May 6 to May 16/2020 Loving the Growth

May 6
I decided to try using the fliers and newspapers again to keep down the chickweed in out vegetable garden. I spread them out in layers (with help from the wind!) and put planks and tomatoes cages on top, then I watered them with the hose to try to keep them in place.
Chris, diligent husband planted some seed tapes in the rated veg beds, carrots, lettuce and beets as well as some Swiss chard seeds.

I have a pot of Swiss chard seedlings in the greenhouse which I planted about 10 days ago called Bright Lights. They will get planted out into the veg garden after the May long weekend once the cold nights warm up. We are expecting frost for about 5 or 6 nights next week so we don't want to plant anything out too soon.

May 6 tulips at top of rock garden

May 7 to 9

I cleaned up the triangle bed (south side). There was a day lily with a lot of dead leaves on it from last year, as well as some splendins to trim, and some bearded iris leaves. No sign of peonies or Bleeding heart yet. This bed had snow on it up until 2 weeks ago.
I also trimmed the branches of my Miss Kim lilac in the centre of that bed. I know you're supposed to do that in mid summer once its done flowering because other wise you chip off the parts that will bloom. But it needed a good trim as it was growing wonky!

May 8 I dug out a huge amount of golden rod out of the side of the house bed. It was doing a massive take over! I planted one clump of Golden Rods in my small Spruce tree bed. I cleaned up the at bed too. Dug out a lot of grass on one side but the rain showers made me stop so it still has a bit of work left.

My Honey Berry shrubs both got leaves early and both my rhubarb plants are sprouting! :)
Unfortunately we realized we had planted our haskap berry bushes (Indigo Gem) too far apart to cross pollinate so will we even get any berries?

More photos

May 7 leaves are opening on the poplars and trembling aspens

y

Morden Ruby rose is showing signs of life May 14

Tulips May 12 Rock Garden 

Pond May 13

Tree swallows are back and courting 

May 14

Planted herbs in large pot in the greenhouse:

Rosemary

Cilantro

Oregano

Thyme

 To do - basil and parsley

Upper deck pots- Firebird dahlia with buds, 3 geraniums overwintered in the house

 Greenhouse interior

Spaghettie squashes, tomatoes, cosmos, lavatara 

Spaghettie squashes, Calla lily, Firebird dahlia #2

Cosmos and morning glories from seed, repotted the gazania bedding plants

Tomatoe plants started in doors from seed. morning glories are going crazy and 1 more spaghetti Squash

Potted strawberries, sweet peas and another calla lily

Tulips are doing fabulously!

July 13 rock garden- almost ready to open

Yellow Tulips  next to the houses popped out of the ground on April 20 and bloomed on May 9.

Orange tulips in rock garden had leaf sprouts on April 22 and bloomed on May 6.

Stackstone bed tulips are a later variety. They were the 3rd group to sprout and they bloomed on May 25.

The wild Crocuses were blooming at the top of picnic hill on April 28, quite a bit later than last year.

Pasque Flowers May 16

Tulips at side of house May 16

Red with yellow rock garden tulips 

Vegetable raised beds

Veg Raised Beds- May 16/ 2020
Peas, green beans, red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, dill, spinach, carrots, beets, swiss chard and onions.

April 30, May 1/20 Crocuses and Rose Bushes Unwrapped

Crocuses blooming April 30, top of Picnic Hills /Scenic Sands

Crocuses are a sure sign that spring is here! They are about 10 days later than last year but its so wonderful to see the first little clumps raise their heads after a long winter.  (April 30/20)

Rose Bushes

I unwrapped my Karl Grootenbos red rose bush April 26. It is in the flower bed next to the house facing south east and has had no snow for a while. It looks pretty dead, no shoots or anything, but it was slow to show signs of life last year too.

April 27 I unwrapped my Morden Ruby rose bush and took off the peat moss and mulch leaves, spread some of the peat moss around that bed (Stackstone bed.)

I unwrapped/ unmulched my Morden Centennial, Morden Belle and the Never Alone rose the next 2 days, April 28/ 29 I clipped off some obviously dead branches and some tiny thin branches off my Never Alone. Its so strange to see that rose in that spot under the bird hose where I have had a Morden Blush for 12 years. My beautiful Blush was doing poorly the last couple of years because it wasn't getting much sun anymore since the trees have grown so huge now. I finally gave up last spring. I planted the Never Alone in that same area, but more to the left and forward where the sun is a bit better.

