April 23, 2000 - Well, after a tantalizing taste of spring in March, I think it might be back again. I got out into the garden for the first time this weekend, starting to clean things up, and a good amount of perennials are already growing. The wallcress is on the verge of blooming. I don't know if everything will survive, we had such a scarce snow cover this past winter.

May 14 - About a week ago we were the hot spot in Canada one day (at +32C). It was a real struggle not to turn on the air conditioner because you just knew that would be wasted energy when it would cool off overnight. And now here we sit with the furnace on again. I just fertilized and watered my gardens on the 7th. And then it started to rain. And got colder with frost risks. And rained and rained. Yesterday we had light flurries and some hail! Just little hail, thankfully. Today it was sunny and it was bearable outside, so maybe things will get back on track.

June 16 - Figured I should give a general gardening info update. This year the city has had a forest tent caterpillar infestation. It was not all too bad in our area of the city, but still too many for my liking (hasn't been like this since the late 70's). Anyhow, right now they seem to be migrating from the trees and prefer our fence for making cocoons. Ick, ick. I have donned rubber gloves and picked them off, packed them into old jars and let 'em die. We are now also ending a week of continuous rain. They promise we'll finally see some sun on the weekend. We have had more rain this last week than what we usually average for the whole month of June. The garden is looking very lush right now but if the sun doesn't come out soon, things might start turning yellow. Today was SO cold, I wouldn't have been surprised if the rain had turned to snow.

June 26 - Rain, rain and more rain...

June 30 - Went to see The Guess Who (Runnin' Back Thru Canada) concert... The Guess Who were/are from Winnipeg where I live... The concert was phenomenal (and besides still being an incredible singer, Burton Cummings is so hot)... ok, so that has nothing to do with gardening!

July 5 - WAY too many mosquitoes, there's no way a person can venture out into the garden!

#1 - I only have definite plans for one project this year - to continue to expand the front garden... as always, the plan EVENTUALLY is to make this whole "triangle" area a garden..

How the project is going so far....

April 23 - I've thought about it.

April 29 - Cut out the grass and prepared the new bed for planting.

April 30 - Divided and moved some plants, half filling the area. Creeping jenny, a baby's breath and daylilies were already there. Newly planted: campanula, several clumps of lilies, a second baby's breath, liatris, purple coneflower, moss phlox.

May 1 & 2 - I've taken this week off so I can devote more time to mucking about in the dirt. I've now also planted more divisions of lilies, obedient plant, flax, Stella D'Oro daylilies. Something new I added to this area was lychnis coronaria I bought on Monday. I also planted a "mystery plant" from my mom. I'll have to do some research as to what it may be, it's kind of reddish grass-like and apparently blooms.

I was regretting that I didn't take a 'before' picture of the new area. It is quite a substantial cut-out of lawn compared to previous years. But, then, I figured if you know what a lump of dirt looks like, you already have the general idea. Soon as I have it all planted, I'll try to remember to take a 'pre-growth' picture, anyway.

I also added a 'driftwood' piece. Last November we had a violent wind storm, with gusts just short of hurricane level. At the cottage this storm uprooted trees all along the shore (see the Cottage Garden Tour for pictures) and my dad cut some apart... I thought it made a great centerpiece but the day I put it in, my son, Robert, came home from school, took a look and asked, "Is that SUPPOSED to be there?"

May 3 - Planted more lilies. The only one left to go is to divide my Lollypop lilies (my favourite, they make me sing "lollipop, lollipop, la, la, la lollipop") or perhaps I'll buy some more.

May 7 - Well, it's as finished as it's going to be.

Here's a picture taken June 9th of the expanded front garden. Everything is doing very well, except for the popsicle sticks that are refusing to grow! They mark the spot where I planted new Stargazer lilies. They should be poking through by now, I'm so disappointed! (Update: 2 of the 3 lilies did end up growing - they were GORGEOUS!!!, well worth the wait.)

New Members of the Garden!

Lychnis Coronaria - I already have Lychnis (L.chalcedonica) which do well so these probably will, too.

Tricyrtis Hirta (toad lily) - I've often thought these were awesome looking blooms and read quite a bit about this plant but usually the price was just too high. I guess they've become more plentiful and the cost came down, so I thought I'd give it a try.

August 19 - My toad lily is blooming. Because pictures of it are always the same size as other lilies in magazines I thought it was just regular lily-size... but it is the tiniest little thing, only about 1 1/2 inches across. Very pretty but you sure have to get up close to see it well. I guess the next test is to see if it over-winters.

Galium Odoratum (Asperula) (sweet woodruff) - I love that, 'odoratum' ! Always researching shade plants, I wanted to buy this plant about 3 years ago but couldn't find it anywhere. So when I saw it today (May 5) I grabbed one. The bloom isn't outstanding but the foliage is so pretty.

Shirobana Spirea (Spirea japonica 'Shirobana') (peppermint spirea) - My friend, Ning, has this in front of her house and I always admired it. I had one spot where my white liatris died out (the purple does wonderfully, but the white was always such a sissy) so I thought I'd plant this bush there.

Lilies, lilies, always more lilies - I have so many already but I can't resist. New additions this year are Stargazer and Grand Cru.

Photographs!

The expanded front garden. This is the same picture that's under "Projects" up above, in case you missed it. Plus I needed to fill this heading with something.

Another picture taken at the beginning of June, of ajuga (bugleweed) in bloom. I thought it looked so nice with the sun filtering onto them. In the foreground is lady's mantle.

