Climbing Roses In Saskatchewan??? Of course!

I have successfully grown a climbing rose in Saskatchewan and it lived three seasons. Last year, I couldn't find a replacement. BUT this year, I found three at Wally World. Two yellow and a red. The last time I had a climbing rose, it was yellow and the blooms on it were beautiful. They do grow out to about three feet high, but our season isn't long enough for them to grow taller. I just love the flowers!

So, the climbing rose was planted on the south side of the house and mulched and fertilized with rose food and it did fine for three seasons. Then I lost it. But that year, I lost a lot of perennials and bushes of various kinds due to the weird Spring. It warmed up too quickly and then froze hard. 

These roses will die back right to the ground and grow back from underneath so they look like they're dead but they're not. Just a bit of a warning. They are the last of my roses to grow in the Spring.

Now, I'm just waiting for the ground to thaw out and dry out and these three little beauties will be planted shortly on the South side of my house.

Spring cleanup!

Finally the snow is almost gone and it's time to clean up the perennial beds. I thought the snow was never going to disappear!

 

Now that the snow has melted, one can see little bits of green poking through last year's dead growth. Before the plants get any larger, I will be cleaning up all the old growth and throwing the dead plant leaves and stocks into my composter. After such a long and dreary Winter, it just feels wonderful to see bits of green. 

It's good to remember that not all plants start growing as soon as it warms up. They may look dead, but that doesn't mean that they are. So make sure to give you plants some time to catch up. Once you know that nothing is going to grow, then you can replace the dead plant with new nursery stock. 

My garden is still buried under snow. I hope to be able to see my Strawberries tomorrow afternoon and hopefully my chives.

Spring is finally here!

Gotcha you little Imp!

 Well, sometimes indoor gardening has it's own pests. You can't spray them and they run fast when in trouble. This is our dog stealing from my potted lettuce and not letting go of the goods. So we bathed her with goods in mouth. She had rolled in the dirt outside when I took her for a walk. I can't plant my experiment because the garden still has 2-3 feet of snow still covering it. Can't wait for it to melt!

 I was really skeptical when I found this idea on Pinterest. But it works! I planted the bottom ends of the celery and lo and behold they started to grow! I'm impressed!

 The celery worked....would the lettuce? Yes, yes it does! If you look closely at the bottom of the photo, there are indentations in the soil. Yup, you guessed it...the poodle was hankering for her veggies.

Seedling growing under a grow light. We still have lots of time...so much snow on that garden!

There's just somethin' about plants in packages that gets me :-)

I can't help myself, I have to buy a couple packages every year to start indoors. Call it cabin fever, if you like, but I just had to buy some. I prefer to buy them right away when they come out because I get the pick of the lot and the roots are at this point in really good condition. As the season wears on, the roots start to dry up in the packages and then one ends up with plants that are not viable. I still buy some from the nurseries but they are more expensive. Plants growing in the windowsill just makes me feel like Winter is finally over! And this year, Winter has really worn out it's welcome!

I am so ready for Spring!

The case for buying your seeds EARLY!

 

I was in the city on Monday and had several variety of seeds that I was looking for. Perpetual Spinach was the only one that I could not find anywhere. I tried this variety last year and fell in love with it. It grows like Swiss Chard, does not bolt and grows all season long. I finally found it at the last store we went to and grabbed three packages, to make sure I had some for next year. Yes, I like it that much. It is a delicious Spinach variety and would be a great addition to green smoothies and your daily veggie juicing regime. 

Yes, I am ready to garden, now if the darn snow would just melt and the Winter storms stop coming....

The great celery experiment!

 

I read on Pinterest that there are certain foods that one can regrow from vegetables we buy at the grocery store. One of them is celery. So of course being inquisitive,  I have to try it. Up here in Canuckland, it takes a long time for veggies to mature with our cooler growing season. So I love celery but I thought I'd give it a boost and start some of the plants in the house. I'm really curious to see if this works!

The method is plain and simple: Cut off the bottom of the stock and submerge a bit into the soil and water well. I am going to keep it moist because celery loves water. And I tucked it close to my seedlings under the grow light. Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Happy gardening!

Started my seeds last Sunday

 

I bought a indoor lamp system to start my seeds. I have plenty of large windows on the South side of my house but my seedlings still got spindly last year. I want strong plants to put outside. My new toy has grow light bulbs that provide the proper lighting for my seedlings to grow upwards towards. Hopefully, it works better than my sunny windows. 

I wanted to buy Heritage seeds and Organic seeds to start my small plants. I'm trying not to grow generically modified foods in my garden. So the Heritage seeds are old varieties that have been around for a long time. Organic means that they haven't been grown with chemicals. There is so much that we don't know about the foods we buy at the grocery store. I'm trying to be healthier and to put good things into my body and the bodies of my kids and husband. A lot of the problem is that genetically modified anything does not have to be disclosed on the packaging when one buys things in Canada. That includes food. If I don't choose to eat non GM foods and I want to buy genetically modified foods, that's my business. But I'm the opposite, I want to know, I should have that right to know what is going into my body. At least in my garden, I get to do that.

Happy gardening!