May in the Garden

 The fern leaved peony, corsican hellebore, in front of the West Coast planter

This gentian is at the back beside the garage.  The ones I had in the front little rockery did not survive.  I shall have to try to get one like this one established.

 More of the alpine plants at the front.  This are in front of the fern leaved peony and the west coast planter. 

 This little lewisia rediviva is in the lewisia bed in the little rockery next to the vegetable garden.  The lewisias did fairly well this year. I am slowly getting a few little alpines to survive on that little rockery.  I like the wee ones.  I have a draba, a douglasi (not sure of the names) and a coup[e more tiny ones-- two of which bloomed this year.  I want to establish a silene ... I think that is what the one at the front is; that has grown over rocks in a great mound.  I will have to leave it enough space, if I find one. 

 Yellow lily flowering tulips

 A very nice fringed tulip.  The tulips are about finished.  The irises are coming into bloom, the roses and the rhodos.  There are a few early perennials to fill in the colors.  Photos of them today and hope to upload them soon.. for June, perhaps.
I finished cleaning up the pond and refilled it on Saturday.  Its a messy job, but not too difficult, after all.  I was dreading having to do it.  I dumped the muck from the bottom of the pond over the vegetable garden and the Japanese garden area.  Threw some of it on the little rockery and in the bed by the fig tree.  It should be good fertilizer. I stacked the pots that the lilies were growing in and put another pot of water iris on top of that.  This ended up being just the right depth of water for the water iris.  The waterfall is working good, there are two bunches of blooming water hawthorn... lovely plants.  There is not enough sunlight for the lilies, but the water hawthorn, the marsh marigolds, and the irises look good.  I also have a small Lebanon cedar that is clipped and stretches over its corner of the pond.  The saxifragia, campanulas and other edging plants are slowly covering the rock necklace.  Now I need goldfish, as the water seems to be clearing up.
I have most of the vegetable garden dug over.  There was compost on it over winter, so the top 6 - 8 inches has good tilth but there are just too many tree roots.  I was happy to see some earthworms in it again.  The irises along the side are doing great and so are all the chives, and other herbs.  A little compost goes a long way.  The strawberries have lots of blooms.  I have filled the cedar trough that Tara left and today put radishes (old seed - not sure if it will germinate) and allysum in it.  I cleaned up the rock work at the corner of the veggie garden, and then planted more radish seed along beside the cedar trough.  I planted the verbena bonariensis by the irises and hope it self seeds in this area.  I think it is a good butterfly plant.
The daisies at the front are looking good, and should be nice for a few weeks.  After I finish the vegetable garden, I must week and dead head everywhere.  This should not take long, as I have been keeping it up in the last couple of years.
I spent an hour or so trying to cut out the dead wood in the old yellow plum tree, using the long handled pruner from up on the deck.  It is looking a bit better, but needs more work, that I cannot reach. 

I finally got up the courage to load the ink to my printer and spent some time learning about printing.  This is one I am going to frame and hang as I am really happy with how it turned out.  It looks even better printed than it looks on my computer.  So, I have spent a bit of time yesterday looking for a plain black frame, at Royal Oak mall, but did not find the right size.

May, the tulip month

More of the tulips.  Last Autumn, along wtih the black tulips, I planted about 40 more.  Most of them along the driveway strip.  The ones I like the best are the lily flowering tulips.  They have the pointy petals.  The pink tulips along the old sidewalk by the garage look quite nice too.  All of the tulips are tall this year.  I fed them bone meal and compost. A little attention goes a long way. 
The oriental poppies are in bud as are the tall bearded irises, and the perennial geraniums along the driveway strip.  The geraniums look good all year, but the others are going into dormancy by August.  I need a few more plants along the driveway to have more of a show for autumn.  There are some michaelmas daisies migrated there, and there is some low growing phlox.  Perhaps a day lily or three.  I can get them from Mrs. pee's side of my garden.  She won't miss them.  But, I am thinking I want the Stella d'or one that has a very long bloom period.  I also want some that are not that bright orange.  The orange looks good with the bishops weed on Mrs. Pee's side, but I do not want that bishop's weed anywhere else.
Today, we went to Mary's Blue Moon cafe for lunch.  We shared a lobster sandwich and each had a cup of soup.  Most delicious seafood chowder.  After that Pat caught up on some of his reading while I had a quick look around Brentwood nursery.  I came away with $50 worth of new plants.  I have 2 gentians that I want to put in the front garden by the smoke bush.  I have 2 primulas to add to my primula collection.  The p. vivali needs special attention, 2 more perennial geraniums... a Johnson's Blue and the lovely smaller pink one, a butterfly bush.. needs to be in a pot for this year, until I get the woodland cleaned up, another thrift, and an alpine aster in dark blue.  Also got a six pack of marigolds, a butternut squash plant a two tomatoes, another little blue daisy thing.  After we got home I helped Pat measure up the Model T for its new cover.  I also got some more of the woodland path chopped down and it is beginning to look like a path again.  I sure hope none of these clippings grow.  I will have to cover them with old carpet or something to kill them!   All in all, a very good day.

