One of my rock paintings.

2005

This is the first time in many years that I've changed the title picture on my projects page. The one shown is, of course, labelled One of my rock paintings. This is the type of rocks of which my town is going to be comprised. If you want to see more buildings I've finished, you can visit my Rock Painting page. You'll have to skip over the 'Pets' and 'Plants'. The 'Places' are about 2/3 of the way down.

This is downright entertaining (for me). My niece and nephew were browsing a local college site and saw a picture they thought looked familiar. Yep! That's my rock garden pathway on the bottom right-hand side. One would assume photos they use should be from people who've completed their Greenspace Management Program, but I'd never even heard of said course before. I do believe I should get an honorary diploma.
| link | Greenspace Management Site was updated in 2010 and the picture no longer exists, therefore link was removed.

April 14 - The snow melted suddenly and we've had warm weather for a couple weeks. The shade gardens are still soggy so it's too early to clean those up yet. If I pull up any of the matted leaves lining the ground, there's still muck clinging to them; so I'd be throwing away dirt as well. The back yard is SO disgusting. Our back is across the street from a Safeway and we get a bountiful amount of garbage blown in. It's constant during the summer, but a whole winter's build-up is pretty awful.

I did clean up the entire front garden today. I will pay for it tomorrow. As I came down to my computer, with my much-needed cup of tea, descending those stairs was already telling. Not sore yet but my legs feel like rubbery noodles. There was recently an article in the paper about stretching before gardening. Does anybody really do that? I don't know if even that would help if one is silly enough to do a marathon gardening session the first time one goes out.

I was looking at my navigation bar at the bottom and it suddenly struck me how many years I've actually been gardening on-line. That's pretty scary. Just as scary as my son turning 19 last Sunday! Where does the time go? Maybe my noodle legs are telling me I'm getting too old.

I'd better go start dinner... we're dragging out the barbecue for the first time!

April 25 - Windy and back to very cold. Rain and snow falling today (thankfully, nothing that stayed on the ground). I'm 3/4 finished clearing my shade gardens along the back fences... the balance and my rock garden to go, but they'll have to wait for more accommodating weather.

May 14 - There haven't been very many great days for gardening. But, somehow I've managed to finish cleaning all the gardens and even do some dividing. Some weeding has been started. I was very bad last year, I never got around to taking notes, so I can't remember what exactly I was supposed to do everywhere... I'll just play it as it comes.

Disappointments!

For the first year EVER, a lot of my pussytoes have died out. I had it lining a gazillion of my beds simply because it was so dependable.

Heliopsis 'Loraine Sunshine' which was new last year, did not return.
May 20 - Haha, yes it did! I was going by my notation last year that it was "planted where the 'red dragon' was". But I must have moved it to another spot, so of course it wasn't coming up there! See what happens when you don't take notes?? Suddenly, the poor little thing appeared where I had put some iris transplants. Luckily, I hadn't kill it outright. So I moved it over to yet another spot of its own.

New Members of the Garden!

Well, the first one's not really a NEW member - Solidago canadensis 'Baby Gold' (goldenrod). I bought one plant 2 years ago. This year I divided it again; and had 5 good-sized clumps. But, while at the garden centre, I figured I'd buy one more. Lovely plant which grows in its spot... unlike the wild goldenrod. Eeek! I just planted a couple small clumps of the wild stuff late last summer and this spring it was coming up extensively - travelling by runners 2 miles long in every direction. Moved that kind to the very back "bad" garden where all the other 'weedy' plants are, where nothing else grows. They can all have fun running rampant and duking it out.

Asiatic Lily, Lilium 'Cancum'. Hmmm, as if I need more lilies. But the colours (yellow and orange) are so vivid and beautiful.

Sedum 'Mediovariegatum'. Like a varigated Autumn Joy.

pictured left - Blue-Eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium 'Rocky Point' (Aquatic Plant). It's like a mini-iris that likes to have its feet wet ("thrives in the shallow edges of streams and ponds"), so I thought it would be perfect for my marsh garden. It's a Zone 4, but sometimes those overwinter here, if they are in the right spot.

Lysimachia clethroides 'Beaujolais' (Gooseneck Loosestrife). Looked interesting. "It is best planted in the naturalized garden... where its spreading habit can be admired." LOL! Is that a euphemism for "you've just bought yourself a pain-in-the-@$$" ?

And, finally (for now), Papaver orientale 'Royal Wedding' (Oriental Poppy).

