Profligate Nature

This morning, I swept the maple flowers from our back deck (again).  I am constantly amazed by just how much organic matter this tree produces and then ditches.  We're talking several pounds of plant bits.  Give a tree some air and water and see what it'll do.  It's incredible.  

And, let's be honest, a little irritating.  I have no doubt that our neighbours find it more so.  There really is a lot of gunk falling from the trees at the moment.  It can look like a light rain if the wind is just right.  Soon the tree-dropping season will turn into the tree-leafing season which won't be too long before the seed-dropping season.  That's the most wonderful time of the year.  I loves them helicopters, and Chutney the cat can't get enough of them, either.

Seeds

We went to the seed store today to get plot supplies.  It's been absolutely stunning weather here for a few days and the time to get seeds in the ground is most definitely now.  We might have gone a little overboard, but seeds are cheap and there were so many appealing ones.  

We've got "North Holland Bloodred Redmate" and "Tokyo long white bunching" onions, arugula, "Long White Icicle" and "Early Scarlet Globe" radish, "Improved Tendergreen Bush" beans, some fresh mesclun mix and an optimistic "Early One" broccoli.  No beets or peas or potatoes this year, most likely.  They didn't have seed potatoes of the kind we like best.  We've never had luck with peas (or anything that needs staking, actually ... it's just not our way).  The beets I may miss, but I think this year, I'll just buy lots at the market and let them use their garden space.  We'll plant radishes instead.

 The lettuce we planted a while ago has come up in a few sad sprouts but the onions are non-starters.  Too bad. 

 

I am not sure when we'll take the time to put these seeds in.  Soon, I hope.

What Valley?

The lily of the valley is putting out buds.  I took a picture which looks like a doctored photo.  It's not.  That (single) set of buds is the real deal.  

  

Envy

I'm suffering from lungwort envy.  Everyone else's is tall and blooming.  Mine isn't.  Mine is pretty much as it was when last we discussed it.  A couple of leaves in a couple of places.   I think I won't be seeing any flowers from it this year.  

Popping In

I can't let a full week go by without adding something.  Lots of things are blooming.  The side looks great (I think).  I am busy and not up to much gardening.  I am ashamed of leaving things to slide.  I do not wish to document my negligence.  However, a week is a long time for me to leave this blog unwritten.  

In front, there is a pair of yellow tulips.   They are true yellow with a few brushes of red right at the edges.  The sweary one calls these "mustard and ketchup".   I don't remember these tulips from previous years, but they really must have existed in the past.  I certainly didn't put them in new last fall.

In the side, the wonderful old-style tulips right at the south end are all out.  I think there are more this year than there were last year.  This makes me tremendously happy.  I love these.  I wish I could remember their name.  I did plant them, I think, in an early year. 

The tulips I planted last fall are out now.  The "blue" (amiable blue) aren't blue at all.  Note the difference between the blueberry-juice colour of the tulips and the actual blue of the house.  I'm not complaining (much).  It's a wonderful colour.  It's deeper than shows up in pictures.  

The other tulips were Cairo and billed as gold.  I think that's a reasonable description of that colour.  I also think that they work well with the house colours.   I should remember all of those bits of red and keep these flowers away from pinks.  

I am happy with the tulips.  There is a variety.  They're lasting well.  After the first theft, they seem to be sticking it out.  It's a good time to be looking at the garden.  I wish I had more time and inclination to make it nicer.  

C & E?

Many years ago, before we moved to Halifax, we thought maybe it was time to give up on the Christmas cactus for good.  It hadn't bloomed in some time, we were planning to move, and it's not a small plant; not easy to transport.  But it comes from a cutting from my great-grandmother's plant which sat in a bay window in her house and grew to fill the entire space.  It's got sentimental claims, if nothing else.  

That was the occasion  on which I learned that threats do work on houseplants.  The cactus, threatened with destruction, sent forth a stream of bright blossoms (although it was Easter, not Christmas).   It got a reprieve.  Instead of trying to move it, we entrusted it to the care of some friends.   The next time we went through Hamilton we picked up the cactus and brought it home with us.  It has bloomed reliably every year since I made those cruel threats.

It has lived up to its name, too.  It started blooming at Christmas time, and in fact put forth an absolutely dazzling display this year. 

I don't know what to make of this new blossom, but it's very pretty.   It's been coming on slowly but between yesterday

and today it's burst out into a lovely triple-barrelled display.  It's neither C nor E, so I guess this cactus has some other religious affiliation.   I wonder what it is?

Passage of weeds

After my last few posts, one might imagine that everything out right now is pink.  However, the weeds are not.  The dandelions are up and starting to flower (must tackle them seriously at the plot).  They're not at anything like their peak.  I think I've seen a couple of proper dandelion clocks, but basically they are just starting to make some lawns yellow.  In the bit of waste land on the way to work, the coltsfoot are over and now a sort of bamboo-like bush is growing.  I don't know what it is, but it grows like gangbusters.