French Breakfast Radish

First radish of the season!!!  I've been waiting for these "French Breakfast Radish" to be ready for a while now, so today I decided to  dig one up as the top was starting to be visible above the soil.  I read somewhere that the earlier you harvest the radish the less spicy they are, so I decided to give this a try before it gets too "spicy".  The result?  DELICIOUS!  Just slice them up and eat them raw, or mix them into a salad :)  Can't wait to harvest more in a few more days!     

Strawberries

 

We have a strawberry patch in the backyard that the previous owner had planted, and this year we were determined to protect them against the squirrels (we were told that those little monsters cause havoc on any vegetable and fruit garden)

Because of the warm weather we've been having this Spring, by the second week of May the strawberry plants were already full in bloom.  

 

And before the end of May, fruit were already forming and they were in pretty good shape, and some were starting to turn red already.... 

And ta-da!! The first few ripe ones :)  Freshly picked from the garden - it doesn't get any more fresh than that!  (And these are real size strawberries, around 1" big, not like the giant monster ones you see at the supermarket - sometimes you wonder what they use to plump those ones up so much?!)

May 2-4 and Vegetable Planters

It's Victoria Day weekend in Canada and they say this is the weekend that is "safe" to start planting your plants outside (no danger of frost).  Even though I started my seeds wayyyy early this year, I had a bit of a setback in April when a bunch of them didn't make it and  I was left with some pretty fragile seedlings.  The Cherry tomato plants are doing well and they are just waiting for more soil to transplant to the planters.  The French Radish (a few of them) have come back to life and are getting quite strong, as well as an abundant of lettuce (various kinds) seedlings.... 

So today I decided it was time to do the major transplant into the raised planters in the backyard.  The lettuce seedlings are still quite fragile but they were running room to grow in the pot I started the seeds in (my bad for not reading the seed packet instructions).  So I decided, what the heck, I'll just transplant them into the planter to give it lots of space to grow.   Things proved to be a bit trickier than I had anticipated, as the sun today was quite strong and it was starting to "cook" some of these delicate seedlings.  I had to come up with a device to shade the planters as I was doing the transplanting... quite hectic...  

This is the end result, seedlings planted in neat rows/groups and planter is secured with chicken wire (just in case) to prevent the squirrels from doing any "recreational digging".....  

Keep your fingers crossed for me that these seedlings will survive the next few weeks (in terms of facing the weather and the squirrels!)  Happy Victoria Day! 

" In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." ~ Margaret Atwood

Spring on full force

I still can't get over how beautiful the Phlox are in the garden.  I wasn't familiar with this plant (I'm still a beginner gardening - so knowledge is still very limited!) so I had no idea it was going to be this beautiful display of purple in the Spring time :) 

Zoom in of one of those pretty little purple blooms

And finally, the "Sir Winston Churchill" double daffodils (french: Jonquille) are blooming!  I really thought these were all lost when the squirrels dug up the bulbs in the Fall but I guess they didn't get to all of them :)  They are really as beautiful as I was hoping they would be.... 

And a nice close up of the Viola :) 

Happy Friday!!!

Mystery flower

Can anybody identify what plant this is?  I'm trying to find out what plant this is - it came up in the yard in the Spring about the same time the tulips were coming up.  They're pale blue in colour, with a blue strip down the middle of each petal and are tiny little  delicate flowers.  Let me know if you have any idea what this is!  

Garden Centre Inspiration

 

Went to Sheridan last week to "browse around" :)  It was just wonderful to see all the pretty colours and shapes of the beautiful blooms.  And look at that nice arrangement the store put together - so pretty! 

 

Nice rain barrel they had there - top portion acts as a bird bath, good idea! 

Happy Spring!!!!