Is there any hope for these sad babies? We are going to have a few hot sunny days this week, maybe that will help? I’m pretty sure I started them too early, and my garage just wasn’t warm enough. I have more seeds so I can just start over…
ETA forgot the pic!
On the plus side, I bought 3 lilacs today.
I say anything that isn’t actually dead still has hope. I would keep them going!
Anyone grown a meyer lemon from seed? A friend gave me seeds from a lemon that came off of her tree.
I don’t have a grow light any more so I don’t know if I’ll just end up with a leggy seedling that keels over because the light isn’t close enough?
It’s that time of year. Everything is bursting forth, including the weeds. We have goutweed, aka Bishop’s weed, all over our perennial beds, lawn and in the municipal green space behind us.
Thankfully it is also the time of year for plant generosity! An acquaintance was going to dig and toss plants, as they had overgrown their bounds. We showed up and came home with five containers of dark pink Cranesbill (perennial geranium) and a medium sized garbage bag of light pink Cranesbill. The roots of both plants are known to repel/deter Goutweed. We’re hoping!
We also came home with some periwinkle (Vinca minor), spreading phlox, and sweet woodruff. Plus she said if we wanted anything elseto just let her know! I am so happy right now!
She also showed me her support for her peonies. It’s a LeeValley Tools gizmo. I’m going to search it online and see if it’ll work in our situation.
We planted the Sweet Woodruff, the Creeping Phlox and some of the Cranesbill. We’re taking a break and will do more this evening.
Meanwhile, a neighbour with a chainsaw across the street has been over helping thin out and prune trees on our property. We have an arborist coming, hopefully this week sometime, to check out the health of the trees on our property.
Another neighbour gifted us with a variegated leaved spreading/weeping style bush. It’s currently very small. We have an idea where we’d like it to go.
I decided not to start seeds from scratch this year. I have a purple thumb. It’s easier for everyone if we buy stuff already started from the greenhouse or nursery. I do have some vegetable seed I will direct sow.
So lots happening in our garden this year! Thankfully we have our new gazebo up to relax and take breaks in when needed. 
I have been putting all kinds of shady and partial-shade loving plants along our northern fence (equivalent to southern fence in Northern Hemisphere) - it gets sun only at the height of summer and is shaded the rest of the time. I have some ferns that are really loving it there!
I’m about to spend $3k removing about 15 trees from my yard. Then I have to actually make decisions about what we’re planting (so far apples and ??banksia? Eucalypt??) And maybe talk to a landscaper.
Some of my plant babies have more than 2 leaves! I’m ridiculously excited. 
I have had them in the hot sun so I’m sure that did it.
Hahaha oh dear I am literally putting my potted plants in the ground over the next few months so that this is not us (we will need half a truck instead of a full truck)
What do y’all use to store your hose coil? Home Depot’s are all like $40 and seem mechanically complicated.
The cheapest and easiest one screws into the side of the house but we rent so I’m feeling iffy about it. So then I should either get a pretty one or one that’s a little trolley? But those seem over the top
Please help, in losing my mind. What would you call this color/kind of mulch? I can’t find it anywhere.
The bottom pic looks the same colour as the soft fall mulch I use in the paths of my garden.
The top pic looks like much that has weathered, and likely wasn’t that colour when it was first laid.
This definitely just looks like wood chips to me, like what you get from Chip Drop or the local landfill or tree trimming service. I wouldn’t call it a color. Just fresh on the bottom and weathered (after 6 months or a year) on the top
That looks like cypress mulch when it’s aged to me. It’s kind of medium brown when new.
So yeah. We contacted an arborist. He sent out his brother to check out the situation. It’s a family business. The brother didn’t know fir from spruce, nor poplar from cottonwood apparently. He also decided they weren’t going to cull the huge overgrown poplars that are half dead and hanging over the neighbour’s house. He thought everything just needed a pruning…for $1100 plus 15% tax.
At first I accepted and asked to be put on their service list. But he said they couldn’t make it until the middle of June. In the end I cancelled them. I just have this thing about tree maintenance and removal firms not knowing their trees. It did not instill a lot of confidence in me.
A neighbour came over with a chainsaw last week and took out a couple of smaller trees blocking the view of the street from the driveways.They were dangerous as we’re on a hill near a corner, and neither the neighbours nor we had a good view of the street coming out of our drives.
The neighbour with the chainsaw, the neighbour beside us and I had a good chat about the trees yesterday. The guy with the chainsaw wants to clean the space out down below. But I’m thinking the real issue is those big poplars. The neighbour beside us said she thinks they’re about fifty years old. She’s been here 25 years and says no one has ever taken care of the trees on the property!
Anyways, I’m thinking of ways to deal with the trees, without upsetting Hubby as well. To fell one huge poplar is likely to set us back a couple thousand Canadian dollars, according to the locals. We’re talking about five big poplars that have to come out…one that is half dead.
