The Joy of Gardening in Southern Ontario

I love gardening in my Zone 5 garden. To many it would not seem like an exciting place to garden. The ground is frozen from December to April and four large Maple Trees shade the West facing back garden all Summer. Dispite this, much magic and joy happens in this small space every year.

Saturday, May 06, 2006

Where Does the Energy Come From



My father lives in England and I was talking to him today. His wife was saying that it is getting harder for him to walk (he's 85); I asked how the garden is doing and whether he can still do it. Of course! He's still gardening and the garden looks great! His garden is at least three times larger than mine and only a small portion of it is lawn.

I know that I can garden all day and, at the end of the day, still want to keep going. Somehow the act of gardening energizes us, fills us with joy and hope. When we garden we cherish and revel in the moment but our actions are blessed by more beauty and joy in the future.

Because April was so warm the early May garden is in full Spring mode. All the perennials are pushing through the ground, it's such a joy to see the Hostas, Astilbes, Anenomes, Geraniums, Lupins; the list goes on.

The Primroses and Helebore are in flower and the ferns are starting to unfurl into the warm spring days. Because there has been no frost for weeks, the Magnolia Bush is in glorious flower. It is the first time that it has flowered since we moved into this house in 2001.

I'm slowly hardening off all the seedlings, putting them out in the day and bringing the tender ones back in for the night. At first I only exposed them to a little sun and slowly increased it. The Peppers, Egg Plants and Tomatoes are now about a foot to 18 inches high and looking great. The Penestemon Huskey Red seedlings are growing well which is gratifying as they wouldn't germinate last year.

Today I was weeding and tidying. It's always hard to decide whether to keep all the self set (volunteers) Nicotiania, Night Scented Stock and Calendula. It's amazing, even though they start weeks after the seeds are sown indoors, they always catch up and overtake the indoor ones. I guess Nature is a much better gardener.

The pictures are of Primroses that are flowering in the back garden. The Cow Slip (yellow primrose) reminds me of my childhood in England, they are very common in the English woodlands.

3 Comments:

At 10:27 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

How interesting flower’s shape, so glad that you catch the beauty of nature and share with us. Did you catch Magnolia Bush’s flowering?

 
At 10:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Interesting site but not exactly what I was searching for on http://www.homegrownhydroponics.ca/. Although I found some info useful. I will continue my search for hydroponics uk now. Cheers

 
At 9:34 PM, Blogger Andrés said...

love your photos of big greenhoses, Im planning to do the same in my house, but in a more affordable proportion. Im just building it and will be finished in less than two monts. Welcome any comments to make the best of it
here my blog link
http://victoriangreenhouse.blogspot.com/

sorry, its in spanish.. im from Colombia and my english came from studyng HBO and Cinemax...:)

 

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