@jo Yes, the tulips are looking great inside the fence. The rain last night really helped as well. It was most welcome. When I was working in the yard yesterday, I noticed the ground was very dry. Looking forward to seeing everything "green up" now. 

@Grandmama re the tulips and the rain! We have had some good rain here lately, and, yes, things are mighty green now. We definitely have had an early spring—a good mixture of precipitation and relatively warm. The spring bulb plants are all bursting forth: the crocuses are in full bloom, but our daffodils and hyacinths have yet to open up. Some gardens around us, though, have prolific daffodil blooms already.

This afternoon I transplanted the lovely snowdrop bulbs, since the blooms have finished and it's a prudent time to move them. There were quite a few in our back lawn, so I scattered them around one of our back gardens, with more at the front. Now there are divots around the back, but with soil placed there, they should fill in okay in time.  

We have some old, messy cedars along part of the east side of our back property, and were researching what best to plant there in the place of the most unsightly ones. The conclusion: Forsythia bushes! I went to my favourite local nursery this morning and purchased three. We chose the tall variety (nearly 10') because we don't have fences in our more rural neighbourhood, so shrubs and trees are a nice option.

The weather now feels like I should be starting to plant veggie seeds and annuals, but I still have to wait another 6+ weeks until the danger of frost has completely passed. Sure enough, most nights lately have been at freezing or below.

Well this one isn't me, but a couple days ago, my husband and kids went along the perimeter of our fence and planted a bunch of morning glory seeds. I'll be curious to see if any come up.  

In Fairy Garden news, everything is looking great....except for my Artemesia. I may have over pruned it....or it may have been hit extra hard by the cold....not sure which. It is still alive, but it's only got one sprig coming back from the root. 

Looking forward to hitting up the local gardening centers soon.  

Oooh, I love morning glorys! We don't have a fence, so I have been trying to determine where else I could plant these so they could climb. Keep me posted on how yours fare, @fantasia. And great for your Fairy Garden. But the poor Artemisia. I planted one a couple of years back, and it has returned quite well. Hopefully this year too!

I am very pleased to report that the over-wintering of five chrysanthemums was a success! Green shoots are found on all of them, so we will plant them in the ground in a few weeks. I over-wintered my geraniums for the first time too, but I am really unsure as to how healthy they are. I'm going to plant them in a side spot, rather than in the regular gardens, in case they don't do a thing.

As for garden centres (one of my favourite activities!), I will start visiting them into May a bit. Oh! Our 'baby' forsythia are doing very well, and some small lilac bushes that we transplanted from the front to the back (they were kind of growing wild) survived our snowy, cold winter and are coming along well, hurrah!

Edit over an hour later: I just went out to the garage to check on our garden potatoes, which have been sitting in sand all winter to protect and preserve them. We have used a fair few over the past six months or so, hence I was surprised to see how many are still left. Some of them are growing eyes, but are still quite firm. I will have to use them even more frequently so they're all gone before we harvest again in the Autumn.   I was saving them the bulk of them for mashed potatoes at our family Christmas (postponed because of Covid), but we're still unsure as to when that will be.  

The rainy season is over for us, but I'm planting all over again (we have a borehole, so water isn't an issue)

For some reason my tomatoes didn't do very well and all died so I'm starting again. I've planted them in trays this time first. It's getting close to Zambian winter so I'm looking to build a green house before planting the seedlings in the garden. 

My herb garden is doing very nicely. The ginger and spearmint and dill and chives are doing very nicely. Unfortunately the coriander and sorrel were dug up by the garden boy who thought they were weeds . I have more coriander seeds, but I'll have to go to my friend for more sorrel. (Also I've told the garden boy that maybe he shouldn't weed the garden...I'll handle that on my own   )

Too bad about the tomatoes, @wild-rose. Ours did not do well last summer either (first time ever, I think), and we suspect it is a lack of calcium in the soil, so we have added copious amounts of eggs shells, and will see if things are different this year. They better be. All the best with the trays. Nice about the herb garden!

I shouldn't be chuckling about the garden boy digging up the coriander and sorrel, but this reminds me of years ago when our kids were young. I had planted sunflower seeds along one of our fences and one day when the kiddos were out trimming up the yard a bit, one of them thought that the tiny sunflower shoots were ... weeds. They promptly pulled them all up, thinking they were helping Mommy. Awww.  

