Beautiful June Jewels

Beautiful  June Jewels

 After such a long drawn out winter it is such a pleasure to see everything growing and greening up. There were a few early flowers to show their pretty faces, the bearded irises and tiny lamium are one of them.

Early June was filled with garden prep, a lot of digging and planting.

June 3: I planted an herb pot on the deck: dill, cilantro, thyme, marjoram, tarragon and basil., most of which I had started from seed in the greenhouse.

June 5: I planted 6 bean plants into the raised garden beds which I had bought at WalMart garden Centre since my own beans didn't want to cooperate. I also planted out some dill which can be pretty finicky to move.

Lamium

June 6:  I dug up and moved some small rogue hollyhocks to the far left corner of the Side of House bed. (Gave one to Wendy W.)  I also planted a nice looking echinacea coneflower at the side of the house. It's called Cheyenne Spirit and should bloom pink.  (As of July 9 the blossoms haven't opened yet.)

Rock Garden:  Dianthus, May Night sage and more

Also in early June, I planted a new, unusual perennial called a beard tongue at the side of the house, a version called "Blackbeard" which I got at the Tail Creek Greenhouse. It had some spikes of small light purple flowers. And also 2 Blackeyed Susans since all of mine had died there.

No Clematises. :(

More June 6: I dug out my dead Morden Belle bush and replaced it with a new rose bush called Grootendorst Supreme at the side of the house. It gets red carnationlike flowers, zone 3, and is supposed to bloom in early to mid summer. So far it has a few buds. It looks hardy, so hopefully next year it will come up and bloom earlier.

I bought a new Winnipeg Parks rose at the end of June (from Can Tire in Camrose) and it has a lot of pretty buds on it which started to open. They were at the bottom of the bush, hanging onto the soil, but looking so lovely that I clipped them off and brought them inside to put in a vase to enjoy.

Winnipeg Parks rose buds

 Other June plantings: annuals- Lavatara, zinnias ( I started seeds).
From Round Angel Bed, I dug out a Cranesbill perennial (for Chris W), some white daisies and Anemonies for KR.

First Hansa rose of the season June 29/18 

Baby Spruce trees
My yard spruces have been spreading their seedlings all of the round bed and triangle bed. I usually leave a few to grow although it takes several years. This year I had six spruce babies (6 to 8 inch) to give away to neighbours and friends.

My sweet peas are hanging in there, still tiny, not growing much, but so far so good.
Lots of watering and weeding in the last few weeks. Not much rain other than the occasional little shower.

June 21, 2018

The deck pots are looking good, but require watering at least once a day in this hot weather. The Sun Solaria is dying though. It's in a pot with poor drainage and that's not good for them.

Baby Pink peony transplanted from shaded wild bed

Julia Rose Peony

The Peonies are growing and I'm happy to say that the 2 in my triangle bed have 6 or 7 buds each. Doesn't sound like much to those people who have had peonies for a long time and get dozens of buds, but I am pleased with that considering I haven't had much luck with planting and blooming of peonies in the past.

Karl Rosenfeld Peony 

I planted a new peony at the side of the hose this year (along with all the other aformentioned plantings there). It looked healthy and hopefully it will bloom next year (if I didn't plant it too deep.). It is called Karl Rosenfeld peony.  (From PJ's Plantation greenhouse). I think the flowers are supposed to be a dark pink/ red. Crossing my fingers it will bloom some time in the near future!

Daisies and wild roses June 27

Happy gardening! :D

Spring May 23/24, 2018

Spring Events

Besides the mosquitoes, the poplar fluff was late in coming this spring as well. It "decided" that the May long weekend would be a good time to start floating down on everyone! It was crazy! Fluff and mosquitoes floating around everywhere!  Luckily we had a rain shower on May 23rd, along with our first thunder storm which helped to beat down the layer of fluff on the ground and it is no longer a problem.
But we probably shouldn't complain. It was snowing on the east coast (in Newfoundland) on May 23rd!

Plant development on May 23rd and 24th (2018)

 Lilacs blooming in back yard

Bergenia looking good aside from a bit of frost bite on the leaves

Hostas, Rocket Ligularia, Little Juniper bush and ferns

This is the shandy side of my Stack Stone bed. There's an El Nino Hosta (new), Sleeping Beauty hosta, Green Juniper, Red Lady fern (new), chives and Forget Me Knots which are all doing well so far.  I also transplanted an ostrich fern from my round perennial bed into this area. There are still a few Obedient plants surfacing, although I dug out dozens of them.

First Anemone to bloom (Stack stone bed- West side)

Just lounging around the triangle bed looking cute. :)

First lamium to bloom. Such a tiny, but cute perennial and easy to grow in zone 3

First lilac bouquet- May 24/18 

Lilacs and Tree Swallow house  May 24/18

Add caption

Quick Fire hydrangea shrubs are both showing signs of life

WE dug out the Double Flowering plum which I planted last year (as it was dead), and I replaced it with a bigger one that I bought at Tail Creek greenhouse. Unfortunately for me, it had already finished blooming. I have to wait another whole year to see blossoms on it.

