This week, in between rain showers, I filled up more containers with the lovely flowers I bought at Atwater Market. I would have loved to spend a whole day planning my containers, making lists and then driving up to my favourite nursery, Jasmin, but at the last minute I decided that I could skip all of that and go to Atwater with my friend, Linda, and do everything in 2 hours. So much for my own carefully worded advice (see my previous post, “https://vivtranquilgarden.com/container-planting/!”). With a rough idea of what I needed I was able to do pretty well. I...
Container planting!
May 16, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
We’re coming up to the long weekend in May, which is when Canadian gardeners tend to think it’s safe to start planting annuals, either in containers or into the garden. I love to get ideas about planting containers from garden magazines or from internet sites. The sky’s the limit with containers, but keep in mind that a balanced container needs to have one or two taller plants, some trailing plants and some fillers. Also, think about what colour(s) or flowers give you the most pleasure and choose the other plants to compliment the main one(s) . It’s not a bad...
Spring Ahead (of me)
May 15, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Last weekend I got back from a two week tour of South America with the OSM and since then have been nursing a husband with a broken collar bone, getting the house in order, going to my daughter’s final Master’s voice recital (she made us proud!) and all kinds of other things. I have not done a whole lot of gardening so I feel very behind. I missed that amazing time of year when everything comes up with a rush. However, I was lucky in the sense that I didn’t miss any complete blooming periods. When I arrived home, all...
Work and Art
April 11, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
I mentioned a few posts ago (now I can’t find the reference; maybe I dreamt it!) that in the fall after planting the tulip bulbs, I covered each area with a heavy stone to dissuade the squirrels from digging them up. I promised that I’d let you know how successful that idea was. I was a little worried about the poor tulips hitting their heads on the stones as they tried to come up but when I took the stones off I found the damage was minimal. The ones that were well on their way managed to go around the...
Taking a Step Back
April 8, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Yesterday I got ahead of myself and started rhapsodizing about taking walks around the garden. It made me laugh to read it over and then glance outside at the Tranquil Garden, still mostly covered in snow. It’s okay to look ahead with new resolutions for the gardening season but there’s still some time before we’ll have the joy and luxury of daily walkabouts in the garden. So, what can be done as soon as the snow melts or even before? Well, if I were a stickler I would say, “Get out your garden tools, wipe off the dirt you didn’t...
A Garden in Balance
April 7, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
As a gardener a lot of my job is to keep the garden in balance. The soil, the amount of water, the plants and the creatures can all go out of balance. Some plants (often called “invasive” species) can get out of control if they are ignored, and will eventually strangle their neighbours. They need to be reined in (pruned or divided) regularly to give the plants around them some breathing room. When you’re looking for new plants at the nursery, always read the fine print to see if there are any cautionary words. Words like “robust grower”, or “spreading...
An Ode to Spring
March 24, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
Hi, All, I am not writing a whole post today but I am going to share a video I saw on Facebook in case you haven’t seen it. I really enjoyed it so I thought I’d post it along with a couple more photos to get us really in the mood for spring. I took the photos below when the OSM went on tour to Germany in spring a few years ago. These were taken on an idyllic day off in Baden-Baden. The rest of the tour is a blur but I remember that day! http://www.wimp.com/bestcoin/
Cabot Garden Trip
March 21, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
The following is a re-issuing of a post I did on my old site, since I just published my photos from my trip to The Cabot Gardens (look under Garden Photos on the top menu) and thought a little background might be useful. In 2011 I went on a “mini-break holiday” to Lamalbaie, Québec, with stops in Baie St-Paul and St-Irinée. The main focus of the trip was to visit “Le jardin de quatre-vents” (http://www.etpanorama.com/Cabot_Garden_demo/Cabot_Garden_Intro.html), or Cabot Gardens, which is on the outskirts of Lamalbaie. It is a private garden that only allows visitors four times per summer, but if...
Celebrate the Equinox!
March 20, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
As a non-religious person, every year I’m becoming more and more attracted to the idea of celebrating the natural rhythms of the earth instead of celebrating man-made (in my view) occasions like Christmas or Easter, (I’m using Christian examples because my background is more Christian than anything else, but any man-made occasion will do as an example). As it happens today is the March Equinox (or “Spring Equinox”, here in the Northern Hemisphere) and therefore, the first day of Spring. An occasion worth celebrating! The first day of spring is a reminder of the cycle of life’s forces that is...
Last Day of Winter
March 19, 2013June 5, 2023By Vivian Lee
“In like a lion, out like a lamb,” could describe March in reverse this year. It’s been pretty sweet all month and now it’s decided to give us one more whammy before the big fade-out. Despite the set-back to my spring fever, I can’t help admiring the beauty of this March snowstorm (feel free to flip the virtual ‘bird’ in my direction if you’re not feeling this with me!). There’s lots of snow, inadequately plowed (did Montreal decide that after March 15th they could retire most of the fleet for the season? Tut-tut!) but it’s not very cold, so as...