by Leslie Cox; Friday; January 20, 2017

Finally. The rain has come again, and the snow is slowly melting.

I admit. I have mixed feelings about the return of the rain. Personally, I really like snow. It is clean…bright. Especially bright. Something I need a lot of to get me through winter with any semblance of sanity intact. Six weeks was not long enough to wash away the memory of the 52 rain days in our area throughout November and December. I hate endless grey days filled with rain.

But the weather is not up to me. It is generated by a Higher Force. So…the rain has returned and I try to make the best of this fact.

Like taking walkabouts in the garden again…to look at plants! Unfortunately, this also comes with some bad news. There are varying degrees of damage to some plants from snow. The worst, so far, is our hibiscus tree and a tiny rhododendron. The trunk has split in half on the hibiscus, plus some split branches. The poor rhododendron is only a stick. All of its branches have been snapped off. So very sad.

But my hellebores have buds! Wonderful to see, although frozen snow is still covering my favourite hellebore…’Pink Frost’. I managed to carefully chip away enough snow to uncover a couple of young buds. So pleased. This plant was a gift from my mom…one of many actually. When the rest of the snow melts away from the buds, I will be able to rejoice and have a quiet moment remembering how happy my mom always was when she presented me with a plant for my garden.

Once the rest of the snow is finally gone, it will be time to watch for early signs of hairy bittercress appearing on the scene. This is one prolific weed, let me tell you! Let it have its head and you will soon have a forest of them.

So…it is never too early to start weeding in the garden!

For more information about hairy bittercress…or to be botanically correct, Cardamine hirsuta… click here. I have written up a description about the plant in Plants We Grow under In the Garden. Not that we actually try to grow this weed! But there you have it…we do have this weed plant in our garden.

 

Posted on January 20, 2017