Slow spring

One week into May and it has been cold and rainy for days on end. Josh and I took a drive up to the Laurentians with a friend on Sunday and the farms along the highway were so flooded, they looked like lakes. The tiny river that runs past my in-law's property in eastern Ontario flooded its banks farther than it ever has. It has been unseasonably cold too, with temperatures hovering at zero at night. I have not yet put away our winter coats and boots, and have not washed our blankets yet because it has been too cold and wet to hang them out to dry. I usually do this mid-April as part of my Passover cleaning.  Yesterday, mid-morning, I actually saw snowflakes blowing about outside, but they did not last once they hit ground. Today was sunny finally, and it started to warm up. Despite the chill, I have started biking to work, but wearing my winter coat and gloves still. Iulia has bought some annuals yesterday, but even she has not planted them yet (she was so excited to show me her new stuff she called me over to see them, standing in her doorway in pyjamas at midnight, when I came home from an evening at a friend's house). The conditions have been ideal for early snail and slug proliferation, so I made haste after seeing a few rather large ones munching on some forgotten carrot which survived the winter, and put out two full bags of slug-b-gone, one of my sponsors for this years garden. 

I would like to take a moment to thank another one of my sponsors. In my last post I described how I learned about treated seeds. I decided to call Vesey's and order the untreated variety of the burgundy beans. I described what had happened, and the person who took my call offered to send a replacement free of charge, without even asking me to send back the treated beans. I am not sure what to do with the original pack. My gardening friends and acquaintances tend to be either those who buy flats and transplant, or those who grow from seed and though perhaps not strictly organic, would likely share my reaction to planting seeds so obviously un-organic. The package warns that one should not eat them or feed them to animals either, which is my usual means of disposing of excess seeds or sprouts. I am open to any offers to take these magic beans off my hands. I promise I won't tell anyone I gave them to  you.

Despite the slow, wet start, things are busy popping up in my garden. Once again, I see things that I recognize but still don't know well enough to remember what they are. I am pleased to say that I am getting better at recognizing the weeds I really don't want, and with all the rain, they were far easier to pull out than usual. Feeling like I got a great head start, Iulia reminded me that those were merely the leftovers from last year's weeds, and their seedlings have yet to appear. I found four poppies (perennial ones, I think) returning from last year in the back, unless they weeds. There are also some things growing that did not flower last year and I am not sure what they are because I kept planting different seeds in that spot until something came up. I don't know what I would do without this blog to keep track of things. I will do research on past posts and try to figure it out. I have also discovered a few unharvested garlics, carrots and some red oak lettuce which self seeded I suppose, and is loving the weather. I had planned to put lettuce somewhere else, but it seems the decision was taken for me. 

I still have only a vague idea of where I will plant things this year. It has been too wet outside for me to spend enough time mapping things out. I know that I will need to expand some sections and leave some areas fallow. We have been thinking of trying a new technique which Chloe has been raving about, growing directly in hay bales (actually she's trying in straw bales, but we have a motherlode of hay thanks to another sponsor, Jack the master gardener who has hay producing country neighbours, a truck and a brother he visits who lives around the corner from us.

I spent some time this week cleaning up and looking around, picking up the garbage that always accumulates in my yard before the lilies get tall enough to catch the debris. As usual, my flowers are slower to bloom than everyone else on the block. I have had one daffodil, one hyacinth, three siberian squills, periwinkles galore, lungwort buds, one single tulip bud not yet open and a hint of magnolia buds not yet ripe. There is much green though. The grass doesn't mind the cold wet weather and has lost its winter fade. I see signs of life on both rose bushes, peony shoots, lots of columbines, including one growing way out where I had tomatoes last summer. I moved that one to the front and am curious what colour it will be and how it got there. I also removed the chicken wire which we put horizontally over the area around the spruce tree where I had morning glories. That particular experiment failed, as the vines did not understand what we wanted them to do so they did not make it up the sides of the tree. I am going back to using string, but kept the chicken wire we wrapped around the base of the tree.

After doing some research on line on re-planting begonia, cana and dahlia roots, I got cold feet and shoved them back in the basement for a couple more weeks. Laure, my companion through hours of youth orchestra rehearsals and fellow shade-gardener, told me that she has never managed to get re-planted begonias to bloom. I am trying anyways, but may end up picking up more dahlias, begonias and canas.

My next shopping list includes coyote urine, sheep manure, black earth and maybe a few annuals. Also, I am going to get another clematis to put on the right side of my front door where the Blue bird Rose of sharon bush has refused to accommodate me by surviving. Of course, Iulia's is doing fine. I plan to take vicarious pleasure from hers and planted the magnolia right near her windows too in exchange. Nice to have great neighbours.

So thanks to all my sponsors, supporters and fans who are making this wet and lousy spring more fun and promising.