around a bit when I took the dogs out today. Sure enough, it was not frozen so I grabbed a shovel and tested it some more. Before I knew it, a hole was dug in front of the weeping caragana in the sideyard and I was popping in the bag of lily-of-the-valley root from Judy's backyard. It has just a good a shot at making it there as it does in the house and I always advocate planting in fall vs. spring if you can. In my zone, this gives things a much earlier start and with a short season, the earlier the start, the better. I am keeping my fingers crossed for them. Spring will tell.

And then there was snow...

When I worked in operations, nothing annoyed me more than Christmas. Every year, year after year after year, we would experience delayed shipments, no staff and general confusion. My thoughts were always... Christmas comes every year at the same time... how does it take so many people by surprise? Well, welcome to my garden where the same issue comes back to haunt me. Every year, year after year after year, Mother Nature decides when my gardening season is going to end. She always decides this around the same time. I couldn't set my clock by it but fall is always followed by winter. This year has been better than most for my garden timing. I only have 4 shrubs and a pile of bulbs that did not get into the ground. Now I am left with the decision to put it all in the shop for the long winter or dig in the snow to drop them in. I haven't decided yet. It will depend on the temperatures over the next few days. Regardless of what I do, winter has arrived in my zone 3 garden. Nothing to do but play with garden maps, read garden books and wait for spring. The season that never takes me by surprise. I am usually watching for the ground to thaw for weeks before it actually happens.

No Stopping

After all my years of gardening in Saskatchewan, the one thing I know for sure is that there is no stopping winter from arriving. This is the time of year that the timing of the snow keeps me on my toes. The saddest day of the year in my garden is the day I have to bring in all my garden art, which includes the sun stone and little squirrel sundial above. Anything that is not made of concrete, is super strong or too heavy to lift will be either brought into the house or put in the shop. It is a long day of heavy work to put it all away and the consequences of missing something are not much fun either. I lost a Mexican sunbaked tile by forgetting it out all winter. It was a gift from a friend and very disappointing to lose. Once the job is done, the garden will look very bare until the snow covers it. As a result, I try to leave it to the last possible day. Everything glass came inside today because the nights are getting cold. Everything else has been left out so far. I am keeping my eye on the forecast though. If I wait until the snow actually falls, it will be a cold, wet job as well and that usually leads to my first cold of the season. I try to avoid that scenario but my desire to stretch the season often leaves me wet and cold... whether it is planting last minute bulbs or moving things inside. It is hard to let go of the garden for our long winters. Often, I am glad to see the snow in late fall, being in need of a break. Always, I am ready for spring well before it arrives!

A Note on Maps

My garden maps have been an on-going problem. At the start, I made one dimensional bed outlines full of circles representing the plants as seen from a bird's eye view. I use my maps primarily in the spring when I am looking for specific plants or looking at something poking up through the soil that I cannot identify. Maps helps then. I found it was impossible for me to figure out exactly where something specific was with no markers or landmarks on the maps that showed me the plants in relation to other things like large rocks, bird baths or bridges. I also found that because I do not view the garden from a 'bird's eye', the maps did not work for me. I do not use maps to visualize my blooming garden. For that, I use my imagination, area sketches, cut out photographs and transparencies layered over the bed outlines. The transparencies work particularly well for placing shrubs or overlaying bulb plantings which for me, mostly means tulips. Over time, I have developed the map style above which works much better for me. I mark in permanent 'landmarks' in the bed and do only one bed per map. Since I do not use the maps to visualize or develop the garden views, a single bed is much more effective on a map for my purposes, making locating plants in the spring easier. Above is my boardwalk garden entry bed on the lowest level of that garden. It is complete to the point it will be complete in the fall. My maps are a winter project. I get the basics down and tidy them up over the winter. For example, I know what hosta variety is planted above as well as the name of the purple viola, but not off the top of my head. In the winter, I will look them up and complete the labeling. Tulips do not need an overlay on this map because there are very few perennials planted here. This bed is one of two beds in this garden that I fill with annuals in the spring. You can see how the overlay would be helpful if this bed was also full of perennials. Cleaning up my garden maps is one of my favourite winter projects. It is particularly helpful on a long, cold, windy winter day by reminding me that the snow will eventually melt. Then there is the added bonus of the extra time it buys me in the fall. I can spend endless hours tidying up my maps - time I never have in my fall garden schedule. I suppose I should get to planting those tulips now. The weather is turning cold here and Jack Frost is in danger of catching me unprepared. Unprepared is not a good winter strategy in Saskatchewan.

Hope for Seven

This is the orange lily garden. My hope is that there is at least one of each of seven different lily varieties that were in that garden. I have no idea if it really does. Bets anyone?

Another day of digging in snow but I managed to get the red lily garden and pink lily garden dug. I think I only missed 'Acapulco' and 'Opus One' which can be a nice surprise for the new gardener. There are only four lily left to get and it is mostly because I forgot them until I had my boots off and the -5 temperature was not encouraging me to put them back on! I will get them tomorrow with tulips. I am worried I am not going to find a lot of the tulips. Some are marked but most are not and finding the lily under the snow was not easy eventhough they had dead stalks sticking up. Not always where the bulb was unfortunately. I am still going to try though.  Then Iris. There is an end in sight although everytime I go out, I think of something else I want to take. Today's addition to the list was Cerastium. I am running out of time though, if we don't get warmer daytime temperatures, the ground will be too frozen to dig in only a few more days.

