After a year of lockdown it seems like the world is antsy for change, or should it be cagey? or Jonesing? As many of us city dwellers are well on our way to double vaccination and the economy chugs back around there are many changes in my neighbourhood mostly people moving. One of my immediate neighbours sold but so have at least 6 others, the lady behind us sold and asked if I wanted some of her plants so I took quite a few, ferns, hostas, bergenia and these primrose (above) more plants saved from development. Speaking of development there is much pressure on our inner city area to develop more and higher buildings and it's not going over well with many and it is an election year so I expect some change in City politics as well to come this fall!
Weird Weather continued into the spring, except for the 2 weeks of severe cold in the winter (that was a part of the deadly Texas cold spell) the winter was very mild with little snowfall. Spring also stayed in the above normal temperature range with little rain or snow, there are so many years when it snows for 25 days in a row in April but this was not the case this year. For once in many years winter ended in February and stayed on the spring track with many days well above normal, temps hitting near 30C from mid May every other week until I type this here looking at a forecast for 35C this week as we close out June! This was also a contrast to last years "hot and wet" spring with many storms, this year was hot and dry. Above, the spring equinox sunset.
Stats from March 13th
Stats from early June as hot weather first sets in
Yeah, Calgary is not renowned for 30C or warmer!
I had the greenhouse up for only a few weeks as it became warm enough to not have to worry about plants outside.
The tropical bulbs, tubers etc that I overwinter in the attic were brought out April 26th this year which is a few weeks earlier than normal. Some of them already raring to go and bleached out by darkness.
Some of the Fiddlehead ferns and hostas saved from my neighbours garden, this is only a few, I have enough to choke a Stegosaurus now!
This dark purple Primrose or Primula also came from my neighbour, they used to be considered hard to grow here but they seem to do fine in the City.
Thank you Amazon! After last years disaster of continuous hail storms and then the local sparrow population decimating everything else my partner who is a professional online shopper ordered these for me;
They are corrugated metal planter boxes that also come with a netting perfect for protection from all of natures BS! They are helping immensely. When I see the sparrows eying my baby lettuces I say too bad you little bastards yer not getting in!
Also bought this cold frame from Amazon which I am using for peppers now. It was a total bitch to assemble! It took us two days because I quit after several hours! It will also fly open and wreck it's frame in the slightest breeze unless locked. We will see how this pans out in the future!
S*** I learned on the internet, In a bid to make myself sane again after Trump and this pandemic I have been moving away from watching news constantly and have moved on to Youtube. Did you know there are many more things on Youtube than cute cat videos and Karen freak outs? There is a wealth of plant info, I have looked up almost anything I was about to seed or plant and learned something new almost everytime, I did not know zucchinis and squashes cannot sit in a cell pack for more than 2 weeks or the best way to grow a Mango seed for example, or how about how giant the root system of creeping bellflower is until the magic of Youtube. For fun I recommend watching my favourite new personality which is a foul-mouthed Botanist with a heavy Chicago accent talkin' bout plants and s***, he travels all over giving talks about native plants and other wisdom like how the bipedial apes are destroyin' da place. His channel is Crime Pays, Botany Doesn't I highly recommend it for the dialect and the insane amount of plant terminology that makes me feel like a novice!
Here is a Mango I sucessfully sprouted because I saw it on Youtube!
I was wondering if there was a way to eradicate creeping bellflower that I didn't know about, short answer, no! They have tuberous roots deep in the ground and the part you see is often connected by a foot or more of breakable stem to this tuber. The only way to get rid of them is to dig up the area, and quite deeply at that. Roundup and other herbicides do not kill this plant either, I'm not sure a nuclear war would!
Feng Shui working!
You may recall from previous articles how the Ginko biloba was almost wiped out due to many unlucky events last year. So I thought since this tree is sacred to the Chinese I would research a good luck charm to put on the tree and came up with this symbol which is used as a general good luck charm, I drew it on a red ribbon in sharpie and pinned it on a branch. Since then no problems! If you want some good advice from Chinese astrology, call your elderly relatives, eat plenty of vegetables, take extra care while driving.
Just for the pretty, may as well round out this post with some nice photos from Spring 21
A beautiful mutant tulip
Early tulips in the heat
Catmint, lamium and grape hyacinth
Pansies and water orb
With the bittersweet vine cut down Alliums go nuts!
Wide angle front yard
These King Crimson maple leaves look like copper and feel like eelskin!
Pagoda Dogwood looking good
Pieris Japonica, overwintered indoors, a favourite from the coast
Muscari, Grape Hyacinth was really impressive this year!
This pansy closeup, phone cameras are so good these days!
