Mystery Flora
Well, last time I wrote I talked about the new Spring "fauna" in our yard (raccoons and squirrels), so today I'm going to talk about the new Spring "flora".
We found and bought our townhouse in November and moved in in January, so I knew it would be an adventure when Spring arrived and the snow melted to see what, if anything, would spring up in my gardens. I want to observe what grows in the next few weeks before making any plans for the gardening I'm going to do for this year.
I'm starting to wander through some gardening centres, just for ideas at this point, and when I'm on my exercise walks I've been taking close looks at people's gardens. I'm very jealous of the lovely Spring crocuses, tulips, daffodils, etc. that I see, as I don't seem to have anything like that cropping up in my mystery gardens. I will take care of that this year, though. I gather to have early Spring flowers you have to plant the bulbs in October, so I will do that next October.
Nothing at all seems to be growing in my front door garden patch as of now. There's a vine going up the side of the brick wall behind it that is covered with new leaves, so that's good (though I have no idea what it is- it might be easier to identify once the leaves are full-sprung). The front door garden is pretty much completely in the shade and two people have recommended to me now that impatiens (sp?) grow well in that environment. I saw some gorgeous deep fuchia impatiens in the "Home Depot" garden centre, so that's an idea. Anyone know of other flowers that grow well in mostly shaded environments? I'm also best suited to plants that are practically idiot-proof- at least 'til I know my gardens better!
There -are- plants starting to spring up in my backyard...
That clump of chives is the first thing that I saw starting to grow earlier in April. Yay for herbs. I'm hoping to grow a bunch more herbs, too, though I'm not sure yet whether I'll put them in the ground or grow them in hanging baskets.
I was intrigued by the trellis that the former owner had all along one fence, as I've never grown vines before and don't know how hard it is to do. Last year's vines are giving me a head-start, though, as they are starting to grow like mad. You can see one of them above- it's a purple clematis, something I only know because she left the tag on the trellis. There's three other similar vines growing in the ground beside it, but none of them have sprouted anything green yet. Not sure what to expect of them. They're just brown stubs.
This is my "mystery vine", growing at the other end of the trellis. It was brown and fragile-looking and I didn't think it was going to grow at first, but almost overnight it was suddenly covered with buds. Yay. But I have absolutely no idea what kind of vine it is, nor is there a label on this one. I guess I'll have to wait until it have leaves or flowers or something to see what it is I have. Here was the strangest thing, though...
First time I took a close look at my mystery vine it had these little shrivelled white things all over it (sorry the photo is slightly out-of-focus). Had no idea what they were, but I started wondering if the vine grew some kind of vegetables, some kind of peppers or something. When I went out to take photos last week, though, I noticed for the first time that the white, shrivelled pods or whatever they are were actually -twist-tied- onto the vine and weren't part of the vine at all. How strange is that? Why are they there? Now I'm wondering if they were some kind of natural deterrent to keep away wildlife or something. I really don't know. Any ideas?
I'm going to wait about another three weeks or so before seriously starting to do any planting of my own. There are still rumours that we might get some wet snow this week! (you Westerners, keep the snow out there!) Looks like I'll likely plant flowers in the front door garden, continue to nurture the vines in the backyard and look to grow a bunch more herbs either along the fence or in hanging baskets. I may put some flowers in hanging baskets, too, we'll see. We also have a dwarf pine that John's sister gave us for Christmas that has been growing well inside and may head for transplanting outdoors, too.
And then it just becomes a challenge for me to try to keep everything alive!
We found and bought our townhouse in November and moved in in January, so I knew it would be an adventure when Spring arrived and the snow melted to see what, if anything, would spring up in my gardens. I want to observe what grows in the next few weeks before making any plans for the gardening I'm going to do for this year.
I'm starting to wander through some gardening centres, just for ideas at this point, and when I'm on my exercise walks I've been taking close looks at people's gardens. I'm very jealous of the lovely Spring crocuses, tulips, daffodils, etc. that I see, as I don't seem to have anything like that cropping up in my mystery gardens. I will take care of that this year, though. I gather to have early Spring flowers you have to plant the bulbs in October, so I will do that next October.
Nothing at all seems to be growing in my front door garden patch as of now. There's a vine going up the side of the brick wall behind it that is covered with new leaves, so that's good (though I have no idea what it is- it might be easier to identify once the leaves are full-sprung). The front door garden is pretty much completely in the shade and two people have recommended to me now that impatiens (sp?) grow well in that environment. I saw some gorgeous deep fuchia impatiens in the "Home Depot" garden centre, so that's an idea. Anyone know of other flowers that grow well in mostly shaded environments? I'm also best suited to plants that are practically idiot-proof- at least 'til I know my gardens better!
There -are- plants starting to spring up in my backyard...
That clump of chives is the first thing that I saw starting to grow earlier in April. Yay for herbs. I'm hoping to grow a bunch more herbs, too, though I'm not sure yet whether I'll put them in the ground or grow them in hanging baskets.
I was intrigued by the trellis that the former owner had all along one fence, as I've never grown vines before and don't know how hard it is to do. Last year's vines are giving me a head-start, though, as they are starting to grow like mad. You can see one of them above- it's a purple clematis, something I only know because she left the tag on the trellis. There's three other similar vines growing in the ground beside it, but none of them have sprouted anything green yet. Not sure what to expect of them. They're just brown stubs.
This is my "mystery vine", growing at the other end of the trellis. It was brown and fragile-looking and I didn't think it was going to grow at first, but almost overnight it was suddenly covered with buds. Yay. But I have absolutely no idea what kind of vine it is, nor is there a label on this one. I guess I'll have to wait until it have leaves or flowers or something to see what it is I have. Here was the strangest thing, though...
First time I took a close look at my mystery vine it had these little shrivelled white things all over it (sorry the photo is slightly out-of-focus). Had no idea what they were, but I started wondering if the vine grew some kind of vegetables, some kind of peppers or something. When I went out to take photos last week, though, I noticed for the first time that the white, shrivelled pods or whatever they are were actually -twist-tied- onto the vine and weren't part of the vine at all. How strange is that? Why are they there? Now I'm wondering if they were some kind of natural deterrent to keep away wildlife or something. I really don't know. Any ideas?
I'm going to wait about another three weeks or so before seriously starting to do any planting of my own. There are still rumours that we might get some wet snow this week! (you Westerners, keep the snow out there!) Looks like I'll likely plant flowers in the front door garden, continue to nurture the vines in the backyard and look to grow a bunch more herbs either along the fence or in hanging baskets. I may put some flowers in hanging baskets, too, we'll see. We also have a dwarf pine that John's sister gave us for Christmas that has been growing well inside and may head for transplanting outdoors, too.
And then it just becomes a challenge for me to try to keep everything alive!