Northern Exposure Gardening

Despite this morning's fresh layer of snow, I was able to survey the progress of spring in the yard and garden. A few bulbs are coming up. The crocuses have started to bloom, though several flowers were obviously frozen and wilted from the -14 C temperatures and snow on the weekend.

The species/botanical tulips are starting to poke up in their shady flower bed:

My hardy ice plant, Delsperma nubigenum, is looking great after a winter in the alpine garden:

The alpine bed, a home for dwarf shrubs and low-growing alpine perennials:

Siberian squill:

Sempervivum (hens and chicks) in the alpine bed:

Sempervivum are very hardy plants and do well here. I've had one or two varieties die over previous winters, but most are fine.

The evergreen shrubs in the yard are all green and show no signs of winter damage this year. My successful hardy evergreen shrubs include mugo pine, dwarf balsam fir, and nest spruce. In the next few weeks, I'll be cleaning up the dead growth from the perennials, making room for the new growth. The indoor light garden is expanding to include dozens of pots of annuals and a few vegetables. It's feeling like spring, finally.

After getting tired at looking at the scruffy, dry and brown remains of the mass of annual poppies in the center raised bed, I spent a significant amount of sweat and energy on transforming the bed this weekend. The poppies were pulled (thank goodness for a semi-rural property, where I literally toss plant matter into the adjacent bushes).
Center raised bed in July 2011, with poppies in place:

Perennials from around the yard were moved into the empty space. Several lilies were moved from their overcrowded and poorly visible locations to more prominent and sunny spots around the raised bed. Several small spireas and large siberian iris divisions were also added to create a nicely symmetrical and hopefully successful perennial bed. I will be adding tulip or daffodil bulbs in September, and maybe direct seeding with cosmos in spring.
Newly renovated bed, planted with divided and moved perennials:

Morden Mum -- a new plant in my center raised bed and part of the plan for more late summer color:

Clematis manschurica, a fragrant, low-climbing white clematis I started from seed:

Martha Washington geranium (Pelargonium) plant, grown from cuttings:

The above geranium produces such lovely flowers, but the Martha Washingtons seem a little less hardy than the common pelargoniums. My plants have been afflicted by some caterpillars that have been munching holes in the leaves and leaving droppings/eggs all over the place. I wonder if I would do better just growing these as houseplants, or in a greenhouse (if I had one).

Gentiana dahurica, a late-summer blooming gentian which has seeded itself to make a large patch of these lovely blue flowers that grow moderately tall but lean over lazily to sprawl around the flower bed:

Hardy geranium, "Rozanne":

In the other raised bed, I have been adding a top layer of peat and removing some volunteer plants, creating the appearance that the gardener is actually doing something around here...

Oriental hybrid lily, "Acapulco" - like all the Oriental lilies, it has a beautiful scent and I breathed deeply while taking the photo:

The alpine bed -- looking green, but that is including several weeds at the moment, as I am frustrated at the poplar shoots and other rapacious weeds:

I have even contemplated installing a large, spreading juniper (like Andorra) and letting it cover the whole thing. I do like the foreground Mugo Pine, though.

Gardening was a welcome diversion from the monotony of studying today. Thus, there were some productive bursts of gardening between the flipping of pages. I am excited to see that I will have my first peony blooms soon. I've had peony plants for about four years now, without blooms. I managed to kill one (planted in a bad spot) but finally my remaining peony has buds. Peonies aren't particularly hard to grow, and are quite hardy to this province. Someday, I will dedicate more of my gardening space to peonies.
My peony is now visited by red ants, thought they don't harm the plant:

Primula saxatilis, a nicely naturalizing primula in a partly-shady part of the raised bed:

I let this primula go to seed and spread its progeny around. In large groups, it makes a nice show with its shades of lilac flowers.
The alpine garden at midday:
I keep meaning to take some pictures when the lighting is really nice, like in the early morning. This raised bed (below) is in full shade by evening, so morning pictures would be best. However, that will require getting up at 4:30 am. Sunrise this morning was as 4:23 am. At this time of year, the broken window shades in the bedroom window are pretty noticeable, with a full three hours of bright sunlight before it's time to get up. At least that's better than going to work in the morning in the dark and then going to home for supper in the dark, during winter.
This raised bed has taller shrubs (dogwood, highbush cranberry, Saskatoons) and delphiniums at the back of it, against the gravel lane. The Saskatoon berry bushes have white blooms right now:

There are still some open spots in this bed, where plants died out in 2009. Thankfully, with a yard this big, there are plenty of perennials to be divided and perennial seedlings left over to fill in the gaps. I spent some time moving tall perennials to the back and short ones to the front. I try to create complementary textures too, like a balance of fine leaves with broad ones, or tall grassy foliage (irises) with low and broad plants (hostas, Alchemilla). I'm sure my garden could make room for some new plants, though. I'm looking for some tall, part-shade loving perennials with moderate water requirements. Ah, that will require studying some other books...another diversion.

We just got back from our visit to the southern parts of the province. I could detect our northward travel with my eyes closed: the splatting noise of insects hitting the windshield got both more frequent and louder. The windshield was covered in yellow and brown goo by the time we got back to La Ronge. Ahhhh, welcome to summer, northern residents!

