Spring gardens up-springing

My angelica (left) and betony (right) are much happier in their new place in the yard. They are both forest plants and need a bit of shade and a bit of sun. It's too dark for many flowers and herbs in that area, but they're happier than ever.

Kale (the sprouts) and winter savoury (the herb with dark leaves at the top). I'll need to thin out the kale a bit eventually. I didn't expect the seeds to be so prolific after a couple years of hanging out in my seed box.

 My first garden from last year. I have a second row of lasagna garden to the right of it now. It's settling in and getting ready to be planted. (My birthday gift)

The blueberry bushes seem to have survived the minor depredations of a rabbit over the winter.

The flax is coming up nicely.

Meadowsweet (top) and horehound (front)

The sweet violets and strawberries are doing fine even though Stew the squirrel uprooted one.

Columbine

Columbine (left), beebalm (center), and beardtongue (bottom) are all well-loved by pollinators. They were part of my birthday gift. I was tired of having a barren wasteland of lawn out front. Going to the garden centre was part of my gift. I love the way it smells. I think the added oxygen in the atmosphere gives me a bit of a high, actually. Or, maybe I'm just kinda crazy and love plants that much...
It's been raining for the past week straight. Yesterday the sun finally came out, and it continues today, although it did go down below zero last night (Celsius not Farenheit). I'm hoping my plants did okay. I was so tired I forgot to cover them. Oops.

Bee balm

Beardtongue

Summer gardening roundup

It was really tough not having my own space this summer, and not having the money to set anything up at my new place... But, I scrounged together some cash and threw some plants in the dirt.

I started with putting down cardboard on the area that I wanted to use for my first few beds, and I held it down with potted plants. After a couple months the grass stopped trying to fight back and the cardboard lay flat on the ground. By then I had a bit of money, and I bought a cedar board that was on sale at Homely Despot, got them to cut it into lengths, and got some cheap corner hardware to put it all together. Then I filled the center with some hay from my dad, a bag of composted manure, and a couple bags of cheap dirt from the grocery store garden center. It didn't quite fill the box, but I mounded it up on one side and used the other side to trench-compost some kitchen veggie scraps.

Community garden plot

We're moving back to the city we think of as home in about six weeks. It's exciting, and a bit stressful. And, as we're going to have to rent for at least a year while we build up a down-payment for a house... I'm not going to have much in the way of a garden for that time. This irks me. But, at least it will be mine. All mine, muahahahahahahahahaha*cough* Ahem.

I did manage to luck into a 10x10 plot in a community garden. It's not terribly near our new house, but it is very close to a friend's place, so I'm hoping to mix gardening and tea. It has been difficult trying to contact the community gardens, as none of them have contacted me back, except the one where I got a garden plot. I'm assuming this is because they have long waiting lists and not much volunteer time.

A good friend is sending me some flax seeds. She headed me off at the pass when I bought the wrong kind... There are more than one kind of flax, apparently. One is annual, the other is perennial. The perennial is a hardy garden plant and a good native wildflower. There are two varieties of annual- one which is better for seed and one which is better for fibre. Thankfully, she's sending me the fibre variety, and I'm sharing the perennial with her for her garden. The rest of the perennial kind I'll be spreading on a field this weekend. When the proper fibre kind gets here I'll be spreading it over half my community garden plot. You have to harvest the flax for fibre just after it finishes flowering, but before it sets seed, so I'll leave a patch on one side to grow some seed for next year. Maybe a bit to eat, too, just for the novelty. The flax plants get a bit tough by then, but it might make a nice bit of cordage.

I got permission for this in advance from the garden co-ordinator so I didn't get into any trouble. It was a strange request, but there you go. I'm used to whimsical looks from people.

Then comes the retting (rotting) process. I hear it's kind of smelly...