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Garden heading towards spring peak

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I think my garden is building up to it’s spring peak. More tulips have come up and developed buds, the German and Siberian iris’ are growing strong and should send up flower spikes soon.The primrose (this is primrose isn’t it) is blooming –

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The azaleas have developed buds and one of them has started to bloom:

Azalea buds

The chives have developed buds and will bloom shortly. This photo is actually one from last year and some of the chive buds had already opened:

Chive blooms

The best thing about the garden this year is that I really did a lot of work on it two or three weeks ago, so it’s nice and tidy and other than making sure the vines are growing where I want them to grow I really haven’t had to do too much gardening work since. It’s nice to be able to sit back and enjoy the garden.

I have a ton of photos on my camera that I still haven’t found time to transfer to the computer. As a result all of the pictures I’ve shared with you today are actually from last spring – but don’t worry, the plants look pretty much the same as they did last year. LOL

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!






Spring garden maintenance complete and front boulevard planted

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I’d like to thank everyone who stopped by to express their condolences on the loss of Chris’ cousin who was a very good friend of ours. I was supposed to be in another city and attending the visitations today, but I got really sick yesterday and our car broke down. So I’m home tonight … Chris can’t even drive back to pick me up as our car hasn’t been repaired yet. You can read a more detailed explanation of what happened on my main blog if you’d like.

So on to garden related stuff …

Last week, in preparation for Green Thumb Sunday, I went out into my yard and took pictures of most of the plants that were either coming up or that were blooming.

The garden looks very nice this year. Chris and I spent two days last weekend cleaning up the garden – trimming plants, getting rid of dead foliage, pruning roses and putting some compost that we picked up at a local park on Saturday thanks to Toronto’s Earth days’. (That’s a green recycling program where the city gives back the compost from the green garbage and other yard related wastes it’s picked up the year prior).

Needless to say my back took a beating and ached for a few days after I over did it in the garden. The effort payed off though as we had cooler temperatures and some rain last week and that really perked up the garden. Since the beds were tidier I could really see how my plants were progressing.

IMG_3325 Now you might remember a post I made about a month ago. It was the one where I showed photos of our front yard still covered in snow and photos of our planted boulevard that I had spent the day cleaning up.

Well the front boulevard looks even nicer now! I planted some peonies that I’d purchased in early April as well as some Dahlias, Gay Feather and a few other plants to go along with the plants that have been growing there for a few years (iris, daylilies, malva, salvia, tulips) and we placed our short bamboo fence in front of it to finish off the look and protect the garden from the teens that like to stand outside my house talking before they go their separate ways after school.

This is what it looks like now:

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and from another angle:

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Just to give you a complete picture of how the front garden looks I’ll throw in a photo of the front flower beds too:

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Now most of my plants are in the backyard. In a day or two I’ll post some photos of how the backyard garden looks right now and maybe a few photos of what’s blooming.

I hope your gardens are doing well right now!

Signs of life in the garden

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heurchera Leaves

I’ve very pleased to announce that the snow that covered my garden beds for most of the winter is now almost gone and that there are signs of life in the form of green sprouts coming up everywhere in the garden and even my lawn.

I saw our first crocus, a white one, in a sunny area of our back lawn on Tuesday. The next day I went out into the garden with our puppy and I noticed that the crocus’ that I’d planted at the edges of the raised garden beds, in the lawn, were starting to appear as well. There were no other flowers but their distinctive green leaves were sprouting up in several places.

I grow strawberries along the edge of a few of our garden beds and as per usual once the snow disappeared the plants were looking leafy and green.

Chives, heuchera, a few tulips, iris and perhaps even some daffodil leaves are making an appearance as well.

It’s a Spring beautiful day here in Toronto. So in a little while I hope to go out and begin to tidy up a few garden beds. I’m not going to do too much. Just clear off some of the dead foliage. No pruning or clipping just yet.

I’m certain that once I clear off some of the leaves that have blown into the garden beds and take away the dead foliage that’s matted down on the beds I’ll discover that quite a few plants are beginning to grow.

I just love this time of year in the garden. It’s a joy to see those first few green sprouts and to dream of what’s to come.

Peony new growth

Maybe I’ll get lucky and discover that the peonies are beginning to come up.

How is your garden doing today?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!

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