How My Garden Grows

In case you didn't know it, I love all growing things--except weeds, that is. One of the hardest things about being away from home for the past five weeks has been missing out on the spring growth in our yard and neighbourhood.

So I thought I would share with you the things that are flowering or otherwise flourishing in our yard, to be updated whenever there's something new to share.

I started this columbine from seed last spring. Columbines are so lovely: intricate complicated flowers, colourful and delicate yet hardy enough to be found in high alpine conditions. This is a variety of the alpine columbine.

Vibrant red dianthus that we bought at Golden Acres last spring. It's a low growing perennial, which we needed to fill out the flowerbed.

Rhubarb! This is what it looks like after I have harvested enough off it for a crisp. It's doing very well.

First thing after we got back, we headed to the greenhouse to pick up a few annuals to fill in holes in the beds, and to pick up some pumpkin and squash seedlings to try out. Here's the pumpkin, which has bounced back healthily since we transplanted it. We dug in some well-rotted compost before we planted it in the hopes that it would get the boost it needs in order to produce some fruit before the end of the summer.

Our little volunteer pansy. We had lots of these last year but Brent gets fed up with them by the middle of the summer when they can no longer handle the intense heat and dry and turn yellow and leggy. But I'll keep this little fellow around for a while; he so valiantly flowers.

This low-spreading sedum was here when we came, along with her cousin, the Autumn Joy sedum which I will show in another post. Brent was the one who noticed this one, tucked away under a stump--I would have weeded right over her. This year she's come along quite well.
We moved the yarrow and lambs ear here last fall and they are thriving. Both are native to Calgary and can withstand the dryness well.

It's peony season! Not my favourite colour of peony, and I dislike how peonies attract ants, but they are certainly colourful while they last!

This is Robinson's Red Painted Daisy. We bought two early summer last year because they work as a deterrent for aphids, which we had in abundance. It's a bit gangly right now but blooming well.
Our tiger lily, from a suckered chunk from my mom's plant. This is the third year we've had it, and the first year that it has even thought about blooming. It's a bit too dry where we have it, in the front bed.

Last but not least, our little marigold seedlings. We got these at Golden Acres too. Marigolds are tough and flower well, as well as keep bugs away, and we enjoyed them last year, so we thought we'd have them again. This is the Golden Gem variety, which has smaller blooms and more ferny leaves.