Yes, I just went to the garden centre to LOOK. I also got a new hosta variety and will give another go at a clematis. Haven't planted them yet, so I don't have the markers handy and I'm too lazy right now to trudge upstairs and outside to get them.

And Back to Gardening Notes!

May 23 - So, how is my town project coming along so far? Oh, well, it's still in the thinking stage but I did recently have a couple INSPIRATIONS about how to set it up. We are going on vacation, so when we get back, I'll work on those inpirations.

Yesterday, I was at the cottage. I came back with a palm sized piece of this moss. Oh, it is growing by the ton at 'The Point'. Isn't it wonderful? The little stalks make it look like a sea of red from above, only when you get down close can you see it is growing from real green moss. Must... get... more... Again, after vacation. I think this is perfect for some of the ground cover in my town.

June 15 - We were on vacation in Nova Scotia for 10 days. When we left, most plants in my garden were hugging the ground. When we came back (the 5th) - sproing! - everything was filled out and TALL. And so many weeds. We've had nothing but rain, maybe a couple days of sun, so far this month. The plants look great but there just doesn't seem to be any opportunity to work in the garden and deal with all those weeds. Plus I want to work on more tufa projects... and my town is taking a back burner.

June 16

LEFT: Dame's Rocket in bloom.
RIGHT: Front garden walkway, with incredibly fast creeping thyme. Syberian iris in bloom on left.

LEFT: Treeman has found his permanent home by the front steps, at the entrance to the rock garden (a cedar used to be here). He has a nice potted plant hair-do.
RIGHT: June 26 - This is another tufa project I've just completed. Although he's moving out to the cottage and won't be living in my garden, this picture was taken in our back yard. Therefore, I considered it to be a bona fide garden picture and I could show off "Mippie", as I am quite proud of him.

July 8 - As two of my painted rock cats were stolen from the garden last night/this morning, my town idea is temporarily (maybe permanently) on hold. All my other rock animals have been moved inside.

What's Blooming Now!

April 23 - wallcress, pulmonaria (out of all I have in 3 separate patches, only one little plant is blooming, so far, but that still counts!)
April 30 - wallcress, pulmonaria

May 7 - wallcress, pulmonaria NEW: violets
May 14 - wallcress, pulmonaria, violets NEW: primrose, moss phlox
May 21 - wallcress, pulmonaria, violets, primrose, moss phlox NEW: chokecherry tree, wild violets, lamium, periwinkle, forget-me-nots, bergenia, blue-eyed grass
May 28 - on vacation

June 4 - on vacation
June 11 - violets, moss phlox, wild violets, lamium, periwinkle, forget-me-nots, blue-eyed grass, snow-in-summer, flax, soapwort, false Solomon's seal, cypress spurge, chives, lilacs, lily-of-the-valley, dame's rocket, pussytoes, (real) Solomon's seal, yellow acre, bugleweed, kiwi vine, yellow archangel, lychnis, tradescantia, cranesbill geranium, Stella d'oro daylilies, clematis
June 18 - wild violets, lamium, periwinkle, blue-eyed grass, flax, soapwort, cypress spurge, chives, lilacs, dame's rocket, pussytoes, Solomon's seal, yellow acre, bugleweed, kiwi vine, yellow archangel, lychnis, tradescantia, cranesbill geranium, Stella d'oro daylilies, clematis NEW: honeysuckle vine, Jacob's ladder, lady's mantle, columbine, Irish moss
June 25 - wild violets, blue-eyed grass, flax, chives, dame's rocket, pussytoes, yellow acre, yellow archangel, lychnis, tradescantia, cranesbill geranium, Stella d'oro daylilies, clematis, honeysuckle vine, Jacob's ladder, lady's mantle, columbine, Irish moss NEW: penstemon, verionica, helianthus, gooseneck (new plant), yellow loosestrife, sundrops, painted daisies, daisies, orange lilies, matricaria, motherwort, edelweiss, short yarrow, campanula, bishop's weed, filipendula

Finishing Off 2005 - The stolen rocks really put a damper on things for me. So I'm finally getting around to starting 2006's page and I'll end '05 with some pictures I didn't get around to posting before.

Behind the shed (periwinkle as the ground cover).

A couple of my later tufa projects. The baby elephant's name is Curses, because of what I was doing all day long when making him. And then I made a whack of sea otters (only 1 for my garden, the others distributed out to family). I should have made river otters, they'd have been so much smaller and easier. I'm 5'0", to give you an idea of their size. They weren't all stained at the time of this pic, so that's why some body parts are different colours.

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