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. 

Veggie Patch and stuff

Another look at the vegetable patch and little rockery. I will get a few tomatoes to put in and then hope all the seeds grow. Will keep it watered and mulched.
This is the showy lewisia in full bloom. You can see a few of the smaller lewisias. The blue is the self seeding columbine. I have put down a layer of pea gravel to finish this little rockery. I might need more as most of these plants do not like to water logged.
The lilac is in bloom. I have some in the house and they smell heavenly. I liked this photo for the whimsical view of Mrs. P.'s garden trowel against her shed wall. My lilac is just at the edge between our vegtable gardens. Not a great idea to have trees by the vegetable garden, but I have them all around my veggie patch, except the little rockery side.
My seahorse sits among the ferns next to the steps that go up to the deck. Its a handy place to keep my trowel and few small garden tools.
The tulips along by the garage. The dutch irises are starting to bloom. The Gentian with its big blue trumpet blooms is finishing up. I really should do a macro of that flower this year, even though I have lots of them. You can see the buds of the Oriental Poppies. The bright gold at the top is a pleasant surprise. This must be the sun shining through behind the garage along the old cement path that curves around behind the garage.

Yesterday our new sofa bed arrived and so I spent some of the day rearranging the library room. I did a bit more today and got a couple more pictures hung. I made a rhubarb and strawberry pie yesterday and it turned out pretty good. I had it in my biggest pie plate but it still boiled over into the oven, so I did an oven cleaning. It really was time I cleaned the oven, anyway. It, too, is so much nicer when cleaned up.

We have had a couple of perfect gardening days and I have been stuck in the house most of the time doing laundry, meals, cleaning, etc. Well, tomorrow I should be able to get out and make some more progress on picking the violets out of the Japanese garden moss and dry stream.

April Showers in May

The apple tree is in bloom. The plum trees are finished blooming. I have not seen very many bees around this year. I hope our Island is not affected by the diseases that are diminishing the bee populations on the mainland to alarmingly low levels.

Along the old cement path along beside the garage the tulips are putting on a good show. They are also blooming on the other side of this path too, so that right now this path is lined with tulips. All these tulips that I thought I had lost are blooming all over the garden now. I could still use a few more at the front.
This is a rather colorful shot of the garden pond featuring the water hawthorn blooms in the reflection of the marsh marigold. I am keeping the pond topped up. The water fall looks good. the edging plants are filling in and some are growing over the rock edging. I must add compost to these plants to encourage more growth. The pond is going to look so much better without the rock necklace.
water hawthorn close up.
The water table on the deck showing some of the rain we were having yesterday. The tub on the deck needs to be topped up more than the rain is going to supply. I need to fill the blue pot with soil and plant something bright pink in it... petunias, perhaps. The little willow, the soldenella, the little bog plant with big blue trumpet flowers and a very nice little Primula marginata seem to have survived. I lost 2 or 3 other potted alpines, probably due to neglecting their watering needs.

Tulips and waterfall in my garden

This photo of the waterfall in my garden shows the top part of the waterfall. The water drops about one foot, runs down a flat stone for about a foot and then drops off into the pond for another fall of a foot. The pond looks good with the debris skimmed off. The marsh marigolds are finished blooming. The water hawthorn is in bloom now. The lilies are beginning to put up leaves. The tulips are putting on their show right now. They seem to be quite tall this year. The one shown here is 'blue heron'.

In walking about the garden today, I saw at least two of the lizards, no frogs, some birds.

I have taken in rhubarb and have 2 cups chopped and frozen for our next pie. The plant should be more vigorous next year, I hope. I must remember to feed it.