Some spring clean up in the garden

This is some of the tulips in bloom now.  These flowers are so easy and put on such a grand display for years.   I have them planted everywhere in the garden and they are a riot of color just now.

This is the before and after picture of the Virginia creeper and the St. John's worte.  The Virginia creeper had advanced way up the telephone pole and then slumped down again with all the weight of the debris, squirrel nests and all within in the vines.  The ivy, that I added for some winter color was advancing up the pole too.  It put on a glorious display in Autumn.  It will grow again, in no time.  The St.John's worte will be better for its close pruning.

It seems we are on water rationing again this year.  We also have a by-law out lawing the use of weed killers on lawns.  Everyone has to pull out their dandilions by hand.  I have all kinds of little weeds taking over my bits of grass.  They will become 'meadows' in no time.
Yesterday I spent about 6 hours out in the garden doing numerous things.  I finished the clean up of the Virginia creeper and st. john's worte.  I now have about 16 bags of this good woodland type soil, to add to the woodland when I get it cleaned up.  I spent some time clipping out dead wood in the Japanese cedar and on the pin oak.  So far I seem to have one tall bearded iris in this woodland iris bed, in bloom.  I cleaned up that area a few days ago, but they need some good compost.  The irises on the vegetable garden edge are going crazy this year.  Many buds forming from just a bit of attention to their soil and weeding last year.  They are really tall too.  Anywhere that I have added compost, the plants seem to be extra tall.  The tulips are at least 2 1/2 feet tall.
I cleaned most of the birdseed weeds out of the bed by the side of the garage.  The tulips are doing great, there.  The oriental poppies are coming into bloom.  There is still some grass there that I will have to keep after.  At the top of the driveway strip the perennial geraniums are looking terrific and are covered with blooms.  There is morning glory along this flower bed strip along between our driveways.  I really need to keep after it with the round up and the paint brush. 
I transplanted the plants I had purchased on Sunday.  The 6 little Chinese vegetables are looking good in their garden row.  The strawberries have lots of blooms and the rhubarb is slowly growing up.  I clipped some of the cedar hedge along the top of the garden.   It doesn't need much, so I can do it with the hand pruner.  I transplanted the new small pink baby's breath into the strawberry jar on the little rockery at the back.  It should fall over the edges in a cascade of pink.  Most of last year's new little alpines have survived and are doing fine, along with the lewisias, a campanula and a few other older ones, on this little rockery.  I put a couple of cosmos into the pink pot by the back garage entry.  I have the tomatoe and 2 basil in a big pot.  The new delphinium in a big pot and 2 of the smaller perenials and the same with the hollyhock.  The triouchina tree is in a pot of its own.  It is suppose to bloom all summer.  I hope I can keep it alive and well grown.  It is a beautiful tree, but will need to be brought in for the winter. 
I fixed the water flow of the pump and now have a faster wall fall.  The 4 new fish are visible.  the water hawthorn is blooming.  I saw the frog again.  It is not big enough to eat the fish.  So, what ever got them did a thorough job of it.  I no longer even see little black ones, and I had hoards of them.
Trimming the hedges is next on my to do list.  The sun is suppose to shine tomorrow. 

May in the garden

The fern leafed peony is a very exotic plant and lives next to the little rockery in the front garden,.  It's wonderful show is not long-lived, but it is quite elegant.  It has the lime green coriscan helebore for a good foil to the bright magenta perfectly formed flowers on their background of ferny green leaves.

The ajuga is putting on a grand show in the little rockery at the front garden.

This the Mountain Avens, or Dryas Octopetala.  It also lives on the little rockery.  It has these lovely white blossoms  held above the evergreen, oak-like foliage; on a small scale.  This plant is happy to spread along the rocks over clay.  The flowers turn into very nice fluffy displays of seed heads that give the base of the West Coast Planter the look of a chiffon gown. 

This is a look at the woodland garden along the side of the garage and part of the path leading to the back woodland.  There is the bleeding heart, anemorella, cyclamen, the self seeding honesty, a  perennial forget me not, that has the most gorgeous foliage.
These photos are from about a week ago.  Since then I have been working at reducing the Virginia creeper to about 4 feet high, on its climb up the telephone pole.  It took about 15 years tor reach its height..  but I hope to have before and after photos of this end of the strip between Shauna's driveway and mine. It has been a big cleanup.  I have 12 bags of leaf mold kind of stuff collected to use in the Woodland, after I am sure all the Virginia creeper and St. John's wort clippings are dead.  I have this in 12 twenty litre plastic bags, for now.  Since the big green compost bin is full, I have more of this vine clippings stacked along the woodland path, that you see above..  I have about 8 feet to clean up on the street end of this strip.  I have spent at least 16 hours on cleaning this strip, so far.  On Friday, I used my weed be gone to spray some of the more persistent weeds along the strip.  But the morning glories will need constant attention.  I sprayed the woodland path, and hope all the thistles are gone for good.  I hope I can salvage some of the twiggy stuff for the woodland path.  Next compost day is the 24th.  I shall be stomping over this collection of twiggy material to try reduce it to leave some stuff on the path, and reduce the size of the material to go into the bin, next week.