The rhubarb plant outside the garden is growing well and ready to start harvesting stalks

Stackstone Bed- red pot lilies with Morden Ruby on right growing shoots finally (May 24/18)

My roses had a really hard winter and most of the top stems of the shrubs are dead, but they are valiantly growing new shoots from the lower branches and up from the roots which luckily survived.

One of my many little baby spruce saplings

I have given away 6 spruce saplings this year to neighbours and friends. There are about 2 dozen tiny sprucelings in the Stack stone bed, long perennial bed and the triangle bed. I have been letting them grow and hopefully will find good homes for the ones that we don't plant ourselves.

Miss Kim Lilac has green leaves now.

Miss Kim Lilac has green leaves now. The 2 yellow day lilies in this bed are starting to grow as well. The Splendins is sprouting leaves, the bearded irises are turning green, but no sign of life yet from the 2 peonies or Siberian iris. 

Time to start fertilizing the perennials, and adding blood and bone meal to the roses. 

HONEY RHUBARB COBBLER recipe

HONEY RHUBARB COBBLER

INGREDIENTS

• 8 cups sliced (fresh or frozen) rhubarb
• 1/3 cup wild fireweed honey
• 1/3 cup wildflower honey
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon orange juice

Cobbler Topping:

• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 cup cold unsalted butter cubed
• 2/3 cups buttermilk

Orange Sugar Topping:

• 3 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1 tablespoon butter melted

METHOD

In bowl, combine rhubarb, honey, flour, sugar and orange juice until well coated; scrape into greased 8-inch (2 L) square baking dish. Set aside. 

Cobbler Topping: In separate bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter until crumbly. Drizzle with buttermilk, tossing with fork to make shaggy dough. Turn out onto lightly floured surface; knead 5 or 6 times until dough comes together. Roll or gently press into 8-inch (20 cm) square; cut into 9 pieces. Arrange on top of rhubarb mixture.

Orange Sugar Topping: In small bowl and using fingers, rub sugar with orange zest. Brush biscuit tops with melted butter; sprinkle with orange sugar.

Bake in 375ºF (190ºC) oven until cobbler topping is fluffy and golden and filling is bubbly (if topping browns too quickly, cover loosely with foil), about 50 to 55 minutes. Serve warm.

Lilacs, Shoots and Bugs May 24/ 25

Back yard Lilacs and Tree Swallow home

Wow, the mosquito population here is insane this spring! We have never seen this many mosquitos before. Now that out tree swallows are back followed closely by the house wrens and the gold finches, we hope that they are very hungry and will do their part in reducing the number of mosquitoes. Yay, birds!

The sun has  been beaming down on us daily in a fashion more like July than May.  We had a fire ban here before the long weekend because of out dryness, which was changed to a fire restriction after getting some precipitation one day. (Fire restriction meaning, no open fires, no fire works or burning permits.)

So things are starting to grow and bloom now although many are still later then usual.
I added some new plants to the shady side of the stack stone bed, (after digging out dozens of false dargon heads) an El Nino hosta (left) a small growing Juniper (right) and a red fern (top) The original hosta Sleeping Beauty (centre left) is sending up some nice shoot, The Rocket Ligularia plant doesn't show well in the photo, but it is growing well.

New additions to the shady end of the stack stone bed.

Lamium starting to bloom

Red lilies are growing well next to the Morden Ruby rose bush

The Morden Ruby rose is sprouting shoots but it is so late compared to the last few springs.

Glad to see that my rose bushes are continuing to grow. Two roses don't show any signs of life yet, though, the new white JP Connell explorer rose (planted last year) and the Morden Belle (transplanted last year, which was also so slow that I had thought it was dead.)

The Morden Blush is starting to sprout, but the nicest looking rose bush is the pink John Davis, (an explorer rose), a variety that I would highly recommend!

TO DO:  add bloom and bone meal to the soil around the rose bushes.

My Round angel bed is really starting to grow now. The quick fire Hydrangea shrub and the Invincible Spirit2 Hydrangea are all sprouting shoots and looking quite well thus far. 

Quick Fire Hydrangea shrub, an easy shrub to grow

What would I do without my garden helpers!

Lots of anemones in the Round bed. This is the first to bloom! 

Miss Kim

Miss Kim miniature Lilac and day lily on right

Bergenia at the shady end of the Long perennial bed:

Bergenia, easy to grow

The rhubarb  plants are both growing well.

Rhubarb  plant always does well

I harvested the first rhubarb on May 23 and baked some strawberry/rhubarb cream cheese squares, which are delicious.  Next post will be the recipe. :)

Lilacs and Swallow house in the back yard

My first lilac bouquet of 2018

More May Activity May 13/18

Parkland Plum Blossoms at the side of the deck

TULIPS!

The first 2 tulips opened up on May 7, one pink/yellow, and one red at the side of the house. There were many more tulips up and ready to pop their buds! Yay! The Candy Apple tulips in the stackstone bed and at the top of the rock garden are looking nice and green with lots of buds. They are a midspring variety so no surprise that the buds aren't open yet.

