There’s a rabbit who lives somewhere in the neighbourhood but is in our yard a lot and I guess over the winter decided our patio was a nice place to do its business. It was never noticed until the snow melted, and suddenly there was a BIG pile of rabbit poo on the patio. I know in your most wildest dreams you have thought, I’d like to see a picture of a pile of rabbit poo. Anyhow, we have affectionately named the rabbit Poo Bunny.

June 13 - Poo Bunny musta had a mate and lately we’ve been seeing Baby Poo Bunny in the front garden. Can usually tell it’s there because of Spot (our cat) looking trance-like out the window. Yesterday morning, in fact, there were 2 Baby Poo Bunnies together. Well, of course, there’s no such thing as just ONE baby bunny, so that stands to reason, but it was so cute seeing them playing there together. On Monday, I was at Wal-Mart and I bought some bunny feed. I put it out in 3 places around the yard, but none have been touched, why should they when they have all of my gardens to nibble at? And I don’t mind. The babies are just so adorable!

June 27 - Baby Poo Bunny has moved permanently into our yard. Most often, he is in the front garden. He does hop around the backyard, too. This bunny does eat the food I have put out for him, as well as some of my lilies (withness the poor lily just in front of him on the left).

July 16 - Yesterday, there were a total of 4 Baby Poo Bunnies jumping around together on the street... so now I'm not sure if it's just one who's in our yard, or I see a different one each time, or they were just getting together for a party. Actually, I'll have to call them Junvenile Poo Bunnies because now there are actual (mini) Baby Poo Bunnies. Yesterday 2 of the Minis were spotted by our front steps, they are the size of a hamster.

May 7 - I don't think there will be any new gardens this year. It will take all the little stamina I have left just to maintain what I've got.

Been working in the garden, off and on, for a couple weeks now. Mostly it's either been too cold or too windy. Now it's too rainy. The beds are almost all cleaned up, except behind the shed and the half-barrel pond. I had made some notes of things to move around last fall, but I haven't gotten around to that yet. Things are starting to grow nicely, full of lush promise. Some things, like the daylilies, are almost 6 inches up, while others, like hostas, are generally not even poking through. The lily-of-the-valley are a nuisance, as usual, coming up EVERYWHERE, but I like them so I just keep digging the millions of errant ones out.

My old 2 gallon plastic watering can sprung a pin-hole leak at the bottom, so a wider top was cut, the can filled with dirt, and it will sit in the garden - somewhere - with a plant, maybe campanula or impatiens.

Here it is - July, 2001.

We had to raise a section of ground by the house, where the air conditioner sat, a good 8 inches. The garden there was just an unplanned hodge-podge of anything that happened to wander in, so now that it's raised with lots of good dirt, maybe I can make it look nice. It's not a very big patch. We lined the perimeter of the area with cinder blocks and I filled the holes with dirt, in which I planted little things like low sedums, hens & chicks.

May 17 - Finished cleaning the periwinkle garden behind the shed and cleaned the half-barrel pond; put plastic Duckie out to swim for another summer. Practically finished all my transplanting. I just have to put out some annuals in containers that are scattered throughtout the areas.

What I'm working on now is raising the back half of the rock garden, path and beds, 6 inches, in order to combat years of sinking and to bring it up to the level of our newly raised air conditioner area. It is a big make-work project. I had to dig out all the plants, lift all the rocks and stones, dump tons and tons of dirt and sand - and then put everything back. I'm still at the putting everything back stage.

June 2 - Everything's done, did a major weeding, now it's time to just sit back and watch, mostly. And then decide what improvements could be made next year.

June 20 - I have started making large concrete mushrooms. I saw one at a garden center for $20 and, being cheap, thought, "Well, it's not like that's a very intricate design, I could make that." So I bought a bag of concrete for $4, made up a form from a plastic bowl and glass and tried it out. My first one was a total failure. Prototype 2 turned out ok, but I wasn't happy with the stem. Prototype 3 is fine - now I like the stem better than the cap, but I can live with it. Anyhow, from my $4 bag of concrete I have made 6 mushrooms, excluding that first failure.

New Members of the Garden!

Lilac, Little Leaf (Syringa microphylla 'Superba')
Crane's Bill (Geranium Sanguineum 'Vision')
and a different variety of campanula but I lost the tag and can't remember its name.

My toad lily did not survive the winter.

Photographs!

May 19 - Had quite a unique day at the cottage. Apparently, so the story goes, some river flowing into Lake Manitoba was flooding and the farmers blew up some beaver dams to open up the river. Well, all this wood floated into the lake and landed on the shore. The whole shoreline of our area (1-1/2 miles and who knows how far beyond that in each direction) was literally covered in wood. It was the most incredible sight. Lots of wood, from humongous logs to sticks of all shapes and sizes. There were also some great wood sculptures. It was like a great treasure hunt or shopping spree. Every walk you took, there was another lovely piece waiting to be discovered. My Mom and I collected several. My arms were aching hauling these big heavy pieces back to the cottage. I filled the trunk of the car up and still had to leave some behind for another weekend. These pieces were placed around the garden. Some of them curve and fit where I've put them so exactly it's like they were made to go there, there just couldn't be any other place for them!

