O Reluctant Spring!

O reluctant spring - when will you ever show your warm spirit and bright days.

Can you believe it - these are my little crocus, frozen in the snow that fell yesterday and through the night. A few weeks ago we were lulled into the prospect that spring was just around the corner. Warm breezes brushed our faces, we scampered to put our laundry on the line revelling in the smell of clean, fresh linens. And then wham. The warm breezes were repaced with blasts of bitter Arctic air and along with those strong winds came blinding snow - yet again. Can anyone believe that it is now April 18th. Spring when will you grace us? These tiny purple petals frozen in time and space. And as Easter approaches this weekend, we can look forward not to donning a new Easter outfit as I did when I was a child but instead to get my winter coat out again.

But the signs of spring are here - these frozen crocus, my rhubarb budding up through the ground (topped by a hood of snow) and daffodils just waiting to burst. And I must remember that we gardener's are a patient lot, so patient I must be and I know that I will be rewarded when my anticipation is finally quenched with spring's warm weather and colourful blooms.

Canada Blooms - Inspiration, Ideas and Information

I can hardly believe that it is mid March already and time once again for Canada Blooms, Canada's premier flower and garden show. Winter has really been hanging on and we are all ready for a breath of spring air and Canada Blooms certainly delivers that along with plenty of inspiration, ideas and information. Some people can easily feel overwhelmed at the show but here are a few tips to help you make the most out of your Canada Blooms visit.

1. Inspiration-The show gardens are large and beautiful but can be overwhelming to some who say I don't have the funds to hire a landscaper to do all that work and it is beyond my own capabilities. Remember these are show gardens where landscapers and designers are showing you new products and their services. These gardens are meant for inspiration. Look at the smaller elements that you can take home and use in your own garden - it could be a new plant variety, and interesting colour combination or a new hardscape element like a water feature, outdoor kitchen idea or some cool accesories.

2. Ideas - The show is filled with lots of great ideas. Bring along your digital camera and a notebook and pen so you can make note and record ideas or new plants you'd like to try in your garden. If you rely on your memory, you'll lose a lot of ideas. By the end of the show your head will be so filled with ideas that when you go home, you won't remember them all. I keep a file of new gardens ideas so that when I have time and want to make changes to my garden I can readily see ideas I wanted to try.

3. Information - If you are a novice gardener just getting started or an experienced gardener wanting to find out about new plants or techniques, Canada Blooms information sessions are filled with quality education from experienced gardeners. There are many opportunities throughout the 4 day show to here excellent speakers who share their knowledge, tips and techniques. Again, bring along a notebook so you can jot down all the great gardening advice.

If you've never been to Canada Blooms, there is no time like the present. Not only will you leave filled with Inspiration, Ideas and Information but you'll leave knowing that spring is just around the corner. So celebrate spring this week at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto at Canada Blooms.

Winter Won't Let Go

"Nature gives to every time and season some beauties of its own."

Charles Dickens

What a week it has been. Winter it seems just will not let go its hold on us. It's almost mid March and just when we think that spring might be on our doorstep, we are blasted with another hit of winter. Yesterday, it was rain, then wet, heavy snow and my children even had another "snow day" at home. With the extra rain and snow, it has meant flooding all around our town. We are all getting a little down with the weather these days and can only hope and pray for some sunshine, mild days and warm, warm weather. It doesn't help when our Kenyan son texts us from Nairobi telling us it is so, so, so, so, hot Mama. But still the fresh dusting of white covered up the muddy brown of spring's melt time.

And so we can only hope for spring by looking at our photos of our gardens in full bloom and perusing and picking our seeds and summer bulbs from the garden catalogues but when we will be able to plant, well your guess is as good as mine. So tonight with a light snow falling and mild temperatures, I'll grab a mug of tea and get back to my seed orders.

Roses - Symbol of Love for Valentine's Day

"In the heart of every woman
is the memory of a Rose."

Jean Gordon


Roses have been the symbol of love throughout the ages but it was the Victorians who began to write about roses in their poetry and prose extolling their virtue and innocence.



And as Liz Klose and Laura Peters recount in their book 'Roses for Ontario', "A Greek legend attributes the creation of the rose to Flora, the goddess of spring and flowers. She found the lifeless body of one of her beautiful nymphs in the forest and asked the gods to give the creature new life by transforming her into a flower, one that surpasses all others in beauty. The request was granted and the new flower was named Rose, Queen of Flowers."



Roses have been the symbol of love in my relationship with my husband and he often gives me roses for special occasions, and sometimes for no occasion at all. We have a few roses growing in our gardens, new varieties that come out on a regular basis that seem like they might like to survive in our colder winter climate. We love the ones that smell like roses should smell, that wonderful sweet intoxicating fragrance. My husband especially loves the mauve variety (name unknown) that really exudes with rosy aroma. After all, what good is a rose if it doesn't smell like a rose! In ancient times in Persia it was found that oil could be distilled from rose petals and that once bottled rose oil could last almost indefinitely. This was a real blessing as it was much easier to open a bottle of attar of roses, as the essential oil was known, than to be surrounded by bushels of roses, to enjoy rose fragrance. From this discovery, the scent of roses became a staple of cosmetics, aromotherapy and perfumes.



This Valentine's Day show your loved one you really love them with a gift of roses. And remember that the Rose is the goddess of Spring which I hope is just around the corner (and on this very snowy day we could use a few warm thoughts about spring!).



