CANADIAN REGION: What are you doing in May 2017

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. TD.  You sound like a very well adjusted couple from all your previous postings and I am absolutely convinced that you will still be OK by your 50th.

I had a lovely visit to our local Gardeners' Sale and bought four small plants: Oregano, Wild Ginger, Purple Delphinium, and Meadowsweet (Filipendula Vulgaris).

Having been living in my home for 18 years I have most of what they have for sale so I try to look out for things I do not have.  The Delphinium was a mistake as I could not really read the writing until I returned home.

There were no seedlings, annuals or flowers, perhaps too early in the year?  There were tomatoes but I can get those given to me and at the moment I am not prepared to coddle them.

There were plenty of peony plants for sale and that made me realise what a bargain I had been given the other day with the three peonies my neighbour was going to throw out. The least expensive was $20 and that only had about two shoots a few inches high.  My three plants were split to make about 6 or more plants and all of them were larger than the $20 ones for sale.

I then had a lovely cup of coffee and a delicious cake, and meanwhile chatted to people, including a delightful man who lived across the river and had been on his property for six years and started out with nothing on the ground except some old fruit trees.. We had a good chat about the old fruit trees  and I asked him what he was going to do with them.  He told me they were fruit trees from the Russians  who had the property about a hundred years ago.  I told him what I knew about them and that they filled the valley with fruit trees and had a jam factory. I asked him if he had anything knowledge of wood chips and he said he had got some and was going to try and revive these almost dead trees. I told him to put down the wood chips as soon as possible etc. etc. and he agreed that he should allow them a lot of time and not be too impatient and see what happens.  I will look out for him and his wife later this month when I visit the Castlegar Garden and Nature Fest on May 27th.

On introducing ourselves the first thing he said to me was, "What part of England do you come from?"  He had an accent himself so I said to him that it  sounded he was not Canadian born and asked him from what part of Europe did he come from?  Answer was Greece; so we had a talk about England and Greece and the EU.  We both still have family in the lands of our births, but his is struggling.  We must have stood in the pouring rain for quite some time, me standing with my container of plants and the brolly over us with most of the rain dripping on him. He has about twenty acres and he has cougars and I have a house lot and bears so that was another subject we chatted about.

All in all, a good day in spite of the rain. It was good that the sale was well supported; I forget that people have cars to take them and back, they do not all walk like me.

I love your stories, KJ.  

Scorpio Rising wrote:I love your stories, KJ.  

I do rabbit on a bit at times.   And to think that at school I sometimes used to hand in a blank sheet when we had to write a composition because I could not think what to write about.  Looking back, maybe as one gets older there is a lot more experience of life?

I have woken this morning to sunshine and the forecast of no rain today.  Such   a shame for the two gardening events that we had yesterday with the continuing rain all day.

I hope to get my grass cut today if the grass dries out a bit. 

Glad you have the sunshine, we did here too!

I did not get my lawn mowed yesterday but I managed to get the main part done today and in addition I have gathered the yard wast for tomorrow's collection.

Part of the main area furthest from my house was cut a bit shorter as I an going to put down newspaper and wood chips around the old cherry tree to try and bring it back to life.  If it follows what happened to the old apple tree three years ago it should make many more leaves this year and hopefully a crop of cherries next year.  I had the cherry tree cut a lot shorter so that I will not stand underneath it and look longingly at the bet cherries out of my reach.

I also had the old apple tree cut shorter so there will be fewer apples, but plenty for me, and fewer that are left for the bears as they can climb the tree, and also many fewer that fall on to next door's driveway and they they have no interest in picking up.

Their baby of last year is now a toddler so I will be warning them to keep him safe.

KJ you continue to be an inspiration for all of us not just because you do so much but, as well, because you are a bear whisperer.  I would be afraid to go out into my garden.

I'm hoping for some better weather so that I can get things moving outside. Still a 30% to 40% chance of showers forecast every day into Monday of next week. And a frost advisory for tonight (Tuesday) and tomorrow night. 

On this date last year I was already putting seedlings outside to harden off. Not even close this year due to very cold temps and because my seedlings are quite small after starting them late.

