What do you see on your garden walks?

[cohan]

Lori, you are way ahead of me! I we get more weather like last week (+5C and higher) the snow will go fast, but we are back to barely above 0 days, or below; plus, much of my place is shaded, esp until the sun is higher, so we keep snow longer, except for a few spots..

hoping we will dodge the forecast 15-30cm of snow forecast for parts of the province the next couple of days; now looks like it may be farther south/west...

[RickR]

Lori is way ahead of me too, here near Minneapolis, Minnesota.  No gardens' soil is showing yet, although there are spots of grass showing in the yard.  But the big melt is on here too, and the three bridges over the Minnesota River closest to me are expected to closed by mid to end of this coming week due to flooding!  Makes me feel very fortunate that I live on the same side of the river as where I work.  Many fellow employees will be driving an extra 20-25 miles each way to get to work.

Rivers' flooding is expected to be very bad here this spring.  The city of Grand Forks, MN on the Red River (flowing north) has stock piled 1.5 million filled sand bags.

[cohan]

Oh, Rick, you are in one of those areas! I talk to lots of Manitoba folks in another forum, they are watching the rivers too....
Luckily, there is really nothing much around here that could flood--we get water standing in fields and roadsides, that's about it..even if the rivers in Rocky Mtn House or Red Deer did flood, it would be very local...

[Hoy]

Ryvarden lighthouse. It has been a beacon here for more than 1000 years. You are not allowed to drive but have to walk a few miles along the road. It is popular by all kind of people particularly in the summer.




View north and east across the open sea "Sletta" and the "Bømlafjorden" fjord. Here the weather and the sea can be very bad. You can see the snow covered mountains in the east.

 

it is mostly heather and grass growing here. No early springflowers! The kinnikinnick is very common here Lori

[RickR]

Oh, Rick, you are in one of those areas! I talk to lots of Manitoba folks in another forum, they are watching the rivers too....
Luckily, there is really nothing much around here that could flood--we get water standing in fields and roadsides, that's about it..even if the rivers in Rocky Mtn House or Red Deer did flood, it would be very local...

The Red River flowing from Minnesota and into Manitoba is especially prone to flooding because the drop in elevation per mile is so little.  It takes a long time for such flat areas to drain.  The Minnesota river is not as bad, but historically is a river with large natural fluctuations in volume.  It's really quite a spectacle to view the river at spring flooding from atop a river bluff, when you know what a "trickle" of water it becomes in late summer.

My little piece of land is at the top of the highest hill for  for miles around. (But you would never realize it just be looking at it.)

[Lori S.]

I'll bet you're glad for that hill, Rick!

Beautiful sights, Trond.  It's nice to see blue water and blue sky.  Yes, kinnikinick is very common here too, though maybe not so common in people's yards.

Hope you did not get all the forecasted snow, Cohan.  We've only gotten a couple of centimeters so far here.

[RickR]

I'll bet you're glad for that hill, Rick!

My higher elevation really doesn't matter as I am 15 miles from the river: the last half of the Minnesota River (maybe 100 miles?), the river bottom is pretty much flanked by low bluffs, and that general elevation is then maintained throughout my area.  Many towns are situated in the river bottoms, however.

[cohan]

Good to know you are not right in the flood path, Rick, that would be awful....

Lori, we got something like 3-4 inches last night through early this afternoon (sat night/sunday) not bad considering they were talking about 15-30 cm for some areas, and we weren't clear if we'd be in that zone or not! Still merited an hour and half or more of 2 man intensive shovelling..

Happily, they have removed snow from Monday's forecast, though its still there for Tues and Wed--looks like another big system, this one should be farther south, mostly, looks like Calgary might be right in the middle of that one?
Looked at the mounds of snow beside the driveway today, chest high in places and a few metres wide....

[Kelaidis]

Spring is springing a bit too quickly: our star magnolia is nearly in full bloom at the gardens (pix in my camera still)...but I have a enough pix from the last week to share: sunny and bright every day. The skies have forgotten how to rain! Oh well...at least we have lots of snowpack so we can water to our heart's content for a while...

Snowdrops and Helleborus niger going over, as are the earlier crocuses. Lots of daffodils are out as are the first tulips. I love this time of year! Fritillaria raddeana is a new one for me: what a beauty! Looks a lot like F. imperialis, only a month earlier, and a cool chartreuse. I am curious to see how it will fare with our inevitable cold snaps we shall get for the next few months eventually! I am not positive about Crocus versicolor: it may be C. veluchensis: can anyone weigh in? I've missed several of the spring colchicums already: they are a variable lot.  I finally found a spot Trillium nivale seems to like: now I need to get some more! Aaah Spring...from here on out it's a roller coaster.

[McDonough]

Panayoti...Aahhh Spring indeed!  An awesome start to the season.  I'm fixated on your Fritillaria raddeana in its ethereal chartreusiness and brooding black tree-trunk-like stems   Nice going with Iris nicolai outside too!  As I'm writing this, had to dash outside to see if there's any sign of Trillium nivale in my garden, but the snow only just receded from the east-facing slope it is planted on, and no signs of life yet, the ground still frozen.

[McDonough]

Aside from crocus and other early spring bulbs on the sunny and warm south side of my house, there isn't much else brewing significantly just yet... the ground needs to warm up a bit, a couple cold days with some snow causing some delay.  As the snow recedes, I inspect the extent of tunneling and mice/mole/vole/shrew damage to the yard and garden areas.  Activity is greatest in the fall, and I generously "fed" the tunnels last fall, but still see remnants of activity.  All has been tromped down and raked over; any new signs of activity will be dealt with.



Where snow has melted away from troughs, there are signs of growth, a couple Draba ready to pop blooms.  I am struck by the winter foliage color on Globularia repens 'nana', a plant I bought from Harvey Wrightman, with micro-tiny leaves that are about as black as any black-leaved plant that I know of.  It gives me an idea, a planting of this Globularia, with the blazing orange wide-spread goblets of Crocus gargaricus piercing the flat mats of Globularia goodness.  Is this the same as G. nana (a valid name), or is it truly a microform of G. repens?
http://www.wrightmanalpines.com/details.asp?PRODUCT_ID=G072
PS: the labels in my troughs are scheduled to disappear, after I document maps of each trough.


I spied a seedling of Sedum rupestre 'Angelina' that seeded into the pure gravel of my deck stair landing, looking mighty coral red.

[Kelaidis]

Wow! That sedum is mighty red: wonder if you have an even redder form (if it came from seed): it might be worth growing alongside typical Angelina to see if it is a redder form...

Iam posting a link: I'm starting to do a short TV segment on a local TV program. You can at least see what I look like in it@

http://www.kwgn.com/lifestyle/green/

I must have taken over 100 pictures today at the Gardens and at my home. Tomorrow I visit Sandy Snyder and her fabulous grass garden.

[Booker]

Panayoti... I'm fixated on your Fritillaria raddeana in its ethereal chartreusiness and brooding black tree-trunk-like stems

Reginald Farrer is alive and well and living in Massachusetts!!!      Beautifully descriptive phrase, Mark ... I didn't even need to look at the image!  

Panayoti ... your multifarious talents are wasted on such basic material  ... please convince the television company to reach out to a more educated and appreciative audience (i.e. the alpine fraternity).   

[Kelaidis]

Don't worry, Cliff: I will be slipping lots of alpines into the mix!

[McDonough]

Don't worry, Cliff: I will be slipping lots of alpines into the mix!

alpine peas... astragalus and such