High time for some more shots of things growing in our garden!…
…and possibly some other random images that I have overlooked throughout the last couple of months. Let’s see what I can find…
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I mentioned a few posts back that something indiscernible (imperceptible almost!) had shifted with regard to our COVID-19 lock-down state here at the southern end of Vancouver Island. That something (that the previously lengthy queues for our local grocery store had all but disappeared) was – though not obviously explainable – clearly an indicator that things were beginning to change.
Here are a couple of other such signs:
Each and every visit that I have paid to our local store since this all began have included an unnecessary detour – courtesy of the pandemic one-way scheme – through the pet-food aisle, the purpose of which was to enable me to pass up the cleaning aisle in a fruitless search for disinfectant wipes and disposable gloves. The expanse of barren shelving where these essentials should have been was marked by signs commanding us to limit ourselves to a single item of each. Chance would be a fine thing!…
…until this week – when suddenly there appeared an entire pallet-load of Lysol wipes! Hooray! I took my one and – public-spirited soul that I am – passed the word on to friends, rather than just shoving a couple of extra packs behind something on the top shelf in the hope that they would still be there later.
Still no gloves though…
The other sign was that – in common with other countries that are also slowly loosening restrictions – we can now ‘entertain’ a few folk from outside our immediate isolation circle – as long as we do so outside, that no-one wants to use the washroom (or is prepared to re-sanitise it when they have done so) and that we keep our distance in the approved manner.
Now – this is where having a splendid garden and a mild (for Canada) late spring climate comes into its own. We can sit around (two metres apart) drinking wine and eating take-out sushi (purchased individually) long into the evening. For this to really work at the end of May (or indeed for much of the summer) one needs that other Canadian staple – a fire basket or pit. Even at this stage open fires are banned here on the island because of the wildfire risk, but Canadian Tire (other ironmongers are available!) handily supplies propane fueled devices such as the one below… and jolly good it is too.
Well – here’s to slow progress… I hope that your neck of the woods is seeing similar – though cautious – relaxation of the restrictions.
Tags: COVID-19, entertaining, Gardens, Health
Several posts back in what is in serious danger of becoming a blog about gardening (a subject on which I am completely unqualified to write but which seems to be one of the few activities still open to one in these strange days) I spun a tale about the conversion of the redundant raised pond in our front garden into a new bed for plants. All that remained – I reported breathlessly – was to choose that which should be planted therein.
To give the gentle reader some broader physical context – this is what the bed looks like in situ:
As may be observed the bed is backed – and overhung – by a screen of five medium sized fir trees and surrounded by a cluster of evergreen shrubs. This whole acts as a handy barrier between our property and the road and gives the garden an agreeable degree of privacy. There is – however – a fair bit of ‘green’ going on.
What to plant there? The firs raise the acid level of the soil beneath them which limits the choice somewhat. We considered azaleas or rhododendrons (both of which we already have in fair number) or something with bright coloured flowers. The problem with the latter is that the contrast obtained thereby would last but a limited period each year.
We chose instead to offset the greenery with some burgundy/red which would provide a nearly year round contrast – and went looking for suitable low-habit Japanese maples (or acers should you prefer). Here is what we found:
The larger one is a Gloucester Red Select and the smaller one is a Red Dragon. Why did we not purchase two bushes the of similar size? Have you seen the price of these things? They will end up of similar stature and this way we get to see them grow and fill out over time whilst ensuring that they take on the shape that we want.
They both cascade nicely and will give us a pretty mound of burgundy – fading to crimson red in the autumn (fall) – to offset all of that greenery.
Now we just have to wait and enjoy the show from our kitchen window!
Tags: British Columbia, COVID-19, Gardens, Photo, projects
“Spring is nature’s way of saying, “Let’s party!”
Robin Williams
I was thinking just how lucky we are to have a spring garden. This is my favourite time of year and having a spring garden may well be a large part of that.
Then it occurred to me that I have been fortunate enough to have had – or have had access to – more than one spring garden over the years. “Mayhap” – I pondered to myself – “all gardens are spring gardens… or at least, coming hard on the heels of winter, that is the way they feel”.
Actually it matters not a jot and I thought that you – the gentle reader – might like to peruse some more images of nature’s bounty as it currently pertains in this neck of the woods.
Tags: British Columbia, Gardens, Photo, Spring
I have to admit to feeling somewhat guilty. Living in (semi) lock-down is tough – but it is clearly a lot tougher for some folk than for others. Some countries have much tighter restrictions than others to start with – and for those who live in urban environments with little room and limited opportunities to get outside – or for those who live alone in very rural areas and are keenly feeling the isolation… I can offer only my sympathies and support.
Here on the southernmost tip of Vancouver island we have good reason to feel fortunate. BC has done as well as anywhere to keep people safe during the crisis and our caring professionals are – as elsewhere – doing a fantastic job. Up here on the peninsula we live in a very beautiful place and have an abundance of space. We also have each other – which is the ultimate blessing.
I thought I would post some pictures from this neck of the woods. I hope that they give pleasure to some of you. Double-click for the full effect.
This little chap was outside my bathroom window for a couple of days. With the afternoon sun behind him he threw this silhouette on the frosted glass. I thought I should take his picture. No – I didn’t have a camera with me in the shower. That would just be weird! I fetched one afterwards…
Tags: British Columbia, COVID-19, Home, Photo, Vista
“Gardening is the slowest of the performing arts.”