Today, it rained.  There is about 1.5 inches of rain in the gauge.  This is fine, it gives me a break from the exercise of cleaning up the strip along the driveways.  I must have about 16 hours invested in this clean up, so far.  The Virginia creeper and the ivy took about 16 years to grow to these proportions, so its a fair trade off. The creeper is cut down to about 4 feet, that will be going up the pole in no time again, I am sure.  The St. John's worte has been clipped to ground level.  It will be even more healthy and growing thickly after its pruning.  The Agave has been cleaned up.  The New Zealand flax could not compete with these plants and the snow.  It is history.  I have uncovered about 3 feet of driveway where the plants were growing.  There was a lot of debris inside the old creeper's vines.  I believe the squirrels were nesting in this nice secure place.

Alas, I no longer see the squirrel that once did the high power line runs in such an acrobatic display.  Lately, I have been waking up at 5 in the am and watching the creatures in my front garden and in the deer pasture just across the street.  We have deer, rabbits, and many  regular visiting birds.  The tree in the front has not leafed out yet, so I can see the front garden from my living room window.  Its designed for this view.  The view from the lower floor window is good too.  The lower floor view goes on throughout the year and is shady in the summer with the leaf canopy of the liquid amber tree. 
Since it was raining today, I went to Cannor Nursery and picked up a few more plants.  Basil, a few annuals and 6 more perennials.  I think I will be adding then to the pots I have on the deck.  There is a hollyhock and a delphinium for height.  Snapdragons and petunias to fill out the containers.   Some chinese vegetables and one tomato.  Four new little goldfish for racoon fodder.
Otherwise, I am almost finished the Girl who Played with Fire book, the 2nd in the the Stieg Larsson series of books.  As my IT friend Ken said, the characters get more weird as the series goes on.  I want a really good book to read about the computer world of today.  I doubt I will find it. I want a good novel with good information about how much this IT communication has changed our societies.  I understand that people now text message their friends that they are going to call them later on their cell phone.  :-)))  Parents have their children wired into their Blackberries to keep track of where they all are in their busy lives.  And FaceBook knows everything, just like god.  Its amazing how much stuff people put on their FaceBook and other social networking sites.  When there is a crime to investigate, it seems there is always something about it on Facebook.  People make themselves so vulnerable.
My last site meter counter said I had an average of 89 hits per day.  Not too bad for someone who is not even trying for hits.  Speaking of which, Megashot is, as usual, a place for people to gain recognition for their photography.  I get tired of the games they play to try to stay ahead of this game.  People are interesting, on the internet or off.

Some photos from our day trip to Port Refrew

Some photos from our Port Refrew trip, including Skutz Falls, which should really be called Skutz rapids. 
I was out in the garden for 4 hours today.  I got quite a lot of things done.  I finished filling the pots I want to have on the deck.  I have transplanted the 3 willows I got at the Alpine plant sale.   I have the Boydi put into a small pot that sits in the copper pot with no hole in it.  I will be able to keep water at the feet of this little willow.  I lost the one I had last summer when we had a heat wave while we were away.  Another one that has lovely little pussy willows, and I am told I can pin the little branches around and they won't mind. So, I have this one trained to fall over a nice green rock that I have.  The other one, that doesn't have a name, is in a deep black pot.  I believe this one can get out of hand if not watched.  So, it is in this pot on the deck for now.  I shall endeavor to keep it watered at all times.   I did some pottering about the vegetable garden area.  I moved the 3 black pots to a position where I removed cement blocks for the water meter maid's convenience in reading the meter.  They are now along in front of the tall bearded iris.  I have two of these iris with buds, so far.  The lilac is going to be blooming soon.  The clematis is climbing up its screen.  I weeded this iris bed strip and the herbs spot, and dug out most of the weeds, while leaving the flowers that have self seeded.  The strawberries are in bloom, and the rhubarb is slowly growing.  I moved the pots out from under the deck and put them beside the garbage can I use for the weed bin on the garden.  I have 2 bags of compost left now and the bags of pea gravel, 4, I think.  I clipped the cedars back a bit off the path, and trimmed the sage back a bit off the path, too.  I spent some time clipping back Virginia creeper that goes up the telephone pole at the front.  I now have a bunch of these stems heaped up and waiting until I can put them in the big green bin.  Should rain tonight, so I won't bother watering in the new transplants or the newly filled pots.  I should get some annuals for the two big pots.  I have room for 2 little alpines with the willow that has the green rock in front of it.  I need a few more fish, again.  I haven't seen the frog for a few days.  My Saskatoon berry trees are full of blooms.  I have not seen too many bees, so it is doubtful that I will be getting any fruit this year. 
When I looked at my last post to my blog, I saw a kitty coleman tag added to my blog.  I wonder how that happened?  Has someone hacked into my blog?  Very weird.  Some people seem to have a lot of time on their hands to cause annoyances.  How stupid is that?