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So much for the bergenia waking up! Here is what they looked like this morning.
More snow coming in Calgary and a high of 1oC for tomorrow and 3oC the next day! I know I said I can deal with our crazy spring weather because I don't expect to garden until at least the end of April. Well, now it's the end of April...! Enough already!
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Well it certainly wasn't gardening weather this past week-end, was it? I am way behind on my April to-do list!
Thank goodness for pansies! Generally pansies can go outside in Calgary in mid-April. I took the kids to the garden center on Saturday and we came home with these. It would have been nice to have a few days to harden them off a little before it got cold (and snowy!) again, but oh well. Pansies are tough. I brought them in last night but they are going back outside this morning - there is nowhere safe to keep them inside where my one-year-old won't attack them (she's a future gardener - she likes to dig!)
I also used the cold weather this week-end to get caught up on taking care of my seedlings. I thinned, pinched back and repotted the last few things that needed it. And my kids also helped me plant the last of my indoor seeds - sunflowers, nasturtiums, morning glories and sweet peas. But that's it. If things don't warm up soon I am going to start going crazy!
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Well the crocuses are still blooming away, but otherwise I have no pretty pictures to post yet. These ones are just for my own records - so next year at this time I can compare and see whether the garden is ahead or behind where it was in previous years.
In case you're curious, the plants are, from left to right, top to bottom:
morden sunrise rose; blue oat grass; lilac bud; peony (hey, how'd that get in there twice?); pulmonaria; leopard's bane; bearded iris; silver mound artemesia; lady's mantle; scarlet trumpet honeysuckle; morden sunrise rose (hey!...) All pictures are from the back yard since, well, I just didn't get to the front this week-end.
For another note, it is snowing and not supposed to get above zero for the next 2 days. Is anyone else getting just a little grumpy?
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Thanks to reader Jon who added this tip in the comments section of a previous post about when to start vegetable seeds in Calgary. For some cautions/tips on using it, be sure to read the rest of the comments section of that post.
"I contacted All Seasons Mushrooms today (April 25, 2009) and they told me the Mushroom Compost Give Away will begin May 3rd to May 10th (2009). You have to load yourself until May 9th. On that day, they will have a loader available to put compost into the back of trucks. I have a minivan rather than a truck so I go out and load myself. If you are loading into garbage bags, I suggest taking a container like a garbage can to put the bag into while shoveling the compost into the bag. It is a lot easier than trying to put a shovel load into the bag while holding it."
Thanks Jon!
[Update:
I've never been, but found these directions on
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/farnorth/msg021547561811.html
The farm is about 16 km north of Airdrie, just south of Crossfield, actually. You take the QE2 (hwy 2) to the Beiseker/Crossfield overpass, then take the Beiseker highway East for a very short distance, to a sign that says "Service road". Turn onto that, go all the way around the J-bend (do *NOT* go down the unpaved road, stay on the pavement) and head back south on the service road. Just follow it around and it'll take you to the farm gates on the east side of the road.]
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Here is my house in 2004, the year we moved in. As you can see, I wasted no time in starting to remove some of the front lawn! Unfortunately, the deck was rotted and had to come out the next year.
Anyway, I couldn't stand the orangey-brown colour, especially with yellow trim. In 2006 we painted the house blue (actually, my Dad did.) I know, I know, neutral beiges are currently trendy and much more sophisticated looking, but in a city that looks brown for most of the year, I need colour wherever possible!
So now I am starting to think about trim colours, because the yellow has got to go too! (please don't laugh at my weak photoshop skills!)
I can't quite decide, so I am asking for opinions. Here is what I am currently thinking though:
I love the funky chartreuse trim in the top photos, but am thinking it's too impractical. In a couple of years, we want to start replacing all the windows and will probably go with low-maintenance vinyl frames on the outside. Therefore, the trim needs to be a fairly standard colour. (and by the way, I'm not up to painting the eavestroughs right now so they will stay brown)
While not as bright, I also like the light blue-ish/teal-ish/grey-ish trim. Now what do you think about a door colour?
