Fruit Tree Blossoms

I love my garden angel! ♥

Our beautiful apple blossoms

Wild Saskatoon bushes are all blooming here at the lake

Wounded apple tree is valiantly trying to bloom

Plums were also stripped bare of bark by the porcupine this winter, but somehow are still alive.

So proud of this little beauty that I started in the house from last years begonia tuber

Goldfish swimming through the reflection of the first bearded iris to bloom at the side of the pond. :)

Tree Swallows Nesting

American Goldfinch male bird

The cute little goldfinches are back! They love the nyger seeds in the feeder.

We put out the oriole feeder and the hummingbird feeder and managed to attract both already.  No photos yet of the little hummingbirds. They are really hard to photograph; they rarely sit still long ! Got a rather fuzzy photo of the oriole through the screen before he dashed away. Now that he knows where the feeder is, we hope he'll be back soon and we can possibly get a better one. :) 

Baltimore Oriole (photo taken through the screen)

We make our own sugar water  the same for both feeder actually. 3 parts water to 1 part sugar. Boil 3 cups of water in a pan and then add the cup of sugar, stirring well. I add a few drops of food coloring for 2 reasons. Hummingbirds are attracted to the color red and also so that I can tell at a glance how much sugar water is left in the feeder.

The tree swallows are still my favourites as far as summer song birds go. We have a nest camera in one of the birdhouses where the swallows always nest and it was interesting to watch the female swallow carefully chosing each item to place in her nest. The most coveted thing seems to be white feathers. There were actually a few feathers in the nest from last year. We noticed them when we brought the birdhouse inside the house to install the camera on the flip-up lid. Usually in the fall after the birds have fledged all their babies, we make a point of cleaning out all the old nests. That way there is less problem with ticks and parasites.  The swallows had already scrounged these white feathers from somewhere and stashed them in the birdhouse for this season's nest.

Mama Swallow Laying egg #1

The male swallow brought her a feather into the birdhouse at one point and she spent  some time trying it out in various spots. I helped out a bit by fulling a few small white feathers out of my feather pillow and letting them float on the wind outside.

It took her over a week to build the nest.  She began laying her eggs on Sunday morning, May 22. At the end of the day, she covered the single egg carefully with feathers before leaving for the night. Monday morning she laid a second egg and that night she covered them up and left again to spend the night somewhere in the trees.

The third egg was laid on Tuesday morning (May 24) just after 8:00 am and that day she spent a lot of time sitting on the eggs. That night (May 24) Mama swallow spent the first night on her nest keeping the eggs warm.  The next day, she laid a fourth egg (Wed. May 25). After that she spent a lot of time sitting on her eggs and we seldom got a glance of the eggs themselves.

Laying egg #2

3 eggs now (May 24)

4 eggs in the nest (May 25)

We were quite busy for a few days with yard work and gardening and didn't view the nest very much. Imagine our surprise this morning (May 30) when we caught a glimpse of the inside of the birdhouse after Mama left to feed and discovered there were 6 eggs now!

6 eggs in total

We are so excited about viewing this whole baby bird raising!  In about 10 days, the first laid egg should start to hatch. We'll find out if all 6 eggs will hatch or not. That is an awfully big family to feed! Sometimes the last egg or two don't make it, but time will tell.

Jack Frost's Stealthy Visit!

We had unexpected frost last night! ARGGHH!
Mother Nature had lulled us into a false sense of security with the relatively warm days and above zero nights. Weather forecast was for +2C... no hint of frost at all, so of course we had not covered any of the plants. Jack Frost sneaked in and did his dastardly deeds by the light of the moon as we lay sleeping, obliviously in our warm beds...  He randomly picked plants here and there at whim, freezing one little captive tomato plant and skipping over the next one. Zap! Zap! A pardon for you today; Zap and zap for you two!

My 3 beautiful carefully nurtured dahlia plants are all black! Two look really bad, one still has a healthy looking bottom half... It might make it with a huge trimming...

My gorgeous regal geraniums had all the top blossoms hanging limp and frozen...  But Jack kindly spared my 3 little tuberous begonias which I had started from scratch and planted in the green tub across the driveway,  except for the proud little yellow blossom bravely up sticking above the rest. And the German ivy in the same tub was also overlooked.

The Big Kiss Yellow Stripe gazanias which I had planted yesterday at the top of my rock garden were also ignored (Yay!)