Finally Added!!! Two pictures of the new garden in July, with lilies in bloom:
1) the (west) half along the front walk

In August, after the lilies, looking lengthwise, west to east

What's Blooming Now!

April 29 - wallcress, violets

May 6 - wallcress, violets NEW: primrose, pulmonaria, moss phlox

May 13 - wallcress, violets, primrose, pulmonaria, moss phlox NEW: periwinkle

May 20 - wallcress, violets, primrose, pulmonaria, moss phlox, periwinkle. NEW: forget-me-nots, chives, cypress spurge, flax, bergenia.

May 27 - wallcress, primrose, pulmonaria, moss phlox, periwinkle, forget-me-nots, chives, cypress spurge, flax, bergenia. NEW: lily-of-the-valley, cypress spurge, thrift, sweet woodruff.

June 3 - wallcress, pulmonaria, moss phlox, periwinkle, forget-me-nots, chives, cypress spurge, flax, bergenia, lily-of-the-valley, thrift, sweet woodruff. NEW: pussytoes, ajuga, rock soapwort.

June 10 - wallcress, pulmonaria, moss phlox, periwinkle, forget-me-nots, chives, cypress spurge, flax, bergenia, lily-of-the-valley, thrift, sweet woodruff, pussytoes, ajuga, rock soapwort. NEW: columbine.

June 17 - I forget. It's always raining, I haven't been out in the garden.
All I can say for sure is I know what's NEW: weeds.

June 24 - Moss phlox, periwinkle, forget-me-nots, flax, thrift, sweet woodruff, pussytoes, columbine, matricaria, lychnis, lilies (orange), bishop's weed, Jacob's ladder, honeysuckle vine, sundrops, lady's mantle, dame's rocket, penstemon, daisies, helianthus, sedum yellow acre, Irish moss, meadowsweet, clematis.
Also blooming is the mystery plant that I got from my mom that SHE got from her cousin. I meant to do some research and find out what it was, I just haven't got around to it yet, but it has lovely purply-red flowers. So I guess for now it will be known as TUP (that unknown plant).

July 1 ( Canada Day!) - Moss phlox, flax, thrift, sweet woodruff, pussytoes, columbine, matricaria, lychnis, lilies (orange), bishop's weed, Jacob's ladder, honeysuckle vine, sundrops, lady's mantle, dame's rocket, penstemon, daisies, helianthus, sedum yellow acre, Irish moss, meadowsweet, clematis, TUP NEW: creeping jenny, Stella D'oro daylilies, baby's breath, lilies (lollypop), veronica, campanula, lavender.

July 8 - I forgot to write it down, I'm afraid I'm not being very diligent this year.

July 15 - flax, thrift, sweet woodruff, matricaria, lychnis, lilies (various), Jacob's ladder, honeysuckle vine, sundrops, lady's mantle, dame's rocket, daisies, helianthus, clematis, TUP, creeping jenny, Stella D'oro daylilies, baby's breath, veronica, campanula, lavender. NEW: yarrow, edelweiss, hosta, gaillardia, bellflower, German statice, monkshood

July 22 - flax, thrift, matricaria, lychnis, lilies (various), Jacob's ladder, honeysuckle vine, lady's mantle, daisies, helianthus, clematis, TUP, creeping jenny, Stella D'oro daylilies, baby's breath, veronica, campanula, lavender, yarrow, edelweiss, hosta, gaillardia, bellflower, German statice, monkshood NEW: purple coneflower, phlox, liatris, ligularia, obedient plant, daylilies, pearly everlasting, lamium

July 29 - flax, thrift, matricaria, lilies (various), honeysuckle vine, lady's mantle, helianthus, clematis, TUP, creeping jenny, Stella D'oro daylilies, baby's breath, veronica, campanula, lavender, yarrow, edelweiss, hosta, gaillardia, bellflower, German statice, monkshood, purple coneflower, phlox, liatris, ligularia, obedient plant, daylilies, pearly everlasting, lamium, NEW: hydrangea, spirea

August 5 - flax, thrift, matricaria, lilies (various), honeysuckle vine, lady's mantle, helianthus, clematis, TUP, creeping jenny, baby's breath, campanula, lavender, yarrow, edelweiss, hosta, gaillardia, bellflower, German statice, monkshood, purple coneflower, phlox, liatris, ligularia, obedient plant, daylilies, pearly everlasting, lamium, hydrangea, spirea NEW: nothing

August 12 - on vacation

August 19 (my birthday) - flax, thrift, matricaria, lilies (various), honeysuckle vine, lady's mantle, helianthus, clematis, TUP, creeping jenny, baby's breath, campanula, lavender, yarrow, edelweiss, hosta, gaillardia, German statice, purple coneflower, phlox, liatris, obedient plant, daylilies, pearly everlasting, hydrangea, spirea NEW: toad lily

August 26 - thrift, lilies (few left), honeysuckle vine, lady's mantle, helianthus, clematis, creeping jenny, baby's breath, campanula, lavender, yarrow, edelweiss, gaillardia, German statice, purple coneflower, phlox, obedient plant, daylilies, pearly everlasting, hydrangea, spirea, toad lily NEW: sedum autumn joy

September 2 - lilies (only Stargazer left), honeysuckle vine, helianthus, campanula, yarrow, gaillardia, German statice, purple coneflower, phlox, pearly everlasting, hydrangea, spirea, toad lily, sedum autumn joy NEW: sea lavender

OK, well, I wasn't very diligent in closing off the year with regular updates. I started Ukrainian lessons and since the garden was winding down, I focused my attention on being a good .

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