Agapanthus ‘Black Buddha’
Alternanthera ‘Purple Knight’
Angelonia ‘Angelface White’
Canna ‘Durban’ (African Sunset)
Coleus ‘Purple Duckfoot’
Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’
Dichondra ‘Silver Falls’
Ipomoea ‘Midnight Lace’
Ipomeoea ‘Sweet Caroline Bewitched’
Plectranthus ‘Mona Lavender’
Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Blue’

I’ve done a bunch of videos for the Globe and Mail and the column starts on May 28th. Monique Dobson took this picture of  us working away.  I must say we had fun and they should be on the Globe’s web site this week.

Here’s a really piece that was in the Edmonton Journal:  

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/life/Lessons+from+Marjorie+Harris+garden/4801463/story.html

The garden is popping incredibly and every day seems to bring new ephemerals into view.  But here’s a scene I like very much:

It’s hard to believe this was mud city a few weeks ago. The scilla blanket the whole garden now and what a pleasure they are:  they look great for a while in spring just when we need them,  spread around and then disappear in summer making way for all the other plants around them.

The Cornus mas behind the viburnum is just coming into glory. I like this composition  because there’s an old Chinese vase, broken long ago, which humps up like a small whale in a sea of green. And the compost is sitting back there needing a good turn. I’ll keep shooting from this exact spot for the rest of the year.

If you want a copy of the piece that was in the Life section of the Globe and Mail this week, let me know and I’ll send it onwards.

That’s a Viburnum bodnentensis which I swear did not look like that a few days ago.  It’s  going crazy.  And a  Cornus mas behind it is starting to look golden. And i n the outside world the sun shines. The bubble of being in the hospital is broken once I see the garden. It never disappointed. Mud has turned into a carpet of green and blue and white:  scilla, chionodoxa, snouts of everything pushing up.

But last night temps dipped down to -2C so we’re are not in a safe zone yet.

I will be talking to the Edmonton Hort on Easter Monday:  LET’S STOP MAKING UGLY GARDENS.  Really looking forward to this.  Monday 25th at 7 p.m.

He was either looking at the little squirrel bashing about next door, or had his eye on anything fallen from the feeder which had been filled that day. When he took off it was breathtaking. How can they do that?

It was cheery this week to make my way to Canada Blooms and actually see and smell plants in bloom. They have an amazing track record of forcing plants and it made slogging around on the those cement floors worthwhile. I like the show very much and there’s lots to see without it feeling smooshed together.

My highlight was talking to Ben Heppner the great Heldentenor. He was standing in his garden named Parisifal (designed by Judith Wright). He was ever so patient being interviewed and I couldn’t resist speaking to him.

Parsifal is the opera that changed my life. Turned me into an opera nut. I also has actually met Mr. Heppner years ago. It was up at the Red Barn on Jackson’s Point when Peter Gzowski used to have fabulous fundraisers for his literacy campaign.  I was doing a small gig on gardening;  and Ben Heppner was the surprise star of the evening. So I like to think I once sang with Ben Heppner (he at the mic me at the back of the stage belting out Oh Canada!).

So we chatted on amiably.  I am his slave forever he is so kind and patient. I didn’t ask if he was a gardener which was fairly stupid.

All  of this  took my mind off the flood that’s begun and will continue until the ground can absorb the snow melt and the water coming in from all around (and rising from Taddle Creek our underground stream). There are snow drops up everywhere. And it really is beginning to feel like spring might make an appearance soon.

First of all trees comes in two forms:  container-grown;  or balled-and-burlapped.  The former is obvious; the latter means the tree has been grown in a field, dug up and, along with some of the soil it grew in, wrapped in burlap and that is how  it’s delivered to your door.

I’ve talked to several people I respect in the landscape business and half of them say  ”Leave the burlap alone.” and the other half say: “Cut off the top and down a bit.”  All caution not to remove the burlap around the roots. It will disintegrate with time but if you pull it off the rootball you’ll be losing not only the soil and its attendant mycorrhizae (the microbes that have a symbiotic relationship with the tree’s root system), the tree will go into shock again.

They also say there is only one way to plant a tree.  It’s what my favourite arbourist Derek Welsh calls “planting proud.”