Anonymous
Enforced inactivity (courtesy of the social isolation essential to the mitigation of the current pandemic) does have its upside. Sometimes it finally shakes one into commencing some project or other that one should have started years before.
Thus it is with our pond!
When we purchased our lovely home – nearly five years ago now – we observed that it had in the front garden (yard!) a small raised ornamental pond. As a water feature it distinctly lacked interest and its main function appeared to be to provide a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other biting things. We determined that we would get rid of it.
About a year after we purchased the property I bought a boat – the good ship ‘Dignity‘. In order that we might accommodate her (when not upon the saltchuck) in the driveway next to our house our landscape gardener friend from Saanichton carried out some groundworks to widen the ingress.
We asked him about our pond and he suggested that it should be no problem to demolish. As it happened he had with him his small backhoe loader – the sort of thing once known as a ‘digger’. He took a run at the pond in it and it simply bounced off – without leaving so much as a scratch mark. We decided that more serious firepower would be needed and resolved to temporarily park the problem in the bay marked ‘stuff for the future’.
Last year I decided that the future was now with us and that something must be done about the pond. Demolition proving too difficult a task we decided instead to turn the feature into a raised bed. This would mirror other existing such beds in our front garden.
I carefully siphoned the (revolting) water out of our water-feature. The next task was to punch a hole in the bottom of the pond at its lowest point to allow it to drain properly. Since the thing had proved immune to the backhoe the logical thing to do(!) was to attempt the job by hand – with a club hammer and cold chisel. The result – after several months of repeated hammerings – was a gratifying six-inch hole through to the earth below.
Thus it remained through the winter – until such point as we found ourselves isolated by the pandemic – at which time our thoughts (well, mine anyway) turned to gardening. I quickly discovered that I could order and pay for the necessary materials online. At the allotted time a week or so later a spotty youth in a dump truck approached the house in a gingerly fashion – as though it were a leper colony or somesuch – dumped the contents at the end of the driveway and accelerated away as quickly as possible.
Perfect!
It took but a short hour’s work to fill the bottom of the erstwhile pond with six inches of drain rock and to then top it up with fresh topsoil.
So – now we have a splendid new bed outside our kitchen window. All that remains to do is for us to figure out what to put in it. More on that later.
Tags: COVID-19, Gardens, Photo, projects, social isolation, Spring
“A garden is always a series of losses set against a few triumphs, like life itself.”
May Sarton
This is the third year since I ‘retired’ that I have been teaching during the winter and early spring months. As before my efforts culminate in mid-April and I find myself with time (apparently) on my hands and must needs change gear and find a different rhythm for the weeks and summer months ahead.
It is also – as I have noted before – the time of year during which our garden awakes, stretches itself, yawns and starts to demand attention. There is usually a gap of about a month between the first plangent calls and the point at which I can no longer ignore them and must start to do something about them. There follows an unseemly scramble to catch up and to prepare the garden to receive admiring (hopefully) visitors throughout the bosky summer months.
I must – in short – get busy!
This is – of course – a considerable ‘advantage’ during these times of pandemic. Since I must needs devote much of my time and energy to our verdant (half) acre(s) it matters little to me that we are in social lock-down. The effect is the same either way!
Anyway – here be some images to ‘set the scene’…
I thought that in these times of danger and all-round ugliness it might be good to post something pretty instead.
For those of us who get up on the early side on work days one of the rare joys of the the clocks going forward is that we once again coincide in the mornings – for a brief period at least – with the rising sun. I can’t resist taking photographs:
Not to be outdone the moon has of late also been putting in unexpectedly powerful appearances:
Winter lingered so long in the lap of Spring that it occasioned a great deal of talk.
Bill Nye
It has, of late, been particularly wet here on the west coast coast of Canada. Not in the catastrophic flooding/exceptional weather kind of way that some other regions of the world have been suffering, but just a constant and relentless dampness from day to day. The aquifers are doubtless happy – as are the ducks – but as for the rest of us… not so much!
Further, even on days such as today – when the sun has decided to peep through the murk and the temperature has climbed to something approaching acceptability for human life – come eventide it will have again plummeted towards the red (or should that be blue) zone and the nights remain consistently chilly.
As a result our early spring flowers have been caught in two minds as to whether or not to grace us with their bloomin’ presence. The snowdrops have done their thing regardless – but then, that is what snowdrops do.
The daffodils and tulips – on the other hand – have poked their heads out, formed buds and then just stopped… unwilling to burst fully into bloom until the sun comes out in a more meaningful way to provide some proper spring warmth. My worry is that they will just eventually give up without ever bursting properly into flower.
The glorious magnolia featured in these photos is at the college at which I teach. Hopefully this will act as an exemplar to our own rather more timid flora.
Five years (nearly) down the line and we visit a local beauty spot (within a couple of miles of us) for the first time (well – first time for me anyway).
To be fair I have visited this particular Shangri La before – from the water-side – and have even posted photos thereof to this very journal. It is also immediately adjacent to Butchart’s Gardens, the which is a regular hunting ground, but this was my first time exploring the approach from the east – along Tod Creek.
Any-which-way… here be ‘phurthur’ photographs!
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