First the deer invasion, now this! Oh, I haven't mentioned the visit by a deer the night before this.  The culprit left incriminating footprints behind in the soft soil of my new flower bed. It ate the blossoms right off the new rudbeckia, but luckily ignored the fuzzy leaves of the rest of the plant so it lives to grow another day... Then the deer (or its compatriots) meandered over to my wild bed and proceeded to have a midnight snack of the newly transplanted Delphinium there; and then went on to the two other little delphiniums that were barely out of the ground.... The plant books say that delphiniums are "deer resistant".  Hah, right! Tell that to the deer!

Okay, I admit, I didn't plantskydd any of the above tortured plants. They were unhappily overlooked in my journey through the yard with my trusty squirt bottle...  So I gave hem each a squirt after the fact, hoping to deter further nocturnal visits. The good news is, though, that the plants that I DID squirt with Plantskyyd were left alone!

Tonight we have a similar weather forecast as last night +2C, (fine print:  feels like -1C), so I travelled my garden beds, trailing sheets, pillowcases, old towels and t-shirts, covering the most vulnerable plants as well as I could. Then I proceeded to carry and drag every pot and container of flowers, vegetation and greenery from off the open deck up close to the house, under the covered deck in the hopes that they would be safe this night.

Fingers Crossed! X

Endless Grass Roots!

 Digging up the grass roots, what an endless job! Every day I go out to check my flower beds and every day more grass has suddenly popped up!  I worked on my long perennial bed today removing long grass and stealthy shasta daisy seedlings as I went along. I'm three quarters done that bed now! One more day should do it! :)  Then I have to shovel some soil  from the dirt pile next to the shed into the wheelbarrow, mix it with Sunshine Mix and sheep manure, then shovel it into all the holes I'm leaving behind in that flower bed. I moved 2 little malva plantlets which had sprouted up in odd places. Hey, there! Almost trampled a baby columbine. Moved them to a nicer location.

Instead of focusing on grass and dandelions, I'm going to try and focus on the beautiful, healthy growing and blooming (or about to bloom) plants sitting patiently on my deck waiting to find their 'forever' homes.

I planted the above regal geraniums into a big green tub at the bottom of the deck stairs, along with some Diamond Frost euphorbia, some white bacopa and some parrot vines. It looks quite attractive, if I do say so myself!

Garden Gnomes waiting to explore their new home  :)

Parrot Tulips with growing Hollyhocks in background, Clematises and oriental poppy to the right...

The hollyhocks are all growing like gang busters except for the one which I transplanted there about two weeks ago. (It had come up in the vegetable garden of all places and my husband had dug it out while raking and cleaning there.) It ended up with totally bare roots, so I'm not surprised it hasn't grown yet. It probably went into shock!  I added some good "Sunshine Mix" soil and a handful of blood and bone meal when planting it to it's new location. So far it hasn't died, so I guess that's one positive thing...

My General Sikorska clematis is growing the best of the three. My new little Alba Luxurians is doing well considering how tiny it was when I planted it last summer... The Jackmanii clematis is a bit of a disappointment. It's slow to sprout and slow growing as well, with barely any leaves. I added a handful of blood and bone meal 2 weeks ago, but maybe it's time for a shot of Miracle Grow.  Also time to check last years old stems to see it they are still alive and sprouting any new leaves. Otherwise they need to be clipped off.

Tiny tomato seedlings

Radishes are up...  (Chives to the left)

 The veggie garden is showing signs of life. The biggest plants right now, of course are the 2 original rhubarb plants and the huge ancient chives plant. My husband planted 7 of the little tomato seedlings, which I had started in the house, out into the garden 3 days ago. (4 heirloom Black Krim and 3 Lemon Boys).  The weather has been cool and wet, so a big shot of sunshine would make a huge difference!   Not much sun in the forecast for the next few days, though...  

Pond plants

Dandelion Wars resume

  A few days ago as I was doing my garden check, I noticed an abundance of yellow. As I got closer, I recognized the culprits as none other than... dandelions!  They were sprouting and mocking me every way I turned!

I got out my trusty vinegar spray bottle... ZAP! .... and I sprayed some of the dandelion plants nearest me. The sun was shining warmly, which apparently works to speed up the acidic acid to the dandelion leaves. Gotcha!

Results:  The next day, the dandelion leaves had turned brown and shrivelled up, but so did the grass around each dandelion. Now we have all these dead spots on the lawn.... :(

Worse still, today I noticed that each of the so called "dead" dandelions was sending up flower buds which were still very much alive! Back to the drawing board!