Fall Moving

Here I am again, digging while paying no attention to the proper timing of anything. The only thing on my mind is that I am moving in either the spring or the summer and I want to keep my bulbs and tubers. So, I am digging in the snow and packing boxes to mail to Linda. I am sending glads for her 'fridge in case I am not there yet when it is time to plant them.

I dug up my orange lily garden today and although it is all mixed together, I hope this pile of bulbs contains 'Grand Cru', 'Cancun', Danielle's Hula, Early Orange and Tiny White as well as the Tangerine and Easter Yellow shorter varieties.

I managed to separate out the 'New Wave', 'Landini', 'Orange Electric' and 'Madrid'. I started packing the first box although I think there will be three this size before I am done!

Linda and Kelly will dig trenches or something to throw them in until I get there and I won't have to try and dig frozen ground in early spring here. Tomorrow the agenda is to dig all the pink and red lily. I hope the nicer afternoon temperatures hold for a few more days because I would like to get tulips and iris too :)

Soon to be Mulch

We make a lot of use out of all the leaves.  We shred lots and use as mulch in the garden.  Piles of them get composted every year and eventually find their way into the garden.  After 3 days of constant rain, we're going to have to wait for them to dry out.  The other nice thing is that, with so many trees around, the garden gets an extra layer of mulch for the winter without any extra effort.



Warm Weather Fall

Since the snowfall and frost, we have had a spell of warmer weather move in. All of the snow is gone and I have been able to get into the garden again. Today I was using the extra gardening time to empty, clean and sort containers. All the black plastic ones will be used to move plants in the spring. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this weather continues for another week but in this zone, that is always a question in November.

Tulip Deadline Zone 3

It is time to finish planting and moving tulips in zone 3. According to Environment Canada, we have three more days of good weather and then a few of bad. Once the bad hits in Saskatchewan, all bets are off and there are no guarantees. Last Fall, I added so many new tulips that this Fall, I am finding myself content with moving what I have here already and saving some of the old that are struggling in very tight spaces. The fact that Linda and I were discussing tulips the other day, which made me pull out my trusty notebook, to realize that so many of my new ones did not perform well this year, has made me a little tulip weary. I was planning on just moving my 'Angelique', 'Bastogne' and crowded 'White Dream'. I think now that I will move all of the tulips that did not perform well this year and see if I can get them to give me a better display next year. I am hopeful that even with the increase in number, I can finish in one day so that is now my agenda for tomorrow. I am starting my race against time... and snow!

Time to Winter Mulch

In my zone 3 garden, it is time to think about winter mulch. I have several zone 4 Lily and now a few zone 4 Coral Bells that came from Linda's Garden. The theory behind winter mulch is that you put it on in Fall and take it off in Spring. I have not been historically good at the taking it off in Spring part of that equation. Mostly because I have a huge list of other chores in Spring that bump removing mulch so far down the list, it never happens. Although my garden has never suffered any visible effects of this particular neglect, I often wonder when the Lily stalks will start to have trouble getting through all that year after year mulch and Coral Bells stalks are not as strong as Lily. So this year, I am trying a new strategy with the Coral Bells. I am going to drop full bags of mulch on top of them as late as possible. They will be easy to pick up first thing in Spring and I can use the mulch in the garden where I need it next season. Since the Coral Bells also reside in a raised bed, this method should ensure the mulch does not overflow the bed. I have no clue if it is going to work because I came up with the idea after reading an article about planting annuals in bagged soil that stays in the bag. I can think of no reason that it shouldn't work though and if it does, I have made that Spring chore so easy and fast it will never be bumped to the bottom of the list again!

Fall Seed Sowing

Hardy perennials and self-seeding annuals in your zone can be sown in the Fall. The advantage to Fall sowing is that your plants will get a head start in the Spring, bringing you an earlier display the following season.

With hardy perennials, they should just be dropped where you want them. The key is to wait until it is cool enough that they will not start germinating in the Fall or to sow them early enough that they can germinate and set root in this season. You do not want them starting germination but not able to set root before your winter. Seeds require specific light, water and warmth conditions before they will germinate so once your weather turns cool, you are usually safe for Fall sowing. Just remember many perennials will not bloom their first season.

With self-seeding annuals, you know the seeds will survive the winter. In this case, you can get a jump on Spring by sprinkling the seed in your garden in the Fall, the same way the plant would release the seed on its' own. You can let the plants do this for themselves if you want to repeat them in the same space or you can harvest the seed and drop it in any new garden space you would like the plants to grow next season. The seeds will germinate in your garden often earlier than you would consider sowing them in the Spring, bringing you flowers earlier in the season. Another advantage of this schedule is that you need not worry about Spring weather. This year, for example, my garden was too wet to walk in long after seeds should have been sown.

If you collect seed, garden experiments are free of charge and are the best way for you to discover what works in your season, your soil, your garden. In my zone 3 garden of largely clay soil, I have had success with Fall sowing of Marigold, Hollyhock, Delphinium, Viola, Pincushion Flower and Forget-Me-Not. This year I am trying Hollyhock again because I want a new patch in a new space and I am leaving the Marigolds and Calendula to drop their own seed in hope they will appear in the same space next year.