The Potting Shed - Part 2

[Kizzie]

So friends in warmer parts of Canada are telling me about all the lovely spring flowers, trees leafing out, etc and here we are just growing snow. We do get to be a bit smug during the winter though because we have lovely warm Chinooks that break up winter and teases us that spring is on the way (it's not).

Soon though, soon.   

[dollyvee]

I bought some Turk's Cap lily bulbs this fall and potted them in small containers on my indoor window sill with some mix from my outdoor containers that, FYI/TMI, the neighbour's cat has been using as a au plain air loo. I wanted to see if I could force the bulbs for indoor planting. Having no idea what I was doing, and lacking follow through, they sat on my kitchen counter until March (?) when I decided to plant them.

I've developed a collection of what I'll call rebel flowers/plants. I don't really want to call them weeds as one as these pretty pink flowers. Weeds suggests something that's not supposed to be there that you have to take out and kill, when all along, they have just been floating on the wind, trying to find a home. Maybe I feel some affinity and connection to things that survived like that. Who am I to be a judgemental gardener? Something that I'm now learning through one of Patrick Teahan's videos was probably the result of a boundary crossing growing up.

I didn't think the lilies would grow, but maybe a month ago, a shoot started. Everything else looked like they were buried in this brown muck. Somewhere inside, I think I reprimanded myself (oh those familiar voices) for not knowing what I was doing and feeling like I failed; I could have been better, done better. I noticed about a weeek and a half ago that more shoots have started. It is not a lost cause (oh look, another phrase my gf used to call me). I guess sometimes things just need a little space and time to grow.

[Blueberry]

Turk's Cap lily - lovely! I've just googled so I could see a picture. Too bad the cat has no sense of visual beauty. I think I read somewhere you can dissuade various mammals from using an area by scattering ground pepper around.

I like the idea of rebel flowers I tend to call them wild flowers and I encourage them

[dollyvee]

Thanks Blueberry, I will look into giving that a try. Right now I've covered them over with some old trellis and hope it gets the hint!

[Blueberry]

Did some work in the garden yesterday, mostly pulling up/cutting off things like stinging nettles, of which there are a lot, to let smaller wildflowers in and around them grow better and be seen better. For instance, water avens (Geum rivale) are now nice and visible, nodding away, with bumble bees bumbling in and out. Water avens just happens to grow there. They didn't grow wild in the garden of my previous place.

I can now also see some nice purply-blue flowers, apparently perennial cornflower, mountain cornflower, bachelor's button, montane knapweed or mountain bluet in English. Also something I dug up from the old garden and planted here last year. Once it gets a good hold, it'll spread, competing well against the stinging nettles and looking much prettier, especially against the dirty white wall of the building behind. They're a very good flower for bees. Less visible and less obvious, but still pretty and worth giving some space to: white deadnettles and one yellow deadnettle.

Then I cleared space (mostly taken up by the stinging nettles) around my remaining redcurrants, raspberries and one blackcurrant I saved last year from my previous garden and planted rather late last year here in this garden. I'm surprised to see leaves on the blackcurrant, I wasn't sure it was going to survive, it didn't look too good by the time I had the energy to clear some ground for it last year... Nor is the soil very good where all my berries/currants are. The raspberries are flowering already. It'll take all of the currants a year or two longer. That area of the garden looks better now and I have the impression that I'm getting somewhere with re-instating 'my' garden here.

My LL here has allowed me this little spot here and that little spot there etc so I've got little bits of garden scattered around, rather than all in one place, which has advantages and disadvantages. One part is hardly set up at all. I started last year and did quite a bit of work but then discovered I'd have to do things differently and need help with that into the bargain, so that's kind of on hold atm. It being on hold makes me feel 'weighted down' somehow, so it feels good to be managing to move forward with another area of the garden, it helps me feel a bit lighter and also as if I'm not always just treading water, struggling to keep up/not let things get worse. I also did some weeding in areas outside my own, where that's part of the agreement with LL. Inspite of everything, I actually enjoyed my weeding and clearing and other odd garden jobs. Going at my own pace instead of rushing helped me with that, as did enjoying looking at various flowers and enjoying their colours, and sniffing the roses 

[dollyvee]

BB it's always a great feeling when things survive that you weren't expecting to. 

I had a little orchid that I bought on sale because it was battered. I didn't realize the roots were *that* bad and didn't think it would make it through the rot, but it's now pushing up a new leaf,

[Blueberry]

So friends in warmer parts of Canada are telling me about all the lovely spring flowers, trees leafing out, etc and here we are just growing snow.

How is your snow plantation doing?