* Dig a hole the same depth or slightly shallower than the depth of the root system but make the hole much wider.

*Test the hole for drainage by adding water and making sure it all disappears but not too quickly.

*  Pop in the tree and back fill with the same soil you took out of the hole. Don’t go mucking about amending the bottom of the hole (see previous paragraph).  The tree should be  just slightly above the level of the soil (proud).

*If you need to amend the soil, do it on top and keep it away from the trunk of the tree.

Water by letting a hose dribble into the hole very slowly over an hour or so (move the hose so it’s percolating all the way around).  Water regularly for an hour twice a week if there’s no rain. After the first year or so most trees will be able to get along with what nature provides as long as there isn’t a drought.

If you’ve got a landscaper or gardener who doesn’t know these basics, or who believes that peat moss is a fertilizer (it’s a sterile medium and a non-renewable resource that takes thousands of years to rebuild), you might consider hiring someone more knowledgeable.

Most nurseries don’t guarantee plants after you’ve had them in your garden for a few months.  Who knows what egregious sins have been committed:  not enough water, too much water, dogs peeing  on them, and so on. How could they possibly guarantee something so alive and vital?  Some large landscapers offer plant insurance, but most small nurseries and landscaping companies don’t.  If you find a nursery which will replace a plant that died over the winter, you’ve got an honourable company and one that’s probably hanging on by the finger-tips to do so.

There are lots of scammers out there now that spring’s sprung.  They flood the streets with their machines and offers of looking after and “treating” your plants.  Careful. Make sure you are educated enough to be able to ask the right questions. Most landscapers may not know much about plants except from the few they use all the time, but they aren’t out to fleece you. And then there are the rest.

HAVE A LOOK AT THE FAQs ON THE PREVIOUS BLOG.

Forthergilla gardenii great little shrubs with white spring bottlebruch blooms. For some great shade plants, choose from this list of natives:

Woodland poppy (very hard to find but worthwhile);  Aquilegia canadensis; wild ginger (see below); Panax quinquefolius; Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza longistulis); Podophyllum peltatum the Mayapple and watch how this is identified in the nursery;  Caulophyllum thalictroides; and Gaulthereia procumbens for a ground cover with winter interest.

Watch who you buy this stuff from. Go to a nursery that specializes in native plants and make sure they aren’t ripping them out of the wild.

Asarum canadense is a native groundcover easy to control; there’s also A. europeum which is more elegant, shiny leaves which I happen to like even better.

Non-native beauties:

Pulmonaria ‘Majeste’ has a gorgeous silver  foliage and bright blue flowers in spring

Hostas:   there are so many great cultivars, that you should research them carefully. Take the tag sizes seriously and make a tapestry pattern out of them. Don’t get lumped with 10 all of the same kind in that landscaper look.

I also mentioned Eco-Lawn which is a grass substitute I’m crazy about. It’s easy to apply, grows quickly and stay a soft shaggy presence. You mow once a year.

And I talked about Nematodes. This is a live culture which you can spread around (follow the instructions) when the temperatures are right. They explode the systems of grubs and will keep animals from digging up your garden and lawn.

I’m getting ready to send out my next newsletter so please sign up if you haven’t already.

Will be on Shelagh Rogers this afternoon at 4 p.m. and tomorrow a.m. on Fresh Air between  8 and 8:30 a.m. (that’s Sunday the 25th).

It’s a glorious day but we do need the rain that’s coming our way .  If it doesn’t rain, make sure big plants are watered well below the root systems.

Spring perennials, spring ephemerals and anything to do with spring struggled to be know in the garden this week. I did not expect this flood on the left would make me stop, sit for hours in the middle of the garden on a bench, feet in water, sump pump humming nearby. It reminded me of being a little kid and playing in a stream making dams, directing the water where I wanted it. There I was back in childhood and skipping work in the sunshine.

But of course there are bigger upsides for gardeners. Stranded and forced to sit for an hour or two means you see what’s around you. Patrolling doesn’t do it. I savoured the cow bird who’s on the lookout for a nest—she’s got several lovely songs; the sight of all these plants I forgot I’d put in: the intense magenta of our native Trilliium erectum, still small here but it survived; the magnificent Mertensia virginica(Virginia bluebell); I felt ravished by the scent from a pile of hyacinths I’d packed in last autumn. What good luck to be trapped by beauty.

