Spring 2011

Officially spring arrived 10 days ago, but one would never guess by looking out of the window. We just survived 10 days of snow and bitter unseasonably cold weather!   We have so much snow it's unreal!!!  It did start to melt mid month, but after 3 days, it took a turn for the worse.
Thankfully the temperatures have been above zero for two days now and the sun has decided she has neglected us long enough! :)  The snow has been melting a noticeable amount each day. We still have 2 Christmas reindeer (with white mini lights) frozen in the snow in the yard and I can see more and more of them each day.  keep up the good work Mother Nature. Tomorrow in the first of April after all!

The excessive amount of snow and cold has been hard on the deer. They have been fighting amongst themselves over the sunflower seeds at the bird feeder.  They got so hungry that one of the deer broke 5 out of 6 of the plastic windows in out hexagonal bird feeder! The snow was so high that I saw 2 different deer standing up on their hind legs and balancing while they licked the seeds out of the broken sides of the feeder!

The next time we went to town, we bought a huge bag of oats and I have been spreading some on the snow at the end of the deer trails.  At first the deer would munch a mouthful and then walk away. They were more interested in the black oiled sunflower seeds at the bird feeder, something familiar, I suppose. After a few days though, the oats started disappearing. The deer still seem to like pieces of apples the best though. A bag of apples is cheap, about $3.00 around here. Makes me feel like I'm doing something even if it isn't much. Might make a difference between an empty belly and a slightly full one. :)

We saw 3 Canada geese flying over head 2 weeks ago before the ugly weather hit. I wonder how they managed to survive. Today I saw 4 pairs of geese standing on the snow on the lake. Everything is still covered with at least 18 inches of snow and I wonder how they knew that there was even a lake there!

Red cactus dahlias with a touch of frost last Sept. 2010

Now for the beginnings of gardening:
This week I checked my cactus dahlias and canna lily roots that I have been over wintering in paper bags in the laundry room and one of the dahlias had started to sprout already, the Firebird dahlia! It gets beautiful gold and orange blossoms late in the summer. Three out of four of my tuberous begonia tubers have also sprouted, so I potted up the whole works, 3 dahlias, 2 canna lilies and the 3 begonias.

Firebird Dahlia

The other 2 dahlias are a gorgeous deep red cactus dahlia which I have had for about 8 years now! I grew them in a pot when we lived in northern Manitoba and each fall I brought the whole pot in the house to over winter. Then in the spring when it started sprouting in the pot, I began watering it and then would put it outside again once the danger of frost as over.  I brought the whole pot here when we moved in 2006.  In the summer of 2007 I divided the tubers and planted 2 separate plants in my flower beds. They always did beautifully well!

red cactus dahlia brought from Thompson, MB

One of the canna lilies is called Crimson beauty and the other is King Humbert. So far they don't show any signs of life, but time will tell.

As far as the begonias go, I think they are all yellow, but I can't remember exactly.  Guess I should check in my garden journal to see if I wrote it down. Otherwise it'll just be a pleasant surprise!

Next week's plan:  plant my black Krim tomatoe seeds and maybe a few of the flower seeds...

Rhubarb, Pectin and Dahlia Tubers

We finally got a mostly sunny day today! It must be the first one in weeks ( and if it isn't... it sure feels like it is!)  But after 7 days of frost at night, there/s really not a lot that is thriving in the flower beds or garden, and many things are totally black and dead!

Yesterday I  cut some rhubarb which amazingly was still alive. I washed it and chopped it up to make a rhubarb crisp out of it tomorrow.  It's such an easy recipe to make and pretty much foolproof!

The tops of the dill was a little frost bitten, but I cut some off and am in the process of drying it to use this winter.

We picked 12 pounds of chokecherries yesterday off the trees in our yard. The berries are hanging in huge clumps and they look like mini dark grapes! I used 4 pounds and we made jelly.

Well, it is supposed to be jelly.... Still looks more like chokecherry syrup! I guess I shouldn't have used that recipe I found online after all.   It said to use only 4 1/2 cups of sugar and only one box of pectin.  I only had liquid pectin and the recipe on the box said to use 6 1/2 cups of sugar and 2 pouches of certo.  I guess liquid pectin and the dry crystals are not the same thing.... sigh!  I guess this means that tomorrow I will have to open the 7 jars and dump the chokecherry juice back in a pot to boil again and add 2 more cups of sugar and another pouch of certo.  The batch of chokecherry jelly I made last summer was absolutely the best jelly I have ever made! (And I make jelly and jam every summer.)  Wish I would have written down which recipe I use, darn it!

Today  I dug up my dahlia tubers and the 2 canna lily tubers in my stack stone flower bed.  With all the rain we have had ( almost every day all September long!) the ground was really soft and they came out easily. I cut off the stems and dead leaves and shook the dirt off the roots. Then I put each one in a separate paper bag with it's label, and added peat moss to each bag.  They will be over-wintered in the laundry room in the house and planted in pots next spring until it's warm enough to plant out again. I still have another dahlia plant and some tuberous begonias to dig out and over-winter as well.

I love gladiolas, but my gladiola bulbs were a big disappointment. Not enough sun this summer and they didn't even come close to blooming. They did much better last year. ( Yes. I over-wintered them, too!)  I think I need to choose a sunnier spot next year. But they were nicely sheltered and didn't get the frost at least. So I decided to leave them in the ground for now.... The forecast is for +18C and sunshine this weekend and part of next week, and at least they are still alive and look nice in the garden.

The only things that still look good out there are the yellow 6 foot tall helianthus false sunflowers in the middle of my round "angel" bed, some of the snapdragons, a few pansies and most of the black-eyed susans on the east side of the house. Three of rose bushes still have flowers but you can see that the frost got a lot of them. Maybe this last little warm spell this weekend will open the last few buds and I might be able to salvage a few to bring into the house.

I want to leave some lavatara plants and a few hollyhocks for another week or two to try and harvest some seeds to use for next year. I love lavatara and they need to be replanted here in Alberta every spring, so a few seeds to start indoors next spring would be nice.

The hollyhocks are perennials, but apparently they only last about 3 years and then you need to start new ones (which don't bloom the first year at all...) These hollyhocks have been in the ground here for 4 summers now. ( I started then in 2007 from seeds that were given to me by a friend in Thompson.)  I finally managed to grow 2 new young plants in a pot on the deck and still need to put them in the ground for next spring. I might have left it too late, but it's worth a try.