Rain and Grass

We finally got some much needed rain today.   Central Alberta is very dry and we have had a fire ban on for weeks already, due to the fact that we had so little snow this past winter. There was a big grass fire last weekend about 4 km south of here, which can be pretty scary as it can so easily get out of control.  So, yay! Bring on the rain!

I have been working on cleaning debris and grass roots out of my flower beds for about a week now and, man, that's a big job around here! I love my big perennial beds, (they look so beautiful in the summer when they are blooming), but it is major work to keep the quack grass out!
I unwrapped my rose bushes and cleaned up the winter mulch. So far there are no signs of life, but this rain will definitely help.

My Pasque flowers are blooming! They look so delicate and beautiful; I call them my domestic crocuses. :)  They even beat my tulips. There is a little ground squirrel who lives in the environmental reserve next to our property and he is helping himself, not only to the sunflower seeds that the birds knock out of the bird feeder, ( which is perfectly fine) but also to my tulip blossoms as they are emerging out of the ground! (Which is definitely NOT fine!)  I guess I wasn't fast enough with spraying my tulips with Bobbex.

My tiny seedlings are doing well. There are many tiny tomato plants, (Early Girl is doing the best so far.) several squashes, 11 gazanias, many lavatara and too many foxgloves, but I'm not complaining.

The marigolds are refusing to sprout so I guess I need to try some new seeds. There are still some dried up marigolds from last year in my triangle stack stone bed, so maybe I will give them a try...  I like to grow them in the beds at the front of the yard since the deer have a regular path past there and they don't like to eat marigolds ( or anything else smelly.)

I also harvested a lot of snapdragon seeds while cleaning up my flower beds, which I took into the greenhouse to plant in pots. I hope that some of them will sprout as well. I love the tall flower spikes on snaps and they are very hardy flowers withstanding frost to -10C!  :)

And last but not least, all my geraniums are doing well in the greenhouse in spite of the lack of sun in recent days. They like the humidity in there if nothing else.

Happy gardening!