It was a coolish overcast day today so I decided the manual method would work best today. I took my pointy garden trowel and dug up piles and piles of dandelions. It felt like several thousand, as I was crawling around on the lawn (green knees on my jeans to prove it!); although 200 might be a more accurate estimate...

Even the dandelions by the driveway which my husband had zapped with Killex were mostly still hanging in there!  I guess the deluge of rain we had not long after didn't help. 

Dig, dig, dig, DIG! Now many of them are in messy piles on the lawn.  I'm going to leave them there overnight to frighten and intimidate the rest of their still growing companions. (Do you think my technique will work?)

You have to admire the tenacity and survival ability of the darn things! If there ever is an Armageddon and the plants on Mother Earth die, the last one to go will be the dandelion (followed by quack grass, my other nemesis, as a close second!)

I can just see it now.... Thousands of years later some aliens will accidently discover this otherwise dead planet  formerly known as Earth. They will be amazed, upon disembarking from their spacecraft, as they gaze around at the happy-looking little yellow flowers surrounded by rosettes of spiky green leaves. They will immediately take some specimens back to their planet to study and the lowly dandelion will propagate on another planet in the solar system, starting it's incidious battle all over again to dominate!

New policy: If it's blooming little yellow flowers, dig it out! 

On the other hand, they are kind of pretty little yellow flowers, aren't they?  Maybe I should cultivate them, encourage them to grow instead of battling to prevent it Go into business making fresh dandelion salad or bootleg dandelion wine. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

Ponds and Pond Plants

Goldfish Heaven!

Level 2 and Level 3 pond plants

On Sunday a friend and I took a drive out to check out a new greenhouse. Echo Glen Gardens is about  40 km away, but was well worth the drive. We attended a free pond plant workshop that afternoon which was quite informative. I had little knowledge about the different levels to plant different types of pond vegetation. 

Level 1 is the moisture loving plants that grow around the edge of the pond. I have several wild rose bushes, some perennial geraniums, and some bridal bouquet, as well as a couple day lilies and bearded irises. Most of these were already growing here when we 'inherited' the pond.

Level 2 are the plants that like to have wet roots, the pot needs to be partly submerged in water, (Like the little papyrus plant) and Level 3 are the plants that like to have the whole pot underwater, but not the plants themselves.  

Submerged Mare's tail pond plant

Level 4 are the plants that like to be under the water completely such as the Mare's Tail plant the will grow 18 inches tall UNDER the WATER! 

Level 5 plants like to be in the deepest part of the pond.  Water lilies are a level 5 plant and their pot needs to be down deep, although the lily leaves will float on the top, as will the lily flower that will  eventually grow.  And did you know that there are fertilizers to put in your pond water that will encourage your water beauties to bloom?  I wonder what effect that would have on the algae bloom in the pond water though....

Then there are the pond floaters, such as water lettuce and water hyacinths.  They help to shade the pond which helps to hinder algae growth; Plus the floating plants give the fish someplace to hide. 

I bought a color changing water lily, where the blossoms are supposed to change color as they grow and open. I'm looking forward to seeing it bloom!  I found out that pond plants should be put out when the pond water is warm, as warm as bath water! LOL! (When does that happen here on the prairies? July maybe....)  So for now I have the water lily and hyacinths in a bucket in the house! :) 

The other interesting thing I found out was that water lilies and hyacinths don't like to be splashed, (otherwise the leaves turn black), so it's important not to put them near the fountain or running water in your pond.

Tuesday May 24/ 2011 Putting in...and Taking Out

The rain stopped today, although the sun didn't come out at all and the temperature was only a high of about 10 degrees celcius. A good time to plant/ transplant which is exactly what I did.  I added a few more plants to my new flower bed.

Right now there are :
False Spiria bush
Bleeding heart bush
Miss Kim miniature lilac
Cinquefoil (a short variety of potentilla),
2 lupines, (which I dug out of my Angel Bed)
Some bearded irises (which I hope are the purple and white ones)
2 Rudbeckia (Autumn Colors)
A cactus dahlia
3 rocket mix snapdragons

Bleeding heart, bearded irises and day lily in background

False Spirea bush flanked by day lilies, small cinquefoil, flanked by rudbeckia Autumn Colors

I planted a 30 inch Manitoba Maple sapling in a treed area of our acreage. It had to be dug out of the little flower bed which we are dismantling, and many of the trees in that treed area are dead (mostly old poplars there), so I'm hoping to plant a few new trees there to rejuvenate that spot (between the fire pit and the road.)

