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I just love gardening in the Spring

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I think I love just about everything about Spring … well ok, maybe not the garbage that seems to blow on my lawn and gets tangled in my roses or the sometimes endless days of rain … but otherwise, Spring just might be my favorite season.

I love watching the grass turn from dry straw like patches to tender green; seeing the first stem and leaves come up out of the soil from a seed I planted only weeks before; and seeing the first few flowers of spring bloom in my garden.

Speaking of Spring flowers … my Danfordia irises – tiny little things, came up in the second week of April, but unfortunately they only lasted about a week. I wish these lovely delicate flowers would last a month instead of just days!

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They’re so pretty!

It’s cool outside today, but yesterday … oh it was one of the best and worst days of Spring! Temps were almost 90 F with the humidity, but then at about 5:30 pm it got really dark and winds suddenly came up out of nowhere. I was outside pruning some roses and our neighbor behind us started to lose part of his eves trough, and the one next to us lost part of his lattice fence …

All the while I was gathering up my gardening tools and trying to get inside the house while things were flying around ie fence, eves trough and small branches from our other neighbors huge maple! My husband was just coming back from a store when he got caught in the wind storm. A tree fell right in front of the car as he was driving! Power lines came down with it too! Surprisingly this didn’t really make the news … but as far as I’m concerned we were both out in a bad wind storm or mini-tornado! That’s what it seemed like anyway! After that the rain started and we had a small thunderstorm – what an end to a beautiful day!

At least my flowers didn’t seem to get damaged in the storm. The hyacinth had just opened up the other day and I took photos of them before the storm … oh that sweet smelling hyacinth perfume … wafting through the garden. I love it!

I also have some tulips that are just starting to bloom today, daffodils that will bloom in a couple of days and several other plants leafing out or developing buds. The garden is going to be lovely this year!

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How is your garden this spring? Are your plants coming up earlier than normal – as they are here in Toronto?

BTW sorry for the lack of Green Thumb Sunday posts in the last two weeks. I’ve been sick lately (bad reaction to a new med), and also discouraged by the lack of participation from members. If you are making GTS posts please remember to check in on this site so we will all know that you’ve made a new Green Thumb post.






I think my garden is two weeks ahead this year

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I can’t believe how well my garden is doing so far this Spring. We had a much warmer than usual March (that means above zero temps instead of -20 C!) and that seems to have put my garden ahead by at least two weeks.

The Crocuses are just about finished blooming in the backyard – although the ones in the shadier front lawn haven’t come up yet). The ones remaining in the back are wilted or just green leaves now. Here’s what they looked like about two weeks ago at their best:

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The raised garden beds have little green patches throughout – the tulips leaves are almost fully grown, as are the hyacinth leaves. Some of the hyacinths have started to develop buds and I expect that they’ll be blooming in a few days. The Glories of the Snow are up as well and most are in bloom. Actually a lot of my spring bulbs are producing leaves or showing signs of life, the roses are starting to leaf out as well. It’s certainly nice to see all the green leaves as well as spots with pink and blue flowers.

My Danfordia irises were up and blooming last weekend, but then we let the dog out in the yard and she trampled them. 🙁 She also ate a few of the Crocus flowers and leaves and gave us a bit of a scare late that night when she wouldn’t settle down. She kept trying to lie down in various areas of our living room but then she’d jump up again and change spots a minute later. This went on for over two hours. So for now we’re not letting her out in the yard – when she gets excited (seeing the new puppy next door) she tends to bit plants randomly … that’s not good when there are some toxic plants out there!

So far my garden beds are looking good. They still have cedar mulch on them from last year.  I did however spend some time tidying them up and pulling out oh maybe 100 tiny maple trees that had started growing in the still bare spots in the raised beds. With all the rain we’ve had in the past few days I’m sure I’ll have more to pull out this weekend.

How is your garden doing this Spring? Is it a week or two ahead because of warmer temps earlier in the year or is it behind?

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:

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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.

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