Anyhow, the above is a picture of the first trunkload of driftwood that I have placed around my gardens.

May 21 - Pulmonaria (lungwort)

June 24 - Honeysuckle vine, starting to grow nicely across the top of the archway.

June 24 - Kiwi vine, having run out of latticework to climb up on.

June 24 - Garden section. That's Baby Poo Bunny in the centre nibbling on my potted impatiens.

June 26 - Garden section. This time, it's a plastic bunny off on the right-hand side.

June 26 - Tradescantia

end of July - Lychnis coronaria. Isn't this a beautiful plant? I bought one little plant in a 4 inch pot last year. This is only its second year, what a lovely grower and bloomer.

end of July - Pearly Everlasting (Anaphalis Margaritacea).

What's Blooming Now!

May 5 - wallcress, pulmonaria, violets
May 12 - wallcress, pulmonaria, violets, NEW: primrose
May 19 - wallcress, pulmonaria, violets, primrose, NEW: forget-me-nots, flax
May 26 - wallcress, pulmonaria, violets, primrose, forget-me-nots, flax, NEW: periwinkle, chives, lily-of-the-valley, thrift

June 2 - wallcress, pulmonaria, forget-me-nots, flax, periwinkle, chives, lily-of-the-valley, thrift, NEW: moss phlox, pussytoes, ajuga, sweet woodruff, dame's rocket, rock soapwort

June 9 - pulmonaria, forget-me-nots, flax, periwinkle, chives, lily-of-the-valley, thrift, moss phlox, pussytoes, ajuga, sweet woodruff, dame's rocket, rock soapwort NEW: columbine, bishop's weed, honeysuckle vine, painted daisies, Irish moss

June 16 - forget-me-nots, flax, periwinkle, chives, thrift, moss phlox, pussytoes, ajuga, sweet woodruff, dame's rocket, rock soapwort, columbine, bishop's weed, honeysuckle vine, painted daisies, Irish moss, NEW: Stella d'Oro daylilies, penstemon

June 23 - forget-me-nots, flax, chives, thrift, pussytoes, ajuga, columbine, bishop's weed, honeysuckle vine, painted daisies, Irish moss, Stella d'Oro daylilies, penstemon, NEW: matricaria, Jacob's ladder, sundrops, lady's mantle, helianthus, sedum yellow acre, meadowsweet, clematis, tradescantia, orange lilies, lychnis

June 30 - flax, thrift, columbine, bishop's weed, honeysuckle vine, painted daisies, Irish moss, Stella d'Oro daylilies, penstemon, matricaria, Jacob's ladder, sundrops, lady's mantle, helianthus, sedum yellow acre, meadowsweet, clematis, tradescantia, orange lilies, lychnis, NEW: lolipop lilies, baby's breath, creeping jenny, campanula, ONE early bloom on my purple coneflower, lychnis coronaria (new plant from last year, very pretty)

July 7 - flax, thrift, columbine, bishop's weed, honeysuckle vine, painted daisies, Irish moss, Stella d'Oro daylilies, penstemon, matricaria, Jacob's ladder, sundrops, lady's mantle, helianthus, sedum yellow acre, meadowsweet, clematis, tradescantia, orange lilies, lychnis, lolipop lilies, baby's breath, creeping jenny, campanula, ONE bloom on purple coneflower, lychnis coronaria, NEW: daisies, veronica, yarrow, hosta

July 14 - flax, columbine, bishop's weed, honeysuckle vine, Stella d'Oro daylilies, matricaria, Jacob's ladder, lady's mantle, helianthus, clematis, tradescantia, lychnis, various lilies, baby's breath, creeping jenny, campanula, purple coneflower, lychnis coronaria, daisies, veronica, yarrow, hosta NEW: bellflower, German statice, phlox, liatris, ligularia, obedient plant, daylilies

balance of July - ooops, falling down in my duties again.

August 4 - flax, honeysuckle vine, Stella d'Oro daylilies, matricaria, helianthus, clematis, various lilies, baby's breath, creeping jenny, campanula, purple coneflower, lychnis coronaria, yarrow, hosta, bellflower, German statice, phlox, liatris, ligularia, obedient plant, daylilies, NEW: pearly everlasting, hydrangea, spirea, lavender

August 11 - flax, honeysuckle vine, matricaria, helianthus, various lilies, baby's breath, creeping jenny, campanula, purple coneflower, lychnis coronaria, yarrow, hosta, bellflower, German statice, phlox, liatris, ligularia, obedient plant, daylilies, pearly everlasting, hydrangea, spirea, lavender NEW: sea lavender

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