Blog? Yes, this was a blog once.

I admit ... I don't have anything to say. Like many gardens in North America to the east of the rockies, my garden is all snow at the moment. Deep in the stuff, which is falling, rain-like from the sky even as I type this.

However, I do wish to return to being a blogger. It does make one a more active gardener (the pressure of needing to have something to write about is strong). It also might eventually (if I ever edited) make one a better writer. And the only way to be a blogger is, well, to blog.

I went to California last week (as one does) and there, the cherries were blooming and the beard irises were maybe even not too far from finishing. I was very impressed. I can't imagine trying to figure out how to garden in a new climate. I mean, at first, when I finish digging out the 2 feet of snow before getting on an aeroplane to the other side of the continent, what I think is: WHY DOESN'T EVERYONE LIVE HERE? But I know that in August, it can be continually cold where I was. And that it can go for months without raining. And that it can get to be too hot, for weeks on end. And then I try to imagine what it would be like to work out when to plant what. And, indeed, what I would have to give up.

Things like tulips, maybe. They grow naturally in the dry mountains of Khazakstan. They need hot, dry weather after blooming (not really something I can provide in my Atlantic garden) but they also need a cold, dormant period.

I couldn't possibly give up tulips. I have been reading Anna Pavord again and the result is that I am coveting more gardening space. I am not sorry to live in this land of real winter. It doesn't trouble me that I cannot grow palm trees in my garden. It doesn't trouble me that in January there is no possibility of gardening (unless I feel like putting in a greenhouse, which I do, but for which I lack funds). But it does trouble me that I don't have a garden. I have a strip of dirt between my house and the sidewalk and it brings me joy. I do not have a place to go and meditate on the passing of the seasons. I do not have a space in which to putter away mild spring evenings, worrying about the health of the pampas grass.

Some day, I think I will have such a thing. And I will neglect it terribly when it needs attention, just as I do my tiny strip. That's what inconsistent gardening is all about.

Blog? What blog?

I don't have a garden at the moment. It's buried under snow. I do have a blog, but I haven't been writing in it much. I make no promises to increase the amount of writing, but I thought I would say for the record that this here blog is not (yet) defunct. There will be a summer season this year. There will be spring, soon. I'm going to check for crocuses on March 4, as always.

Writing it down, for once

Yes, gardening has been happening. And not enough weeding. But I haven't felt up to updating the blog. Too bad.

This post is about some seeds that went into pots on the back porch. The point is that the pots are unlabelled and therefore some record needs to be made (better than the back of the envelope that currently exists) of what went where.

There are 8 individual 2X2 pots and they're set up in pairs. The top pair (closest to the next step up) is Ruckle beans. Next is Pinto. Next is Orca. The pair closest to the edge of the step they're sitting on is Kenearly.

To the west of those pairs of 2X2 pots are some 6-pot sets. They've all got Columbine. All 12 of them.

To the west of those are another set of sixers. The north set have Crocosmia and the south set have trollius.

To the west of those are a pair of larger pots. The north one has Joe Pie Weed and the south one has Gay Feather.

Off the steps there is a midsized round plastic pot sitting in a silicon cake pan (what else is it good for, after all?) and that's holding Maltese Cross.

The largest round pot has beans and cilantro.

The pots on the south side of the porch also have been planted. The big, squat one has lettuce. The lettuces are coming up already. Next to that there's a slightly ornamented pot which has a killed basil plant trying to pretend that it wasn't killed. It's also been planted with parsley. There's also a parsley pot on the steps below, as well as a basil pot.

As of today, the only thing coming up is the lettuces. I think the beans won't be too long behind, since they did sprout at the plot in decent time. I have no idea how old the parsley and basil seeds are, so they may be dodgy. The columbine and others were all from the Public Gardens Open House on May 15 and they may just not come up at all; who knows. I know that this wasn't the right time to be planting them.

I also picked up that basil (which got killed), a tomato (struggling at the plot), a runner bean (struggling at the side of the house) and a bit of lavender (also struggling a bit, next to the house) from the Public Gardens Open House.

Last weekend, we picked up some perennials from the garden centre at the grocery store. There were 4 of them and I honestly cannot at the moment recall the names of a single one.

At the plot there are beans (up) and lettuce (nearly ready) and we put in 2 potatoes. There is the single struggling tomato and two green peppers, similarly struggling. There was a lot of parsley seed which probably will come to naught, as well.

Frabulous joys

This morning, as we stepped out of the house into bright sunshine, there was a guy with his toddler daughter, pointing out our snowdrops saying "... the FIRST flowers of the season". It was a good way to start the day.

Who's next?

Traditionally, I think the pickwicks are up immediately after the zwanenburg bronzes. However, this is what the most mature of the pickwicks looks like.

And this is what I found in the front this morning. I think we've got a winning snowdrop, here. I should put snowdrops in the side; they'd be up and at 'em in February!

By the way, I took those photographs through sleet, which had previously been hail and will likely be snow later. Do I care? No. It is spring ... the crocuses don't lie.

Hello, yellow!

There have been hints of things growing once again in the side and front yards. Little tiny bud-noses poke out of the ground here and there.

Some are silly optimists who spring out of the earth in the fall and then spend the winter getting abused.

Some are just starting, like the not-bent-over stalks in the photo above.

Since today is the compost collection day around here and I had seen snowdrop buds elsewhere in town yesterday, I thought I might lift a few of the xmas tree boughs and see if anyone was, y'know, maybe about to flower.

I found a lovely pale green hyacinth starting beneath the piles.

The sweary one and I have been discussing what my requirements are for the garden starting on March 4. I say: yellow showing by that day and I'm a happy lady. The wonderful early Zwanenburg Bronze don't have to be open by then but showing yellow and I'm a happy lady.

Well, I am a happy lady. It's only March 2! They've got 2 free days to frolic in what hopefully will be sunshine. It was snowing ever so lightly as I took these photos, but it's supposed to improve as the week wears on.

Welcome back, garden! I'm looking forward to a good season with you this time around.

springing up

I saw a few budding snowdrops today. Nowhere near my house, of course, but in Halifax and so I am feeling like spring is really, really, really nearby.