Saturday, June 13, 2009 - Prairie Prairie, Quite Contrary...

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 …how does your garden grow. Ours is going great guns right now.

Everything seems to have caught up.  The white things near the (admittedly sad) birch are snowdrop anemones. The purple balls are alliums and there are still late-flowering tulips too.

The spring blooming alpine and macropetala clematis are also in full force and effect – a delight to the eye and real boon to our local bumble bees. These clemmies are in the “A” pruning group, which here in Calgary means that the plant leafs out on the old vines, and pruning is not necessary unless you want to control the size of the vine.

A few details…

Alpine type

Bluebird

Rosy O’Grady

White Swan

Heaven Scent

The crab apples have finally lost their blossoms and their fresh scent has been replaced by the heavy sensuous fragrance of lilacs which are at their peak in our garden.

Speaking of fragrance – does your mulch smell like chocolate?  I had never heard of cocoa mulch before, but good friend and very accomplished gardener Judith Doyle passed along the caution that mulch made of cocoa husks might prove irresistible to some dogs, with possibly dangerous or even fatal consequences

Check out the Snopes article by clicking on the link.

The Garden Comes Alive

The robins who nested in the carport successfully fledged their young last week. A wren is chirping in the yard constantly and has been in and out of at least one nest box repeatedly.

Magpies have fledged all over the city this week. If you haven’t seen it, you will probably have heard it. This is just the sound of the anxious parents keeping track of their still naive youngsters. Some people object to the unmelodious squawk of magpies this time of year. But, for cryin’ out loud, we live in a city. It’s a noisy place!  So, if you drive a car, play your stereo so that the neighbor’s have to listen to your choice of music or yell at your own kids to keep track of them in public places – just get over it!  I realize you’re not like that, but I bet you know people who are!