709-218-7927 The Landfall Garden House 60 Canon Bayley Road Bonavista, Newfoundland CANADA A0C 1B0 |
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Diary
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Sunday, March 02, 2025
Our second spell of rain in a week; The covering of snow is gone, excepting for the areas of drift in the corners and sheltered spaces.
The front lawn this morning. Hard to see in this reduced image, but the NE corner of the gooseberry patch is sporting greenery. This surely can’t be my first dandelions, can it?
Some globs of wet ice sit atop the western daffodil bed.
The eastern, smaller lawn, is almost clear. Only the town council berm remains.
The SW corner of the back yard still has its drifts.
Check out the lake in the foreground. The soil is sodden from this thaw, but this time tomorrow the water will have drained away. The mounds of the three in-bed compost bins are now exposed to the air again.
Friday, March 07, 2025
I have found a dandelion plant from last year. The snow is still melting so this plant has survived being buried under snow. It is far too big to have germinated this year, indeed, today only we flirted with 8c, an we are already back to 1c.
Still and all it feels good to se the dandelions again, even if they are from last year.
Saturday, March 08, 2025
Spring can be said to be here! For the first time since snow fell, this morning the ground is clear below the meter!
Sunday, March 09, 2025
Two centimeters of snow overnight. One sweep with the shovel and the bitumen is bared to absorb energetic photons.
It’s called The Landfall Garden House for a reason; over winter the indoor plants come, well, indoors. This morning I noticed that one of my geranium tubs is sporting what looks like a daffodil plant that seems to have responded to the lengthening of the daylight hours.
Sunday, March 09, 2025
This is by far the earliest I have seen daffodil shoots - mid-March. Typically mid-May for us, in flower in June for a month.
Kerry's daffodils are pushing through, too.
I am amused because David expresses surprise as in "A Miracle!" but daffodils are a no-brainer; put them and walk away; no need to do anything again, ever!
This western bed was gouged out to 21" deep but I didn't get finished on the sieving and refilling, so the bulbs are in a shallow trench.
I got lucky with a very mild winter.
Hallelujah!
Thursday, March 13, 2025
We have received snow overnight in dribs and drabs. Looks like 5 cm all up. I shall run the shovel down the driveway.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Overnight the warm air melted most of the snow; a half-dozen patches remain where snow was banked.
In the western bed the daffodils show me once again that they are survivors.
Even the pop-up bulbs that appear to have been forced up out of the ground have survived and are boldly pushing up the initial leaves.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Started spring seeding. Today four #44 Basil seeds in a yoghurt pot, covered with a paper towel. #18 Dandelion in a small plastic cookie tray.
Friday, March 21, 2025
I think that these are tulips poking through in the eastern bed.
And these, I suspect, are gypsy garlic from last year. The leaf shoots are too long for daffodils at this time.
I spent 45 minutes making a dent in the shed, mainly on the bench.
Tomorrow I will fill that top shelf.
I need to split containers into “parts” and “Tools” or something like that.
The forecast is 12c with a few showers or drizzle; perfect day for working in the shed AND burning off scrap timber in the raised bed.
Bulbs: I can use the various kitchen sinks as nursery beds for bulbs. They will mark clearly the boundaries, can be levered out of the ground for harvesting, …
Saturday, March 22, 2025
I used the shovel to see how deep the ground had thawed. About four inches! A small Jerusalem Artichoke stalk from last year gave ME 12 ounces in four rubbers, One tuber is slightly rotten and was perhaps cut in half late last year when I was showing JAs to a visitor. I shall make an artichoke stew tomorrow, and perhaps some pies.
Sunday, March 23, 2025
By 10 a.m. the sky is blue, the sun shines, but the wind seems a trifle too gusty for a safe fire. On the other hand the ground is still wet, so I might still light a bonfire on the raised bed and dispose of a hill of wood scraps, making space in front of my garden tools. This after I have set outside the stone-fruit seeds in labeled pots.
The first rhubarb has sprouted in the original western bed. Good. I have some rhubarb.
I had transplanted four clumps last year but neglected to mark them. I do not want to rotary-hoe them under. So I have raked off the leaves from their area to give me a chance of spotting them some time, I hope, next week.
Note that those bins of grass clippings have reduced to about three inches of soil, or one-twelfth their original volume.
This year I might count the volume or and/or mass of clippings going in, and the volume and/or mass of soil coming ou1 Management Measures!.
Kerry’s daffodils are now forming real leaves.
In the afternoon I loaded seven tins with Plum kernels, and five tins with Nectarine kernels, all labeled “25/3”
This is the boundary between the two sets of tins. Tomorrow Peaches!
These are tins I loaded with soil last fall and the loose soil has settled during the winter. Of course I needed to top up the soil before impressing the kernels. I think that I would have been better served had I topped up and pressed in the kernels BEFORE snowfall; if nothing else the kernels might not have dried out by being stored in empty coffee cups exposed to the dry air. That said, seeds ARE survivors. Let’s wait and see.
Monday, March 24, 2025
I dropped a dozen capsicum seeds into a pot. And covered them with soil after I had taken this photo.
Sunday, March 30, 2025
I have fallen behind in my seeds-per-day, but this afternoon set out some of Matt’s “Canada Mint” in a circular bowl that was taking up space in my kitchen.