The Intentions Were Good...

I went to the local garden centre with A Plan (for a change) and actually stuck to it (I think there must be something wrong!). I came back home, unloaded the car, and..... got distracted. That was well over two weeks ago. One of these days, hopefully soon, I'll get back on track with The Plan.

In the meantime, various spring and early-summer perennials have bloomed and gone to seed, and now I look out over the garden and think "The trollius is blooming already???? My, how time flies!".
While I was wandering through the garden areas around the house, wondering how the garden had advanced so much without my noticing how time was passing, my eye caught on a few splashes of magenta and white where a colour other than green was definitely not expected. I wonder what these pretty flowers are and, more importantly, where they came from? Hopefully, they'll become a regular fixture in the garden.

Invasion!

It's such a pretty addition to a spring garden -- brilliantly green leaves, delicate, lacy, white flowers -- and it's a menace. Introduced by European settlers, garlic mustard is considered to be an invasive species across North America. It aggressively competes with native species, often reducing their numbers. This in turn reduces the food supply for a variety of insects and wildlife and affects those populations in turn. So, despite its attractive appearance, it is essential to prevent the plant from reseeding by pulling the plants, chopping, or burning them.

What a Difference a Month Makes!

My last blog entry was just around a month ago -- the ground was still pretty much bare. Today,
there are blooms galore: tulips, daffodils, grape hyacinths, hyacinths, forget me nots, brunera,
trillium, virginia blue bells, wild garlic, ground ivy, trout lilies, columbines, etc.

A number of plants which appeared to thrive last summer have mysteriously disappeared over the course of the winter. A few bleeding hearts are no longer. A particularly lush clump of violets has disappeared. A large clump of brunera has been reduced to a few puny leaves and the patch of toad lilies which had the bizarre blooming times last year haven't come back. I wonder if it's always like this or if having been super aware of the contents of the garden last year because of the blogging has simply made the absences more notable.

April Showers Bring...... Butterflies?!?

I was looking out into the garden this afternoon, enjoying the sunshine and admiring the various blooms that were starting to appear when I noticed a movement on the path. The motion reminded me of that of a butterfly's wings and I wondered about the breeze that was making a leaf move in a similar way. Except the "leaf" really didn't look right for a leaf. I grabbed my
camera and headed outside only to find that it really was a butterfly sunning itself on the bricks in the path... in Montreal... in April.

Wordless Wednesday: An Eggplant With Heart

Grrr..... Yaaaawwwwnnnn..... Streeeeetttcccchhhhh.....

Well. I managed to remember how to log in to my blog. What a relief after 3 months of blogging-hibernation.

My last post featured a photo of my family's annual gingerbread house. I won't post a current photo (yes, it's still in our dining room -- sort of) because its current state is....well...."accessibly delicious" (Yeah, that's it! The reality is that it's in the form of bite-sized rubble!).

The gingerbread house is not the only thing to change in appearance. The garden has gone through a range of degrees of snow cover over the last few months. The snow-covered wonderland of February (pictured above) has melted (partly into our basement :( !!! ) and is
showing the beginnings of new life foretold by last fall's seed, bulbs, roots, etc. The snowdrops
are usually the first to bloom:

The crocuses follow. I think that there's a patch of them missing this year -- perhaps the
squirrels?

Oh and speaking of mischief in the garden, the raccoons have declared war again. Our municipality started a curbside kitchen compost pickup in November and we all received green bins in which to put out the kitchen scraps. It was outside all winter without any problems until last week. The raccoons have figured out how to undo the latch. So it's back to the drawing board to figure out how to turn the compost bin into a bandit-proof Fort Knox.

And Visions of Sugar Gardens Dance Through My Head...

Wishing everyone a very happy holiday season and may your 2009 be filled with peace, love, and happiness!