Officially Spring

The official first day of Spring has come and gone, but the weather seems to be still hovering around zero.  Despite the winter-like temperature we're still getting, I'm definitely enjoying the longer day and warmth of the sun!    

Here's the first sign of Spring in our house - cat grass!  Lucky cat, she's the first one that gets to enjoy this season's veggies.  :)  

Seed starting (in take out boxes) are coming along.  The cucumber seeds are already sprouting (with green leaves) and the tomato seeds are just starting to sprout.  Seedling transfer probably just a few days away!

~ Rebecca

May Update

It's finally starting to feel like Spring!!!  The flowering bulbs are in full bloom and perennials and the perennials are coming out of the ground.  Here's a round-up of what I've seen so far in the front garden:  

(Starting from top left corner, across to right, and down)
1. Crocus "Orange Monarch", 2. Hyacinth "Oriental Mix", 3. Hyacinth "Oriental Mix" , 4. Nasturtium "Alaska Mix" , 5. Narcissus "Kedron" , 6. Muscari "Armeniacum" , 7. Tulip "Yokohama" , 8. Tulip "Orange", 9. Narcissus "Texas" , 10. Violets, 11.Daffodil "Sir Winston Churchill" , 12. Lamium "Herman's Pride", 13. Silvermound, 14. Phlox "Emerald Blue", 15. Tulip "Rajka".

One group of bulbs that did not come up are the "Libretto" Parrot tulips I planted in the Fall.  These were supposed to be tall, glorious, beautiful pink tulips so I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't come up.  Not sure if it was just a bad batch of bulbs or if the squirrels found them before it had a chance to grow.  

Otherwise, most of the plants in the garden survived the harsh winter we had this year.  One of the English lavender is a bit roughed up from the cold weather but I noticed that it's still alive (a few tiny green leaves) so there's still a chance to nurse it back to life.  

Next, it's time to tend to the vegetable gardens - divide,  re-pot, transplant, etc etc.  Updates coming soon!

~ Rebecca 

Bye Bye April!

It's the last day of April and it's still so darn cold out.  This year we had a Winter that just won't go away, and now a Spring that feels like it hasn't actually arrived.  So far we've only had one slightly milder weekend,  just enough for me to spend the weekend cleaning the yard up and began to get the soil in the planters ready for seed sowing.

The Spring bulbs are starting to peak out of the ground and so far only these red tulips have bloomed.  I thought the Crocuses would come out first but I barely see any of them... maybe the squirrels ate them?  I'm guessing in another two weeks or so, more of the bulbs will start to bloom...  can't wait!

This year I decided to direct sow a bunch of cool weather vegetable seeds outside right into the planter.  I realized that I actually don't have enough space indoors to start seedlings for things like lettuce and radish.  Plus, I find the indoor-start lettuce and radish seedlings be on the weak/lanky side (due to the lack of daylight) so it'll be interesting to see if the direct sow method will yield better and strong crop.

With that in mind, this season I've focused most of my indoor seed starting energy to things like tomatoes (4 kinds!), herbs, snow peas, and cucumbers (and that's cat grass you see there in the center).  I probably will have to transplant some of the seedlings to bigger planters soon to encourage more growth.

Meanwhile, patience, patience, patience......

And let's see in 20 days if the first batch of "4 seasons lettuce" I directly sowed outside will be ready for harvest or not :)

~ Rebecca 

First day of Spring

It's officially the first day of Spring, but it's far from feeling like Spring.  We did have a few days of "warm up", and by warm up I mean just barely above zero.  Because it's been so cold for so long this Winter, even a degree of two above freezing actually feels "warm" in comparison.  I think we may have reached 4-degree Celsius yesterday and I was walking around without gloves and a winter hat!

Seedlings are coming along - more than half of the seeds have sprouted and I have transferred them to small containers of dirt.  Due to space constraints, I ended up putting two seedlings per pot, so when they get bigger in a month or so I will probably have to do another split and transfer.

The square planters I saved up from the annuals I bought last year actually comes in quite handy and they line up nicely in the cardboard box.  In the photo above, we have several kinds of tomatoes, along with some curly parsley and cilantro.

Last night I transferred a few more tomato seedlings to the circular pots.  Because we only have one South-facing window, I'm need to maximize the seedling placements as much as I can.  Here I'm trying out two-tiered placement (essentially taken over a good corner and door of our kitchen), hopefully the plants will like it.  I still have a few more seedlings to go (golden bell pepper and eggplants, those seeds takes soooo long to sprout!) so I'm going to have to work my magic and find a few more places to put those!

Happy Spring!    

~ Rebecca

Happy Spring!

Today is officially the first day of Spring, although the latest winter wind is giving us -2 Celsius and flurries, it certainly doesn't feel like Spring yet.

But I've definitely been thinking about warm weather and plans for the gardens already (especially after going to the Canada Blooms show - which I will post pictures soon).  Lots of ideas this year for both the flower and vegetable gardens.  And perhaps I should start some seeds soon as I think I'm already behind schedule for that (looking back at last year's blog posts, I actually started my vegetable seeds at the end of February because it was such a mild winter!).  

But for now here is a pretty "spring-like" photo of my latest indoor purchase to celebrate the official start of the Spring season!     

Spring?

Even though it's still cold outside, I do sense a hint of Spring in the air. Perhaps because the days are starting to get longer or the birds are chirping more in the morning.  So I couldn't help but buy a pot of tulips yesterday to get things rolling :)  I miss seeing greenery and flowers, can't wait till Spring is here!

Canada Blooms show in two weeks!

Spring is in the air!

I think I'm starting to get a hint of Spring fever.  The mild weather we've been getting in Toronto probably contributed to that as well.  The other day when I went and surveyed the backyard to see what's happened since the Winter, I was surprised to find new growth at some of the plants already, such as the day lily etc. 

And of course, our little raccoon and squirrel friends have Spring fever as well, as evident in the digging they have started to do around the tree stump and throughout the lawn....  argh.....those buggers....

Kind of not looking forward to the havoc they're going to cause in the Spring.... I guess all I can do now is just say "om"......