I hear you, and feel you pain... parts of NS got 5 cm of that white crap on Sunday. It'll be a few weeks before I even think about setting up the greenhouse on the patio...

I feel for you:(. I will try to send some good weather up your way:). Your pic is beautiful though. I'm sure you don't want to hear this because I can't compare your freezing snow to my warm rain, but even Cali has had an abnormally long winter. I remember last year in February it stopped raining and was getting into the 70's. It was warm. Today where I live at the end of April high is 69 low is 55. Compared to you that is warm,but by now we should be in our low 80's high 70's in the day. Ground has not been warm enough yet to plant my tomatoes. In recent years my tomato plants would have been in the ground already. I think the warm weather is comin tho;).

I so wish I was in 9b!!! My daughter just got back from a Disneyland trip, and she took lots of C&S pics for me. Mine will never be quite like that but I can dream lol.

Beth, I've seen on the news what the maritimes got this winter!!! GROSSSSS!!!! At least we have chinooks ... just a couple weeks ago it was shorts weather. PS - I haven't lost *any* of the babies you sent :) I have to dig up the before pics then I'll post an update for you.

Kd

Kd

It wasn't actually too bad this winter, it just refuses to go away! Shorts? what are they?? And I haven't lost any of the babies you sent either! Glad yours are doing well!

Kara

We will be lucky to get tomatoes in the ground by the end of May! Crocuses are blooming now!

here in Southern Ont the leaves are coming out. Are you in Alaska? lol

I totally relate here. 7a isn't bad, but the weather is still too unpredictable to put anything out permanently. Right now it is dull, cloudy, rainy, and lower 50s, if that makes you feel any better.

Lol Matt K! No not Alaska - southern Alberta.

this is in Celsius, mind you ... up to 14 by Sunday, woooo! (Rolling my eyes). That's 57F

Kd

that steady increase is looking good your way!

I hear you - things really need to warm up!! Pretty darn windy and cold today here in Ontario (relatively speaking).

Unusually warm 74F/23C in southern Wisconsin today - downright balmy. Plants were beggin' to go out! But thunderstorms and near freezing temperatures the next couple days, so they'll have to wait.

I did take one out for fresh air for a few hours

...

hehe -- not really - I took him out for a picture and left him there for a bit :)

This does bring up a question for sharing, for those in colder zones: Do you wait until all risk of cold nights to take them outside, or take some or all out earlier knowing you might have to bring them in for an unusual cold spell?

I put mine out in a mini greenhouse for the first few weeks. I leave it open all day and zip it up at night. I have a lot of plants, so don't move them in and out other than seasonally. I've been known to put a space heater in the greenhouse, and have wrapped it in a tarp a few times (my "blue house"). Once temps warm up, the greenhouse only gets zipped up during heavy rains.

That's a great question Shawna! This is my first spring with a significant amount of tender succulents. Living where there is a risk of frost until the end of May (!!) it is practically against my religion to put indoor plants outside. I have my hardy perennial outdoor garden, and I I have my houseplants. The migration is a new experience for me lol.

However, I have seen first-hand just how insignificant indoor winter sun is for some of my succulents :( I am going get grow lights for next winter, and will be moving some outdoors this year. I'm looking forward to seeing them thrive.

Some did great on south windowsills; most did "ok", a little etiolated and pale... but some had major problems like my beautiful crassula moonglow here (which has since been beheaded). You can see Nov-Jan there in the middle.

C. Perforata also (egads)

E. Chroma hasn't been beheaded yet because it's blooming, but I did take the offset and behead that

I'm going to grow kalanchoe blossefeldiana as an annual in my rock garden, and will increase my sempervivum and hardy sedum collection. Hablu's garden is my inspiration, so amazing!!!

kd

I forgot to move my perforata into more light after it started doing well!! It's not quite like yours but feel like I'm behind anyway.

What does your rock garden look like? I wanted one for a little while now. Even if it is tiny!

