More Signs of Life, May 2017

Pasque Flower May 2/17

May 2/17

May 2 the rest of the Tree Swallow flock showed up in the back yard, swooping and diving around like they had never left. It is always so exciting to see them as they mean that spring is truly starting! :)

It was great to see the peony shoots peeking out at the side of the house (pink peony) and in the tiny bed at the bottom of the steps (red Dominion Day ).

Day lily- rock garden

Autumn Joy sedum

Also showing through the ground:

yellow day lilies ( bottom of rock garden)

bearded irises, ( side of house and triangle bed)

Monkshood ( round/angel bed)

Monkshood and campanula bell flowers are up

Siberian irises ( side of house)

Holly hocks

Forget Me Nots (Stackstone bed)

Autumn Joy sedum ( rock garden)

Maltese cross 

and my Pasque flower is blooming beautifully. 

Forget Me Nots

Maltese Cross (Campion) sprouting

I cleaned up my stackstone bed again today. There were loads of sneaky quack grass roots trying to grow there again.

Roses

I also unwrapped my poor rose bushes on May 2. They had so much winter kill!

The Morden Ruby is usually full of buds by now but it was showing no signs of life at all. The only rose bushes that appeared alive was the John Davis rose in my round /Angel bed and the Morden blush.

 As May progressed the Morden centennial and Ruby started sprouting very low down near the roots. Many of the upper branches were dead. 

I lost my Winnipeg parks rose and my pink Turbo rose. I thought that my gorgeous Morden belle had bit the dust too. I bought 2 new rose bushes at Canadian Tire Garden centre, a Morden Sunrise (yellow, orange single blossoms) and a JP Connel hardy rose, ( yellow buds that turn white when the flower opens.)

The damage seems to have been caused because we had an early cold snap in October, but then the weather turned unseasonably warm again in late Oct/ early November and the roses continues to bloom especially the Ruby and the Belle. I have never had roses blooming that late in the year like in 2016. The rose bushes were unprepared for the cold when it finally did arrive. They had not started shutting down for the winter. It took its toll.

May 6 we finally put our goldfish back out into the little pond, 12 of the biggest ones. ( 6 spares are left in the house.) The weather has been too chilly to put them out before now.

I dug up some white ox eye daisies to give to my daughter Tricia for her rock garden in Penticton. BC.

May 8

I dug a 2 foot Manitoba Maple out of my flower bed and planted it behind the playhouse in the area where the old poplars are dying off.

I also transplanted my herbs into a big pot in the greenhouse. Unfortunately my cilantro did not like the move and it all died.

I potted some cucumber seeds and Bunny Tail seeds, but none of the sprouted at all. :(

May 9-  I planted 2 new raspberry bushes , Boyden Raspberries (bought at Peevey Mart Garden centre) outside the vegetable garden fence (SW side) and they are doing well.

I bought a reblooming lilac bush and planted it next to the big lilac in the front yard. It might not be the best location, though….

I dug up my Nelli Moser clematis which was not doing very well and replaced it with a Ville de Lyon clematis.  My integrifolia clematis is growing really well.

Nahla and Tulips

New Spring 2017

March 2017

Robins are back April 29/17

A new growing season is crouching just around the corner and I am so looking forward to my garden coming alive again!

March 21     Laundry room planting
Tomato seeds
2 pots Early Girls (3 seeds in each pot)
2 pots Lemon Boys
2 pots Tumblers
2 pots Beef Steaks
1 pot Purple Russian
1 pot New Zealand tomatoes

1 pot dill seeds
Herbs: parsely, Rosemary, cilantro and oregano

To do- basil and sage

Morning Glories, sage, rosemary

March 26
First to Sprout
1 Lemon Boy and 1 Beef Steak tomato

March 27 Planting - Dahlias
4 Pots of Firebirds
1 pot of Thompson Red
2 pots of new Tahitian Sunrise
(I accidentally composted my "Mystery Day" tubers last fall, thinking they were Firebirds which I had too many of. :(

Crocuses on Picnic Hills April 28/17

 April 2 Plated Squash seeds 2 pots Spaghetti squash
2 pots zucchinis
 1 kaboda squash
1 red pepper seeds

Flower Seeds Planted
1 pot zinnia seeds
1pot calendulas
1 pot Morning Glories
1 pot Lavatara
2 pots sweet peas

Red Thompson Dahlia

Firebird Dahlia, orange and yellow

April 10
All seedlings have sprouted except Early Girls seeds are duds. I had replanted them a week or so ago and they have sprouted now,
Dahlias are all up and growing well. Most will go into the greenhouse . It's still cool in there at night in spite of the heater which helps to slow the growth and results in sturdier stems.

Hollyhocks sprouting April 5/17

April  2017
The tulips at the side of our house started peeking out about April 1.  I just hope that they will produce some flowers this year as they are pretty crowded and I didn't get a chance to did them up and thin them out last year. There's no point it trying to do it now, as the bulbs will have set this year's blooms last fall. ( I think….)  So we'll just go for broke!

My greenhouse is full

Photos taken April 5 of tulips at the side of the house. :D

My hollyhocks in that same bed are also showing some greenery in their centres. I cleaned out that bed again and dug up some grass roots ( what else!?)

Zucchini, cosmos seedlings, calendula seedlings and Tahiti Sunrise dahlia

Tomato seedlings are doing well, except I had to replant the Early Girls (Ironic that they are going to be 2 weeks late! :)

Parsely, Jade and spaghetti squashes

Next I started cleaning up my stackstone bed.,The snow had disappeared from those two beds and from my rock garden in late march. The rest of my flower beds in the front yard were covered in 6 inches of snow up until last week.

The beds are still pretty wet and there's no sign of life as of April 10 and 11 (2017).

Yesterday I cleaned up most of my stackstone bed, filling my big white laundry basket full of roots and other compost. The chives plant which I cut back last fall is showing a few inches of chives already but was also hiding a huge mass of quack grease. Each of those seemingly innocuous stems lead to long strings of roots all over the north east side/ shad side of that bed. The rest of the bed between the rose bushes also was harbouring a lot of quack grass. That's always been my main nemesis in my flower beds here!

Rock Garden Bed
I clipped last year's dead day lily leaves from the lower section, then tidied up the Blue sages. Quack grass still needs to come out.

I also raked up the dead day lily leaves by the pond and the grass around the bench.

Snow covering my struggling tulips April 14/17

Rain/ snow mix expected for Easter weekend (April 13, 14, 15) and yes, it arrived without fail.

All 4 Grandkids will be here for 4 days during Easter vacation week. Was that hectic and noisy or what! :)

Old Man winter seemed to have a strangle hold on us and didn't want to give in to Spring.
More snow April 23-
Luckily it didn't last very long.

First swallow scout in back yard April 28th. The flock is not far behind.