Several shrubs are now putting on quite a show. With colour, fragrance and beauty they are certainly earning a place in the garden.

The Beautybush is graceful and lovely.

Sweetshrub blooms with camellia like flowers.

We drastically cut back the dappled willow, so it is sending lots of new pink shoots out. And the other white shrub is a white cotoneaster I think.

The Abelias are blooming also, and the black elders are just starting.

Some years ago I invested in some expensive ranunculus corms. It was suggested to just toss them every year, but I didn’t want to buy new ones. So I kept them and they multiplied nicely. It is quite a process to grow them each year. First the corms are soaked for a few hours, then they are pre-sprouted in the root cellar for a few weeks. Then I planted each one in small pots or larger seeding trays. They grew quite well under the lights, but they need to get into the ground.

Ranunculus can handle cooler temperatures so I was happy to get them into the garden the last week in April. A beautiful warm day, with some rain and cooler days to follow. I had about 70 really nice healthy plants to put in. I even found a couple that I missed digging up last year, and they have come back after the winter! It will be a while before I have flowers to enjoy, but they will be the first cut flowers of the season.

Spring has arrived! April has been as cruel as ever – but May is near. The winter was the mildest in my memory, with much less snow. Minimal rabbit damage, just on a few shrubs such as spirea, which can take a good rabbit pruning. Not even much winter kill on the Japanese maple. Crocus and snowdrops are long finished. Bloodroot is done. Daffodils are doing great. I think all the buds are open now.

It has taken a few years but now there is a lovely, full display of daffodils throughout the garden.

The circle of daffodils around Selena has also filled in. Considering the first year there were only 6 blooms.

This is a new hellebore, also looking really beautiful.

And, the deer are back.

We have had an area on our property that is about 2 acres, and was just grass. It was mowed a couple times during the summer, but was really not being used well.

So this year we decided to plant a forest. The Maitland Valley Conservation Authority was contacted, and we decided to go with a mixed forest. Spruce, pine, cedar, oak, cherry, sycamore and maple. Their team came out with the tractor and planter, and in a few hours they had about 1000 trees planted.

Of course, this was right in the middle of a very dry spell. Doug really wanted the trees to survive, and to get them off to a good start, so he watered them. Every one of those little trees got some love and attention. It took about 4 hours. Yes, we have enough hose to reach the back corner. And when we didn’t get rain for another week, he watered them all again. He’s been cutting the grass around them too, so they don’t have to compete for light.

The spruces seem to be doing well, the pines and cedar look a little stressed. Some of the deciduous have really leafed out, others are still just sticks. So we’ll have to see what next summer brings.

Now we have to deal with the deer. Apparently they love to nibble on baby trees.

This butterfly weed plant (Asclepias tuberosa) really surprised me. It has almost tripled in size from last year. It is so slow to get started in the spring, that most years I think I’ve lost it. But, then there it is!

The orange is so bright and beautiful, and such a fun little flower!

When I saw this begonia, I didn’t even think twice about taking it home.

I mean, the colours and ruffled flowers are just amazing! So pretty, much prettier in real life.

It’s early July and the garden is bursting with yellow – happy, cheerful yellow!

Canna lilies, saved through the winter, are bringing on the bloom.

This is the first year this lysimachia or yellow loosestrife has put on such a show.

Lady’s mantle yellow-green frothy flowers.

A few of the daylilies have started.

The chartreuse of the Sunburst honey locust tree is outstanding in the garden.

And I love the golden cedars.

This little sedum sends out lovely yellow sprays of blooms.

Yellow is easy to love and looks great with all it’s neighbours!

The reblooming lilac, Boomerang lilacs, are just coming out now, while the traditional lilacs are finishing up. All of the lilac bushes did really well this spring, even the new ones just planted last year.

The deer didn’t totally eat the Japanese rose (Kerria japonica), so it is nicely full of flowers this spring.

There are a few wild honeysuckle bushes in the garden, most of which I did not plant. I found another one this year. They find themselves a space to grow, and they provide a lovely bit of colour.

And the weigela is just about bursting. There are several in the garden, but this one is the only one at this stage.

The fragrant viburnum made it through the winter without rabbit damage, and had the most blooms ever, and fragrant they are!

The WillowPark Patch sign was mounted on a stump when we got it some years ago. But the stump began to rot and the sign was precariously close to tipping over.

Straps were attached to the sign and the tele handler lifted it off the stump.

Down the road, and to a new temporary location.

We tied it to a tree and the fence, and it will be here until a new base is built in the previous location.