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April 30, 2010 - The pasque flowers are in lovely shape today. I hadn't seen one of these plants before, but the former owners of our home left two of them on the property. They are also known as 'pulsatilla vulgaris' which seems a kind of ugly name for such a lovely flower!
My brother, who lives in Manitoba, told me they are called 'Prairie Crocuses' there and are actually the provincial flower of Manitoba.
I really look forward to these every spring. I love their fuzzy little parts, just beneath the flowers.
April 25, 2010 - We added some shrubs to the beds at the front of our home today. These beds were the same as the side one I showed yesterday - tall cedars in river stone mulch. We kept the two low spruce bushes in the bed under the large window (that you see in the photo on the right) and three new shrubs. One is a special hydrangia, which will bloom pink, no matter what the soil conditions. It's called 'Invincibelle' (I love that name) and is a special Breast Cancer Awareness plant. We also planted a silverleaf dogwood called 'Elegantissima' and a holmstrup 'Pyramid Cedar' in the corner. I'm hoping there will be room for a dwarf burning bush behind the hydrangia. The nursery hasn't received their burning bushes yet.
The photo on the left shows the garden under our two smaller windows and in there we planted an additional homstrup cedar. We are also waiting for a mock orange bush to put at the far end of this bed. In between the cedar and where the mock orange will go, are hostas, bleeding hearts and monkshood, all just starting to come up.
April 24, 2010
This area is a new bed for me. When we bought our home, this area was filled with river stone (as mulch) and there were five very tall cedar trees growing in it. They were nice, but were unruly!
The retaining wall that held it all in was in need of rebuilding, so when we had that done, the landscapers took out the cedars and stone and replaced it with lovely garden soil for me.
My big project for this summer is to make a lovely perennial border in here. This is the start of it.
The spring bulbs I planted in the fall are starting to come up. On Saturday, I planted the first of the perennials....'King Arthur' delphiniums, pink Oriental poppies, globe thistles, a peony, and purple irises (from my husband's parent's garden).
More to come in the following weeks!
Saturday, April 24, 2010 - My great friend, Brenda, and I went to see what perennials we could save from the renovations going on at her new home. She and her husband are having an addition put on their home and some of the existing gardens may be trampled or worse.
We located a bed that a former owner had, at one time lovingly cared for, but that had become neglected and badly overgrown with weeds, during a rentors tenure. We found many old iris rhizomes, many of which were growing into each other for lack of space, with the roots of periwinkle vines tangling through and wrapping themselves around. We were able to save young rhizomes and good sections of the periwinkle. We also found some wonderful lungwort and muscari growing. We moved some of the plants to a safe place in her grass and others to my garden, where I will tend to it until Brenda is ready for it. Great mounds of large yellow daffodils were transplated, in their clumps, were also transplated.
The best part is I get to keep some for my own garden. (Thanks Brenda!)
Friday, April 23, 2010 - I went to visit my good friend, Rita, today with the purpose of giving her a hand in her garden. (And going to Tim Horton's for our usual tea and treat.) She advised me that the only help she required today was for me to help her thin out the spring crocuses and scilla, which were starting to invade her pathways. Oh, and put them into pots and load them into my car!
Rita is the most wonderful friend, always willing to share her beautiful perennial flowers, wisdom and experience. She's a true 'kindred spirit' as Anne Shirley would say.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - This is some new periwinkle for my shade garden that runs between the front of the house and the walkway. I've been looking for things to use as ground cover and my newest friend, Paula, offered to share this lovely periwinkle with me. So far it loves it's new home!
My pride and joy - the back border in July of 2009. It's meant to be as much of a 'cottage garden' garden as I can make it, and for me, that means large clumps of colour and kind of messy but organized at the same time. It still needs to fill in the empty spaces, but it's getting there. In here I have shasta daisies, phlox, daylilies, irises, peonies, coneflowers, evening primrose, sweet Williams and many others. I'll post all the things as they come out in the 2010 part of my blog.
The pool border at the end of July. Sweet Williams, evening primrose, lavander, purple coneflower and fall asters live here.
The little backstep garden, near the end of the summer. 'Catherine Woodbury' and 'Pandora's Box' daylilies, scabiosa, and 'rose campion' lychnis.
The front bed, planted up with hostas, delphinium, bleeding heart and monkshood. This garden is mostly in the shade.
When we moved into our home in the late summer of 2007, this was the only garden with perennials on the property. There were some lovely plants in here (bugle flower, scabiosa, pearl everlasting, and a pair of gorgeous pasque flowers). We rebuilt this deck in 2008 and most of these plants have been moved elsewhere on the property into new beds.
This is the bed at the front of the house when we moved in.
The beginning of my back border: That first fall, I started making a perennial bed along the back of the yard. I planted a climbing hardy rose (the Explorer series 'John Cabot', a peony, and a couple of 'Neon Blaze' spireas. My plan was to increase it bit by bit over the next five years, so that eventually it would go across the width of the backyard. As you can see, if you check the photos from 2009, it only took two years, thanks to friends who gave me many perennials.
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