15 degrees Celsius at 7:30 and clear skies.


It is another sunny day with thin clouds here and there, with an east wind...not my favourite because it brings a dampness with it, but I shouldn't complain.  I can always hide away in the warm greenhouse and putter.


Today I saw my first Hummingbird, but my DH beat me to it by seeing one at the feeder yesterday and the Orioles have finally arrived as well.  What was once a too quiet spring is now filled with the chatter and music of all the birds come back home for the summer...happy sounds.


Yesterday was spent being 'Little Miss Mover', as I so fondly call a dear friend of mine.  I have never moved so many plants as I have this year, and I firmly believe that she has finally rubbed off on me in that regard.  I don't think that there is a time (except for winter) when we have talked about gardening and she hasn't mentioned that she moved this plant or that and I am finally doing it as well.  


Monday, myself and two other gardening buddies visited the spring gardens of a woman close to Dornoch.  She is a collector of peonies, starts them from seed and has also bred daylilies.  Her gardens are full of unusual plants and she is brave and pushes the plant hardiness zones.  Speaking of visiting gardens, there are quite a few new ones on the Rural Gardens of Grey and Bruce Counties  www.ruralgardens.ca and it will be fun to plan our outings again this year!

What's blooming today?

Miniature Iris

Brunnera 'Variegata'

A surprise daffodil bought in a bag of 'various'

Another 'surprise' daffodil!

Saxatilis Botanical Tulip

I really don't mind weeding now and then.  It makes you get up close and personal with your garden.  It reminds you of those wonderful and generous friends who brought you a piece of their garden to enjoy in yours, and surprises you now and then with a treasure you forgot about.   However,  I don't like grass in the garden.  Not the beautiful ornamental grasses, but lawn grass.  When you weed, there is a satisfaction in knowing that that particular weed is out and gone for good.  Not with grass.  Our gardens are raised and lined with rocks that my DH brought in the wheelbarrow from all over the property.  I love the look, but the grass just loves to grow up in between those rocks and into the beds, preferably into the middle of a clump of something.  And so that is what I started on today...de-grassing the beds....yuck.  Not my favorite job, but hey, it's got to be done!

May 6, 2011

I decided today to move the trays of seedlings and potted plants from the basement to the greenhouse and hope that I don't forget to plug in the heater at nights.  It is drizzly and the day is to be overcast so it is perfect to expose the little things to natural light with out burning them.

I love to be in the greenhouse in the spring.  It smells earthy, it is warm and protected from the cool/cold spring winds and I can hear all the sorely missed songs of the returning birds.

I finally took a much needed walk in our woods in the afternoon.  The trails that my DH put through them makes it a joy to walk through without trampling on any of the delicate plants.  It has been at least three weeks  since I was back there and I was so surprised that the woodland plants are out so far.  The forest floor was awash in the mottled green of the trout lily leaves with patches of the Kelly green of the wild leeks.  The red Trilliums are blooming and the buds on the white and pink ones are just breaking.  The Cohosh is up and the felty leaves of the Wild Ginger are up but still folded.  In our woods, there are boulders and big rocks that are split or pitted.   On these beasts there are so many treasures growing, and all conveniently at eye level!  There are violets, Walking Ferns,  Pale Corydalis, Hepatica, Hearts Tongue Fern, only to name a very few.  Each spring I need to see what emerges in the forest before the woodland creatures eat the tender shoots.  When the day is damp or wet, the mosses on the rocks expand, looking like velvet and beg for you to put your hands on them.  It is another world in there.

 

May 5 2011

Today was spent moving plants in the gardens and putting in some that are newly acquired.  Trying to visualize what is there as of last fall, especially since I had moved some things then, made me dizzy!  


I have fallen for Verbascum, the vertical aspect they bring to the garden, their drought tolerance and their long show of blooms, so the hunt is on!


Tip:  Last year I photographed the gardens in each month with my digital camera.  The idea                  is to have a visual record to go back to so that you can decide what to put where if you are planning on moving things in the spring. It also helps for when you come across an emerging plant and you have no idea what it is. 

Sooooooo.......what is blooming today in the cold, cold rain?

Pulsatilla

     
                                      
                                                                           Hyacinth

                                                                       Daffodil

                                                                       Hellebore

                                                                      Early Tulip

                                                                       Mini Daffodils

Spring

After three months of attending to family affairs and then having the heart wrenching necessity of having our beloved Micky's remaining good eye removed, I am finally able to enjoy the anticipation of spring.  Although Micky had extremely limited sight in one eye and none in the other, it has been so very traumatic for him to have no sight altogether.  We are constantly encouraging him and trying to build up his confidence, so that he will enjoy walking the trails again.  Yesterday I walked him over to our neighbors down the road for the first time since his surgery, and his old excitement of visiting them and their Gordon Setter 'Becky' was back...a big break through because he hadn't wanted to walk further than the end of our lane.  It did him a world of good!


Never have I been so late in starting seeds, but I am finally caught up with only the morning glories and four o'clocks to plant.  I soaked the seeds in water yesterday and noticed that they are now ready to plant in peat pots.  Next on the list is potting up the Cannas, which I have had soaking in a pail with a weak solution of fertilizer to feed them after a winter of starvation in the basement.


Yesterday I was able to divide some grasses for two customers who placed their order last fall, but I will have to employ the muscle of my DH to dig up the Arundo Giant Reed and the Miscanthus Giganteus.  The roots of these grasses, although I do not find them invasive, are tough to dig through.


I am hopeful that when all this rain ends I can start to move all the plants that I have on my to do list.  I am just itching to get out there and dig.  Although weeding isn't my most favorite thing to do in the gardens, I enjoy it in the spring, simply because it gets you right down there to see who is waking up and there are always surprises that you forgot you had planted in the fall!  


With all this warm rain, the plants are growing quickly and there are beautiful spots of colour where the daffodils and a few hyacinths are blooming.  Last fall, DH and I planted close to three hundred tulips and daffodils and it will be fun to see them in bloom!