[Update: Elli, one of the artists in my family, says green trim. She would pick the less practical one...!]
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Bergenia tends to look a little sad throughout the winter, because although it's classified as "evergreen", in zone 3 the leaves look dead and messy when not covered with snow (which, fortunately, they were this year).
But, that is the only drawback of bergenia, as far as I'm concerned. It is drought-tolerant, grows in sun or shade, makes a beautiful green groundcover and has bold, pink flowers in spring. When not blooming, its large flat leaves contrast well with many other plants, including irises, blue fescue and feather reed grass.
My bergenia are just starting to come back now. Their leaves are perking up and turning from black to burgundy back to green. Hooray for spring!
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Besides the crocus blooms, I have lots of things starting to green up in the garden. Here are some of them, clockwise starting from the top left:
Chives in the Herb garden
Lamium in the Butterfly garden
Lamb’s ears in the Kids’ Adventure Garden
Centaurea montana and Siberian squill about to bloom
Iceland poppies – these are great for early blooms!
Delphiniums beside the house
Tulipa tarda not showing any buds yet
Sedum Autumn Joy in a hot spot between the south patio and basement wall (middle picture)
What a beautiful week-end it was! Yesterday I cleaned up the perennials still standing in the backyard, removed the pine branches from the strawberry patch, and started chopping up the branches from last year’s Christmas tree and other pruning sprees I’ve been on recently (while my husband "watched the kids".) I’d like to finish pruning and getting the branches and perennials tidied up this week, and next week I will tackle the greenhouse and rain barrels (if the weather continues to cooperate... I probably just jinxed it!)
What's happening in your garden?
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My yard is fairly shady so I’m sure many other Calgary gardens have been enjoying crocus blooms for a week or so. But here, finally, are mine, growing through some sedum and snow-in-summer. Aren't they cute?
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Here’s what my husband did while I was doing some yard clean-up yesterday! I’m not upset that he wasn’t helping; his job is usually to keep the kids occupied while I get something done in the garden. However, while I was absorbed in garden clean-up and he was absorbed in the creation of his inukshuk, our one-year-old was sitting on the back porch eating dog food… oops!
It's a pretty cool inukshuk though, don't you think?
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If you have lots of nooks and crannies in your yard like we do (rotted wood retaining walls, greenhouse with raised floor, firewood piles, I could go on), then you have lots of places that wasps might like to make a nest.
For the past few years we've put up these paper bags and they deter wasps from making a nest in the area (they don't like to make their own too close to another one - and the paper bags look real enough). My husband makes them with shredded paper in a plastic bag, bunched inside a paper bag - that way they can withstand the elements for a few months.
These still won't keep the wasps from finding your picnic table in the summer, unfortunately...
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Just finished repotting my tomato seedlings this morning. The dishes never got put away last night, but really, what's more important...?
I won't spend too much time on tips since I posted a lot on repotting and taking care of tomato seedlings last year. Lots of information on growing tomatoes from seed can also be found here.
I am planning to trade some tomato plants with a few friends, plus I may have a few extra to give away. So, for the record, these are the tomato varieties I'm trying this year:
2 cold-tolerant, early varieties:
Sub-Arctic Plenty, determinate (bush), 45 days (large cherry-size, red)
Siberia, determinate, 48 days (small-med sized, red)
and several relatively early indeterminate (vine) varieties:
Sugary, 60 days (cherry, only 2 germinated so sorry, none to trade)
Charlie's Red Staker, 65 days (large, red)
Sweet Gold, 65 days (yellow cherry)
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If your seedlings are getting leggy, they’re not getting enough light. They are stretching up in search of more light, and the result is thin and weak stems. Generally, even a sunny south-facing window doesn’t provide enough light for most fast-growing annuals (although you can always try). What you really need to do is set up a fluorescent light with two bulbs in it- one warm and one cool to provide the broadest spectrum of light possible- and keep the lights only an inch or two above your seedlings. Other tips:
· If you covered your seedlings to keep them moist after planting, uncover them as soon as they have germinated. An environment that is too moist may cause damping off, where the seedlings basically rot at their base, fall over and die.
