French Willow

Another shot of honey bees, nothing to find yet,..except some water, pollen might come in about 10 days or so if temp. will stay up.

Konrad, are the hives strong and healthy this spring, I know there had been great losses the previous winter.

I just planted about 1000 sq ft of beets and swiss chard in my tunnel. I love this time of year!

Not exactly spring here yet but the temperatures are up and the snow is melting - only 3 feet left! LOL

Yes I think it' finally here even the robins are back The creek is open once more and the bees are buzzing Life is good .

Robins?? Here I was getting excited about seeing 3 geese LOL

I was excited about crows! LOL

Flowing water, honey bees, butterflies, flies buzzing and seagulls and geese overhead in the 15 C temps today. I was poking around seeing what plants have made it through and can see that a few tender perennials have bit the dust, I should have planted them deeper! Though, the 'Incrediball and 'Annabella' hydrangeas have plenty of live wood and 'Twist 'n Shout' has fleshy shoots under the leaf litter. In a few more days, most of the rest of the garden should be showing and I'll be able to check out how everything else has wintered and hopefully there's not too much darn mouse damage!

Not to hijack the thread but how does one, this early (and I am well ahead of y'all) determine dead perennials or worse, roses?

If it helps I have tulips and daffy's 4" out of the ground.

Yeahp, I am still a newbie even after hosting the Canadian gardening championships.

TIA

SCG

Live wood on roses has a greener tinge to it, or you can scratch it and see green underneath.

SCG, these dead perennials came out of the ground with a simple tug and roots blackened and a squishy crown that had fallen apart ... toast :(

>>Konrad, are the hives strong and healthy this spring, I know there had been great losses the previous winter.Last year I lost all 5 hives! I bought two in the spring,..made two new hives from queen cells from the queen rearing course I went to, then captured a swarm,..made it back to five and all are alive!
Mind you, only this one is strong.

Darn Porcupine was in about 10 days ago and did allot of damage, seems this time of the year is the worst,..getting active now, need to replenish winter loss.
I'll make stew out of him when I find it!

Slimy_Okra,
Been hearing off and on in tunnel growing, do you have yours a little into the ground to save energy? What do you use for heating?
When do you start heating?..Some pictures would be nice!

I saw a butterfly yesterday in the backyard.

Need to plant peas!

Konrad, good to hear that all your hives made it through the winter and I hope they'll become strong and productive. I kinda kick myself for leaving behind my hive and gear when the farm had sold, as I find beekeeping to be fascinating, well except when I have had a plain ornery batch of bees!

19 C and feeling almost hot in the backyard :)

Hi Konrad,
Will take some pics. They are not sunken in the ground but I don't heat them - it's too expensive. For transplanting, I start seedlings (swiss chard, beets, kale) in an unheated greenhouse with heat mats on at night. On particularly cold nights, I erect a row cover tent over the seedlings. Even so, I allow it to get down close to freezing at night every night once they have a few true leaves so they have the ability to tolerate frost once they go into the tunnel. They look a bit ratty at this point but it pays off in the end.
The tunnel is about 3-5 degrees C warmer than outside at night because the soil inside is so much warmer than outside. If it gets below -10 C outside I may throw a row cover on them as well.
Around now I start the tender veggies like peppers which go into the tunnel after I harvest the beets etc. in early June.

Sounds like you have a good plan, thanks for sharing!

We've lost a ton snow this week! My garden is now fully exposed and on quick walk about I discovered my fall planted garlic is growing as well as the tulips, daffodils and rhubarb. :)

Would folks inspiration increase if I stated I was sore from planting 22 roses from Pickering two days ago?

Mine would but the ground is still very frozen in my back yard......and my front yard too! :)

Ginny

I saw a meadowlark the other day - poor thing, I haven't even seen a robin yet, I don't know what it thinks it's doing.

My roses stay covered up until the native trees start to leaf out. Haven't lost a rose for a really long time (knock wood). Last year I thought I lost Winnipeg Parks but it came back in July. It was own root too so not rootstock.

We still have a lot of snow and supposed to get more over the weekend. :( Worst winter ever!

It would be a inspiration in zone 5,..far north is 1 to 3.

It looked sooo good but now another week or so a set back!

Yes, a setback, it's chilly out there and even with the sunshine the wind goes right through a person.

My roses are slated to arrive the week of the 21 st, I'll be potting them up, so no worries as to the weather then, though am hoping it'll be gooood!