Ruby sempervivum (Hen and Chicks)

I also planted some sempervivum ("Hen and Chicks") in 2 of my beds, one in my old stack stone flower bed, and the other in my long perennial bed. One of them I got from the Plant Swap in town a few weekends ago and the second one I dug out of my own wild rock garden facing the road. (The second one is a ruby sempervivum and they get the most beautiful little bundle of flowers in the summer!)

The 'Hen" dies after blooming but usually there are other chicks there to take over.

I'm thrilled to report that my plum trees and pear trees are opening their blossoms! Two of my plum trees (The Pembina Plums) look like they have been through a terrible war, so much of their bark is missing off their branches!  That's thanks to the 4 porcupines that we had roaming around here last winter. Yes, I said four!!!

We bought some tree wrap and wrapped up the branches of my Hyer Apple tree which also got attacked, but we ran out after that one tree.  I think we will just trim the poor plum bush back severely and hope that it survives. If not, then I guess we will remove it and start over with some new ones. Luckily the porcupine left my favourite plum tree (Brook Park Plum) with very little damage.  It usually gets blossoms earlier then the others and consequently also ripens the plums early enough to avoid the frost. Not so for the other two plums .... (Pembina Plums)

The Dologo Crab apple tree is also starting to open it's blossoms and the lone pear tree at the end of the yard has been blooming for a several days. Now all we need is a few sunny days and the rest of the blossoms will burst open. The yard will be beautiful and fragrantly scented attracting bees from miles around!  I love this time of year and just wish it would last a bit longer  :)

And the work goes on! :)

 Sunday  May 22, 2011

What a lot of rain we got towards the end of the May Long (Victoria Day) weekend!  We managed to finish the new stack stone flower bed just in time, thanks mainly to all of my “better half’s” hard work!  :)  

After lugging around dirt, stones, plants, full watering cans and shovels, the next morning I felt like I had been hit by a big truck (or what I imagine it WOULD feel like, if a person had been hit by a truck!)  

I started planting a few things in the new bed, but had to stop because of the rain. I did manage to put in the grass infested false spiria bush, after pulling out most (I hope) of the long grass roots.  It’s in the centre of my new flower bed, which is also actually the very same location it was in previously, without the fluffy soil and the nice surroundings.  The irisies that were in the same location were so tightly packed with grass that it was very difficult to separate them.... most of them ended up in the compost, I’m afraid. :( 

I also planted the hardy rododendron, the bleeding heart, and Miss Kim lilac there.  I had second thoughts about that location for the rododendron,though. After reading the tag again, I decided to dig it up and locate it in the east flower bed up against the house.  

The bleeding heart bush might get too much sun there, as well, but I’m going to leave it there for now and see what happens. In northern Manitoba I had a huge, healthy bleeding heart in the bed in front of the steps which faced southeast and it always did fabulously well. In fact I did not know that bleeding hearts aren’t fond of too much sun until a friend commented on how well mine was doing considering the sunny location.  Even after that, I left it there. I thought, leave well enough alone! (I wonder if it’s still there now after almost 5 years....) 

I have now planted 4 out of the 6 large green tubs (half barrels) in our yard. I put dark blue petunias (not Wave) with yellow flowering bidens and dichondra falls in the tub by the telephone post near the driveway.  There’s still room for a few “basket stuffers”, too, so I might add some blue regata lobelia....

And did I mention that I planted white osteospermum daisies with pink  geraniums in the other tub. They are starting to look so good! :)

Gentle Breezes & New Flower Bed

Spring tulip with asiatic lilies just sprouting... next to the nylon containing Irish Spring soap/ deer deterent

Gentle breezes are back! We definitely have had enough of the gale winds that we had been getting... 40 kmph winds gusting to 60 and 70 kmph, day after day for 10 days straight!  The breezes are welcome to keep the hordes of mosquitos at bay. (All those new young little blood-suckers are just waiting for their chance to lunch on you!)

And the sun is shining again today after a series of much needed rain showers. It has been pretty dry here since the beginning of May, although we still have lots of standing water thanks to the huge amount of spring melt from all the piles of snow that winter had left us.