Alpine garden, with white flowers of Cerastium alpinum (foreground) and Erigeron compositus:

This is a small post for a small plant: Draba polytricha has bloomed in the alpine garden. This entire plant is about the size (and shape) of a golf-ball. It is a tight little bun of a plant and clearly very hardy, as it lived through two winters so far, including the terrible one of 2009. It looks like a hairy little grey-green bun the rest of the year and probably will look really cool many years from now, as it expands into its rocky crevice.

This photo reminds me that I need to get a useful tripod for my heavy camera and moderately heavy new lens. Unfortunately, I don't exactly know what to get. These little alpine plants require getting pretty low and close. Any photographers have some good ideas?

The alpine garden was created in the fall of 2008. I have grown alpine perennials from seed and purchased some others from garden centers. These plants are all low-growing and good candidates for rock gardens. They are growing in full sun and in relatively poor soil. I will make notes of any plants that don't survive the winters, as growing alpine plants in zone 1 in northern Saskatchewan is a bit of a gamble in hardiness.

Many of the plants form low mounds. I hope for these little mounds to nearly coalesce and eventually form a nice carpet of plants around the rocks. I will keep adding plant photos to this list as the plants grow and bloom.

• Acinos alpinus (Rock thyme)-- small purple flowers

• Alchemilla alpina -- gift plant from local gardener, blooms in June. Spreads and can get a bit messy-looking if not trimmed back.
  

• Allium flavum v. minus -- yellow flowers, bloomed July 20, 2009

• Androsace primuloides “Sheppard” – died after planting
  
• Arabis caucasica “Rosea” -- started from seed, bloomed early June
  
• Arabis ferdinandi-cobergi “Variegata”--very attractive white and green foliage
  

• Aster alpinus “Goliath”-- started from seed
  
• Dianthus microlepsis white -- bloomed July
  

• Cerastium alpinum ssp. lanatum – white flowers, grey hairy foliage, growing and spreading fairly fast
  

• Delosperma nubigenum – yellow flowers, spreads very well
  

• Delosperma deleeuwiae -pink flowers, from Wrightman alpines spring 2009, bloomed July 21, 2009

• Draba mixed -- started from seed
  
• Draba polytricha – very tiny, feeble as of June 09, but overwintered extremely well without any damage to its evergreen foliage. Yellow flowers April 2010.

• Dryas octopetala “Alpine Carpet”- from Wrightman alpines spring 2009, overwintered well. Appears evergreen.
  
• Erigeron compositus--started from seed spring 2008, bloomed July 20, 2009
  
• Jovibarba small rosettes mix – started from seed, look like Sempervivum, overwintered well
  
• Lewisia hybrids -- very pretty flowers, plants reliably hardy over several winters only if in well-drained soil. The ones in the alpine bed rotted in winter.
  

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• Lewisia cotyledon “Little Plum”, “Regenbogen”, plus Lewisia mix started from seed
• Muscari armeniacum
• Narcissus “Tete-a-Tete”-planted fall 2008
  
• Papaver miyabeanum “Pacino” (Japanese poppy) – Self-seeds easily, with new plants starting to grow in late March.
  

• Penstemon rupicola “Pink Holly” --arrived in the mail mostly dead
  
• Saxifraga x arendsii “Peter Pan” – pink flowers, from Dutch Growers, overwintered extremely well.
  
• Saxifraga x arendsii “Purple Robe”-- from Dutch Growers, overwintered extremely well.
  
• Scabiosa japonica “Pink diamonds” – grown from seed, first blooms in 2008 on June 28. Cut off dead blooms after flowering season to keep it looking neat.
  

• Scilla siberica (Siberian squill) -- tiny spring-flowering bulb with deep blue flowers. Looks good in dense clusters, naturalizes and multiplies every year. Plant tips emerging from the ground April 20, 2010.
  
• Sedum kamtschaticum 'variegatum' -- red and yellow flowers, bloomed July 21, 2009. Winter hardy.
  

• Sedum laxum ssp. laxum--grey and pink foliage, very slow to start growing
  
• Sedum makinoi “Ogon” -- bright yellow foliage

• Sedum ewersii (Ewers Stonecrop) -- grey-green foliage, grew well; pictured in spring
  

• Sedum rupestre “Angelina”

• Sedum spathulifolium “Cape Blanco”
• Sedum spurium var. coccineum “Dragon’s Blood”
• Sempervivum (Hens and chicks) – various types
  

• Thymus pseudolanuginiosus (woolly thyme)
• Thymus serpyllum (creeping thyme)
  

• Thymus serpyllum “Elfin” -- the most low-growing, compact thyme I have ever seen
• Lemon thyme -- gift from family member, variegated fragrant leaves
  
• Veronica allionii
  
• Veronica armena – from Wrightman alpines

• Veronica whitleyi -- from Dutch Growers in Saskatoon

Shrubs:

• Actostaphylos uva-ursi (Bearberry). Foliage turns burgundy in fall/winter.
  

• Dwarf balsam fir. Minimal winter damage, with some brown needles in spring 2010.
  

• Dwarf mugo pine. Almost unaffected by winter damage.
  

• Nest spruce. Very little winter kill, but had good snowcover and little wind.
  

Ideas for more plants to try in the alpine garden:

• Phlox douglasii, Phlox borealis
  
• Silene uniflora 'Druett's Variegeted