Garden

Fall’s On The Way…

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Yesterday I could feel it in the air. “The closing down of summer…” as Alastair MacLeod describes it in his wonderful short story of that name – the first in his collection “As Birds Bring Forth The Sun.” Yesterday there was a hint of the chill to come, although the temperature was in the 20s; a smell unmistakable and yet indescribable. It was there.

Today I look around and see harbingers everywhere:
The hosta flowers have been finished for more than a week – I’ve been meaning to cut the stalks off for a month, the pruners have been sitting on the bench in my front hall waiting for me to get to the task – just haven’t done it yet.

The bees are busy harvesting pollen from the echineacea – more bees than I’ve seen all summer long – they know the season has begun changing.

I haven’t spotted any blue chicory along the roadside but there’s lots of goldenrod around. It all reminds me of a seventh-grade science project – the seed chart – a sheet of bristolboard filled with samples of local wildflower seeds in small bags and carefully labelled – that’s why I recognize our fall wildflowers and remember their names.

For the next six weeks or so Nova Scotia’s weather will be our best of the year – warm, often sunny days with comfortable, cool evenings. Nobody travels far in September/October – we don’t want to miss a moment of it! For soon the cold and snow and short days will be upon us… And we’ll be yearning for our wonderful early fall weather which seems oh so brief.

Mandevilla

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The red Mandevilla has finally taken off – it believes our warmer weather means summer. Each bloom lasts a day or two and before one drops off, another has already opened to take its place. 
I will definitely plant these again next summer!

Hibiscus

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Last year I was lucky if I got one new bloom a day – this hibiscus has been prolific! I’m getting 3-5 flowers every day. This plant could use a good home for the winter – I can’t bring it in because I don’t want to introduce outdoor insects to my indoor plants!

MUN Botanical Garden

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Memorial University has a lovely botanical garden – for research and education. A friend, who’s been following the blog wrote and suggested I visit. So this morning Andrea and I drove over.

The garden consists of some cultivated beds and woodland gardens, a couple of greenhouses and several nature trails depicting different aspects of the natural environment of Newfoundland.

The first thing you see is an herbaceous border – filled with plants happy in this damp, cool environment. Blue flag iris:

Allium:

Cow parsnip (poisonous):

Leopard’s Bane (Doronucum):

Enter the garden trails and you see many varieties of Rhododendron (some still in full flower, others would have been gorgeous last week!). One whole section of a trail was lined with them:

We passed a slope covered with Cornus Canadensis in bloom:

We came across a crevice rock garden on a gentle slope (I would never have thought of using long slender rocks in that way):
  
There were California poppies:
  
A plant I didn’t know:

And several patches of lovely blue Mecanopsis:

I could go on – a lot of the plants were in bloom, making a leisurely stroll worthwhile.

Got any old, mismatched glass plates/bowls/glasses? I’m going to try making one of these when I get home!

A Gazillion Dandilions

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It’s dandilion season. They’re blooming everywhere in great profusion.

They’ll be around for the next three weeks or so then other wildflower will take its turn.

Since the city has banned the use of herbicides and pesticides I’ve had to dig the plants out individually, one at a time – it’s time consuming and hard on my back but it’s kept the dandilions at bay.

There’s rain in the forecast for tomorrow – I will have to put “dig out dandilions” on my Sunday “to do” list.

Back Garden

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Two weeks ago, when I got back from San Francisco, the deck was finally free of snow, although the patch of grass between the deck and the back garden bed still had a couple of inches remaining. It went within a week. Last Saturday, a sunny warm day, I moved pots around, picked up my broom and swept away the debris. Monday, I cleared out the dead remains of last year’s planting from the containers so the new perennial growth could come through – chives, hosta, coral bells, even the peony, all survived beneath the snow. The maple, yellow birch, dogwood – all originally volunteers – are in bud. My clematis is showing lots of new growth, and I can see I’ll have a good display of blooms on both rhododendrons!

Today, I planted some ajuga reptans (bugle weed), echinacea (last year’s planting didn’t survive), and pansies (all can handle the still cold nights). The other day I happened to see some pink wax begonias – couldn’t find them anywhere last year so I bought a couple of sets – since it’s too early to put them out, I’ve stuck them in my covered basement window well where they are protected from the low night temperatures and still get light during the day. It won’t be warm enough to transplant them to containers for at least another 10 days.

I’m now on the lookout for a second small peony. The canna lily last year was gorgeous – I hope to find one again this year. I should be able to buy a hibiscus at the Superstore garden centre in a couple of weeks. Then some million bells or verbena for the three pots on the fence. A pink mandevilla would finish off the planting nicely!

I love this time of year – finally being able to work in the garden, watching everything growing. Looking forward to five months without coats and boots. This is living in Canada!

Spring Is Here!

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Spring has finally arrived in Nova Scotia – the Coltsfoot has popped up! I noticed this patch on the roadside as I was driving by late this morning on my way to pick up a friend for lunch. The cheery yellow flowers are our first spring blooms. 

The temperature actually reached double digits today and the snow patches are all but gone, thank goodness. I was happy to see these harbingers of warmer weather to come. 

Next flower to look for is Forsythia – for the last many years it has come into bloom between May 3-6. Not this year for sure! I must keep an eye out for the shrubs in my neighbourhood. (I do have a few pathetic crocuses in my front garden bed, but the display is so paltry it doesn’t count as spring.)

Spring!

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Ann Williamson shared some lovely spring photos from Portland OR today:  

This is one of several photos of spring in full bloom.

Then I look at my back deck: 

The towering cap of snow on the shed has grown smaller but we’ve a long way to go.

And out my front door:  

 

It’s a wonderful sunny day today, but more snow is in the forecast for tomorrow.

I’ve taken this crazy winter in stride for the most part but I am beginning to wonder if we’ll ever see spring. I sure hope our vegetation has survived under the snow!

  

My Blooming Hibiscus

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hibiscus

My hibiscus was slow to start blooming — I got a couple of flowers when I bought it earlier in the summer but then nothing for about a month. When the plant got moved back to the newly finished deck it decided it liked its new home, I guess, and started blooming – a couple of flowers a day. Most of them have had a yellow edge to the petals with predominantly red centers  – this one turned out to be predominantly golden yellow. I think I’ve caught it at its peak. The flower didn’t survive the storm we had yesterday – good thing I to the picture when I did.