Spring Flowers

More photos from April 18.  The wind flower, anemones along the old sidewalk beside the garage

The stone path at the back.  It seemed to be missing a stone, that I have since replaced.  Now I need another fairly big stone for the front rockery.  This shows the windflowers and the old cement sidewalk at the end of this stone path.  The other end of this path goes to the water garden.

The arabis and my best hyacinth that are along the driveway beside the house.

The primulas putting on a good show, in front of the rhodos and the hellebores by the back steps up to the deck. 

I had a quick look at a headline about the uprising in Syria and all the people being killed. Canadians are advised to leave that country, too. The news is full of these horrible happenings in the Muslim countries, and of climate catastrophes.  Its good to live here.  My anal, silly old women neighbors are a joke compared to what I see in the news. 

I am reading another book by Phillipa Gregory.. this one about Katherine of Aragon and the Tudors.  Its very depressing too.  I should really have been out gardening as it was a lovely day. 

This is the strawberries.  I put composed manure around them and covered that with the grass clippings after mowing the grass bits.  Hope I can keep them mulched to retain moisture.

More Spring Flowers

This is a red, very showy St. Bridgid Anemoney growing in the front garden beside the stone path

This is the only blossom on the anemorella plant just now.  Its a lovely big mound of fresh green leaves that grow alongside the garage in the woodland area of the garden.

The bleeding heart is in the same area as the anemorella.  It is doing much better this year after receiving a bit of compost.  All the plants in this area need another feeding this year.

This planter containing aubretia sits in the front garden next to the driveway and the grass path.  The iberis will expand to flow around the bottom of the planter.  This area is doing much better also after getting rid of the violets and adding compost.

This is a very elegant and showy fern leafed peony that grows just back from the edge of the little rockery at the front.  Behind it is the green and white of the sicilian helebore that sits in front of the West Coast planter.  I am quite happy with the arrangement of the plants in this area that I am calling the little rockery in the front garden.

These smaller alpines grow just in front of the Peony and the helebore.  Across about 3.5 feet of flat field stone path is another small rock wall where I am establishing some more very special little alpines backed by taller plants.

This is my best primula - a double.  I have lost the name of it.  When I have the woodland renovated I hope to establish a few of these plants in an area that stays more moist.  In fact, I would like to expand all of the primulas.

  These saxatilis tulips have grown into a couple of large patches in the woodland area and beside the vegetable garden.  They are so very pretty and well behaved.  They will need to be divided soon, though.

This is a sea thrift or armeria.  These plants put on a show for a long period and when not in bloom they are a good looking evergreen mound.  Very valuable plant in my rockery.  This one is across the stone path from the little rockery wall and all its newly established precious alpines.  I put in a number of alpines where I removed the wooden half barrel that held the fish and water iris.  I put plieones, a daphne that is going to eventually get to be 5 x 5 feet (slow to grow)in a couple of weeks ago.  There is a lovely little perennial snapdragon with fuzzy silver leaves and is covered with white flowers.  There is also an Iberis, an aubretia, a campanula, another pink St. Bridgit anemone and further along some sedums.  There are two oriental lilies and these plants are backed by montebretias, yellow water iris, a clematis, a solomon's seal, foxgloves and a few other tall plants.  Some of these big  plants can be quite invasive and will need to be kept within bounds.