Red Dominion Day peony and bearded irises

Peony news: The side of house peony has sprout a few stems (the first to show signs of life) I hope that it will have flowers this year.
The Red Dominion Day peony at the side of the step suddenly started growing and it has strong, fat stems.
I still need to clean out that little bed a bit better, and dig out a few of the bearded irises which are growing too close to my peony.

First Stack Stone bed tulip to pop open May 15

Petunias, bracchicombs and Penstemon Rubrum in centre

I donated a bunch of perennial diggings to the plant swap this past Saturday:
Lots of small sedum (yellow flowers), small orange day lily sprouts, pink monkshood (I took it right out of the Round bed garden altogether; it never did grow that well), Campanula cluster bell flowers, purple and white bearded irises, purple Siberian Iris, and a wild rose bush.
I didn't take anything in return this year.

Regal geraniums, Icicles and penstemon rubrum

The fruit blossoms have started to open now and the smell as you walk up the deck stairs is so heavenly! 

Pear blossoms May  15

The plum bushes on both sides of the stairs have blossoms now and are so beautiful and so fragrant. They popped open on May 15.

Parkland plum blossoms

Friday May 18 I finally planted my tubs at the end of the driveway with red zonal geraniums on one side and red Ivy geraniums on the other, with a penstemon rubrum in the centre and also a tall red snapdragon. I still want to plant some kind of a vine in those tubs also.

 We had rain all day yesterday, off and on which we really needed. We had a County fire ban in place since May 15. It has now been downgraded to a fire restriction, which means you can't get a burn permit, but you can still have fires in a noncombustible fire pit; BBQs etc are allowed, but no fireworks.  

We are enjoying the pleasant days of spring!

More Spring Clean Up - Early May 2018

May brings with it not only the sunshine, warmer weather , the leaves sprouting on the tyres and the return of the tulips and the song birds, it also bring a lot of yard work, and flower bed clean up.

May 2 and 3
As much work as I did in the fall in my beds to cut down the perennial stems,  dig out weeds and quack grass and wrap rose bushes, theres still much to clean in the spring. (Mainly because I'm of the mind that if it's still alive and especially if it's blooming, don't snip it off.)

Pruning:  I clipped back some of my small shrubs (May 2 and 3)
2 Quick Fire Hydrangeas
1 Invincible Spirit II
1 False Spirea and 2 raspberry bushes

Also I trimmed the dead vines off my 2 clematises, Ville de Lyon (new last year to replace the old Nellie Moser which almost refused to bloom (1 flower in 2016.) So far there's no signs of life from them but they are slow to sprout compared to most perennials.

More tomatoes, glads and spaghetti squash up top, started from seed in early April.

Tomatoes, 2 Lavatara flower and Red Thompson Dahlia, tubers I have had for 14 years

May 3
I started 20 more glass bulbs in a tray of water in the house (mostly to give away.) The glads in the green house are all in individual containers in soil now and are growing tall.

I planted some herb seeds in pots in the greenhouse,
2 cilantro (which doesn't like to be transplanted  but maybe one pot will survive. Last year- none. )
dill
basil
tarragon

and 2 pots of Zinnia seeds

Checked other greenhouse seed pots in the living room: 2 spaghetti squashes are coming up, as well as 1 English cucumber and 1 green zucchini  (I don't know why the zucchini seeds are so hard to germinate!)
Chris potted them up and they are in their new home in the greenhouse.
There's 1 tiny Patio sprout that just came up, but none of the second batch of lavatara seeds have sprouted. I might just have to buy some at the greenhouse.

Side of house bed with lots of tulips now growing like gangbusters!

Tulips at side of house have buds now

The tulips are looking so good now (May 4/18). I hope they get lots of buds and beautiful flowers. Some of them probably need to be divided.

Dahlia Tahitian Sunrise Tubers were over wintered from last year

Gladiolas is greenhouse

May 4
May 4 saw some major work in the yard. Helpful husband removed all the rocks off the sides of the rock garden and helped me dig out all the quack grass roots and dead brown tops which have tried to take over in the last few years. I dug out all the sedum around the top edge removed all the quack grass roots I could locate, then added some fresh soil and compost and replanted some of the sedum and the small Edelweise . It looks really good now and the tulips there are healthy and should bloom soon.

I have loads of sedum left over to plant someplace else or to donate to the Stettler Plant Swap next weekend.

The bottom section of the rock garden still needs work. More rocks to remove and white daisy babies to dig out at the edges then add some sedum there. Quack grass to dig up, too.

Diligent husband finished cleaning the pond, then he hooked up the pond filter and added fresh water to the pond. The goldfish currently residing in the laundry room will be happy with their fresh outdoor home.

I have begun to unwrap my rose bushes now. That means, removing the layers of peat moss and the mulch covering the bottoms.  None of them show any buds yet.
I also spent a lot of time digging up quack grass roots, and oops! replacing the odd tulip bulb or lily bulb that got dug up in the quack grass eradication.  It's a lot of stooping work and all in all after 2 hours,  I'm only about one third done my stack stone bed.  More clean up in that bed to do today! :(

Happy Gardening!