YR's garden diary, 2019. Notes from my Newmarket area garden adventures. Tasks for this week ... new plant discoveries ... coping with whatever the weather brings or this year's pest plague ... product feedback, new places to shop ... whatever! Evelyn
Gardening is such a
solitary activity, but at the same time, gardeners love to
share! ...share tips ... share new plant finds ... a few
leftover seeds ... news on places to shop ... a pest control tip ...
successes or failures with plants ... etc.
But there's so little time in the heart of the gardening season to
write! So, I'll use this diary page to quickly
share jot highlights, good or bad.
Check in weekly for current LOCAL tips, news or
asides. I'll enter notes from the front lines of my
garden battle fields that might help you with yours! Email anytime if
you have a question and I'll post answers here for other
reader's to learn from too.
Happy 2019 season! Evelyn
Found a few Lily Beetles on my Frittilary! My lilies
aren't even out of the ground yet, but Frittilary are, so the adults
emerged from the soil around them where they overwintered.
I found most of them and crushed them, but a couple got away from me
and dropped to the ground. 
Grrrr.
This is the first sign of this horrible pest I've seen in my garden,
so I'll have to be vigilant about checking them regularly for the
next couple of weeks. (Go to the "Collected
Wisdom" page for a thorough article on how to keep this pest
under control.)
grass is green ... crocus and Iris reticulata are blooming ... and
there's SNOW in the forecast for the weekend! This see saw of
temperatures isn't unusual for this time of year, but still
frustrating!
Iris reticulata are among the first of the spring bulbs to bloom,
just after snowdrops and the earliest Crocus. 
Very easy to grow, and the
variety "Harmony', my favourite, has intense deep purple, open and
upright flowers. The variety 'Katherine Hodgkin' is pale
lavender with purple marks and yellow centers. Unlike their
tall cousins, Iris reticulata are small bulbs that should be planted
in Fall, just as you would tulips. In my gardening, only a few
crocus bulbs bloomed earlier, and down the street, the snowdrops are
nearing the end of their time.
Something's blooming in my garden! ...cold and
windy all week with 
nights below zero, but that hasn't deterred
the Crocus 'Gypsy Girl' I planted fall '17. Small, but
with colouring just like a bumble bee's - deep yellow with brown
stripes, it really grabs the eye. 2nd year in a row that
it has been the very first thing to bloom (and I have a lot of early
blooming bulbs), so this isn't a fluke. I'll have to get a whole
bunch to plant in clients' gardens. Crocus are so small and
fleeting, but such a treat to have something blooming while we're
still in winter coats! Quote
of the week. You might think that after 1000's of
years of coming up too soon and getting frozen, the crocus family
would have had a little sense knocked into it.
Robert
Benchley
launched .YRgardening.ca today! Working frantically to round
out the choice of articles posted.
...a gorgeous sunny day but the snow that fell over the weekend is
making everything a muddy mess. Temps hovering in the single
digits still, with night's dipping below zero.
...tempting to get out there and clean up some of the ugly winter
weary plant debris, but best to leave it for a couple of weeks until
ground frost loosens it's grip allowing soil to dry up a bit, before
it's safe to walk on the lawn or garden soil for fear of
permanently damaging the soil. Maybe I'll get busy in
the potting shed and plant up some veggie seeds instead to soothe my
gardening itch. (read "Sowing
Seed - an act of confidence...")
Hmmm ... Mother Nature's April Fool's Day joke? Not so
funny! 
This
happens every year though in our climate zone. We'll likely
get another hit of wintry weather again before spring is
truly here. (read "...freeze / thaw of spring
on "Articles" page. linkto...).
Right up to our last frost date near the end of May, a snowy day is
pretty normal.
Quote of the week. ...recognize
that the plants are actually doing the work and you are just there
to watch and occasionally save them from disaster...
Abby
Adams in Gardener's Gripe Book
Couldn't wait to get out plant shopping, even though it's far too
early. Headed to Dave's and picked up a new Peony -
'Scarlet O'Hara'. 
...and they had more of the fabulous Peony
'Early Scout'! Grabbed 2 since he'll likely sell
out as soon as the season opens. I'll have to store all the
plants I bought under a greenhouse-y cover on the front porch for a
few weeks - but the immersion in a sea of green and flowers was a
much needed pick-me-up! Quote
of the week.
A plant is the most cliche thing, but a little bit of green
has a great effect on happiness...
Bobby Berk
Threw a few Buttercrunch lettuce seeds in a large pot to
take in and out as weather allows. Hopefully I'll be eating a
few fresh lettuce leaves by the time it's OK to plant
outdoors! Love the smooth tenderness of this variety -
aptly named! Might be too early for seed, but no harm in
trying for the sake of a few pennies worth of seed. (one week
later - nothing yet - forgot to bring them in last night and it was
only +1degrees!). Quote of
the week. A callused palm and dirty fingernails
precede a green thumb.
Mike Garofalo
...possibly the very worst weather patterns for gardens that I've
ever experienced! The damaging freeze/thaw started
as early as late Nov with lots of rain that then froze because
of colder than normal temps ...a week long spell of above zero in
January melted surface snow that froze around the crown of plants
once it got cold again ...same thing again in late February topped
by more freezing rain ...and an early prolonged melt in late March
made the the ice cap thicker since there's just nowhere for the
water to go until the ground thaws! What a mess! ...and
it's only early April - very likely we'll get another hit of winter
temps. At least half of the plants I've overwintered in pots will be
dead, I'm sure.