Farmer's Almanac Weather Prediction for Ontario: "Light showers spread east to the Great Lakes"
Currently blooming in my garden: Portulaca, Scotch Moss, Irish Moss, Strawberry (Fragaria Junebearing), Maltese Cross (Lychnis chalcedonica), Gazania Sonnegold, Pine Geranium, various other things I can't think of.
Why yes it has been another month since my last update. Actually that sounds a bit like a confessional. Not that I'd know because I'm not catholic. But I've watched enough TV to have enough of a false sense of knowledge about "culture" to assume that the "it has been (insert length of time here) since my last confessional" line sounds really similar. Plus I have the same sense of guilt over it.
Anyway, it's been a month. But don't worry cause I've been burning inside the inner depths of hell for at least part of that time. So basically I have an excuse. I'm exaggerating of course. I've actually done a lot of fun things in that time. It's just that work has become a huge burden that stands between me and the rest of my life. Of course I have no one to blame but myself since I work for mysel--so I pick and choose my clients. Of course there have been other obstacles such as the whole "hosting company going bankrupt" debacle. But I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and other cliches.
So spring has come and nearly gone in Southern Ontario. I know it's funny but I'm still not really sure exactly what zone this is. Everytime I think I've got it pinned, someone else has some explanation for why it's a different zone. I think we're zone 5b. Being in a large city, things are slightly warmer here. There are other factors as well such as buildings holding in heat and reflecting light, and being located right down the street from Lake Ontario. Some people say I'm in zone 4. Others say 6 or 6b. I'm saying 5b and don't tell me otherwise.
Regardless of the zone, the weather has been completely insane in the past month. Spring started off unseasonably warm. It was like summer. I got started early on planting out on my deck. I acted really risky and started way before the frost free time. Of course the weather turned and I had to bring a few plants in over the span of a few days. Then it just stayed cold for a long time. Some places even experienced frost past the frost free date. Insanity.
To start out the spring season Davin and I built planter boxes for the deck out of cedar. I decided early on that I was going to make this summer "The Year of the Deck". So I talked to people, drew up plans, talked to the biggest idiot ever at the lumber store, had my lumber delivered and spent a long Saturday morning and afternoon constructing two large, 4 foot long by 2 feet high cedar boxes. Eventually I will post my plans on the site. Making them 2 feet was completely unnecessary. But I can literally grow just about anything in them so no complaints. I spent a small fortune filling them up with soil. I planted tomatoes, basil, radishes, arugula, carrots, garlic and mizuna in them. I still have a few tomato plants that are still too small to plant that will fill the second box. Already the Early Girl variety that I planted are huge and actually have flowers on them. Every year I say I'm going to be careful about overdoing it, and every year I start off kind of crazy and a month later I look around and think "shit, that's a lot of plants". They start out so small and grow so big so quickly that it's misleading. I think everything is under control and a month later I realize that I've overdone it yet again. Then the late July heat wave hits and I'm pulling my hair out over the guilt and shame of the condition of my plants because I can't keep up with the mulitple times per day watering schedule that is needed on the deck. Every conversation on the deck begins with a disclaimer about the full sun plus plus heat intensity that my plants are forced to withstand and how "I'm trying my best but I'm just not a machine". I sound like someone's crazy, speed-addicted yet hyper-self-critical, self-effacing mother. So this year I got a prickly pear cactus (Opuntia humifusa) so that when everything else is looking sad and withered I'll have one shiny plant to admire. It's all about the xeriscaping people.
As a second stage in preparation for "The Year of the Deck", and as a second method of dealing with the intense heat on the deck, we bought a huge tent-like gazebo-type thing. It's bolted down to the deck so I'm relatively sure about it's security, but we've had to remove the top for a while because the poor weather has included high winds. The birds love it. We have a lot of birds as a result of a feeder I put out over the winter. Yesterday we had two baby starlings perched on the poles. Our visiting bird count now includes: crows, sparrows, pigeons and starlings. That's pretty good in a neighbourhood with almost no trees. I have been trying really hard to include plants on the deck that are not only edible, but will attract butterflies and bees. I'm making a little wildlife haven. Sadly I'm attracting raccoons. They leave their little paw prints on the sides of the cedar planters. So far they've made a meal of oregano, kale, monarda (bee balm), and an entire sage plant. They've trampled and killed garlic and a number of basil plants.
This is a tired way to end an entry but this is getting boring to type so it must be boring to read. I've still got lots more to talk about and some of it is even fun and exciting and may include pictures. I've got too much work to do today to get involved in busting out the photos.
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