It has been so cold here, plus rainy, that I have not been out to take pictures or make a what to do in week 3 list. It appears that we are now supposed to get sunshine, heat, and higher overnight lows, so are back in business.
If you got your lawn fertilised and over seeded before the rains came, you are going to be so golden now! Our doggie pee spots finally have fine threads of new grass coming through, so with any luck, will have a decent looking lawn soon.
I am not really a big lawn person, generally could give a hoot. However, last year, we just laid a whole bunch of new sod in the back that we did not get to enjoy it for long as it was laid so late in the season. We went without snow for a long time at the start of winter, so we started this new spring with a lot of doggie pee spots in the new sod. Deep sigh.
We have scratched out the dead grass, sown the seeds, and covered them with lawn soil. Will see what we do later on as I have no interest in doing this annually. Berkeley definitely needs space to zoomie so we need some kind of lawn. Thinking that micro-clover will be our next plan of action….
We have had so much rain! Everything is lush and green and we certainly needed it. With any luck, when the next big rains come, it is nice and warm outside, too.
One of my favourite thing to do is to check the rain gauge. My brother lives 15 minutes west of town so we always compare how much rain we get on our respective properties. Dad used to love checking his rain gauge, as well.
Maybe it is just an old person thing, hahaha, but I can tell you, your dad will love it if you get him one for Father’s Day.
Tulips & Spring Bulbs
My tulips and spring bulbs are still going strong this spring as they love this cool, damp weather. However, it is always a bit of a thing when they finish blooming, eh? What to do with them.
You can clip out the flower stem after the bloom is finished but leave the leaves standing until they go brown. This puts energy back into the bulb so they bloom again next year. This works well in a flower bed where perennials will grow and hide the unattractive yellowing leaves. My perennials are not big enough yet, so I am growing borage. If you know, you know ; ) If you don’t, you need to check out borage. It gets big and beautiful very quickly. And you never need to resow as it is a happy self seeder.
Alternately, you can lift the entire bulb, leave the leaves on, snip out the flower stalk. Place them in a box or a pail and stick them in the shed till planting time in fall rolls around again. Remove the browned off tops and plant.
I lifted these tulips and grape hyacinths last year, as we were widening this flower bed. As you can see, they totally did fine with this treatment. I knew an avid gardening couple in Nanaimo who used to lift thousands of bulbs each year from their garden so that it could look amazing when they had garden tours in June. They would then replant them again in the fall.
In The Greenhouse
Last year, we bought 2 pistachio green, metal, raised beds for our greenhouse, and had the best greenhouse season yet. The soil warms up sooner and better, the beds hold better soil (with good compost) in them than the clay we have in our ground soil, and the soil level is now up by the clear greenhouse wall panel.
The sidewalls of our greenhouse are so tall that the plants really did not thrive till well into summertime, when they got more direct sunshine. To do it again, I would make that sidewall half that size… or none at all. However, it works out great now that we have the raised beds in there.
Quite honestly, my body prefers to not do all that bending anyway ; )
The hanging baskets and planters are in the greenhouse till the night time temps are more reliable. Thrillers, fillers, and spillers are hanging out in the mini greenhouse, just waiting to get potted up this weekend. Once these flowers have gone into their pots and baskets, I will plant up the greenhouse beds with tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants.
This Weekend Is The Actual May 2-4 Weekend!
It may not be the long weekend this year, but the weekend of the 24th is the busiest planting weekend of the year. This is when everything happens… and thankfully the weather is cooperating.
Yard & Garden
I have finally started setting up the patio! As soon as nice weather hits, I look forward to setting it up, making it pretty, and then of course, sitting out there with my morning coffee and afternoon tea.
Weeding… still weeding. Now that the schoolyard no longer deals with the dandelions, we have fluff flying all about. It is landing in all the lawns and garden beds, so lots of digging out to do…
Mowing.. with all the rain, the lawns have grown beautifully.
Planting… doing up all the containers, pots, planters and baskets, plus the veggies, of course. The fun stuff! Yay!
Plant potatoes! If you have not yet done so, get your spuds in anytime now. I have a brand new bed that is going to be my potato bed this year, but the weather has been so miserable that I have been unable to plant it up.
I feel like I am so late this year, but really I’m not, though potatoes could have gone in a month ago already.
Tomatoes
The night time temps are supposed to go 10 this weekend and stay that way, so is time to start thinking about putting out the tomatoes. Tomatoes are heat lovers, they like warm soil, warm air, and lots of sunshine.
Once the night time temps are at +10°C, the soil temperature in the beds is warm enough for the tomatoes to thrive instead of struggle. There are years when I do not get around to planting out my tomatoes until early June, and then they take right off as they love that warmth.
Harden off your plants before putting them out. Plants are prone to sunburn if they go straight from the greenhouse to the beds. The leaves will turn white if they get sunburnt and they do not ever go green again. You just have to wait for the plant to grow new leaves.
To harden off your plants, place in a shady spot where they receive dappled light for 2 or 3 hours the first day. Each day, introduce your plant to a couple more hours of sunshine and plant out on the 3rd or 4th day. If they are in the greenhouse, they will not need to be hardened off, they are good to go.
Plant up your herbal pots. This year, mine is going on the deck, right close to the kitchen… where it belongs, rather than down by the garden ; )
What to Direct Sow This Month
- Rutabagas – these guys are sown in late spring or early summer so that they grow during the heat of the summer and finish off in the cooler months.
- Squash and pumpkins can be direct sown now.
- Cucumbers can be sown now, too. Hoping we get no more temps much below 10°C (50°F) or that will slow down and stunt the growth.
- Carrots, of course, and beets.
- Swiss chard for a late summer crop.
- Melons and watermelons.
- Mustards, cress, arugula.
- Sow your cosmos and zinnias!
- Not to late to sow seeds for calendula, borage, gem marigolds, many of the annuals.
Sunflowers
If you are trying to attract bees and birds to your garden, planting sunflowers is a must. The bees love to bustle around in the flowers collecting pollen all summer long and then the birds love the seeds in late summer and fall.
There are two main types of sunflowers, single-stem and multi-stem. Both are amazing for both birds and bees, unless you happen to purchase the new pollen-less varieties (like Pro-Cut). If you want to read more about choosing sunflowers (there are just so many to choose from!) here are a couple of articles to read. Oh, and Renee’s Garden Seeds has the best seeds! Such a huge variety!
- the best sunflowers for the bees – 18 Best Sunflowers For Honey Bees Bee Professor
- the best sunflowers for the birds – 10 Sunflower Varieties Perfect for Attracting Birds to Your Garden
- the best single and multi-stemmed varieties (most are pollenless in this article) Choosing Sunflower Varieties | Single-Stem, Branching, Pollenless or “Regular”?
What else can I tell you about? I have the onions and other cool season crops planted up already. They will be covered with garden mesh, some kind of hoophouse with insect netting over it. We have not yet decided exactly what design to use on these new, taller raised beds.
I am getting the wider netting as it needs to go high enough for broccolini and brussels sprouts and still be able to be pinned down on both sides. Plus long enough to pin down on the ends.
I get both onion maggots, cabbage moths, and flea beetles at this new place. I have never seen so many flea beetles in my life. I guess that is how you know you are in farming country. Any who… I have, therefore, planted my brassicas (these are all the gassy veggies, like cauliflower, broccoli, brussels, cabbages...) and onions in the same bed so that everything is covered up from both moths and flies.
Don’t forget to keep your birdbaths clean! Rinse them and fill them daily with fresh water. Your ‘bee bowls’, too.
The Marigold Potager - A Zone 3 Prairie Garden 
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