Six on Saturday – 21/03/2020 – A Sad Start to Spring

It’s hard to put into words what people around the world are going through right now, isn’t it? This is the time of year we garden writers normally send forth into the ether images of beauty and colour and re-birth and awakenings – things that are especially welcome where winters are long and cold. It seems almost blasphemous to celebrate such things this year. COVID-19 has left friends stranded around the world, scores of people dead or serious ill and many, many people (and countries) wondering how they will get through it all, financially and socially.

And yet, spring definitely has sprung, even here, finally, in Canada. Instead of listening to the news channel all day, I’m going to practice mindful self care – breathing running, getting out in the garden a little (after a welcoming day with temps in the mid teens yesterday, we’re back to normal, hovering a bit above zero today…), and looking at flowers and gardens from from the world. If you’d also like a bit of an escape from the ‘negative real world’ we’re living in, head on over to The Propagator‘s site, where dozens of gardeners will show you Six things in their gardens, things happening in the ‘positive real world’ this weekend.

1 – Seed Starting: If you’re going to start annual veggies or flowers indoors, generally we get planting mid to late March here. I have a new to me type of seed tray this year (shown above in the ‘featured’ photo) – this weekend I’ll be planting my tomatoes – an heirloom Italian with pleated shoulders (!!!) called Costoluto Genovese, and my favourite tomato for sauce, also Italian, San Marzano. Both were sent to me from Renee’s Garden seeds in California.

2 – While I’ll need to wait many months before harvesting the tomatoes, my first crop of the year is always plain old garden chives. They’re already springing up!

3 – A few perennials have also started to break dormancy, adding touches of colour and bringing dreams of summer, such as this Agastache ‘Licorice Blue:’

4 – Some perennials never really went dormant, even here. They just shriveled up a bit, lost a few leaves, but appear raring to spring into action, like these Sempervivum – Hens and Chicks:

5 – Of course, spring really is all about bulbs, right? A couple species (literally, two…) are blooming in my garden now, but a lot more have poked through the ground, like these tulips and daffs:

• 

• 

• 

6 – Finally, the first flower of the year in my garden, always, is Galanthus – Snowdrops. I planted an extra hundred bulbs last October and I’m so glad I did. I have blooms a lot closer to the house now, in clumps large and small, and it’s been a real delight walking around , spotting them here and there. Perhaps another hundred this year? They’ve been in bloom for about a month now, but by the looks of things they may be at peak now so I thought I’d show a few again. No Social Distancing here, please!

• 

• 

That’s it from South Eastern Ontario today. Please, stay safe, everyone.