I  woke suddenly this morning with one thought in my mind.  Get the yard waste out before they pass me by. I thought I had overslept but it was six am so I was able to get it out in good time for them to take my two bags of cherry tree twigs, the bundles of longer twigs and the branches that were really just a little thicker than the stipulated diameter.  The collectors were really early compared to two weeks ago so I was happy that I got it out in time

All the twigs that had any green buds had been chopped into one to two inch pieces were consigned to other bags and eventually they will be placed under the cherry tree along with newspaper, wood chips and chicken manure.  I hope to get that done in a few days after I get my pile of newspapers sorted into sets of 6 sheets ready to lay down on top of the grass and then covered.  That will mean fewer square feet to mow.

Then I hope we will have some more rain.  

I also managed to get the roadside grass cut; it was already several inches high after all the rain we had plus the increase in temperature.

My rhubarb has also grown quite large and I am very happy with it.  Peonies are flourishing.  My tulips?   I have only one lone tulip in the bed that I had reserved for the tiny bulbs that grow from the big bulbs.  Drat the deer.  When/if I get more tulip bulbs they wil be put under a wired cage.  Also my garlic will have the same treatment. 

How is everyone else in Canada doing?  Can you imagine coping with those flood waters.  We do have some flooding in our Southern Interior of British Columbia but it is happening in the Okanagan Valley and Kelowna where the water drains down between the mountains. 

I took a walk down to the Columbia River this morning to see if there was any trouble but all was well, unlike about five years ago when upstream they let out too much water and it ruined quite a large part of our Millenium Park. I checked on the new dog park but it was not yet in use.  The sad thing is that my Jazz and I had waited thirteen years for this dog park and he did not make it.  There was a notive their that the City were selling Remembrance Plaques, about an eight x five inch plastic with a photo of one's dog, his name etc.  I think I will look into it.

I was pretty tired by the time I returned home as it was very warm and I had walked for two hours with an occasional sit down on park benches. In spite of our Provincial Election I doubt I will stay up to watch the results.

Garbage collection day in our area and when I drew aside the window blind that looks out on to my side garden and found that "my" bear had already collected his garbage and sorted through it for his breakfast.  So I looked across to my neighbours and could see that their garbage cans and been knocked over and the contents strewn around the road, up my bank and across my garden to land at least 100feet from the road.

The bear was not around, it is getting hard to see now that the tree are leafing out,  anyway, it took me three-quarters of and hour to clear my garden and the stuff left on the bank; took four complete bags.  There was garbage on the road and leading down to the two cans. I left the four bags near their cans as I was not about to try lifting heavy cans.  I took photos.  I was hoping that each householder would discover the mess and finish clearing up or that the collectors would come and perhaps leave it all there as a lesson.  Unfortunately, another good neighbour passed by with his dog and put the four bags in one of the cans after pulling it upright, I noticed that for some reason he did not re-position the second one but left it there complete with all the garbage around it.

I will have to confront these people because if their garbage is picked up they will never know about it.

I suddenly saw my cat freeze, looking out the window he had seen the bear, happily munching on something further up the hill behind my house.  I will have to report this to the city to see what can be done.  So far the bear is still shy, as when I inched open the window he immediately went back up the hill into the treed part.

This is the worst it has ever been since I moved here 20 year ago, and it   all the fault of these new garbage cans and people leaving them out overnight and possibly unlocked. We are allowed to put them out from 5am for 7am collection,  plenty of time for the bears and few people are around at that time of the morning.

Yikes KJ.  Something needs to be done about that bear.  Can they relocate it?

Mrs TD and I spent the morning out in the garden. Finally getting some sunshine.

I found a few worms in the wood chip pile, under some cardboard and where I winter stored leaves.








Photos of a couple of things Mrs TD is growing.  I wonder if those are edible fiddleheads on the fern.

Congratulations on having worms, TD.

I visited a couple of the neighbours tonight re their garbage. One flatly denied it was her garbage even though she does have a little one but admitted they put it out overnight unlocked.

Next time I will call the by-law officer but the trouble is that he does not start work until eight am and by that time the garbage has been collected.  In future, apart from collecting the garbage left on my property and I will take more and better photos and make a report to the officer.  I will also ask my good neighbour not to collect anything as we need to get these transgressors sorted out.  I hate having to think this way, but it is also safety for others.