I cleaned up the Stackstone bed really well and removed a lot of quack grass and tiny chive seedlings. No sign of life from the 3 Hostas yet, not the ligularia.

Stackstone bed Chives, Persian Cornflowers and small evergreen in foreground 

I noticed that my Rock Garden bed had the quack grass starting its take over already!I took over an house to dig up the sedums around the edge of that bed, remove a tub full of quack grass roots and replanted the Sedums. I watered everything by hand with 6 watering cans full of rain water. Time to get diligent husband to bring the hoses out of the shed.


Tulips

Tulips side of house April 1/20

May 1

I cleaned up most of the round

angel bed. I unwrapped my John Davis Rose bush, removed the mulch and peat moss.
Many of the stems of this rose bush still areas to be alive which would be wonderful so that it can start setting buds instead of having to grow all new stems from the roots.

I also cleaned up the long perennial bed around the hostas, removed dead leaves and clipped off the old stems of the Maltese cross which is showing signs of life. No buds to see yet on the flowering plum or the Quick fire hydrangea bushes.

Greenhouse May 1
I transplanted/repotted  8 spaghetti Squash plants. They already have buds!
I also repotted zinnias into individual pots as they were root bound in the small pot they were all in.
(I had also done the same to some lavataras the day before.)

Still to repot:
cosmos, another pot of squished zinnias, and 1 other pot of Lavatara.

Butternut squashes
I had planted 3 seeds and they all came up. They are still small but look healthy.
There are over 60 pots in the greenhouse to look after now.

Green beans- Livingroom
There are 3 pots of green beans which I have been hardening off, putting them out on the balcony in the sun and the wind for a while each day.

Green beans and Lupines darted from seed (living room)

Also getting hardened off on the balcony (May 1 to May 9) is 3 regal geraniums, a pink zonal geranium, and a Firebird Dahlia,  (all which I over wintered).

I planted this Firebird Dahlia in April from some tubers that looked pretty dried out, but did have a tiny bud on both tubers. It was in the kitchen bay window for a few weeks, finally sprouted out of the soil and started growing 2 stems. It has amazingly set 3 flower beds on one of the stems although they are not very tall yet. Im going to let it develop flowers then from them off after they're done to let it grow bushier.


My lovely Bergenia at the end of my long perennial bed (which my friend Wendy G gave me), still had a lot of green leaves under the snow from last season! How amazing is that.

Bergenia, end of long bed

Cala lilies 

I bought these two beautiful Cala lilies at Peevey Mart.

I love these gorgeous Cala lilies which I bought at Peevey Mart, one is for a friend's birthday.

April 2020 More Early Spring Gardening

April 20 snow on 3 flower beds

More Early Spring Gardening

The snow seemed to stay longer than it was welcome, as seems to be the case in recent years, but once the weather warmed up 2 weeks or so ago, the snow started melting away quickly and now on the last day of April, there is only tiny patches here and there in the remote shaded parts of the trails here at Scenic Sands.

April 20/20 stack stone bed and vegetable garden - snow has melted there

(The rose bushes are still wrapped in this photo, but I did start unwrapping/ unmulching them the week of April 27-29.)

April 15

I transplanted tomatoes into bigger pots in the greenhouse, Chris my husband helper did the majority of them. Still a few small ones left to do.

I replanted (soaked) stringless green beans.from a new box purchased last fall. I composted all the old beans that I have had in the big package for a number of years. I put 5 beans in a tall glass with paper towels. They sprouted roots 3 days later! :) 

I also planted 6 soaked bean straight into dirt/ pots but they haven't sprouted yet.

Top of Rock Garden after a bit of clean up

I planted 2 old Firebird Dahlia tubers, both have a small shoot (April 18/20).

My old Thomas Edison tuber has not shown any signs of life so I bought a new tuber at Canadian Tire (April 17) which I planted in a pot this week. (As of April 30, no signs of life yet. (in greenhouse)>

April 19 

My new Dazzling Magic orange Dahlia has good shoots and I have been pinching back the grow to get it to branch out. Put it in greenhouse April 19. 