We had a lovely snowfall last night (4-5"), and the spring flowers all have their heads bowed this morning under its weight. They should rebound in a few days, though, as temperatures climb to more seasonal. I moved my pansies up to our more sheltered front porch out of the west wind, but it looks like they still got nipped a bit. I think they should recover. Hope so! The chrysanthemums I moved inside last night, just in case. I over-wintered them and certainly don't want to lose them now to a spring snowstorm.  

The lemon tree's flowers have all died and fallen off.  They were lovely while they lasted. . . now to wait and see if any lemons grow.  If they do, I'll probably pick them off pre-emptively because the little tree needs to put more energy into regrowing its lost leaves rather than working on non-essential fruits.  

Everything here is in full bloom right now, but with the three inches of snow we got overnight. . . I'm terrified to see what the world will look like after the thaw.  On one hand, the snow actually came in contact with most things for less than twenty hours total. . . on the other hand. . . spring is a delicate season to be sure.  Hoping that our apple trees produce some apples for us this fall. . . but unsure whether that will happen or not.  I think that the annuals I'd planted will be okay as I covered them with plastic, but again, we'll have to wait and see.

Snow isn't necessarily a bad thing. “Poor man’s fertilizer” is what the old Yankees called snow and there is considerable truth to that expression. Snowflakes as they form and fall absorb nitrates from the atmosphere and then release these nutrients into the soil as the snow melts.

However, I can't say that I enjoy shoveling snow past March!

Well I don't have anything as cool to share about as a Lemon tree, but the last two days have been just GORGEOUS weather outside. And since we took the kiddos to get flowers for May Day today, we loaded up for our backyard and front yard as well. A very large portion of both days was spent outside planting things.  

My husband completed clearing the final portion of the fairy garden and we are filling it in with a lot of marigolds. Put in my favorite lantanas and coleuses (whatever the plural of that is) in other holes that didn't have anything. Also got a second blueberry bush as I lost one last year, but the original looks great now that it's in the ground. I can't even think right now what all we put in back there the past two days but I'll try to get some pictures up to share with everybody when we're done. 

Haven't even started the front flower bed yet  

On the subject of vegetables, I got my one Juliet tomato plant I'm starting this year. The kids requested corn and sunflowers so that'll take up the bulk of the remaining space. Maybe we can put those in tomorrow.  

Posted by: @digorykirke

now to wait and see if any lemons grow. 

I sure hope they do, DiGs!

Posted by: @grandmama

Snow isn't necessarily a bad thing. “Poor man’s fertilizer”

Yes! And snow is a good insulator too.

It was fun to read about your gardening days, @fantasia! Planting days are often tremendously satisfying and productive. Oooh, marigolds are lovely and last so well. As for lantanas and coleus(es? ), hear-hear! Would love to see pics sometime, for sure.

After my walk this morning, I spent a fair bit of time cleaning up the gardens again in preparation for planting later in May. I am pleased and surprised to find a couple of annuals that have lasted the cold, snowy winter! One is a type of mini geranium; I'm not sure what the other is yet.   The only reason I did not dig them up last Autumn is because their roots were so embedded in the soil that I thought I'd leave them for spring. Well, now, come spring, they're coming back to life, so they're staying put ... hurrah!

Somehow I had thought that Creeping Jenny was an annual. Going to check the tag right now. Aha, it does say annual, and yet when I look online, they're labelled as perennials. Maybe there are two types?? I am rather puzzled. And here's why: those I planted last year—quite a few around the various gardens, planters—are all coming back with vigour! Just have to ensure they don't take over, as in reading more, they can be invasive.  

We moved some hostas up to a front garden on the east side of our property near the road. We have tried various things there and nothing has taken, but these hostas sure have. And since my five chrysanthemums over-wintered really well and are now beautifully green, they're going in between those hostas. Should be pretty in the Autumn.  

This year, our daffodils, few tulips, and grape hyacinths have really proliferated, which is fun to see! We are transplanting some and leaving others.

