Carola's Alberta Garden 2019: Flower Bed Clean Up -April 2016

April 1 to 7- The tulips started popping their leaves out of the ground.
Today ( April 12 ) they are up about 6 inches already at the side of the house and one or two already have buds!! (I don't want to say that too triumphantly; it might antagonize the weather deities and who knows what ugly weather might follow! )

My Hollyhocks have sprouted in that bed and are reminding me to do something about the 3 rogues growing at the front of that bed. Holly hocks don't like to be moved once they are growing. They have a deep main root and are hard to dig up, too, but not impossible. I did have some success last year so it's worth a try.

Bearded irises and Hollyhocks (back)

April 3
I started my flower bed clean up. I'm quite certain that is the earliest time on record for me! Yay, to early spring!
I cleaned up the side of the house bed, clipped off the rest of the dead holly hock leaves and branches that I had missed in October. Dug out some grass roots (Isn't that a 'given' in all of my flower beds!?) and added some compost (store bought bags), plus some rich dark soil from the pile over by the greenhouse that we had trucked in last year.
I also started cleaning up the shady end of the stack stone bed and added some soil to a hole left there after I dug out a white daisy last fall.

Tulips and clematises

April 11- I cleaned up the top of the Rock Garden bed next to the deck. Lots of quack grass roots came out of there! I added some compost and some fresh soil as well. Filled in a hole that the dog had dug (Brandy! Possibly with help from Jackson.)

Iron fencing to deter dog digging

Pasque flower (tame crocus)

April 12
The Pasque Flower in my Stack Stone bed started blooming yesterday (April 11), but the big winner this year for "First to Bloom" are 2 little Jolly Jump Up wild pansies that survived under the winter snow to please me with their cute little purple faces so early this spring!

Jolly Jump Ups

Tulips, daffodils and roses

So pleased - My rose bushes have buds ! I had to start unwrapping the burlap around my Morden roses in the Stack stone bed as most of them had stated setting buds already! Today I removed the mulch around the bushes and spread the peat into the surrounding bed. First though, I dug up a laundry basket full of quack grass weeds. That battle has started full on!

That bed is still not all done, though. The west side still needs some attention (grass removal). So nice to see that my Lamb's Ears and my persian Sunflowers survived as well.

Cosmos seedlings April 12

Greenhouse-
The squashes are growing quickly and the tomato seedlings are too. I will have to transplant them all in a week or so into their own individual pots.

Dahlias- I had to snip back the dahlia shoots to encourage them to grow bushier. I have 2 big pots of Firebirds (orange and yellow) 1 small firebird, 2 red Thompson Dahlias and 1 Mystery Day (Purple and white)