Where did I put everything??

This weekend is the big planting weekend in Montreal. Although we generally do not get snow in May, it is possible to have frost overnight right up to the third week in May. In Canada, we have a long week-end as Monday is the anniversary of Queen Victoria's birthday (okay by me if I get off work on Monday) and those of us with gardens use the extra time to get everything in. I started working on Friday afternoon, while Josh took care of making dinner. Now it is Sunday night, and we have got a lot of work done. Unfortunately, I no longer know what is where in my garden, because Iulia and I have been swapping all kinds of plants, and I have been moving everything around. Orianne and I did a huge clean up of weeds and grass which had crept under or through the hay in my flower gardens. I built these beds over my lawn and I am slowly pulling out the grass blade by blade. I accidentally maimed some dianthus and irises which were deeply lost in tall grass. Our friend Lisa came over and mowed the lawn. Yay Lisa! Ollie came over too and brought me some bearded irises (I have no idea if any of my current irises are bearded, I am waiting still for them to bloom).

Some interesting changes in my garden. I have put sunflowers in my sunny patch bordering the street, and added some red and yellow cosmos seeds behind them. I moved all my Asian lillies away from my day lillies which were completely engulfing them. I also moved my tulips away from the day lillies. I tried to imitate an idea I saw where the tulips came up through the low lilly leaves and it looked lovely, but my lillies grew faster than my tulips so they were lost. I discovered that one of the three tulip varieties I planted is a colour changing variety which starts out pale yellow and then turns white with dark pink streaks. They are gorgeous, and just going through the colour change. The front yard is looking nicer every day.

We built a small sunflower circle in the back outside of the garden, like a little colony. Inspired by Iulia's arrangements, I put four disco marietta marigolds (the two-toned ones that do not look like stupid pom-poms) alternating with the sunflowers. I had some challenges with the sunflowers, I had carefully labelled each of the three varieties I planted. One was the small decorative multi-headed ones, one was a giant variety called Kong. The third was something a bit smaller, not sure what it was but I got it from my last visit to Alex. The labels, paper on brochette sticks, smudged when I first watered my jiffy pots. I hoped the seedlings would be easy to distinguish but alas they were not. So Ollie helped me guess which was which and I hope for the best. I may need to move things around yet again.

Today I planted basil, tomatoes, hot peppers, chinese greens , marigolds, and some fancy impatiens that looked like roses. We are trying alternating tomatoes and bush basil, and I put marigolds around the peppers (they are supposed to keep insects away). I noticed aphids on the peppers and I sprayed them all with diluted dishsoap. This is likely my fault. I kept one of the infested peppers, hoping I had killed all the aphids, and that was the probable source of the infestation. The rest of the plants look okay, but for good measure I sprayed the apple tree and the crab apples too.

Josh put together the frame of an old gazebo which friends of ours were throwing out, and fitted it with chicken wire on two sides. We put it up against the chicken wired fence where we had our cucumbers last year. We are trying a technique used by our Vietnamese neighbours, where they grow melons around a frame and vegetables that need shade underneath. We are trying romaine lettuce and mixed spring greens and bok choi underneath, and Korean melons, 2 types of cucumbers and some type of melon which our friend Claude gave us (labelled in my seed envelopes as "Claude melon,") around the sides and back.

I also planted basil in the bathtub, and also next to each of the garlic plants. An onion popped up, it had been thrown in the compost last year inside the mesh bag and was growing right through the bag. I did a bit of surgery and popped the freed sprouting onion and its companion back in the garden. I am also trying to regrow a green onion from the root. Josh gave me the bottoms he cut off to cook dinner and we will see if it works (I will try anything once).

Josh was concerned about our San Marzano tomatoes which are just starting to sprout, a full month late. He found a nursery which sells the seedlings, so those went into the garden with the chocolate tomatoes and the single tomato plant from Nathalie. With my companion planting I had less room and we still hope to find place for the seedlings I am sprouting. Not sure where we will put them all! I still have a bunch of hot pepper plants, a huge number of bush basil sprouts and will eventually have two varieties of home grown San Marzano tomato sprouts ready to plant. I have finally received the seeds we mail ordered. I hope they stay fertile for a few years because now I have enough seeds to start a commercial farm. Next year we plan to extend the garden in the back. This year I have to get creative.

Josh also picked up some herbs at Atwater market this week (Vietnamese coriander, Rosemary, oregano and Chocolate mint). Orianne and I cleaned the weeds in the mint box, and added fresh earth. I planted the Chocolate mint in with the other variety (some kind of really nice hybrid, not sure what). I still have not figured out where to put the rest. That is tomorrow's task, along with getting the tomato cages built. I want the lowest level to be very low, and the upper rows to go up now, even though they will be empty for a while to come. Last year we got too busy and it was a big mess before we got the upper levels of chicken wire done.


What has been really fun was being able to give starter plants to my friend Alan, to Iulia, and to be able to start new colonies from one part of my garden to another. I have moved some  lungwart and periwinkle from one side garden to another. I now need to thin out my day lillies and Alan is starting a colony in his newly made garden. He also asked me for some of my goutweed (I have rid myself of most of it but there is a part of my garden which is hidden from public view and very shady which is still infested). I warned him that it is aggressive and invasive, but he has a dark area between his duplex and his neighbours', a dead zone, which he thinks it will cover well. I am happy to oblige.

This morning an egg sac of a garden orb weaver spider hatched out on the side of one of the pots where I transplanted my bush basil. There were hundreds of tiny spiderlings making minute webs and climbing up to the apple tree and parachuting onto the wind propelled by a tiny piece of spider silk web. We watched for a while and showed the neighbours. We look forward to having them settle in our garden. I also found thousands of worms, something like one every square inch I dug. The garden is doing well!