This is the reflections of the marsh marigolds in the pond and tiny bubbles from the waterfall. 
All of the photos are from a week ago, Monday, when I did a bit of gardening.  Mowed the grass and got a bit of a start on the renovation of the woodland.  There is a sumac that was nearly uprooted in the high winds we were having. I have taken off one big branch and have it trimmed with only the long part left to use as edging along the chip trail of the woodland when I redo this path.  I see that one of my new trilliums has come up, after all.  I thought I had lost it.  It is tiny but has a bloom.  I moved a small mounding green plant from right beside it and provided some good soil in the area.  This plant needs more woodland 'duff' added to it also.
I have had a very busy week, starting with the Monday gardening, Tuesday a walk home from the Doctors Office in the morning and pottering in the garden in the afternoon..  Wednesday was a full day of house work and I finally managed to do the vacuuming. Thursday was more house work finished, reading.   My new little vacuum works so much better as does the dust buster on a handle, that I really should do this more often.
On Friday we went to lunch at the Checkered Flag, and then shopping.  I now have a new rabbitting spade, and a new Felcro #6 pruner for small hands, from Lee Valley Tools.  From Canadian Tire, I got a rechargeable Black and Decker hedge trimmer.  I read all its instructions.  I have not tried it yet, as it was raining this morning. 
In the evenings I have been getting a few things done on the new photo site.  The place is looking really good and Cyrus is getting so many new people to register, as well as working on the articles, tutorials, video tutorials and so very many things.  Ken, Jiri and their friends are helping out, as well as a few others who have been there from the start.    We are definitely on our way!

In the Spring Garden

This trillium and the easter lillies or fawn lillies are in bloom in the woodland garden.  These are both indigenous plants.  The woodland is very much in need of renovation.  It would be a good idea to clean up the area around these plants before they are gone to dormancy.  The blue bells, thistles and lemon balm are taking over.

The gentan is one of the good rock plants along the edge of the garage garden bed.  The primulas are along in front of the rhodos in the back garden.  There are more primulas and I have close up shots of some of them.  I hope to eventually have an annual garden album on my web page.

The marsh marigold is looking good on the pond.  The water hawthorn is in bloom too.  Yesterday I restarted the water fall.  The water level has stayed nicely up.  We have not had rain today.  That slow leak must have somehow healed itself.  I have no other explanation.  There is clay around the pond.  Perhaps the clay is fully saturated and blocks the tiny hole in the liner.   I have seen quite a few small black fish in the pond.  I understand that baby goldfish take about 2 years to turn colors.   I am going to have quite a lot of gold fish in there next year.

These are anemones and hyacinths that are in the bed by the garage.  These are across the old sidewalk from the gentian.  Very colorful mix and making a nice show right now.  The end of this bed needs cleaning up also.

This red pasque flower is in the front garden by the bamboo.  There is another purple one in the area.  I am slowly getting the weedy flowers out of this area.  The iberis along the front of the border are filling out.  I seem to have got rid of the violets.  There are still a lot of dandilions coming up all over the garden.  I need to be vigilant in getting rid of them.  I should like ti get a rabbiting spade to use to dig them out. 

On Saturday we took the new old Model T on its first run.  McMorran's is closing... after all these years.  It  has a big place in the history of Victoria.  There were many old cars out, and many other people.  The McMorrans started the place as an icecream stand, and so we had hot dogs and icecream for lunch.   Too bad it was such a cold day!  The car ran beautifully.
Today I walked back from the lab where I had to go for blood tests.  I brought home a couple of fuschia cuttings, a marguerite, a parsley and some seeds.  Maybe I will get out to plant them later in the week.
Last nite I finished reading Whitley Streiber's Critical Mass.  Now I need a book to read and want to pick up another Strieber book or two.  So, tomorrow I will go down to Monroe's or Chapters and spend a few enjoyable hours browsing books.

Gardening.... continued

This trillium is called 'wake robin'. It is red with these lovely spotted leaves. This one is a transplant from a year ago from the specialty nursery on Saltspring Island (sorry, I have forgotten the name of the place). I have 2 other trilliums from them planted in this newly created 'rock garden/woodland area. Last year I made this new little garden by turning over some grass and putting stepping stones through it to the vegetable garden / lewiisia rockery. There is a tiny 'trillium' garden with an lovely anemone hepactica just beneath the Harry Lauder's Walking Stick (twisted branches of a variety of hazelnut). I don't see the dodecathenon or the ethronium showing in this new area. Although, I have some ethroniums doing very well in the woodland area at the back. Our lovely little indiginous lillies. I have yellow and white varieties. I should transfer some seed to the new area, as I understand they are impossible to dig up and move.
This is a tall trillium with a large flower. It is in the woodland area of my back garden. I am always happy to see it showing among the invasive blue bells and the other large plant it is near. I don't recall the name of the plant, but these dark green leaves look very nice in the photo.
This little trillium now has 2 flowers. It is in the front garden, by its large round rock. Today, I weeded out the violets and other invasive plants from near it. It seems to like the soil created from using bark mulch, and from the leaf fall of the black bamboo. The violets are running rampant again. You can see one in the lower left corner of the photo. They are pretty plants but they just take over! So, I must get my soil to the point where I can easily just pull them out. In my basic clay soil they get a good grip and the roots just stay put to come up again. I need more bark mulch, I guess.
This is another very good Primula vulgaris. Outstanding color on this one. It makes a tight bunch with multiple flowers. I think I should divide this one after it is finished blooming.