· Thin the seedlings so that there is space between each individual one. Seedlings that grow too close together will depend on each other for support, and end up with weak stems.
· Turn an electric fan on your seedlings for at least a couple hours per day. Some air movement will also help to strengthen the stems and prevent mold and mildew from forming.
Why reinvent the wheel? More seed-starting tips can be found here:
Seed-starting basics from A Way to Garden
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After being away for the long week-end, I was happy to come home and see that all my seedlings survived my absence. Four days was pushing it though- a few had started to wilt but I think they can be rescued.
This morning I spent some time thinning and repotting some of my snapdragons and verbena bonariensis seedlings. It is a difficult thing to do, after raising seedlings from “birth”. The temptation for me is to keep them all out of a misguided motherly attachment, and also my greed in wanting as many plants as possible. But I have learned from experience to be ruthless in my thinning! It is better to have strong plants, but a few less of them, than to have more plants but have them all be weak from having grown too close together. If it is a seedling I really want to have more of, then I will separate and repot two that are growing in the same cell, but if I already have enough of a particular plant (remember, I still must spend the time hardening them off and then transplanting them all outside - more plants is not necessarily better!) then I just snip the extras off at the base with a pair of small scissors and be done with it. Much less work!
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OK, I’m a little behind on this one. I went to Edmonton for the week-end and didn’t
get a chance to blog about Easter before I went. Here, to make up for it, are some spring
colours to brighten your day. They are
crocus and siberian squill, blooming in my mother-in-law’s hot and sunny south-facing
garden in Edmonton. The same flowers in
my own shady yard will be another week or two before they bloom. For fun, I took the pictures through some
kaleidoscope-thingies my kids got for Easter.
More ideas for Easter-related fun:
What to do with indoor Easter/spring flowers after they finish
blooming
Easter ideas for kids
Easter eggs with natural dyes, by Rosalind Creasy
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Compost is truly a gardener’s best friend. Last year, I posted about how I had 5 cu. yards (!) delivered to my front yard and it took me about 2 months to finish spreading it around (others could do it faster, I’m sure, but most of my gardening is done in small bursts in the early morning before the kids wake up). Yes, it’s a lot of work in spring but then you’re done mulching and fertilizing the garden for the rest of the year!
In order to save a little time, energy and $$, I only have a big delivery every other year, and in years in between I use my own compost. But my garden keeps getting bigger and bigger and I don’t quite make enough of my own to apply to the whole garden every year. Some more tips and benefits:
· You can spread it on your lawn, too. Rake a thin layer (about 1/4") over the grass in May or June.
· Compost breaks down slowly over the season, which follows the general principle of “feed your soil, and let the soil feed your plants”.
· Compost also acts as a mulch in that it helps keep weeds down. Don’t turn over your soil (which awakens all the little weed seeds near the surface), just topdress your garden with a little compost every year. Keep in mind that it doesn’t help retain moisture as well as bark mulch, though. If you use other mulch, you need to rake the mulch off, apply the compost, then put the mulch back down (which is why I don’t like using other kinds of mulch!)
· It is a great slow-release fertilizer, so you don’t have to worry about run-off or applying too much. Just spread about an inch or so over the garden in late April through May, and don’t worry about fertilizing your garden for the rest of the year (containers are a different story).
· It is easier to apply early in the season before plants get too big, but make sure if you do it very early that you don’t put it on top of any plants that haven’t started growing yet. Doing so will either smother the plants or possibly burn them or cause them to rot. Leave a little space around the crown of each plant so that the compost doesn’t actually touch any plants.
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There are lots of easy to grow vegetables for Calgary zone 3. Someday when I am done the major projects in the rest of the yard, and when those raised beds are done, I will grow more vegetables myself, but for now I choose the easy route. I only start tomatoes inside because they need a head start, and the rest of my veggies are ones that are easy to grow by sowing them directly in the ground when it's warm enough. I also only grow veggies that are really worth the space, which is at a premium in my shady yard: carrots, peas, beans, lettuce, spinach all taste infinitely better picked fresh that those tasteless facsimiles at the grocery store. I also grew pumpkins last year but decided they take up too much space.
