Yesterday took a quick trip cross the border to Skagit county in Washington state where each year they delight visitors with a teeny taste of what Holland’s tulip farms might be like. The area is one of the largest produces of spring bulbs, including tulips, daffodils, and irises. During April you could usually find a couple fields of tulips in bloom – during the annual Skagit Valley Tulip Festival – but you best be quick, because the blooms don’t last more than 2 weeks before they are cut, bulbs removed, and soil turned for another year. Unfortunately I saw many a field where the tulips had once been but luckily there were a few still in colour and now that I have the taste for it, I’ll be sure to plan a trip early in April 2011.
It’s really no wonder why tulips are my favourite flower. The textures and colours are simply delicious and they come at a time of year when I am ready for bold colour. When the Easter pastel blooms are fading in spring, it’s the first sign of the colourful summer to come with brilliant orange and rich black-purple blooms guiding the way. There is so much variety in tulips you’d be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t get a bit of joy from seeing a huge, frilly bloom in the garden.
Here is a gallery of my shots from the trip. Hover over to see the names of the tulips or click on the image for a larger view.
If you still do want to see tulips this month there is always Tulip Town – a tulip demonstration garden and retail store that’ll cost you $5 per adult (kids free). They’ll have the tulips out all April if you miss the farmer’s fields, which are pretty much done for this year.
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For the past 2 years I have been growing tomatoes in those fugly Topsy Turvy planters. Sure they are ugly, but I don’t have a lot of space and I love a lot of tomatoes and they actually do grow great tomatoes. Last year I hung three on the southwest corner of my garage and no one even noticed the crappy green ivy design because of all the cherry and grape toms dangling from below. There were a few factors that made it a success for me and I’ve listed that all here.
This year I decided to try a strawberry planter because let’s face it, who wouldn’t want delicious fresh strawberries growing off their garage? I had a bunch of strawberry runners over at my community garden plot and I found this handy “Flower Tower” at Value Village for few bucks. You can buy Topsy Turvey ones with the same general idea, or I can assume that cutting some holes in a bucket would really yield the same results. I filled the planter with garden soil, tucked in the runners, and voila – a hanging strawberry planter.
For now the biggest challenge has been to water it without the soil running through the holes. But as it compacts a little, it seems to be holding better. I’ve got about 36 plants in there so lets hope for a good harvest. If this works it may be the only way I grow strawberries again! Here are a few hanging container products if you want to start your own:
Not only are they blooming everywhere right now in so many different sizes, shapes and striking colours, but also Phoenix Perennials, my favourite nursery, opens today with their annual Hellebore Hurrah! Starting today and running all weekend, The Hellebore Hurrah is “Celebrating early spring and all things Hellebore” with a wide selection of hellebores on sale, a free workshop both Friday and Saturday at noon: “Hellebores in the Garden: Secrets of Success with the Lenten Rose” presented by Shelley Brignall, and a first glimpse of all the great stuff they have at Phoenix Perennials for 2010. I can’t wait!
It’s been a year now that I have taken on the new adventure of growing purple cauliflower. I started the seeds indoors in March 2009 and tenderly cared for them until they could be hardened off. I grew a bunch, maybe twelve, so I put two in my back garden beds, took six more to the community garden and gave the final ones away. The ones in my back garden grew and grew and grew into monstrous proportions and finally started to rot and stink over winter so I composted them. That was hard to do after ten months of anticipation for a purple crown of deliciousness but the backyard patio area smelling like rotten cabbage was a strong motivator.
The ones at the community garden were basically in shade because my plot—unbeknownst to me when we took the plot in the late winter of 2009—was totally shaded by a huge tree until 2PM every day. Not the best spot for growing veg. Nonetheless, four of those plants seemed to be staying healthy albeit quite small so I potted them up and brought them home and forgot about them. One day I had a bare spot in the front garden so I put four of them in the ground and a year later to my great surprise I have purple cauliflower!
Each plant is looking a little different today. Two have golf-ball sized crowns, one has melon sized crown and one, in this photo, has started to set a bunch of florets instead of a crown.
Cauliflower Gardeners out there: what should I now do with my purple cauliflower? I couldn’t imagine after the treacherous life these plants have had that they would provide me with something edible, but they have, and now I wonder if I should harvest them or let them grow larger. Could it be that each one could become it’s own crown?
This certainly is no ordinary tale of planting a growing cauliflower, and I would not recommend it, but this sort of chaos is to be expected as I try new things and stray from the traditional ways of doing things (like gardening in rows – for shame!) I’m sorry to those experienced gardeners with dedicated vegetable plots that are carefully organized and planned that I am making cringe with my tale but for me any experiment that ends with a tasty meal is a success. And I’m hoping for a tasty meal soon.
I think Bergenia is a great border or edging plant on the West Coast because this fast growing perennial’s elephant ear-shaped leaves often turn a dark burgundy colour over winter and send out these lovely pink blooms in the late winter / early spring. Bergenia is quick to fill in a forgotten corner of the garden or adds low maintenance beauty under trees. I use it as edging for my flower beds, under my dogwood, and to reduce soil erosion on a stepped bank near the neighbours.
I think I’ll have a great crop of radishes in a few weeks with this warm sunny weather we have been having and my wonderful umbrella greenhouses. I planted these just a few weeks ago and I already have to thin my seedlings.
The lettuce and peas I’m growing under the other greenhouses are also doing really well. I can’t wait for spring salad season!
What I find most interesting about the garden this month is how beat up all the plants are, especially the flowers, which is very much how I feel after braving winter’s cold days and long nights. The blooms, like me, have clearly struggled to make it through the colder months but regardless have pushed on to respond to the balmy weather and send out colourful, fragrant flowers even if they have a few chewed edges and some dirt on them. These early spring flowers are so different than in summer, who stand tall and strong in the warm sun and look and feel their very best. The spring blooms look just as vibrant as those in summer but it’s a found energy, one that has been regenerating for a few months and then with all the strength one can muster, has shot up to brave a new season. A beginning of a new year. A new set of challenges. A new set of opportunities. Spring is here.
the Heather is still blooming
Christmas Rose Hellebore STILL NOT BLOOMING!
Teeny white Viola
Periwinkle blooms are a bit beat up
Beautiful white Hellebore
Purple Crocus and Sedum
Dark pink Hellebore
Purple Cape Cauliflower
Snowdrops
Bergenia blooms with red stem
It’s hard to get a photo of the crocuses WITHOUT a bee.
My blooming flowers out front are wide open to the sun today making it BEE CITY out there! I’m so excited to have lots of little workers all over the garden buzzing away and being so industrious. This is a good sign.
Garden Therapy logs the adventures of an artistic gardener aiming to feed the body & soul through an urban potager garden & a community veggie plot in Vancouver.
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