The primula marginatas in the pot and in the lewisia rockery are both coming up, and showing blooms. They both look a bit stressed though. I wonder if they need more 'lime'.

Yesterday, I was at Cannor Nursery to get some fish. I have 6 new goldfish - 4 of the least expensive 'comets' and 2 sarasa. It was a nice sunny morning, but when I was at the nursery, the wind came up and was very cold and raw. I have wind burn on my face from being out in it. As well as the fish I bought a few seeds: marigolds, dill, sunflowers and cosmos.

Now my uploading seems to be fixed for the moment. I went to the help forums for Blogger and found some interesting info. It seems our photos are loaded to Picasa albums and then to the blogs. I never knew I had such a thing. Well, blogspot bloggers check you dashboard and to the bottom and look at your Picasa albums and the limits. Apparently I am using " You are currently using 397 MB (38.77%) of your 1024 MB. " Thereafter, we can upgrade our storage space! Interesting.

This morning, after Capiccino, Pat drove me over to the Rock and Alpine show and sale. The show seemed to me to be rather less than what it has been. I don't know what has happened as I have not been attending the meetings. Perhaps some people have moved or are traveling. Beaver Creek Nursery was there. This is a great source for special rock and alpine plants. The plant list on Roger Barlow's website is very helpful. I bought a $15.00 tufa rock and two little plants. One a salix repetans (spelling) and a tiny lupine with silvery leaves, as well as a creeping phlox from the club sale. The people in the sale room seemed very sparse compared to the usual numbers. Oh well, guess clubs go through these changes.

The purchase of my tufa rock inspired me to go out and look at where to put it. I want to add to the lewisia bed beside the vegetable garden area. So, I moved the heavenly scented daffodil. There were lots of bulbs!!! I now have this daffodil all over the gardens! After I got back from the show, I decided to walk over a couple of blocks to see what the rezoning notice was about. Seems they want to make a duplex on their large lot. Well, the exciting part for me was that on the way I found that someone had dumped some rocks in the deer pasture, just across the street from my place! Just what I need! I got my wheel barrow and collected these rocks to complete the new addition to the lewisia bed! Now how convenient is that? I needed a few little rocks and they just appeared! So, I have a few more perennials to remove from the area, and then I will have space for the tufa rock and a few choice rock plants. I will probably let the new little area settle until next year. I have room for a few plants in the front little rockeries.

Garden Renovation

This is the last photo from the VCCC 5oth anniversary party. None of my car photos are good.

I have finished double digging my latest garden renovation, and putting down the stones for the paths. I have added 4 bags of sand to the stone paths and the soil areas. I put five 30 litre bags of top soil over the sand in the growing areas. The motivation for making this renovation was the fact that the bottom of the garden was very wet in winter. The bottom is where you see the row of primulas in the above photo. This reno has changed half of the back grass area into what I hope will be low growing hardy rock plants and more primulas for the bottom end. I have 21 little plants that I want to move into the new reno. The achillia and the wall flower will be the tallest plants. I will put the yellow achillia near the top "Y" with an under planting of golden thyme. I hope to put the pink thyme by the wall flower... maybe under the shade of the strawberry tree. The new pink primula to the primula bed, of course. I want to move the white one from the woodland garden and part of the blue one from under the deck.