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It won’t be long until Spring

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I can’t help longing for spring. I’m sure most cold climate gardeners know how I feel.

Well the good news is that in only two months it will officially be Spring. Yeah, the weather won’t be so great in late March, not here in Toronto anyway, but by then we’ll know that we won’t have to wait much longer for nice weather and the first flowers of spring!

The first flowers that appear in my garden … well actually in my lawn since that’s where I planted them, are the Crocus’. They usually appear during the last week of March – often March 26th for some reason. Sometimes there’s still some snow on the lawn, but the crocus’ break through and bloom their lovely hopeful signs of spring.

Another flower that I look forward to seeing each spring is this lovely Fringed tulip:

fringed tulip

These fringed tulips are late spring bloomers though … I often have to wait until early June before they show off their lovely colorful blooms. By then of course I’m starting to anticipate summer flowers.Plus if it’s really warm in early June the beautiful blooms that I enjoy seeing don’t last as long as they should.

What spring flowers do you look forward to seeing in the near future?

Oh … update on that one Amaryllis that is about to bloom … I’ve been taking pictures of the flower bud as it separates into four distinct flower buds. I suspect we’ll have four huge blooms on the stock in a day or two. I’ll post the series of Amaryllis bud to bloom pictures in next weeks Green Thumb post.






We’re getting new neighbors

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On January 1st the home next door will have new people living in it. Renters … not sure how I feel about that.

Sofie, my former neighbor (and stalker) and owner of the house, had a stroke last February and she’s now living with her youngest son. The family tried to sell the house in the Fall but it didn’t sell so they decided to rent until the housing market is a little better.

So … come January 1st a lady with two kids and a young boyfriend will be moving in. The kids are 6 and 9 years old or so we’ve heard. We haven’t met the new people, but in talking with our former neighbors son it sounds like the people gave them an “iffy” feeling. I hope they turn out to be ok neighbors.

Our former neighbors on the other side of our house had a kid, but we have a high fence on that side so we only had to deal with the occasional toy thrown into our garden.

The side of the house that the new neighbors will be on has a shorter chain link fence and some of our roses and other plants tend to hang over or creep over to their side of the yard.

I hope that the kids are well behaved and don’t start pulling on my plants or damaging them come Spring and Summer.

In the Spring Chris and I will take a good look at the roses and Rose of Sharon that’s growing on that side of the yard and give them a trim in order to make sure that they aren’t going into the neighbors yard.

If you have neighbors with kids or possibly bad neighbors have they ever gotten into your garden or damaged your plants? Yes I know, some of you will probably have horror stories of wars with neighbors.

I’m just asking since I’m used to having older neighbors around rather than young kids. I also have some poisonous plants in my garden (monkshood, Datura etc) and that’s another reason why I hope that the new neighbors kids are good and stay in their own yard.

Backyard Composting Tips

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There are many benefits to composting your household wastes like kitchen scraps, leaves, grass clippings and so on. One of the main benefits is that you can use the compost that you’ve created on your own garden or perhaps your lawn if you don’t have a garden.

Our plants and trees can gain much needed nutrients when we amend the soil around them with compost.

Here in Toronto we have what is called “Green Garbage”. Those who don’t compost can add their kitchen scraps and a few other materials to their green bins for collection each week. The city then combines this green waste with shredded, and I presume composted yard waste (leaves and plant trimmings and such), and gives it back to the residents of Toronto each Spring on certain days. Residents can pick up compost for their garden at special depots set up in various communities on specific days.

We usually try to pick up a large garbage can worth of the cities compost each spring, but we don’t rely on it as we have our own composter in our backyard.

If you’d like to learn how to set up your own composter why don’t you have a look at these videos.

Backyard Composting

Learn the basics of garden composting. Create some great nutrient rich compost for your garden from scraps and yard waste. Improve your soil the organic way.

Garden Girl TV: Simple Easy Compost Bin

Patti, the Garden Girl, shows you a simple and easy way to make a compost bin for your organic lawn or garden.

So if you haven’t already done so, go ahead and start your own backyard compost bin. Your plants will show you how much they enjoy having their soil amended with compost and your kitchen garbage won’t be as smelly!

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