Today is the first day of my week-long vacation. It’s also the start to the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada. Which is also the official start to the gardening season as it usually means we are past our frost date!

So you know that mean I’m going to spend as much time in the garden as possible. There’s lots to plant, but I will still be takin some time to pause and admire all my hard work.

There’s still a handful of tulips hanging around.

And my pretty Poet’s Daffofil is the last daffy standing.

Coming into replace them we have the alliums

I have several types of Alliums, so they will flower in success until at least July.

The Lupins are almost in full form.

And while the irises aren’t going to be as spectacular as previous years – they still look darn tooting pretty.

I’ve got several Geum just getting started. If I dead head these, I can keep them going for at least a month or so.

And the Lily-of-the-Valley is always a favourite this time of year. I brought a tiny clump from the townhouse, and I’m happy to say it’s thrived. I’ve been able to spread it around all over the Woodland garden. The clump from the townhouse was from a much large clump that grew from a few small plants Mom gave me when we first moved there in 2013, so it’s very special.

I’ve struggled with getting Forget-Me-Nots to establish, so I was thrilled when two patches came up in the catio again this year. And then when I was weeding the fence borders, I found another patch. It’s in a shadier spot, so not many flowers, but the foliage is much more lush than that of the catio patch. Hopefully both patches continue to reseed and spread for years to come.

Out front we have a pink abundance in two separate spots! The first is Armeria (aka Spanish Thrift), and the second is that Creeping Phlox I showed last week. Just amazing.

And not to be outdone, just look at that saxifraga! One of my tasks this week will be getting some impatiens and begonias to fill in around it.

Ok – that was enough of a rest – I better get back to work!

It’s hard to believe, but we are coming up on this guy’s 10th Gotcha Day!

I brought our dear Rupert Von Scrufflebutt home at the end of May 2016. He was (according to the Humane Society) about 10 months old at the time. Hard to believe he’s been with us for 10 years already! We’ve loved every day of having him. He’s such a sassy little weirdo.

Here’s to hopefully at least 10 years more!

I mentioned the other day that I spent most of the weekend in the garden. I was basically doing the big “Start of the Year Weeding Session”. I got almost everything done – all the front and back beds. I just have the pathways around the veg beds to do.

And all that weeding means I was up close and personal with (and constantly disturbing) the resident pest control squad.

They may all look the same, but I promise, each one of these is a different toad. There were several others that I didn’t get pictures of, as they scarpered before I could scoop them up. I guess some toads are just a bit camera shy.

As you can see, these guys are all pretty small. I’m sure we’ll be seeing the bigger ones hopping up the stairs for snacks by porchlight soon.

I’m so lucky to have such a devoted garden crew!

While good progress was made on the cross stitching.

Barely any progress has been made on the mis-matched mossy sock. It doesn’t look much different from the last time you saw it, though I promise, there is about an inch more added to the leg. No real excuse for the lack of progress – I just haven’t really picked them up. Of course, I have spent a little more time outside now that the days are warmer and longer. And when I come in, I’ve had a bad habit of playing games on my phone instead of knitting.

Still, these are for me and there’s no real rush to finish them. They will be ready when they are ready!

The weather was fantastic this past weekend. I spent the majority of it in the garden (and have the sunburned shoulders to prove it), but I didn’t neglect my tiny needle time in the evening.

Burton was on duty to keep me on track (it’s hard to tell, but he’s mostly upside-down in that photo)

As a result, another good chunk of Miss Fairy’s skirt was completed. If you look closely, you can just make out where Mr. Foxes ears will go.

I’m on vacation next week, so I might even sneak in some more tiny needle time!

I said this year with the gardens was going to focused on growing from seed… but it’s hard to resist the siren song of the garden centre this time of year

I went just to get some soil. But then I saw the Dahlias…

Usually I find the dahlias at the garden centres tend to be a bit on the dull side. But not this year! These, combined with the ones I started myself, and I think it might end up being the year of the Dahlia.

And you know I can’t resist something new and unique…

Have you ever seen golden Hens and Chicks? Neither had I – so I HAD to have them.

I don’t feel any guilt at all about buying this Blueberry plant. One of mine didn’t make it through the winter, and they say you need two for a good crop, so this was a real need. Aren’t those flowers so pretty?

And I don’t feel even slightly bad for buying another rose. Long Time readers will recall that this was the first rose I had at the townhouse. It died before we moved, and I’ve been looking for another one since. It’s also the best smelling rose I’ve ever come across (though my Bolero is a close second). When I picked it up, Dave just rolled his eyes and said “Don’t plant it anywhere I have to walk”.

