Oh... the light

Bleeding Heart

One of the benefits of our overcast weather is the magical light that is the perfect foil for taking pictures in our gorgeous garden. The details and colours of the foliage are crystal clear with the grey skies overhead.  I took the opportunity this afternoon to have a mooch around the garden and captured the following images. Remember remember the sun will return!

uh, gorgeous lipstick tulip

Chive Blossoms ready to burst

Fern unfurling

Solomon's Seal 

Neighbourhood Small Grants - we got one!

A few of us got together and secured a Neighbourhood Small Grant from the Vancouver Foundation and the City of Vancouver that will benefit the Kits garden members and people from the community who wish to participate.  The grant money is to be used for a Seed Saving Workshop that will take place sometime in September.

Le Cheque. 

For those of you interested in saving seeds the Workshop will be most interesting. It would be nice not to have to always buy seeds... and we are also hoping that we could create Kits Garden Seed packets to fundraise for the garden. Details will be communicated to the membership when everything is arranged. In the meantime enjoy this gorgeous weather we are having and plant some seeds!

Birds

Birds. This is the time of year when the garden is filled with the sound of birds. The Northern Flickers have returned and are inspecting our Hobbit Tree for their summer condo. Couldn't catch a good shot of them tonight but managed to capture this lovely little fat breasted robin who found a delicious juicy worm to feast on.

robin resting with his prey... on top of the new bench

Seconds later he took flight - but not before I managed to snag this next shot... he seemed transformed into something quite mythical.

The garden is rapidly transforming as well... this is the time of year when everyone is anxiously looking for signs of growth from the early spring seeds that have been planted (peas, arugula, lettuces, spinach, etc) 

Arugula popping up...upper left is a coffee stir stick - for scale

but the most noticeable - daily - is with the overnight growth of all our lovely perennials. Lovely.

Hobbit tree detail

Forget Me Not

Enjoy... soon they will be gone!

Summer Spring in Kits

Last week...

This week...

Wow, the weather. Spring is most definitely here - every day at the garden brings a beautiful change to observe. The weeding of our perennial goutweed is a pleasure in this weather and with the sounds of the birds overhead. Those little birds with the spots seemed to have taken up residence in one of the birdhouses. Lovely. It's time to plant those peas, onions, radishes, lettuce and ? - will this wonderful heat lull us into a sense of security and make us plant more than is typical this time of year? Go ahead! You can always reseed if our bubble bursts.

Gorgeous lily - an appropriate treat this time of year

Manure the Motivator

The first work party of the 2013 season was a marvellous melding and mashup of many members motivated by the mound of manure and the myriad of must-do monkey business that makes our magical garden - well - magical. I will cease the magniloquent text and leave you with some shots from our sunny day. Capping it all off were the culinary treats provided by our local Kits Whole Foods (Capers) who have kindly agreed to another season of organic sustenance for our work parties. Happy spring gardening!

Weeding Weather

I was lucky enough today to have a few hours to spend in the garden for some weeding and clean up. The weather was fantastic for it... nice to see things budding out and getting ready for true spring. I snapped a few shots and had to include that harbinger of spring - Galanthus nivalis or snowdrop. There are quite a few clumps of them around because we divided them up in the fall - a wonderful payoff! They are just budding right now...

Galanthus - detail bud (scale = 3 cm)

They are one of my favourites... and I love that they have so many different names. The common name 'snow drop' first appeared in the 1633 edition of John Gerard's Great Herbal (first edition 1597) and he described it as "Timely flowering Bulbus violet"! It may have also come form the Gerrman word Schneetropfen which was a type of earring popular at that time. Other common names include 'February fairmaids', 'dingle-dangle', 'Candlemas bells', 'Mary's tapers' and 'snow piercers'.

I had some lovely company in the garden - a sweet young cat who was having fun chasing my cuttings.

2013 - A New Year Begins in the Garden

I forget what this is? Type of Viburnum? Do tell

Spring is on the way... and the garden had it's Annual General Meeting to look back on the year and make plans for the new year! So many great initiatives were accomplished in 2012 and it's great pondering the new season in these last cold days of winter. I don't know about you but I already have quite a few packets of new seeds to plant and if it stays relatively 'warmish' this weekend I'm planning on doing some weeding! 

We are so lucky to live in Kits as even in the colder months there is a variety of plants to see and smell! The shot above was taken on a late afternoon neighbourhood walk... the white buds look like exquisite jewels floating in the air.

Speaking of local plants, today, I was made aware of this great resource about pacific northwest plant knowledge "GPP" (out of Seattle) Check it out: .http://www.greatplantpicks.org/about/

See you at the kick off spring work party - Saturday, March 9th! (if not sooner)

Here is another opportunity to refer to the 2013 work party dates... enter these dates into your diaries, smartphones, post-it notes on your fridge, etc:

Saturday, March 9
Sunday, April 14
Saturday, May 18
Wednesday, June 19 (evening)
Sunday, July 21 (potluck)
Wednesday, August 21 (evening)
Saturday, September 21
Sunday, October 20