We kept all the river rock from the excavation when we built - so I have a lot to work with. I also have a pile of granite boulders and other large interesting rocks to be used yet :-P I have no grass whatsoever in the front yard. It's all gravel and perennial/native plants. I have a few sedums and semps, but mostly shrubs like contoneaster and juniper; and perennials like oxalis, lilies and flax. And heaven help me - wolf willow. I even have a happy little valentine cherry tree

These pics below are from a few years ago, and everything is much fuller now (the arbour is covered in Virginia creeper now) but the gravel/rock pit is still pretty much the same and is where the bulk of development into C&S heaven is going to take place (ps black mulch sucks and I'll never use it again. It looked good for like, a week)

Oxalis gone wild! Left a planter here and it went to seed.

Here's photos from last year showing where I'm going to add the bulk of my C&S rock garden/dry stream bed and a patio. Maybe pergola.

And this side will be another C&S bed, it gets hot hot hot sun all day, and the spruce is a major water hog so it doesn't stay soggy ever. I think I'm going to try opuntia too. I have sedums here already and will probably move that volunteer Nanking cherry.

I have a loooong way to go to even approximate the glory that is Harry's yard :-P

kd

kd

Looks great already. And opuntias should do ok for you, many are hardy in your zone. So are semps, and quite a few sedums - hope you can get some. I reallylLike that bridge...

Btw, I forgot - do you use supplemental lights indoors?

I'm absolutely supporting your rockification, kd. I hate grass. I've decided to replace my grass with weeds. Oh look, I didn't even have to plant any.

Thanks, Rina :) and no, I haven't purchased any grow lights yet. Definitely will for next winter though! The bridge came from my uncles house after he passed away :)

Pagan - I hear ya! I am killing off the back lawn this year, too. Soon the only grass I'll have is the quack grass coming at me from my neighbours yard. It's a trade off: he gets my wolf willow in return :-P

PS I call my weeds "native plants" or my "bee garden". Theyre very low maintenance

kd

Found a photo from before I put in the arbour and took out the rest of the grass on the Bad Neighbour side. (I'm in a semi-detached, and my lot is only 25 feet wide but the Good Neighbour lets me encroach upon their land. I put my ridiculous Christmas inflatables and Halloween stuff in the middle, their son loves it.)

Kd

Would I have to pull the grass out? My MIL planted an iris bed on one section of the yard and I wanted to start with that, I just haven't figured out how to kill the damn grass. Maybe I can rent a goat or an alpaca from the weird mansion two towns over. They have them lol

In the front I did dig all the sod out, but in the back I've weed-whacked it down to the soil and I'm just going to put down thick cardboard and mulch for this year. Next year the grass should be good and dead and I can start cutting into it and planting. Most of it's dead anyway in the sunny spots (the sod webworms have certainly helped things along)

Sad crispy grass seen here last year in front of the kitty corral (or catio as my daughter calls it lol. No more free-range outdoor kitties)

More work, but I slice grass off, and stack it upside down on future garden beds. I have clay soil, and anything organic will help as it decompose. I usually put layer of cardboard over this too before adding purchased triple mix. I do not throw anything out of garden, and I think I had only 2 bags with garden refuse last year for collection (some prickly raspberry branches and roots I dug up...and big weeds): leaves get shredded and composted, all broken branches go on pile where I am trying to build up existing level. That's where I throw 'bad soil' - clay chunks I am digging up where patio is supposed to go...Any clippings, dry plants - everything goes there or compost heap (depends how big), as do kitchen scraps. Only bones and grease go into green bin for collection - I have so little, that usually put a bag into my neighbour's green bin once a month...anybody wants to buy a green bin? lol...

As a fellow Northerner I feel your pain. Weather has been warm enough for tender plants though. Its technically 2 weeks early but with the forcast looking warm im gonna plant my tender annuals shortly

Rina that's a really good idea, for building up. I'm on a riverbed so it's like 18 inches of silty/clay on top of packed river rock. Digging in a bed or shrub/tree anywhere is a nightmare (thUs my 'maybe' on a pergola, I don't wanna dig footings)