None of the blue Morning Glory seeds germinated. Time to compost them as they are a few years old and if I remember correctly, they didn't germinate last year either. The mixed Morning Glory seeds I had planted on April 8 came up right away and are growing fast!~

Morning Glories April 22

Tomatoes, morning glory, small cosmos sprouts, spaghetti squashes and a firebird Dahlia

Canna Lily- dead root. Composted it.

8 old Gladiola bulbs overwintered- 4 grew roots quickly in the pan of water. and I planted them in soil in yogurt containers. (Two of the tiny ones grew roots as well and all 6 are all happily growing green leaves in the greenhouse as of April 29).

 When will my Vessey order arrive? I should call Vessey and find out when they are mailing it out. I really want the dahlia tubers and Glad bulbs soon to get them started. 

I  ordered some asiatic lilies too, but I guess I'll have to put them in a deck pot to start with if I want to see flowers this summer...

I also ordered a Snowball Bush, which I have always loved, but I have no clear idea where I will plant it yet or even what it will look like when it gets here... 

Sweet Peas

The first batch didn't germinate so I tried soaking some and planting a second bunch in pots (April 24) but so far nothing is up....

I seem to have such a hard time getting them to grow in pots, and it's not the first time! Last year I finally planted seeds straight out into the flower bed in May, but they took a long time to grow and finally bloomed well about September. I guess I should plant them into the rock garden bed this weekend as we have no evidence of frost for the next 10 days. Could always cover them if needed if they come up.  

OOPS! I see I accidentally planted the sweet peas in the pot with the Lupine seeds which I had replanted on April 22 and left on the kitchen bay window! And one Lupine seed had a root so it will be a mixture in that pot. (2 Lupines sprouted as of April 27- Yay! I will have to put them out into the Round Bed next week before they grow long tap roots. ) 

Cosmos babies and Zinnia seedlings

The first batch of Cosmos seeds were from ones I had harvested myself and a few did germinate, but they took a while and I got impatient and found a seed package of Cosmos from last year and started another batch. They are in the photo above. There are 4 bigger ones from the fist batch which have their 3rd set of leaves already about 4 -5 inches tall now. (April 28)

Spaghetti squashes from harvested seeds. There are also 3 butternut squashes that have sprouted from saved seeds

Spaghetti squashes need to be transplanted into individual bigger pots now as they are root bound together. There are 2 Super Sensation Tomatoes that need bigger pots as well.

The tiny Tumbler Tomatoes are growing, 2 are doing well and 1 is still pretty tiny. One of the Black Krim tomatoes is shovelling up but the other 2 Black Krims are doing fine.  They are heirloom tomatoes which are supposed to be sweeter than none heirloom, but they are not as disease resistant.

The green house has 54 pots in it now, 55 if you count the small try of Radish seeds that my gardening partner Chris has planted. 

We are radish challenged! Our soil and well water is so high in alkalinity and we can't get radishes to grow properly. If we plant them in bag soil and only water with rain water from the rain barrel they have half a chance of growing a decent edible root... 

Tomato seedlings

April 22 photo- Early Girl, Lemon Boy, Black Krim, 1 Beef Steak, a store bought Jubilee (yellow/ orange) and a bought cherry tomato

Next Post- rose bushes and more.

New Spring Planting March 2020

April 5/20 Stack stone bed and Veg Garden

March 2020

This seems like a loooong winter and  an unusual spring with the Pandemic Covid 19 changing everyone's lives.

But Spring will definitely arrive eventually, snow will melt, and everything will green up again, the summer birds will come back and summer will finally arrive!

Back to March... March 20 I looked at my box of overwintered Dahlia, Canna and Glad bulbs. They were all looking very shrivelled up. I hadn't put the box in the plastic storage bins as usual, just left the bulbs in peat moss.
I planted the plumpest looking Firebird Dahlia tuber, the Thomas Edison (which looked not bad) , the Canna (which looked dead) and the 4 biggest glad bulbs. (scrawny)

March 25/20

I planted tomato seeds in pots
Early girls - 2 pots - 6 seeds
Lemon Boys- 2 pots 6 seeds
Super Sensations-    "
Beef Steaks -  "
Purple Russian 1 pot- 3 seeds
Black Krim (heirloom seeds) - 1 pot 3 seeds

Flowers-Lavatara seeds - 2 pots (my seeds)
Zinnias- 2 pots
Blue Morning Glory soaking seeds (potted March 29)

Sprouted!
Sat March 28 Lavatara
Sun March 29 Zinnias sprouted, (are they Zinnias??)

