The rain has made for an interesting planting season. At first it meant a "day to do some thing else" but as the rains continued it meant having to go out between down pours to attend to gardening. Taking advantage of the gaps between down pours has allowed me to keep most things on schedule. It's been the mosquitos that have been the bigger obstacle!! OMG. In sane!! I'm going to buy one of those nets to wear over my head because it's crazy. Between the rain & the mosquitos our dog doesn't even want to stay out with me.
I've been holding back from planting some of my seedlings for fear of having them broken by the rain & winds.
My winter sown matthiola bicornis(night scented stock) & Persian poppies are blooming. The poppy plants however are extremely stunted & their blossoms are the size of dimes!! I'm not sure if it's because they were held too long in their cramped containers or what. I'm tempted to rip them out instead of taking up valuable real estate and replacing them with some thing else. They seem perky, tough & established but very tiny(5-6inches tall). Will they continue to grow height and more blossoms as time goes by? I'm new to poppies and WSing.
I've enlarged and added 5 new planting beds. It's time to do some re-arranging of plants.
Tell us about your spring in the garden!! It's nice to hear everyone's stories.

Kanuk

I hear ya! We've had t-storms for a few days now. I moved some of my planters into the greenhouse but moved them outside today when it looked like it was going to be nice- hah! As soon as I got them out it started to thunder. I decided they were going to have to survive because I wasn't going to keep moving them all the time. On the bright side, last night we had an awesome double rainbow here. We get them quite a bit but this one was really nice. Marg

Could you folks send some of that rain over here??? I have never seen such a June in years. Usually the month is wet, cold, and foggy, but we have been sunny and dry for the most part. Last year I never took out the hoses - not once - but this year they have been a constant in the gardens for the past two weeks.

I was waiting for a rainy day to transplant hoards of winter sown things, but today I've decided that they are going in. The hose will simply have to follow them along.

Right now it's 9am and the temp in the shade is 20C. In another hour it will climb over 25C. I am so glad I live on the coast on days like this since 20 minutes away in Halifax the temps and the humidity will make the humidex reach into the low 30s. It's always 5 degrees cooler here.

The gardens are also different in that everything is two weeks ahead. Nice and lush though. Well, got to get out there and get some more babies in the ground, some of which I'm sure are yours Northerner. :O)

Tiffy, you're welcome to some of the rain and cool weather so long as you accept the accompanying weeds as well!! I am not a 'mulcher', but the weeds are so terrible, I'll be going out tomorrow to get some. The cool weather has also slowed everything down - salvias still small, swiss chard and cukes not growing; even the flowering perennials are doing so sporadically - not the full blooms we usually get.

I am almost at the end of planting out and finding that a number of my WS plants have poor root development e.g. verbena bonariensis and Sea Holly. They are in a new 'holding' space - only a couple hours sun in the afternoon and I wonder if that's the problem. I also found quite a number of slugs among them!! so I don't expect they'll survive. I am going full speed ahead - have to be finished by Canada Day so I can relax and enjoy my BBQ. Still looking for the best place for that Inula Goliath - it's huge!!
Northerner.

I hear all of you! Here it hasn't been constantly raining, just enough to keep me out of the gardens when i can be there. After the past couple of days, i know i won't be able to get into the veg. garden which needs weeding badly. I have so much left to plant it isn't funny!

One of the things i was counting on to get rid of some plants was my son's landscaping, but they've been so busy that he made only one bed and they filled that up right away. I had containers of bulbs for their daughter that we had buried in one of the vegetable gardens last fall because they had no place for them - they're still sitting in their containers because they filled the other bed! Hopefully i can give some seedlings away elsewhere.

Mosquitoes are another thing. I could have gone outside after it cleared up last night, but didn't even want to attempt it. And weeds are something else - OMG, it's hard in some places to see the plants for the weeds!

Life is always interesting in the garden, isn't it? LOL

Northerner,

Well, it seems I got was I was wishing for and I'm going oops! right now. Along with the heavy drizzle we are having, the wind came too and I hadn't staked anything. I was also planning on a full day of gardening. Did manage to build shelves in the shed for my never ending yet much needed supply of pots and transplant some Wiegela Middendorfiana seedlings into bigger pots.

Did I send you seeds of the Inula? LOL!! It's a great plant and it is HUGE!! Here's a photo of mine just a couple of days ago which I also posted on the mother forum. It's right behind the lime green variegated Forsythia.

