Favourite Posts

My husband took our digital camera on his latest week-long business trip, which is thankfully ending tomorrow. So good thing it has been raining a good part of the time, otherwise I would have been more anxious about catching a few more "garden glimpses". It's all I've had time to post lately, as I am up to my eyeballs in year-end accounting work, and I'm not an accountant by training. But that's another story, not for this blog.

Anyhow, tonight I feel in the mood to reflect on my blog history, which spans 1 year and 3 months, now. On occasion, I take a look at my site meter, which indicates how many visitors I've had, where they "come from", entry & exit pages, and some statistic information including their browser program, screen resolution, and such. What is most interesting to me is the referrals, that is, finding out how the visitors came to find my blog.

Many times, the search phrases they used, gave me interesting subjects to research myself, such as the many searches for "chocolate persimmon" after I only mentioned my persimmon tree. Some of the recurring search topics continue to be the espalier fruit trees, the rainier cherry tree, and the topic "flowering shrubs to hide an ugly fence".

Recently, a number of visits came via a few of my photos which were hosted at Photobucket.com, which I had resorted to when Blogger.com was having so many problems with uploading images (which seem to be resolved now). The images and topic of the brown caterpillar and its transformation into a grey moth, has brought various visitors.

Some of the searches include "painting" or "art". I wonder what these visitors think of my painting project, which began with just a paper "concept", and is now maybe half done (although most friends remark that it looks much closer to completion than that).

My own favourites have been my garden painting series (which I enjoy looking at, to reflect on my progress), the shrubs to hide an ugly fence article (which I would like to add to, one day, with more shrub suggestions), and the maintaining a positive attitude toward weeding article.

Garden Glimpses : Mid April

Work and life has been overwhelming lately, but I have managed to take a few more photos, along with many hours of pulling weeds. So here I am, 10 days later, posting them. Enjoy!

I wish I had taken a few photos last week when the two cherry trees were in full bloom - it was quite glorious! This slightly out of focus shot, taken 10 days ago, shows the buds starting into bloom. I hope this indicates a good year for the cherries. The Lapin cherry had about a dozen fruits last year, of which the birds ate most. The Rainier cherry was planted later, and didn't fruit last year. So I am excited at the prospect of its first year of fruit!

The missouri currant (Ribes Odoratum) bushes are loaded with flowers this year, whereas they had only a couple strings of flowers last year. Again, I hope this indicates lots of this sour little berry will soon be on its way, and one day I will have enough to make current juice. My original plant was a sucker dug up from my great aunt's garden in the Okanagan, and every time I have trimmed the plant, I have stuck the trimmings in the ground, so have propagated a number of bushes now (not to mention that they sucker very vigorously also).

This handsome plant has been identified as Petasites Frigidus, thanks to the helpful plant experts on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums. I spotted it from some forest roads near Hope, BC, and it seemed to be growing near water in a number of occasions. So I dug up a small plant or two from the roadside, and gave them a new home in the wet and shady hillside area of my garden. That was only last summer! This spring, more than a dozen flower stalks emerged, followed by those wonderful leaves (reminds me of a small gunnera - the petasites leaf is about the size of my hand). I think it will soon be taking over that hillside. I'm already offering some to my neighbour, for growing beside his pond.

My daughter, who has not shown much interest in gardening (my son is much more interested), has recently become interested in building structures for fairies in the garden, such as this twig & leaf shelter in her "fairy garden". She even expressed, at a recent plant sale, that she wanted to pick up some plants for her "fairy garden". So we bought her a Stella D'Oro daylily, and also a small shrub (I've forgotten the name at the moment).

Garden Glimpses : Early April 2007

I think it may finally be Spring in Vancouver, BC, although it has been a very wierd one, and the wierdest, snowiest, iciest winter I've seen. Just when the sun is out in full force, and we think it is finally Spring, it is back to frost and snow (!!) in April!

Here are a few glimpses from my garden, both the flowers and the weeds. Enjoy!

These daffodils are a cheery underplanting to our Rainier Cherry, which, although bursting with buds, is still bare twigs from a distance. Our concrete chess board waits patiently for action.

The grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum) is great in mass plantings in garden borders. But a single clump transplanted by accident provides a sweet surprise.

It took a few years for this young pulsatilla to settle in, and bloom. As always in the gardening world, it was worth the wait.

Which are the real tulips, and which one the solar tulip which has been lighting up our garden the last couple of years? (Maybe if I had washed it down, it would be more of a challenge. :-) )

Some of our rock paintings are showing signs of wear from the past two winters, but this pond scene and frog still look fresh and ready for another season.

This primula is a bright herald of Spring, and is doing very well while the slugs are in hibernation.
I love how this sedum ("Autumn Joy", I believe), is bursting with new life under the spent blooms of last summer. What a great image of renewal.

This clump of peony shoots hold great promise for this summer's display! In the background, a hardy geranium provides a reliable year-round cover of green. Don't look too closely at the soil, this Hairy Bittercress (Cardamine hirsuta) is a real curse for me this year, it has reseeded itself extensively through most of my garden areas, and is so quick to seed, that I have a feeling it will be my favourite weed to hate for many years to come. But at least it is easier to pull than the horsetails!