To do- Squashes, zucchinis, Flowers (Cosmos, Sweet Peas)

It's snowing again! April 6/2020

Backyard April 5 2020

April 6
Replanted Zinnias- store bought Seeds
6 bush beans (from the old back of beans- will they germinate? )

Mixed Morning Glory seeds potted

All sprouted plants were put into the greenhouse  today.

April 6 tomatoes
1 purple Russian only germinated
1 beef steak only
Super Sensation. Lemon Boy, Early Girl, Black Krim sprouted well.
Bought 2 tomato plants at Peevey Mary:
Yellow/ orange Jubilee ( heirloom?) and Cherry tomato

April 8/20 Replanting...
Replanted Zinnias Seeds (store package) and Cosmos seeds (pkg)
Replanted Morning glory seeds (Mixed). Blue seeds must be duds. I remember having this same problem last year...

Replanted 2 more Beef Steak seeds and 3 tumbler seeds. Yah tumblers! Almost forgot you.

April 9
Planted bunny Tail seeds that I found in the greenhouse. Will they germinate, seeds were there all winter...

Planted bush beans seeds gain from a new package as the first batch of beans did not germinate :(

Planted green peans in pots too.
Lavatara seedlings are doing great!

April 9- Morning Glory Mix seeds sprouted to day already!

Sadly no English cucumbers germinated from the seeds we saved last winter... :(
Will have to try and find cucumber bedding plants.

Happy Gardening!

Dazzling Magic Dahlia (new)

Living room sprouts April 11/20

October 2019

Autumn is Here!
Where did the summer go! Feeling rather cheated that we had
so much rain in June, July and August and so little sunny days.

We had about one week of nonrainy, nice fall weather but then it snowed on Sept 22 and again on Sept 28.

I love the gorgeous changes of colour that happen in the fall.

September 28

Not as much snow as Calgary and area but still way too early!

Morden Ruby rosebush

My Morden Ruby rose took a long time to get going this year but no wonder with our lack of sun this summer. It had a huge number of blossoms by October but the flowers were smaller than usual. Unfortunately the frost was threatening them and I cut the stems off to bring the stems into the house to enjoy them in a vase.

My gorgeous John Davis rose had a great number of blossoms on it as well and it was looking so beautiful! I would highly recommend this rose bush. It sets buds early, starts blooming in a timely fashion in June and then continues to bloom non-stop for months until the frost shuts it all down in October.

Quick Fire Hydrangea

I love my Quick Fire Hydrangea shrubs which I planted about 3 years ago. I'm all about doing things/ growing things that are easy, less work with high returns and this Hydrangea is one of them. Quick Fire is hardy, non fussy and it gets little single white flowers which turn pink in August/ Sept. then a darker pink in October. .

Hosta 

I've forgotten the name of my Hosta, but this one never fails to please. It is non fussy and gets this pretty clusters of flowers in early August which last until Jack Frost arrives.

Red Deer River fall colours

October winterizing work:

 I clipped off the remainder of the Monkshood in the Round Angel Bed and clipped off Maltese cross in that same bed, plus the round bed and bottom of the Rock Garden.  I pulled out most of the Bachelor Buttons from the Round bed and next to the house, trying to leave some seeds behind. I took out most of the Calendulas (had a bumper crop of them this year, Yay!) from the end of the Stackstone bed and next to the house, shaking off a lot of the dried seeds for next year.

Both Calendulas and bachelor Buttons (Cornflowers) will reseed themselves by just leaving their seeds on top of the soil, no fuss!) 

I chopped down the Hollyhocks in the Stackstone bed and next to the house. Only the one in the stackstone bed actually had any seeds, so I dropped a few in the flower bed to start a few babies. 

The Hollyhocks next to the house did not do as well as usual. They did grow eventually and did bloom but  not as well as usual. 

