Where are you Spring???

Went to farmer's market today. Not many plant vendors braving the cold but I did come home with 3 orange begonias and some gorgeous torenia called gilded grape- yellow with lovely purple throats. Wandered the greenhouse at Canadian Tire but didn't find anything that caught my eye- price point or plant quality. I'm on the hunt for lime green petunias, my neighbor found some but I have not been as lucky. We have frost warnings again tonight but the weather is supposed to take a turn for the better this weekend.... about dang time. Our summer is short enough around here without having such a crappy spring. blah!

I have the following plants waiting to get outside:

peppers
tomatoes
morning glory
cilantro
basil
dill
million kisses begonias
peas
lettuce
datura
love lies bleeding
bellflower
english daisies

as well as some perennials from my neighbor that I have yet to identify that are in buckets on my back deck.

My gardening to do list:

buy more annuals
increase size of shade bed
build raised beds for perennials off back deck
add compost and peat to my veggie bed
plant my veggie garden
dig out pots and window boxes from storage

Let the Gardening begin

For Mother's Day my hero and the crew built me a raised garden bed. We used the plans from Ree, the Pioneer Woman's site. My hero built it with a little help from Iceman and Kodiak. Kodiak stained it for me with some mistint stain I found at Rona (it's kind of more purple than taupe but it does the job and I don't hate it). Turtle hauled away all the empty bags of compost, peat and zeolite. La Diva kept up on the laundry and other chores that day so they could get my gift completed. I'm so pleased with it and looking forward to getting my hands dirty. I've started some seedlings and also been given some plants by my neighbor. I was going to get a picture of it up today but my neighbor came calling and said I could help myself to some of her perennials. She's thinning out some beds. Now I have to figure out all that she has given me as she had forgotten most of the names. I have some iris and a pink rose bush for sure.

Pining for spring

I've been having issues with my hands lately which is why I haven't posted much on either blog. Typing hurts and some days so does using the touch pad. I'm desperate for better weather and while we had a tease of it on Monday/Tuesday, today I woke to a skiff of snow on the lawn. I started some seedlings and have a few sprouts of lettuce and basil so far. My morning glory seeds have exceeded the height of the dome on the seed tray and will need to be transferred to a larger pot soon. We are going to build a raised garden bed this spring so I'm looking forward to that. I've been spending some time surfing the net and thought I'd share some of the latest sites I'm enjoying.

I've been enjoying the following gardening blogs:

My Square Foot Garden

Life on the Balcony

Alberta Home Gardening

Also some interesting reading for my conservative friends (my liberal friends may not be appreciative of them):

Mother of All Conservatives

Human Life Matters and Mark Pickup ( interesting aside~ I went to the jr. high school named after his father and his mom was my music teacher for a time. She was also a dear friend of my parents and I have a piece of Mark's artwork hanging in my living room that was our wedding gift from her)

I've also been enjoying my friend Crafty's new cooking blog "Crafty's Cafe" from which I also discovered Mennonite Girls Can Cook.

Shade Gardening

Does anyone know if you can grow any vegetables in the shade?

Our front yard has very mature trees. The house next door is nearly 100 years old and our lot used to belong to it. When they built this duplex they kept the large trees. We successfully grow bleeding heart, hostas, begonias, impatiens in the front bed which has more sun in the spring but once the trees leaf out it is quite shady.

Strawberry Spinach

We purchased some intriguing seeds the other day. I hope that my Aunt will let us plant them out at the farm. They are called Strawberry Spinach or Blitum capitatum, Chenepodium capitatum. I thought it was a new plant variety but apparently it was harvested by German monks some 400 years ago. It has edible fruit and leaves. I can't wait to try it.

Has anyone ever heard of this or tried it before? Are you planting anything unusual this year? Anything that is new to you?

mmmmmmmmmmm

Iceman and I found a new favorite salad dressing. It is made locally, in Alberta at least, and tastes divine. I tried to recreate it but only had dried basil and that just didn't do it justice. I'm thankful to find another dressing that Iceman enjoys. He loves salad but only ate it with Girard's Champagne dressing , which is not available here.

If anyone has a recipe for a creamy basil & garlic dressing than I'd love it if you could share. Meantime, we will enjoy purchasing this product which is available at 2 of the grocery stores in the neighboring city.

There are other flavors as well and I may have to give them a try. Check out the whole product line at Boccalino Grotto.

I'm going to try one more time to grow some lettuce this year in containers. So far I've had little success but I've noticed some container specific varieties while perusing the seed racks so I will try those.

Holiday Weekend Hangover

Victoria Day long weekend has come and gone. With it came our traditional garden frenzy! This year more frantic than years past due to the fact that the Hero has been so busy and gone on way too many trips. Waaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!! It's like the world of fire rescue has come out of hibernation and they all want a piece of my Hero. Poor guy is running ragged. So with this being one of the few weekends that I had his full attention we worked like mad to get plants bought, soil prepped, pots filled, grass mowed, trampoline set up, bikes out of storage, etc, etc..... the list goes on. We made a big dent in out todos and we are both suffering for it. Me and my 90 year old body and the Hero with his knees made old too soon thanks to the thoughtfulness of a drunk driver.

At the end of the day we did manage to dump our dirt covered bodies into chairs on our front porch, have an Alley Kat Aprikat Ale (my new favorite treat) and a Steam Whistle for the Hero and enjoy our hard work.

My fellow green thumbs may be curious about our plant selection so I will list it below.

Shade garden (containers):

Fibrous Begonia Gum Drop Cherry Blossom
Nonstop Bright Rose Tuberous Begonia
Nonstop Yellow Tuberous Begonia
Impatiens
Double Impatiens with German Ivy in hanging baskets
silver nettle vine
baby bunny bellys (Trandescantia)
Tricolor sweet potato vine
chartreuse ipomoea
silver falls dichondra
wandering jew purple trandescantia
lucky oxalis
dolce creme brulee heuchera
sunset velvet oxalis
chenille plant
variegated lysimachia
(viola hederacea) tasmanian violet

Perennials already in shade bed:

Bleeding heart
Heuchera Coral Bells
Day Lily
Hostas


Sun garden:
Rudbeckia Gloriosa Daisies
Sunflower Ring of Fire
Californian Poppy Apricot Chiffon
baby's breath (gypsophilia)
candy corn (manettia)vine
petit licorice (helichrysum petiolare)
argyranthemum
variegated potato vine
chives
garlic
mixed lettuce
basil
cilantro
canary creeper vine
miniature rose


We want to add some more perennials to our shade bed and we have bordered it with impatiens for the Hero's quick burst of instance gratification. (He has little patience for seeds) Still looking for another hanging basket for the porch, the NW side gets a bit more light than the front part of the porch. Tomato plants are still on my list to purchase and possibly some hanging baskets for the back if I get some hangers up.

It was a productive weekend. Add my first Iced Capp of the season and a family trip to DQ and it feels like summer is on it's way.