A Week of Ups and Downs

We could be talking about the weather, or our ability to get outside and do some spring chores.

We were blessed with a few rather pleasant days, followed by the inevitable threat of snow, rain, real snow, and then cold winds.

Last Friday we accessed our potato pit and removed part of the potatoes and the bucket of carrots stored there.

It was a lovely day with lots of wonderful crocus in full bloom.

I had a brief respite to attend The Celtic Thunder concert in Halifax, which was very enjoyable. The audience seemed to be a very mixed crowd......from the "oldies" like me to young people who were very enthused. It was very well done, and wisely included Rita MacNeil's "Working Man". Halifax and Sydney were the beginnings of a Canadian tour.

We had a brief chat with one of the "transport" guys who found Sydney to be a very quiet town but thought Nova Scotia was a beautiful place.

I seem to be having a very "Irish" touch the last few weeks, from the Black Donnellys to some CBC coverage of the Irish heritage of Quebec, and the history of the Titanic's origins in Belfast.

To my knowledge, I do not have any particularly strong Irish roots.

We had a brief wander through some of the Rhododendron Nursery beds yesterday. We are debating whether we will bother with a sale jaunt to the ARHS Member Sale this year.

It would be a lovely thing if we could encourage more Members to pay us a visit here, and perhaps relieve us of some of the many surplus Azaleas and Rhododendrons.

There are a lot of broken branches here and there courtesy of harsh winter storms.

The cold days aren't overly encouraging. It will be a while before we can tell if there is much bud damage. Cautious optimism would seem to be the order of the day.

February Entrance

We are 4 days late getting February started, but that is not much of a loss, since it has been downright miserable with snow, freezing rain, rain, high winds, and plummeting temperatures. So much for the lament. At least the sun is shining today, the Groundhog didn't see his shadow,and hopefully we will not break our neck on ice. We are now in the midst of the ARHS Seed Exchange, and have been receiving orders in the mail on a regular basis. It is "members only" until the end of February, but open to the world at large after that. Gardening ventures are very much on the back-burner, but we have been planning a two day Gardening Workshop to be in the Antigonish Co. Recreation Spring offerings. They are planned for May15th and 22nd, here at our garden in the early evening. There are many topics that can be conjured, but we have settled on three.

• Soil Building - since gardening works from the ground up.

• Growing Rhododendrons & Azaleas - people need to have advice. We will cover the basics of soil preparation, site choices, and varieties that do well here in Nova Scotia.

• Spring Flowering Bulbs - they will be in full bloom at the time of the course. Bloom time is a very good time to plan for the fall planting.