Clematis.

One of my new Clematises, the Ville DeLyon died back early so it may not survive to regrow next year.  My other Clematis next to the house ( I think its a  Jackimanai Superba) lasted all summer . It grew well, but the main growing stem with most of the buds got pinched off somehow and I had to cut it back so it had sparse flowers as it is only 1 year old.  Hopefully next year it will do better.

I also have a clematis in the vegetable garden which I left there for lack of placement spots, but I bloomed really well once it got going. It for sure is a Jackimanai Superba and next year I will replace the defunct (most likely) Ville De Lyon.

I clipped off some of the leaves on my Day Lilies to use as mulch for my rose bushes. I gave the rose bushes a drink of water first, but we had snow and then rain a couple of times so Im not too worried about dryness this year. I put peat moss on top of the mulch as well. This week (October 16) I wrapped the bushes with "Better Than Burlap" and yarn.  It was a gorgeous sunny day +17C and I had a surge of energy after my meeting in town to get them all done. 

I dug a hole in the vegetable garden and sunk my newest rose bush, Morden belle into the ground there, pot and all. Next spring I will probably put it in the Round bed between the Monkshood, facing the house. Or if we move, I'll dig it up and take it along :)

Orange cana lily bloomed all summer

I dug up my Firebird Dahlias, one from the Stackstone bed and one from the yard tub, knocked the dirt off the tubers and brought them into the laundryroom to dry. Then I found a box for them and added peat moss to keep them till spring. 

I also dug out my fabulous Thomas Edison Dahlia which had huge blossoms as big as my open had in a deep purple colour. I think it got well fertilized. 

I dug 2 Dianthus out of my flower boxes  and planted them in the Round bed.  

In Vegetable Garden

1 lavendar

1 clematis

1 rose bush

1 peony (for Renae)

1 perennial grass

Now I just have to dig up my cana lily and try to overwinter that too. 

The vegetable garden did quite well. The swiss chard and carrots were the best this year. The dill took a long time to grow in the raised bed but the ones that came up at the top of the rock garden were much earlier and bigger. 

The beets were small and few unfortunately. The peas did well too but the beans were very disappointing. The bean plants kept dying and only one survived and had a handfull of green beans on it.

Squashes and zuccini were the most disappointing this year. They leaves got mildew really badly from all the rain and I didnt treat them so the zucchini plants died after producing only 1 zuccini worth mentioning. The spaghetti squashes were later and we managed to get one that was good. There were a few tiny ones on the plant but they didn't amount to much.

Next year its important to get the mildew problem under control early.

Fall lake trails 

Slugs/ Ugh!

The beer traps worked but I discovered something easier to use- oats!

If you spread a thin layer of oats on the soil the slugs eat it, puff up and die.

Need to remember that for next year.

Geese are practising their flights to get ready for migration. I love to see them and hear them flying overhead to and from the lake.

 More 

I wish I could really capture the beauty of this. The snow geese were dancing across the clouds and the sunshine was reflecting on their white feathers in such a beautiful shimmering pattern, like a white sparkling necklace moving across the sky! It was magically beautiful! 

Soon another winter will arrive.

More August

More August 2019
This year August has much more still in bloom, in fact my Firebird Dahlia is just opening the petals on 3 blossoms today (Aug 28) and my Thomas Edison purple beauty has one open as well.  Hoping for a late frost so that I get to enjoy the rest of the buds opening up as well.


Tomatoes and Vegetables

The tomatoes are slow to ripen on the plants and are later than usual. Again, I blame the last of sunshine this summer.

August 7 Super Sensation

The Super Sensation had the most number of tomatoes on it and the Lemon Boy had the least.
The first tomatoe to ripen on the vine was actually an Early Girl even though that plant had the least amount of sunshine. because of where it was located.

Early Girls tomatoes

Lemon Boy

Lemon Boy 

Beef Steak

Beef Steak tomatoes

Peppers did really well. We had to pick most of them green and put them in a box in the starage space but they will turn colour there.

Sweet Peppers

August Roses

Morden Centennial

Morden Ruby rose

John Davis rose and bachelor buttons

More

Columbines

Wild Bee Balm

Geraniums and dianthus