MEXICAN VACATION

Each year I am surprised by how green some plants are when they are uncovered by the retreating snow. 

I expect them to have withered away and disappeared altogether, but here they are, Campanula and Forget-Me-Nots aplenty, looking somewhat bedraggled but ready to rock and roll if the warm weather were to continue.

Instead of more shots of soggy half-buried gardens I will share some photos of a garden from the hotel I recently stayed at in Mexico. 

While the plants between the bungalows were lush with bright bird-of-paradise blooms, the garden was more arid than tropical and I felt like I could have been in Arizona with all the cacti.

 To me it looks almost like a museum and I expect to see cards indicating the type of plant and a bit about the history of the area.

The restaurant under the eaves was well positioned to take advantage of the garden and courtyard.

With no change in the seasons as we know it in zone 3, there is always something blooming in this tropical paradise.

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GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM DAY - october

Even the back lanes in my neighbourhood look inviting at this time of year.

 Not a bad view from my front lawn, eh?

 Despite the time of year there are still some pockets of colour  up here in zone 3 with Rudbeckia and Salvia.

The Echinops seed heads retain interest right through until the snow flies.

 And speaking of the snow flying, this was a blizzard of another kind...

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GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM DAY - may

Despite a mild winter our spring blooming bulbs are still coming up relatively late. These tulips are the first splash of colour in the Sun Garden and it will certainly be into June before we will see blooms from our daffodils.  

Apeldoorn Tulip

Apeldoorn Tulip

Marsh Marigold is the earliest perennial to bloom.

The cherry tree is bursting with white blooms which bodes well for pie making.

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MACRO MONDAY - chrysanthemum

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THE FORGOTTEN MONARDA - update to the monet garden map

My Monet Garden will be purples and blues and my Sun Garden is already bursting with yellows, reds and oranges.

So where does this Monarda fit in?

In the photo above it looks pink and below it looks more purple. In either case I think it clashed with the Sun Garden. What do you think?

Between wanting the Sun Garden to stay true to its palette and needing both more height and colour in the Monet Garden I made a last minute decision to transplant it just before freeze up.

There are two Monardas in the Sun Garden, both bought at the Friends of Gardens Manitoba annual plant sale and both labelled "red".  The other stayed relatively small and never bloomed so let us hope that it is actually red, while this plant grew so vigorously in one year that I divided it into three.

 By surrounding it with blues and purples I hope to make it seem more purple and less pink.  I added it in the green rectangle otherwise reserved for Delphinium (top left), where they should get as much sun as any plant in this garden.  Nothing to do for now but hibernate and wait.

Do you think this colour of Monarda was better suited for the Monet Garden or the Sun Garden?


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GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM DAY - september

For GBBD I have a round up of what is in bloom in the Sun Garden. The later the season, the better the garden is looking.

Three red Chrysanthemum have just recently begun to bloom. I am happy with the colour; remember this is the first time I am seeing these plants bloom in my new gardens.

The Thunbergia vine behind these Heliopsis is one of the few annuals in my gardens and a solid choice for late season colour after the Clematis have stopped blooming.

The Blanketflowers were a great choice and the Helenium behind them are not too shabby either.

The Rudbeckia from Loblaws are settling well and looking as healthy as ever.

This little "Secret Desire" Echinacea is the only of the four I planted last fall that has had a bloom this year, mostly due to being nibbled by rabbits all spring, before becoming surrounded and hidden by the Nasturtium border.

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DAYLILY & PEONIES

 Bright, sunny daylily.

 

I believe this may be a Peony but I cannot recall for certain. This image is so soft and gentle I can picture it being used in a shampoo ad - wouldn't you want your hair to smell like this?

Rare colour for a Peony.

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GARDEN BLOGGERS BLOOM DAY - first bloom of the year

Last year I planted about 500 blubs at my new home. I planted them relatively late since we did not even move in until October 15th.  

A friend this winter advised that I might not see too many of them with such a late planting date.  On the other hand we had a wonderfully insulating blanket of snow from Nov 11 to well past April 11.  

In other words, it is anyone's guess.

Here is the very first bloom. 

A Crocus with an Allium (well on its way) as backdrop.

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CAMOUFLAGE - what was i thinking?

While I am intrinsically drawn to more earthy, natural elements I have realized that there is a practical reason for choosing something like a colourful daylily for my iPhone case.

Like this shot.

Or this beauty.

In these days of mass customization it made sense to me to get something made from one of my own photos.  

I chose this close up of moss I took at the family cottage while making my new moss and spruce garden.  The juxtaposition of something so natural, age-old and static covering something so modern and on-the-go appealed to me.

I thought I was so clever until an observant, well-meaning critic asked me how I would find it after putting it down out in the garden.  Come to think of it I am not sure I will. 

Yikes. 

I just might end up with 2 'seasonal' iPhone cases!

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FRENEMIES - and so it begins

I wondered previously at what point the rabbits in my yard would switch from happy little friends to hungry little enemies.  I imagined I had at least until Spring.

However I have noticed that they have been having their way with a couple of Cedars. 

Funny since it does not seem to have happened before, but this has been a snowier winter than the past few and they say that the warmer winters are part of the reason why there are more bunnies. So they may be as hungry as they have even been in their short lives.

The rabbits have been jumping up the snowbank and nibbling on the Cedars half way up. 

Come spring it may look as if I attempted to trim them into some forced shape, which is totally not my style, at all.  Apparently now I have 'co-designers' helping out.

And so it begins.

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I BEAT THE SNOW - barely

In my last post I was in the middle of moving around 9 yards of soil and compost that had arrived on Thursday morning, with 30 centimeters of snow forecast for Friday night.

Talk about a deadline.

I worked from after work until 11:00 Thursday and again until 12:00 on Friday.  It gets dark here early now, so most of this was in the dark, and in fact the first night I wasn't sure which was soil and which was compost and ended up spreading soil where I wanted compost!  It won't be the end of the world, but once I tried the pile of compost I learned that there is an easy way to tell.

Smell.

The compost does not stink, but it does smell like, well, like it is composting.  

Oh yes it was also much heavier than the 4-way mix soil and it steamed when I dug down into its guts.  So next time there will be no mistaking it.

And this is what we had on the ground by the end of the weekend -- 30 centimeters as promised!

And it will stay now until spring, so it was definitely worth the overtime so my neighbours don't have to stare at a big pile of frozen compost on my lawn all winter.

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