Trimming The Tree

This summer will be nine years since we moved to this house. The Kentucky Coffee Tree was one of the first to be planted in the new garden. This Carolinian tree will live for a hundred years and grow up to one hundred feet in height. So, a branch veering off at only seven feet seemed wrong. At some point it would have to be pruned. Better to do it now when the scar will be small than later when a larger wound would have to be made.

It was a simple job involving only my husband and his sven saw. Here goes:

Winter Primula

You can't keep a determined plant down. One week of warmer January weather and out pops a primula. Hope it survives this weekend's cold snap.

What's Left Over

It's late fall. Even with this year's unseasonably warm afternoon temperatures edging towards 10C, Nature still follows its heart. Flowers shed their petals. Seed pods ripen and burst. The money plant's papery remains are one of the most unusual in the garden.

Only the hardiest leaves cling. This oak leaf hydrangea provides the last of the bright colours.

Less animals scurrying about at night gives the moss time to recover.

One last walk through the back garden begins here.

Here's the front corner, almost one colour, not green not brown not bare.

Every Garden Needs a Guardian

What's in Bloom?

After four years, Wisteria is having its best year covering half my pergola.


Doublefile Viburnum holds its lush branches out to offer these beautiful flowers.


Mertensia, Virginia Bluebells, peeps out from under the viburnum.


Here it is, the Chocolate Vine, Akebia quinata, that ate my fence. I had no idea this would happen. I'm still charmed by its delicate leaves and even more subtle flowers, but that could change if it starts to strangle my shrubs.


Here's a Chocolate Vine flower.


I thought my Kerria had died, so I moved it to a sunnier spot and voila!


I love the tiny ballet slippers of Solomon's Seal. Also, the plant reminds me of the old gardener, now passed, from whom I bought my first clump.


Soapwort. The sections that have seeded in my patio are even nicer than the main plant.


An early flowering White Clemaits climbing an old plum tree.

Full On Spring

Take a walk down the path to my garden.


Ferns begin to unfold.


Snakeroot reaches for the sun.


The bees seek out the earliest nectar.


Pasqueflower is bold and full.


Trillium for my Canadian home.

When The Sun Finally Warms Us

Two crows cawing and gamboling from one branch at the maple's peak to another until they find one that sways but doesn't bend under both their weights.

The red capped house finches flitting around the feeder for hours before one alights and then another and then they gorge.

Pistils lengthen, forcing the petals to reveal each gradation of colour.

It's the hunger season and I've got extra feeders.