Happy GTS and Happy 4th birthday to my daughter.  This week, we walked up to the local nursery and took part in a moss basket workshop.  I’m the type who buys my baskets every single year with the thought in mine that next year, I’d re-use the baskets … but I never do, so this is a step in the right direction.

Here is C. thinking seriously about plant placement:

The finished product (the nursery is going to look after it for a few weeks until it can come out of the greenhouse):

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Here’s a picture I took today while pulling yet more dandelions (you can see a few in the centre there). Dandelions are the only weed that I can’t stand and I’m trying to get to them all before they go to seed as my daughter loves to blow them. Of course to her, they are just another pretty flower.

This reminded me of a little Dandelion related scam I pulled one summer when I was about eight or nine, when like my daughter I thought dandelions were just another pretty flower. While the other kids were out selling lemonade, I set about collecting as many dandelion seeds I could, decorating little seed envelopes and going door to door flogging them to unsuspecting neighbours. I think I made a good $2.25 and I can’t help but laugh about it. I sure hope my victims realized what they were planting

One of my son’s parent-tot drop-in facilitators (I love these women) gave me some baby Sunchokes yesterday:

Until a few weeks ago I had never heard of the Sunchoke aka Jerusalem artichoke aka Helianthus tuberosus.

The Jerusalem artichoke (Helianthus tuberosus), also called the sunroot or sunchoke or topinambur, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, from Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate world for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.

Despite its name, the Jerusalem artichoke has no relation to Jerusalem, and it is not a type of artichoke, though they are in the same family. The name Jerusalem is due to folk etymology; when the Jerusalem artichoke was first discovered by Europeans it was called Girasole, the Italian word for sunflower. The Jerusalem artichoke is a type of sunflower, in the same genus as the garden sunflower Helianthus annuus. Over time the name Girasole transformed into Jerusalem, and to avoid confusion some people have recently started to refer to it as sunchoke or sunroot, which is closer to the original Native American name for the plant.

The artichoke part of the Jerusalem artichoke’s name comes from the taste of its edible tuber. Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer, sent the first samples of the plant to France, noting that its taste was similar to an artichoke. ^{(wiki source)}

More info on growing Sunchokes. Mine are just hanging out in the laundry room until they are ready for planting  I have to think seriously about where to plant them. Not invasive but ineradicable, they will have found a forever home in my garden.

So much for my nice tidy working area!

Our stump.  At 15′ high, it’s not in bloom, but once the clematis climbs and blooms it will be pretty cool:

I don’t care if this is a ‘weed’, it’s staying:

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

In between the morning snow and the afternoon hail today, we had a few hours of lovely sunny and warm weather so the kids, and dog and I went out in the yard. While the kids busied themselves I did this:

Remember what it looked liked yesterday?

Not bad for a few hours backbreaking work eh? I dug in some manure where the poles are (as my compost is not ready yet) and prepped more poles. Going by my Great Uncle Harold’s rule, late of Sault-Ste-Marie, I need to get the beans in no later than May 8th (his birthday).

In the little bed up front, I planted Warba potatoes, apparently a high yielding early crop. I know nothing about growing potatoes so here is some info. Apparently, since these are an early variety, they may be harvested when the tops being to flower. As opposed to main crop varieties which are harvested just after the tops dies down.

I had some onion sets but I didn’t have the time or space to plant them today. I’ll pop them in the other bed next week. Speaking of the other bed, asparagus is popping up all over the place. I’m amazed how quickly it grows. Now if only the damn dog would stay OFF that garden!

… In the bowels of my garden:

After waiting nearly two weeks for my mower to be serviced, I finally cut the lawn today. Patches of it were close to a foot long. It’s amazing how a little trim neatens up the look of the yard. I like this lawn much more than our last, it’s flat!

While mowing, I stumbled up yet another mystery plant, actually there is a few of these. I haven’t had time to look it up yet but it’s pretty isn’t it:

Add this to my to-do list. In this patch there is a giant mass of fragrant oregano to the left and I found some potatoes while digging, so I’m going to pop in some more potatoes as well as some more poles for yet more beans. We’ll see how they do over here this summer, as well. We have some long bits of driftwood we scavenged from the beach that will make the perfect border to this little veggie patch. In the fore and background are the two pear trees:

And finally, our glorious magnolia. The petals have just started to fall:

Have I said how much I love this garden?

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden ~ Ruth Stout

What’s blooming in your garden this week?

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

While weeding at the front yesterday I found this little beauty just starting to bloom:

It’s a Chaenomeles superba or Flowering quince Pink Lady.

I’m almost done my very rough clean-up of the garden. We have just under half an acre and much of it is planted so there is a hell of a lot of tidying to be done.

Yesterday I also cleaned up this little area. I can’t wait until the mornings are warm enough to sip my morning tea out here:

In the beds to the right of the fence, I planted Gladiolus Green Star and Grande Passion (Green Star pictured):

Did you know that during the Roman Empire, the gladiolus was the official symbol of the gladiators that fought within the coliseum in Rome? In Latin the word gladius means sword, and it was because of the gladiolus’ sword-like leaves that it has the name we know this flower as today. Another ancient name for the gladiolus was “xiphium,” derived from the Greek word “xiphos”, which interestingly also means ” sword.”

source

Today I transplanted the rhubarb that my mom dug out of her garden for me:

I also prepped the soil and assembled my poles for beans:

I fixed the downspout to the rain barrel but was disappointed when it began to pour rain, nothing came down the spout, it just overflowed over the gutters.   It appears Bart needs to get up on the roof and clean the gutters out!