It's pouring rain here in Langley, but for most of the weekend it was glorious weather - and WARM - I mean gardening in flips and shorts and T-shirts warm. I planted nasturtium seeds, and even tomato starts in a sunny, sheltered spot where they'll bask in reflected heat off the house (or that's my hope).
Here's reassurance from meteorologist Cliff Mass who wrote on his blog on May 2, "Due to the warm weather my vegetable seeds have germinated...soil temps are now in the low fifties. The cloudy weather will prevent any real cold...so delicate plants should be ok."
A few images from the first real gardening weekend of the season:
I admit this first photo is mostly about procrastinating on my final book edit. I certainly didn't set out to make a garden shrine - but once I got the moss glued onto the chair, I thought about the peacock feathers, then the Buddha needed a comfy place to sit outdoors. It went on from there, ending with a little offering of fresh flowers. What if we all made our own unique garden shrines - think it'd bring us some sunshine karma for the coming season?
I came across this glorious weeping Camperdown elm (Ulmus glabra 'Camperdownii') on my walk this morning in Langley's Woodmen Cemetery. It's worth a pilgrimage up Al Anderson Road to take in this elm's gnarled shape and tissue-paper chartreuse flowers, so delicate on such a sturdy old tree.
Below is my first big bouquet from the garden this spring...The orange 'Princes Irene' tulips are just about blown out, there's yellow-leafed bleeding heart in there (Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart'), purple lunaria flowers, old-fashioned snowball viburnum, and the very first lilacs, not quite fully opened.