Did you know that Kenya is one of the major rose growing countries in the world that services much of Europe?

"And when the vines and stalks are empty, when the soil's been turned, and it is blowing into Winter, we sit with neighbours and compare. About who had the best luck with this year's garden. Outside, the garden's brown again. The crows are back. And we are, all of us, waiting . . . for next year's garden."

Cynthia Ryland, "This Year's Garden"

Today is one of those days that you just feel the need to have a little sunshine in your life. As I look out the window the sky is leaden grey and a light snowfall is gently drifting to the ground. Luckily it is still not cold enough for the snow to accumulate but rather it melts as it hits the earth.

It's hard to believe that it is the end of the first week in November already. Most to the garden chores have been done and the beds put to bed. The garden seems empty and dull with colourings of brown and green but the red rosehips and white snowberries add bright spots of colour. True to form, I still have tulip bulbs to plant. Hopefully we will have a slight reprieve this weekend and I can get them planted.

It seems like the time to sit back and relax but I know I must create next season's to-do list. Fix the fence, replace the lattice, redesign the front garden, divide the hosta, cut back the grapevines (do it earlier next spring because I got lots of foliage but no grapes this year)and build a waterfall for the big pond (that was on this year's to-do list but just didn't get done).

Some people like to think that gardening is an activity that can be "completed", if you can use that word. But a garden is a living, breathing, ever changing entity. Plants grow, or don't grow, and need to be moved and divided and we must always deal with Nature's blessings or her wrath. Our gardens thrive with plenty of sunshine and adequate rainfall or they suffer with cold or too hot temperatures and too much water but that is in fact the true beauty of gardening. No two seasons are the same and the garden is always in constant evolution.

But for today, I'll put the kettle on to make a cup of tea and dream of winter's depths when the land is covered with snow and as both the garden and I take a rest, I'll get my gardening fix getting caught up reading all about other people's gardening exploits.

Thanksgiving and Harvest Home

It's hard to believe that it is already Thanksgiving weekend - autumn is almost over. I looked out the window yesterday and with the wind there was a rain of leaves falling from the trees. Here in Muskoka, the colour parade is mostly over and many of the trees are already bare. But the weather this Thanksgiving weekend has been beautiful, sunny with a touch of warmth that is unseasonal for this time of year. It has meant that we have ben able to get out and attend to the last of the garden tasks, like putting away the gazebo, table and achairs for the winter, cutting back the perennials and storing the statuary. But somethings have really surprised me.

Yesterday I purchased a new ice cream maker at a yard sale and today in celebration of the harvest season I made pumpkin and ginger ice cream. I had just told my husband I would have to wait until next summer to try lavender and honey ice cream but lo and behold, when I went out to get some parsley from the garden I noticed the lavender was blooming again. Hurray! Guess what? Tomorrow we try lavender and honey ice cream with locally made Papa Jim's honey - yummy!

It's time for pumpkins and squash, potatoes and turnips. I spent the weekend deocrating the church for Thanksgiving and it looked lovely celebrating the harvest from local gardens. How lucky we are to live where we do and in this time. Others in our world are not so lucky. But it's the rainy season in Wongonyi Village, Kenya and Ronnie is in the village checking up on the banana plantation and delivering seeds we've sent him to farmers in the village. The Lukundo Self-Help Group (a group of young men who are tryiing to improve their lives) have just benefitted from one of our microfinance loans to start a banana plantation too.

So many things we have to give thanks for - a bountiful harvest, good food, family and friends and most of all the ability to share our good fortunes with those who are not so fortunate. So celebrate harvest home - invite some friends or neighbours to celebrate Thanksgiving with you!

Fall's Fungi

"I value my garden more for being full of blackbirds that cherries, and very frankly give them fruits for their songs."

Joseph Addison

What a month it has been - full of all sorts of changeable weather. Days start out warm and sunny but by mid-day the clouds roll in, the sky turns to pewter, and then the heavens open up sending folks scrambling for shelter. This means that garden chores are still waiting to be done, for you go outside, start to clean out the beds, then run for cover. I don't know where that beautiful Indian summer they predicted went but we certainly didn't get it here. But strange things are happening - can you believe it but my some of my hostas are blooming for a second time. And my roses are in full bloom again - global warming maybe??



Yesterday our hiking group from church hiked the Beetle Lake Trail at Oxtongue Lake just west of Algonquin Park. Up there the trees have already peaked in their autumn colouring and many of the trees are already bare of leaves. The wet weather this month has resulted in a great variety of woodland fungi as evidenced by the photo above in all manner of shape, colour and textures. But even then, the wetness has made many of the fungi turn to mush.



Today when I went to my yoga class the Mountain Ash tree outside by instructor's home was filled with birds, sparrows, robins, goldfinches chowing down on all the luscious berries. And when they weren't consuming berries, they were filling the air with chattering and chirping.
Carol was complaining that the fallen berries make quite a mess especially when you step on them and she's constantly having to sweep them up. But she commented that at the rate the birds are eating the remaining berries will only last another day or two.



Back at home I've started by autumn decorating by purchasing a couple of big pumpkins for the porch and a basket of ornamental gourds to brighten the table. I've put up the fall wreaths and will replace the spent annuals with some lovely fall mums. But not today, for as predicted the sky has clouded over and rain seems iminent, so that will wait for another day.