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Now that is one plant. I've had to move an Achillea and a perennial Hibiscus out of there since the leaves were covering them. I gave a division away at my plant sale to a youngster about age 9. Yesterday they dropped by and his mom asked to see mine. She said she was scared of it!! Now she's OK since we talked about the plant and it's growing habit. The family is simply going to expand their garden to accommodate since they like the fact that their son has begun being interested in plants. That makes me happy! :O)

Yes, Tiffy, you did send me the seeds for Inula Goliath. Thanks for the pic. Now I know I have to make room. I am thinking of removing a large phlox from my front bed, so I think it should go there. We have now come to the end of a rain-filled weekend. It held up a little Saturday evening and at about 9:00 p.m. my DH and I took a walk to our local park which is all set up for Canada Day festivities. There was a group singing (songs from Grease) in the bandshell, rides for the kids, and of course all kinds of fair fare. There were thunderstorms almost all night and all day, so we did some de-cluttering. It will be interesting to see what has taken place after all this rain. know I'll have some staking to do - things like Shasta daisies and primroses. I hope I'll see some sun.

Have fun in the gardens today Northerner!! I've got your cloudy skies but that won't stop me from being out there today. :O)

tiffy- Those are some gigantic, healthy looking Inula plants. I hope you'll post some pics when they're in bloom as well.

Happy Canada Day fellow gardeners!!

HI GUYS! My spring has been wacky as well..my Castors are only a foot tall, usually beating out my sunflowers by now. That Inula Tiff..I have "Sonnenspeer". Is your variety even taller? I have them in my front bed, coming up in front of my living room window, so no-one will see how dirty my windows are (LOL).
Been fighting the bunny onslaught..had to say goodbye to fig-leaf hollyhock, cardinal climber, ruby sunnies, a whack of zinnias, white lobelia...on and on... (sigh)
Bugs are bad too..but no aphids to speak of (?). Something is eating the foliage of all my milkweed and Joe Pye. If they're Monarch cats, I don't care, but I haven't seen what's munching them yet.
Let's see what July brings!
(Just keep on deadheading, but don't forget to 'leave the last dance' (seedhead) for me!) LOL

My Jack Frost Brunnera was doing great this spring. Then we had lots of rain so I didn't do to much in the bed. During a 'dry' spell I went out to try working there and a sparrow (I think) had built a nest dead center of the plant. I looked closer and there were 4 sky blue eggs with brown specks on them. A few days later, they hatched. The very next morning we had an extremely heavy downpour. When it was over, I went out to check and see how the birds were. The mother wasn't there but all 4 chicks were just lying on the bottom of the nest. I thought perhaps they had drowned, they weren't moving at all. The mother did come back and sat on the eggs but then I noticed that the chicks were disappearing one by one! Before they left I did notice that one of the chicks was moving so at least one is alive. We had put a cage around the nest to keep the dogs out of it. I just hope the birds are doing okay where ever they are. Now it looks like we are in for a fairly dry week. Maybe now I can get my new plants in the ground. It has always been to muddy to get in the garden. After that I have to divide my irises. Hope it stays dry for a while. Marg

What a lovely story, Marg. My yard, which usually has at least two sittings of robins each year, and lots of birds at my feeder has been devoid of birds this year because of an 'infestation' of wild cats. A neighbour moved and left their cat, and it got together with another stray and we have cats roaming all over our yards, and using our flower beds as bathrooms. I found a 'nest' near my lilacs last week and they were feathers in it, so they are killing and eating birds, so no wonder they are staying away. Anway last weekend my neighbour and I set out a trap and we have caught nine so far!! There are three generations and the smallest are still babies. We still have to get the two big males. One of them, while trapped in the cage, growled and hissed at me, bared his teeth showing his wildness. He attacked my neighbour when he tried to get him out of the trap, so he got away. Now they won't come near the trap. We are now awaiting the Humane Society to pick them up. They have destroyed many of my plants: a new clematis, zinnias, foxgloves, and verbascum to name a few. I have spent much time trying many ways to keep them out and they all work for a time, but with all this rain you have to keep repeating the treatment and it's time consuming. I hope I can control things with just the males around. It's still raining almost every day here. When will it end?
Northerner.

It ended here! Seems like summer has just started, finally, and it's almost over. We haven't had any rain for two weeks - i brought it to Timmins when i went there last week and seem to have left it there, so i apologize to anyone in that area! :) It's gotten so dry now that we're going to water the gardens for the first time this year, believe it or not!

It seems to have gone away here too. We have had rain, but mostly at night, two weeks ago. But in the last week we have had summer temperatures, with the odd thunderstorm as usual, and I actually had to water yesterday and today. Better late than never!!