Here is a schedule for planting these as well as many other vegetables with times for seeding indoors, transplanting outside, and seeding directly outside. I copied it with some modifications from The Calgary Gardener, a must-have book by the Calgary Horticultural Society.
Recommended reading: Garden Rant Rules for Beginning Vegetable Gardeners
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I saw a girl wearing short shorts and flip-flops the other day, so it must be.... above freezing in Calgary!
Seriously though, the beginning of April seems to have literally and figuratively brought with it the parting of the clouds, the shining of the sun, and the singing of the birds. After a winter with unusual snow cover and a March without any warm, sunny days to break up the cold, everyone's spirits are lifting with this change in the weather. In the mornings as I walk to work I can feel the frost crunching out of the ground as I cross the park. At the end of the day I pick my way through the vast puddles that have formed. The last few days I've wakened to the sound of robins chirping outside. Monday was the first day this year that I played with the kids outside in the backyard when I got home from work. A couple more nice days (which are in the forecast), and the snow will be completely gone. What more could anyone ask for at this time of year?
I am a college instructor in my "real job", and although I truly do love teaching, I sometimes joke that I convinced myself that I love teaching just so that I could have a job with the summers off so I could garden! But with the winter semester wrapping up at the same time as the snow is finally melting, I am truly feeling that one of the reasons I love my job is that it is in tune with nature's cycles. Is that a stretch? No, I don't think so. I love teaching but the semesters are long, intense work, and I am as relieved as the students once it is over. Now we are all crawling out of our caves of winter classes and exams, stretching our limbs and turning our faces towards the sun.
Welcome, spring!
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At last! It is time to start gardening in Calgary! Well, at least time to start getting ready to garden…! Depending on how much snow we get this month, some of April’s tasks may not be do-able until the end of the month, but here’s my garden to-do list, in order of priority, and modified from the Calgary Horticultural Society’s monthly to do list for April. For some descriptions of what was happening in my garden last April (a verrrry late spring), click here.
From the archives:
Be patient
Why gardening in Calgary is fun
Taking care of tomatoes
Veggies to sow in mid-April
What is hardening off?
Early April:
· Start seeds of fast-growing annuals. This year I am growing cosmos, lavatera, cleome, purple millet, and euphorbia ‘snow on the mountain’. Most of these could be direct-seeded outside in May but I like to start them inside for earlier blooms.
· Care for seeds already started in March. This means keeping them under fluorescent lights which are only an inch above the leaves, cutting them back to the first set of leaves to encourage branching, thinning, repotting and fertilizing. I also have an electric fan blowing on my seedlings to help them develop strong, sturdy stems.
Clean and fill bird baths (as soon as weather permits.)
Mid-April
· Take the kids to the garden center, let them pick out their favourite pansies, come home and help them pot them up. Put the pots on the front and back steps… because the pansies can take our spring temperatures and because it’s time for some colour out there, dammit!
Whenever I get the chance:
· Pick up thawed dog poop. Ewww.
· Finishing pruning trees and shrubs except birches, maples, roses and spring-flowering shrubs like lilacs.
· Clean out the “greenhouse” (actually, it’s more like a shed in my case).
· Sweep patios (mine get covered with spruce needles and cones over the winter – what I collect gets put in other areas of the garden as mulch).
· Rake debris from the lawn when it is dry enough to walk on (wet soil gets compacted and that’s a bad thing).
· Cut down any of last year’s perennials that are still standing as soon as ground is dry.
· Start pulling back winter mulch (leaves, in my case) from the crowns of growing perennials – but don’t actually remove it until May. This way the sleeping ladybugs don’t get disturbed too early, and the garden is still somewhat protected from the crazy temperature swings that we will inevitably get!!
Late April:
· Start seeds of the fastest growing annuals: sweet peas, nasturtiums, sunflowers and morning glory.
Set up rain barrels and check eavestroughs.
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