Another beautiful day but dark clouds on the horizon.

On the weekend I finally used the gift card that my old colleagues got me to buy: 9 celery; 27 lettuce; 9 broccoli; onion bulbs and some mesclun mix seeds. Can't wait until it is warm enough to plant them. They know I have a passion for gardening so they bought me a gift card for a garden store (and a farmers cookbook). Nice,eh? The new plants are my avatar.

Kelejan wrote:Congratulations on having worms, TD.

I visited a couple of the neighbours tonight re their garbage. One flatly denied it was her garbage even though she does have a little one but admitted they put it out overnight unlocked.

Next time I will call the by-law officer but the trouble is that he does not start work until eight am and by that time the garbage has been collected.  In future, apart from collecting the garbage left on my property and I will take more and better photos and make a report to the officer.  I will also ask my good neighbour not to collect anything as we need to get these transgressors sorted out.  I hate having to think this way, but it is also safety for others.

Another beautiful day but dark clouds on the horizon.

Wow- that's scary KJ. Your neighbours need to clean up their act. No pun intended.

Mimi2 wrote:On the weekend I finally used the gift card that my old colleagues got me to buy: 9 celery; 27 lettuce; 9 broccoli; onion bulbs and some mesclun mix seeds. Can't wait until it is warm enough to plant them. They know I have a passion for gardening so they bought me a gift card for a garden store (and a farmers cookbook). Nice,eh? The new plants are my avatar.

That's thpughtful of them Mimi, and I bet you will enjoy every morsel you  grow.  Perhaps you can give them a leaf or two in appreciation?

TD, You have worms?? Hope you get better soon.

KJ, I'm sorry you are having such a time with the neighbor. I'm guessing the Pampers were the big clue as which neighbor was the source of strewn garbage. I'm surprised the bears don't scrounge from 5 am to 7 am. Just be watchful.

In celebration of the start of Ottawa's Tulip Festival and Canada's 150th year here are some tulips growing in Mrs TD's front yard flower beds.

Mimi--nice haul!  And nice friends who get your hobby!

KJ, dang it, I hate that when that stuff happens.  My neighbor, who I do like them, has a large yellow lab who uses my big yard as his potty--and those babies are large!  I haven't said anything in the interest of keeping the peace.  Maybe he will step in some and think twice....But no threats to safety involved with my silly dilemma.

TD, beautiful tulips!  I need more tulips, but the squirrels bite the flowers off, and leave daffodils alone...but tulips are so gorgeous, and all the colors you can get is seemingly endless!

Scorpio Rising wrote:... I need more tulips, but the squirrels bite the flowers off, and leave daffodils alone...

Same here. The petals from the damaged tulips can be seen lying on the ground in the first photo. We lost 7 yesterday. They do not touch the daffodils. It's my understanding that daffodils are poisonous but not so with tulips.

Beautiful tulips, TD. Mine are just about finished.

SR, I thought it was rabbits that bit off the tulip heads to get to the water. Maybe they both do it. Squirrels are annoying in every way!

CapeCoddess wrote:Beautiful tulips, TD.  Mine are just about finished.  

SR, I thought it was rabbits that bit off the tulip heads to get to the water.  Maybe they both do it.  Squirrels are annoying in every way!

I was thinking maybe rabbits as well since we have a lot of them in our neighborhood.

Oh!  I have them both so I choose to blame the squirrels!  It probably is the rabbits....Weird, because I have a watering hole for my critters, easily reached by all...leave the tulips alone!!!!

Luckily the critters leave my tulips alone (although there are plenty of squirrels, bunnies, etc) but also quite a big outdoor cat population...My Mom has a problem with the deer getting hers. Literally mowing them down...

Our son and his family just left after a short visit for Mother's Day. The grandkids took home peas, lettuce and strawberry plants for their SFG beds. 

Looks like Ottawa will be getting some really nice weather this week with highs going into the mid 80s Fahrenheit by midweek and overnight lows in the 50s and 60s (exept low 40s tonight). I need to get my indoor starts hardened off outside and transplanted soon.