We are expanding a few of the gardens, so I have more perennials to buy (what a hardship ), as well as my usual annuals and veggie seeds. That will start happening the week of May 17th, most likely. No planting, though, until the week of the 24th.

Our many existing perennials are coming up beautifully!  

I forgot to mention something I keep on wanting to mention   ... my three columbine plants are doing so well this spring already. I am very pleased, to say the least.  

I have started my gardening shopping list. This takes a fair bit to organize (lots of fun though!) to prepare hitting the nurseries over the next few weeks, which I love doing! Only just over a week until we can plant!  

Posted by: @jo

I had planted sunflower seeds along one of our fences and one day when the kiddos were out trimming up the yard a bit, one of them thought that the tiny sunflower shoots were ... weeds. They promptly pulled them all up, thinking they were helping Mommy. Awww.

Awww, that really does sound sweet. I suppose I ought to prepare myself for when Tian decides to "help" me in the garden.    

I'd love to see pictures of your fairy garden, fantasia, once you're all done with it. I also plan to make a fairy garden, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. (Apart from looking and pinning ideas on Pinterest).

I hope your lemon tree is doing alright, @digorykirk, ours came down sick with some sort of parasite. I had the garden boy prune it, but it looks like we'll have to spray it with something. I'm currently looking for some safe pesticides. The lime trees are doing very well, we harvested all the fruit way back in January and now the new likes are ready for harvesting again...I'm shocked...growing up in the cold North I'm not used to a tree bearing fruit literally all year round.

A big problem I'm dealing with right now is crows in my garden. So I'm trying to come to with a creative scarecrow. 

Posted by: @wild-rose

growing up in the cold North I'm not used to a tree bearing fruit literally all year round.

That would be a treat, to be sure!

Do let us know (or a photo!) how your creative scarecrow turns out ... and if it truly scares off those birds.  

This has been major gardening week for us. Usually we should not plant until the long weekend of May (around May 24) for risk of frost up until then, but this year is quite surprisingly different. While last week we had frost every night (beautiful and fresh), this week we are almost fainting in the heat and humidity. Garden centres have been doing thriving business as people jump to dig in the earth earlier than normal. Including us.

I have got SO much planted this week: annuals, veggies, some perennials, and have yet to do the potatoes and quite a few more perennials. We expanded a couple of our floral gardens to accommodate my plant passion.  

But it is just too hot to work outside today, so I will wait until the relative cool of the evening (at least the sun isn't burning down then) to keep on working at getting all our goodies in the ground.

I have finally started a little herb garden—well, an organized one: before this, a few herbs were just scattered various places.   But now, in one spot (except for the parsley), I have chives, thyme, mint, and will plant garlic this fall. Next year I may add oregano and something else.

Veggies this year are: potatoes, tomatoes, beans (yellow and green), sugar snap peas, beets, cucumbers, peppers, and a bit of leaf lettuce. Also, pumpkins, watermelons, rhubarb. We sure hope the tomatoes do better than last year. We think it was because the soil was depleted of calcium, so have added lots and lots of eggs shells this year to change that around. Tomatoes may be my favourite out of all we plant, and the many decades we have been growing them I have never had a problem. So, here's to a great yield this year: two Brandywine (my absolute favourite, and not only because of the name ); one Beefsteak; two Sweet 100s.

Our beautiful peony bushes are in full bud and should be glorious once they open. The tulips and daffodils are mostly gone, although a few are hanging on, as are some grape hyacinths.

As many of you know, I am so not a summer-fan, but thankfully gardening helps pull me through.  

Tonight we may have frost!     This is unusual for our area at the end of May, and we (along with many others) will have to protect and cover a number of plants and even some of the full gardens—those which are not as sheltered. Here's hoping everything lives through this upcoming cold night! I think our pansies got nipped last night, but they're still okay. Will bring all hanging baskets into the garage tonight and cover the more vulnerable area with tarps. We've a bit of work ahead of us this evening.  

I just read Brandywine tomatoes and wondered if it came from the Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, it seems that no one knows where it was actually first cultivated.

I'm getting back from vacation today, so I'll try and share pictures of my strawberry plants, but I think its supposed to be raining when we get home. Thankfully, now that we're getting home, I no longer have to worry about leaving my plants and can start on some fruit and vegetable planting!