One of my rock paintings.

2009

Wednesday, June 3, 2009 - No, it's not a picture of my garden, but it might as well be. This is at the cottage, Lake Manitoba on May 10th. It's been a cold and crappy spring. I feel time slipping away. I haven't had much of a chance to get out in the garden. I haven't had a chance to update my pages.

Thursday, June 25, 2009 - Yes, I'm alive and well and still gardening....
I'm sure you're all just waiting eagerly (not) for me to finally add an update.

OK, so we've had a couple VERY warm weeks; it is wonderful, it actually feels like summer. My first big project this year was to raise the rock garden: raise/level all the stone blocks (are they called 'blocks' if they are round?) and then the edging/dividing rocks and lastly the plants. The plants only had to be raised on the house side as the garden was leaning into the house and needed to be sloping away. Everything was put up a good 3 to 4 inches. Tedious and time consuming, it has taken 3 weeks. I finally finished today (YAY!).

These are my PITA (not bread) lily-of-the-valley that pop up everywhere! Note how not even a 15 inch sidewalk can deter them from finding their way across to the other side.

Comments on Last Year's new plants:

GROWING WONDERFULLY:
Crown Vetch (Coronilla varia)
Scotch Moss 'Aurea' (Sagina subulata)

GROWING EXCEPTIONALLY WONDERFULLY:
Cornflower (Centaurea dealbata)
Leopard's Bane (Doronicum caucasicum)
In fact, these two above plants (which were just from itty bitty pots last year) came up huge and crowded together. Since I was raising this flowerbed, too, I had to detangle the cornflower from the leopard's bane and it really took a beating because it was so big already. But I have been faithfully watering it and, while a bit bedraggled, it is covered with buds and today was starting to bloom. The leopard's bane has just finished blooming, it was gorgeous, but I neglected to photo it.

GROWING WELL:
Coneflower 'White Swan' (Echinacea Purpurea)
Columbine 'Ruby Port' (Aquilegia vulgaris)
Cranesbill Geranimum 'Max Frei'
Bitter Root 'Little Peach' (Lewisia longipetala) - Replanted this to the west sun garden.
Joe Pye Weed 'Gateway' (Eupatorium maculatum)
Alpine lady's mantle (Alchemilla alpina)

GROWING:
Clematis 'Nelly Moser' - I didn't think this made it. I brought in some hops from the cottage and shortly after the clematis made an appearance. They can duke it out.

DEAD AND GONE:
Sea Holly 'Blue Diamond' (Eryngium planum) - Arrrggghh! And I REALLY wanted this plant, too. So I bought another one and planted it in a different location; however the tag on the new plant does not list any variety at all.
'Cherry Bells' (Campanula punctat)

ALSO DEAD AND GONE:
(from 2007) Wherry foamflower (Tiarella wherryi)
(from 2006) Tickseed (Coreopsis Grandiflora)
(from 2005) Oriental poppy (Papaver orientale) - I don't think this was the plant's fault, entirely. This WAS doing well for 2 years but last year I moved it and it never fully recovered and this year it didn't come back.

New Members of the Garden!

- Oh, I have to gather up my tags and make a list; I'll try to get to that SAP.

Obviously, my updates were nonexistent during this season. It's April, 2010, and I'm in the process of adding yet another page to my monotonous garden saga. Hopefully, I will be more inspired in the future.

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