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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?

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Working in the garden – Spring cleaning

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Well I managed to finally get out into the Garden on Sunday. It was a lovely day and it was high time that I got out there to tidy up my garden and begin pruning the roses.

Last Autumn I didn’t even manage to put my garden to bed. By this I mean I didn’t do the usual winter protection. I was just too ill. So I’d have to say that I really haven’t done much in my garden at all since perhaps last September and at that time it was mainly only watering the garden.

That’s 7 months of not doing any garden work. Do you know how my body is feeling right now?

I was outside for about five hours. Once I got started I couldn’t make myself stop. Surprisingly I felt pretty good while I was working away. However once I got back inside I began to notice that my back was stiffening up. Now the bottom of my left foot is numb. I guess I must have a pinched nerve in my back! Oh the damage I do to myself when I garden. I tell you – it’s an extreme sport for me.

There are so many plants growing it’s unbelievable! Some are way ahead of themselves. For instance, my daffodils rarely make an appearance before mid-May, yet I have two that are up and blooming and more to come. Some of my supposedly later blooming Tulips are also up and about to bloom. What else was growing well? Strawberry plants, raspberry canes, several clematis, helebores, columbine, monkshood, toad lilies, regular lilies, oriental lilies, several types of tulip, hyacinth, muscari, lavender, Chionodoxa, snow drops, sedum, astilbe, geranium, new york asters, phlox, hostas, trilliums, peonies, rudbeckia, honeysuckle vines and on and on. I’m sure I’ve missed some of the perennials that I saw out there.

I believe that most of the roses will end up surviving. There’s a lot of dead branches but there’s life in the lower areas. Some are quite hardy and are already leaving out at the tips and upper branches. I didn’t survey each rose because I was trying to systematically work my way through the garden one area at a time.

I think I managed to tidy up half of the back garden beds. If my body cooperates I’ll go back outside later today and try to finish up the back. Then I’ll have to do the side of the house, the front garden and boulevard. Oh my … it’s a lot of work!

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