daisies

Every year, I buy seeds for a plant I've never grown before. This year I tried Livingstone Daisy, or Ice Plant, so named because the leaves glisten like they are covered with ice crystals. The seeds were like dust, and the planting directions were really complicated, so I didn't think much would come of them, but I was surprised to find that they all germinated, and really quickly. So I was stuck with sprawling, tangled plants on my windowsills for months. The plant aren't pretty, but the flowers are truly eye-popping.

The flowers close on cloudy days and overnight. The slugs got to some of the plants, but these make up for all the trouble they were.

wild things

Now that the dandelions have finally died down, a new yellow weed has taken their place. This is my back yard, and it's too wet to mow. This yellow weed is hawkweed, which puts out a yelow flower very much like a dandelion, but smaller. It's a creeper, which puts out new shoots which root everywhere. Every once in a while, an orange flower appears.
My lawn has very little real grass - besides those two mentioned above, there is creeping thyme, clover, plantain, ox-eye daisy, etc. - but the leaves are green, and I'm ok with that.

I'm constantly meeting up with huddles of tiny spiderlings in my yard. Breathe on them, and they scatter, then slowly come back together again. They are cute now, but by September I'll be meeting up with huge ones in every corner. But spiders are the good guys, and they are always welcome in my garden.

coffee grounds scare off lily beetles

A few weeks ago, I had a brain wave - check the post from May 6. I had grabbed a bag of spent coffee grounds from those nice people at Starbucks, and soothed my soul with a latte. What best to do with this black gold? Then I had a brain wave. Maybe they would discourage lily beetles, which every year turn my lovely lilies into a chewed, pooped on mess. So I sprinkled the coffee grounds onto the centres of every lily I have - and I have a lot.
At first I thought it might be the cold weather that was keeping them away, but even on a warm day there are now considerably fewer of the scarlet nasties - not even 10 percent of the numbers last year. The coffee has to be reapplied after a rain.
I would love to hear from someone in blog land who has also tried this experiment.


I was walking through a garden centre on a blustery cold day when this iris caught my eye. It's a colour I have never seen before. So of course I bought it and gave it a good home.
The blur at the bottom of the pic is the cat's tail. He's quite the publicity hog.

late signs of spring

The heleborus is one of the first flowers to bloom in my garden. They are a woodland perennial, and like partial shade, and rich moist soil. These nodding, downward facing flowers will last through most of the summer. Gradually their colour will fade, but they are still beautiful.

The first spider web of the season is a beautiful thing. Invisible till it's touched with dew first thing on a misty morning.

15 years ago, I planted 3 dead-looking sticks that promised to be ostrich ferns. One I actually planted upside down in the fall. In the spring, I dug it up, flipped it around, and it thrived. The lesson: when in doubt, plant sideways.

waiting for the hummers

It's already June, and I haven't seen a single humming bird this year. At first I thought it might be because it's still so cold, but this might be the real reason: Amber the cat