I planted 2 little zucchini bedding plants out into the vegetable garden  as well as the sweet potato plant that sprouted all by itself in my pantry!  We have never grown sweet potatoes before, so we are looking forward to that new experience.

Rhubarb and chives are growing well after the long winter

I also planted my long flower boxes on the deck stair landing with multi-bloom pink geraniums with white centres, dark blue pansies and some lysemachia (Creeping Jenny).

Next I tackles the 2 big green tubs on either side of the driveway down by the road. There I planted  Orbit Pink  geraniums, rocket mix snapdragons, a citronella and some mini licorice vines. One of the tubs is still not quite finished... I need to harden off the second citronella (which I have over-wintered in my bedroom bay window) and buy more licorice vines. I might add a few wine colored pansies, too.

After that I planted one of my deck pots. It already had 2 geraniums in it, one ivy geranium (candy stripe, red & white) and a regular geranium (Maestro blue).  (I had brought the whole pot into the house in the fall and had it in the kitchen by the big bay window all winter.) So that pot was easy to do, I just added a wine colored viola pansy and a little Dichondra Silver falls vine to the geraniums and voila, it was done!

Tuberous begonia on left and gazanias on right

I transplanted the 9 dry, root bound gazanias (Big Kiss- yellow Flame) into 5 inch pots to encourage them to grow a bit more till I get the chance to plant them into their permanent homes in the flower beds.
I am quite proud of my 3 little tuberous begonias which I grew from little tubers that I had dug up last fall and over wintered in the house in a plastic bag of peat moss! One even has a yellow blossom on it already! :)

 New triangular flower bed surrounded by stack stones - upper left

Yesterday my fabulous husband worked his butt off making me happy! (Isn't that great! :)
He drove to town and picked up over 200 stack stones for the perimeter of my new flower bed. He hauled wheelbarrowfuls of soil from our dirt pile next to the shed and mixed it with bags of triple mix which he then shoveled into the new flower bed spot.  We manhandled 200 stack stones around the outside of the bed, 2 deep.  (Today I feel it!)  It is taking shape and I'm excited about planting it!

 I bought a bleeding heart bush, a hardy rododendron (an experiment to try here on the prairies), and a cinquefoil (never had one of those before), to put in the new bed. I also have a miniature lilac bush (Miss Kim) to relocate there, as well as a grass infested false spirea bush (once the grass gets removed), a day lily and some bearded irises. Still trying to work out the configuration of what will go where.....

)

Two cactus dahlias, which I started from over-wintered tubers, one small citronella (scented geranium) which I over- wintered in the bedroom window, and one canna lily which finally decided to make an appearance. It was also started from an over-wintered tuber.

Happy gardening! :)

Vegetable garden and the Crazy Wind

Lovely Pasque flower- an early bloomer

We planted our vegetable garden last Friday, a relatively calm morning and it feels good to get that out of the way.  My' gung ho' husband had gone a little crazy planting hills of potatoes in our small vegetable plot a few days prior to that, so now we are quite limited in space for other veggies.

After planting 6 short rows of lettuce, swiss chard, spinach, then some radishes and carrots (via a seed tape,) I realized we were running out of room.  Yikes! What about the squashes I have so lovingly been carrying in and out of the house every day, as well as the (too many) Black Krim and Lemon Boy tomato seedlings I have been nurturing? And, hey, I want to try growing zucchinis again, now that we have more sunshine in the garden (after cutting down one of our beautiful huge spruce trees.)

Big stack stone flower bed with veg garden in background

 I mapped out  the garden plot and ear marked a few spots to save for them.  Darn! I forgot about the green beans which I love so much.  Alright, so it will be a bit crowded, as usual.... I wonder if I can dig up a couple hills of potatoes without 'anyone' noticing, LOL!

After soaking the seeds overnight I planted a few green beans, peas and sweet peas. (I love sweet pea flowers!) I had a lot of bean seeds left over so I stuck them in a couple of pots to leave on the deck. Now the waiting starts.... What will sprout first?

The grass and dandelion skirmishes continue!
I have to admit, I do admire the stealth and tenacity of both!  After working for hours, (days!) on 5 of my perennial beds, I still find quack grass in them every day! I'm starting to wonder if I'm developing a type of "green blindness'. I think that once exhaustion sets in after a couple of hours of digging, all the the quack grass, hiding so stealthily in the middle of the sprouting perennials becomes invisible!  Until the next day, at least, then I wonder, "How did I miss all of those?"