These didn’t come from the garden centre, but were ordered about a month ago. And it may look like I bought a couple pots of dirt, but their are dormant roots in there. They are Maypop, the hardiest type of passionflower native to North America. I’m just a the tippytop of the range they can grow in – but I’ve always loved passionflowers so I was thrilled when I discovered I could grow them outside here (when I bring the non-hardy ones in for the winter, they always died).

Like the blueberries, you need two to get fruit so I bought a pink and a white

They should start showing some green soon. They will grow up the side of the catio, like the Clematis. I’m so excited!

(And I’ve only hit three garden centres so far…so there’s probably much, much more to come!)

Things continue to do mostly well in the seed department.

The lettuce/spinach continues to grown nicely.

The radishes are doing very well too – look at that little red root. Of course, they have much more growing to do, but I couldn’t help checking on them.

I am THRILLED with my sweet peas. I’ve got over 50% germination rate. and look how tall and straight they are. They get rotated a couple times throughout the day to keep them growining nicely.

Sadly, the Mini-Mike melons aren’t showing any sign yet. Im going to give them a little more time before I give up on the completely.

And it looks like the squirrels are protesting the lack of peanuts

They made quite the mess of the cornflowers. There are still some growing, (and I have a lot more seeds) so it’s not a total loss.

The seeds I planted last week are just starting to sprout – mostly the tray of sunflowers. But here’s some proof that sometimes you just have to let nature do it’s thing…

These are all sunflower seedlings… from the sunflowers I had surrounding the front porch. I’m going to let these grow on a bit. If they survive the squirrels, I’ll give them some better spots in other gardens

While the strawberry seeds I planted didn’t germinate at all..

The existing strawberries are starting to bloom. I still need to get some fresh plants though. These ones are a few years old, and strawberry plants tend to weaken over time.

May is the time when the summer perennials start to take over… but it’s not happening quite yet.

There are still some late blooming daffodils…

And there are still tulips thriving

And the Grape Hyacinths aren’t about to give way just yet.

I just love that one little stubborn white one among the blue.

But still – the late spring perennials are getting ready to shine.

The bleedings hearts aren’t quite as spectacular as they have been in the past. Last year, I moved them, and split a couple up, so they are still building their strength.

Similarily, the irises took a beating from the Iris Borer moth last year. I wasn’t sure how well my irises would do this year – but the first one has bloomed! I don’t think it’s going to be as good a show as previous years, but at least they aren’t gone completely.

My Red Pasque Flower is on the small side this year for some reason – it might have been the dry summer last year. I have to go check the catio for the purple one. I don’t recall seeing it at all.

This little Saxifraga only blooms in late spring, but it’s a nice bit of colour in the walkway garden when nothing else is in bloom there.

I actually don’t recall buying this creeping phlox… but I’m glad I did. It’s a real pop of pink right in the front of the border.

Over in the woodland garden, the Leopard’s Bane is shining bright.

And then..the summer snowflake. Which neither blooms in summer, or snow… it’s similar to a snowdrop, but blooms about a month later. I planted a few bulbs in the catio. I didn’t really do well, and I thought it would eventually fade away… but this year it’s relaly proving me wrong. There’s four or five clumps out there and they look so pretty swaying in the wind.

Now I just hopes the weather holds, so I can get in the gardens, clear some weeds, and really let these May beauties shine!

The other day, I was out front chatting with a neighbour, when I noticed a bit of a crime scene in the grass.

Judging by the length of the feathers, we figured it was a Mourning Dove. Now… there are a couple of suspects when it comes to bird murder around here. We’ve got a variety of raptors – hawks, eagles, falcons. And of course, a pile of neighbourhood cats. Fryburger, who lives across the street, is a precision birder.

But… as we were chatting… suspect number one came sauntering up…

And yes….

That’s some very compelling evidence hanging out of his mouth (and there was literal blood on his paws) Still… to remove all chance of reasonable doubt… I reviewed our security footage. The feathers were actually the secondary scene. The victim was assaulted in the front garden… then carried off to the secondary scene where disection and consumption occured. And yes.. it was a mourning dove.

It just makes this plaque I found at the thrift store last year, all the more apropos.

I’ve made some progress on my Mossy Kroy socks… but I noticed something curious…

It almost looks like I’m knitting with a completely different yarn. The first sock is much more tweedy and muted than the second. My guess is that I’ve got two different dye lots. Sadly, I threw out the label from the first ball, so I can’t check. I don’t even remember where I got them from – or how long they’ve been in my stash.

Happily, these are for me, and I can live with the differences – but I’m going to have to check the rest of the Kroy I have in the stash.