It’s the tiny things all around that were so dazzling (like the Tulipa tarda and the Narcusus ‘Tete a Tete’ here).

I intend to spend more time sitting in my garden than I have in the past. The squirrels are busy eating all the buds off the magnificent magnolia; the new grasses are springing up.  Yes there are lots of holes but I’m betting they’ll get filled up very quickly.

I had my very first volunteer in the garden this week: Monique. She knows her way around the garden and having someone so knowledgeable working along side me for a few hours was another pleasure of the week. As a treat, I invited her to go with me to the annual Loblaw bun bash.

This is an amazing event because you get not only to see the new plants they’ll be carrying, you get to take them home. Well it turns grown people into screaming meamies (including Miss Greedy guts here). One dame accused us of stealing her plants. An honest mistake on Monique’s part, she put the wrong plants on our trolley. Quite a view of gardeners.

But I’lll report on what’s going to be in their stores in a few days. Meantime the mud pile is looking much better:

And hola more volunteers are coming in to help move trees this week. It will look so different. If to no one but me and, after all, who does anyone garden for except themselves.

hellebores on the left that a Helleborus niger; right is a purple form

Helleborus niger

purple-hellebore

There are more hellebores in the garden and I have to cut back the crappy looking foliage and will do so any minute now. I sort of like the mix of new growth, seductive satiny bloom, with decaying old foliage. It brings everything nature together in one plant.
Spring Flowering shrubs like this:

Wonderful spring flowering bulb such as this Chionodoxa lucilea. I have masses of them now all from a couple of dozen planted decades ago.

Are we spoiled? Was it just the longest running winter in memory? We are so eager to get out and doing in the garden and it should be okay from now on. But hold off clipping shrubs for a week or until you see some growth on the interior of woody plants. Then whack them back.

Today is our wedding anniversary and my adorable husband gave me some glorious yellow tulips and a bottle of Prosecco which I really adore. Tonight we celebrate decades and decades of living with each other. And him not interfering with the garden. Perfect marriage.

If you would like to have the Spring 09 e-letter it’s ready to send to you. Just sign up. We have to keep track of all the names somehow and that’s the only way I can think of doing it. Here are some wonderful events you might want to note:

UP COMING:

Toronto Botanical Gardens fabulous plant sale is on May 5 . Go to the really great web site: www.torontobotanicalgarden.com
Parkdale Hort’s great one day (11 to 2 p.m. on May 9) plant sale go to
www.parkdaletorontohort.com
Nancy White sings for gardens in Guatamela. this is a great event have a look at the powerpoint presentation to see how much difference a little garden can make. Their fund raiser is on May 7th at Holy Trinity Chruch; see www.warehouseofhope.com.

Ben (L) and Noah (R) are my neighbours and they are terrific workers. This weekend they learned how to take all the matted leaves off the garden with those big cloth gloves; to cut up stuff for the compost and use that small rake. They very gently (and carefully) helped lift off masses of stuff including the leaves to get them ready for the compost. These guys are 9, and said “It’s been a pleasure working for you.” when they left. I love my neighbourhood.
It’s the kind of street where everybody helps out (including Claire who carried our groceries in yesterday; and Robert ever vigilant on the sump patrol.) ?I feel so really lucky. And I can actually see the garden again.
Everybody seems to be out this weekend working in the garden. It is a celebration of renewal in more ways than this. The snouts in the garden are poking their heads up everywhere including through the sticky ?mud. The trees I’d been worried about—the new Japanese maples and the chiononanthus— are showing buds in spite of the brutal treatment they’ve had. I can now see my way into what has to be done next: finally cutting stuff back.
I’m incredibly happy writing ?Thrift and thanks so much to the people who sent in fantastic tips which I hadn’t thought of or seen anywhere else. The neat thing about this book is it’s all stuff that works.
And I’m looking forward to my next tour with Linda Thorne: we’ve re-cast the trip to Tuscany in autumn. Have a look under Talks and Tours above and you’ll see the whole itinerary. It’s going to be a splurge of sensuality: food, wine and gardens. What could make anyone happier?