Grass/sod has been removed to start construction of a new flower bed (upper left)

A new flower bed is in progress!   I know, I know, I probably need my head examined!
But in reality, I am shutting down 3 little ridiculously tiny beds that interrupt the flow of the lawn mower by their unstrategic locations.   I plan on digging out the Miss Kim miniature lilac, a small but developing delphinium, the 'wall to wall' bearded irises, a small day lily, a perennial aster (which has never yet bloomed), and a grass infested false spirea shrub out of those tiny beds. Some of these treasure will be given away and a few relocated into the new bed, along with perhaps a foxglove or two and a couple of small lupines that have seeded themselves in a poor location....

The exciting part of this new flower bed is that it is the first one that I am planning from scratch instead of trying to work around existing perennials. What a treat that is!

Last night we started the exhausting work of digging out the lawn where the flower bed will be. What a work out! Who needs to pay for a gym membership when they can exercise those muscles for free!? LOL!

Today I paid my first visit to a greenhouse and bought myself some plants!  I have been restraining myself up till now, mainly because of the vicious winds we have been experiencing in most of Alberta for over  a week now!   35 to 40 km an hour winds with sudden gusts to 60 km or more! And coming out of the south! That is very unusual here. Our winds normally come out of the west or northwest and only occasionally from the south, which usually indicates a change in weather for us. It seems that the jet stream is doing weird things here in Canada right now. The jet stream is sitting right over the province of Alberta, streaming from the south end right through to the northwest territories!

I can understand now how the relentlessness and constant sound and pushing on everyone and everything outside by the wind can cause madness! Isn't that what happened to many people during the dust bowl on the prairies during the 1930? But a little craziness is mild compare to what the residents of northern Alberta are experiencing right now.  I sympathize with the residents of Slave Lake and surrounding towns who are in danger of losing their homes and businesses to the wild fires raging through there right now.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to them....

I feel blessed not to have to experience the flooding that's taking place in southern Manitoba, southern Quebec and the states bordering the Mississippi River right now as well.

I am being optimistic and am counting on the weather forecasters to be correct when they predict an end tomorrow to this constant relentless wind so I can start planting my bedding plants, dahlias, glads, geraniums and begonias, (and even the one canna lily which suddenly sprouted yesterday just when I was ready to plant something else in that pot)!

But then again, the constant wind has had one huge positive benefit:  the wind deters the mosquitos and because of the huge amount of standing water around here, here are millions of them and they are waiting 'in the wings' in huge ugly hordes for their chance to strike!  The joys of summer!!!

One of the numerous tree swallows gracing our acreage checking out nesting sites

Animal Repellents and Drinking Alcohol

This time of the year, we are busily cleaning up flower beds and garden plots and our plants start shooting up, we need to think about keeping the plants safe from "predators". Deer, rabbits and rodents like to eat them and dogs and cats like to sit on the tender developing plants or dig them up.  There are quite a variety of animal repellents on the market.  Some are based on an unpleasant taste and some on an unpleasant or feared smell.

Skoot is one type of animal deterrent product you will see on garden section shelves.  Read the label carefully! Unlike the Green Earth Animal Repellent, that I mentioned in my last blog post, this one is poisonous! In my haste to get something, anything, to use to deter the porcupines that were regular visitors to our yard this past winter, I missed the skull and cross bones logo on it.

It wouldn't have worked this winter anyway, as I also missed the part about only using it if the temperature was NOT below 4C.  Have you seen very many prairie winter days where that's a realistic temperature?  There's so much fine print on the container, some of it in bold letters, but no where does it say anything about "not using it on a windy day" nor does it recommend wearing gloves or long sleeves.   This morning I was considering applying Skoot to my nibbled daffodils, but carefully read the whole long label (this time!)

"Because of unpleasant side effects, alcoholic beverages should be avoided for 24 hours before or after using Skoot". That's a direct quote from the label! What??!!? That got my attention!  I had that glass of wine last night... what would happen?

I called the 1-800 number on the label and I was taken aback by the company's out going phone message: "If this is a medical emergency for either a human or a pet, press 1. For any other concerns press 2." ( I'm dead serious! OMG! )  I left a message along with my phone number.

 A few hours later I got a call back and was given some interesting information by a very pleasant woman:  inhaling the fumes of the chemicals in Skoot could enhance the effects of alcohol in the users system! Wow!
Not only that, although it is on store shelves right now along with all the other spring gardening products, it should NOT be used on growing plants at all! (Dormant only!)

I have decided that Skoot is not for me! Sounds far too dangerous!
What is also strange, the harmless "Green Earth Animal Deterrent" made from black pepper oil is made by the same company as Skoot!  Go figure!

Maybe I will stick to the messy mixing of "Plantskydd".  Plantskydd is a blood based product that people can't smell but animals do so they stay away from the plants. ( But after you mix the powder with water, don't keep it any longer than the label recommends or it DOES start to smell bad to humans, too!) Plantskydd works for up to 6 months and doesn't wash away with the rain or heavy watering as many other products do... It worked well last year to deter the wild animal munchers wandering through our acreage, so why mess with success?!

Beautiful May Day

This is such an exciting anticipatory time of year!  But so much work as well.
Thus far we still have NO leaves on the trees here in central Alberta. Last year by the end of April we could already see a faint greenish hue as the leaves were getting ready to emerge from their buds....  Not so this year.

The lawn is quickly turning green now, though, especially after the 2 days of rain that we had on the weekend.  There are big buds on many of the trees and shrubs especially my huge honeysuckle shrub, so it shouldn't be long now before the trees green up!  The sun is shining warmly today, although we have a bit of a wind which is, strangely enough, coming from the south rather than the usual west or northwest....  A beautiful day to be outside gardening, golfing or whatever you choose to do! :)

The tulips at the side of the house are tall and have fat buds on them so they will be popping out any time now! :)  (Last year the first red tulips started blooming here on May 2.)

My clematises are showing signs of life, at least 2 out of 3 are. The General Sikorska was the first, as usual, but only has a couple of small leaves coming out of the ground at this time.  My newest addition the white Alba Luxuriana was not far behind and it has a tiny shoot with tiny leaves also coming out of the ground. So far nothing from my Jackimanii.
 I had left the clematis stems on the trellises over winter just like the "Lois Hole perennials" book says.  Last year some of the stems were still alive in spring and they sprouted new leaves on them. Then I trimmed back just the dead stem parts. I'm hoping the same will be the case again this year so that, along with some new growth out of the ground, my clematises will get bushier each year. :)

General Sikorska clematis on right, with rudbeckia in front of it. Small alba luxuriana clematis in centre back with oriental poppy leaves in front of it.  It's a start!

The daffodils in my stack stone bed by the pond have leaves, but no flowers yet. (Did I accidently plant the late blooming variety? LOL!)  But the deer have been eating the daffodil leaves! All the books say that daffodils are deer resistant. So much for THAT theory!
On the other hand, maybe it can be attributed to the marmot! Yes, I have another marmot residing nearby. The dog chases it frequently but it always manages to escape.  I sprayed all the tulips and daffodils today with "Green Earth Animal Repellent".  Time will tell if that product works. I called the company that makes it (on their 1-800 number) and I was told that it's basis is pepper oil, a natural product, so it is harmless to humans and animals, but deters animals through the smell.  (Good to know since we not only have a dog, but 5 cats wandering around freely on our acreage.)  The down side is that it doesn't last that long. It needs to be reapplied after a good rain or a good watering.  Hmmm....  back to mixing 'Plantskydd'?

Nibbled daffodils...

Three out of 5 of my rose bushes are showing buds or some kind of sign of life now!  Looking forward to seeing them bloom!  I removed all the peat moss and mulch from around the rose bushes yesterday and began applying some bone meal in the soil around their roots to help them grow.   :)
Today I spent several more hours toiling in the sun, (whew!) digging out shasta daisy seedlings and tons of quack grass from my stack stone bed.   Those never ending grass wars  have begun again in earnest !

Holly hock back left, close to house, with a number of bearded irises growing well.

I have to dig up my Winnipeg Parks rose bush and move it forward about 2 feet in the flower bed to put more distance between it and the large Baby's Breath perennial there. Last year the Baby's Breath got so big that it flopped over on top of the rose bush and prevented the poor thing from setting any buds.  I had to stake the Baby's Breath up and even trim some of it off.  I had already dug up half of the baby's breath  a few weeks earlier.... Talk about vigorous growth!

My unassuming little pasque flowers are gorgeous! I am SO impressed with them.

These little beauties are pasque flowers. They look quite similar to wild crocuses, but they grow well in a flower bed

Angel bed

Next gardening project.... clean quack grass out of the angel bed... tomorrow. :)