So it's next year already!

Things got complicated and we ended up having far too much to do in the garden to actually write about it so we are going to give it another go this year.

Helloo! I'm Peggy and Suzanna is my Beautiful Wife (Who set up this blog last year) and Gardening Partner.......she does landscaping and the  pretty flower things and I do veggies. I also do weeding, talking to plants, gazing into space and generally coming to grips with the realities of being totally clueless about this prairie environment we find ourselves in. We know we are gardening on top of an  ancient beach of an ancient lake that formed after the glaciers of the last ice age retreated and dumped all their boulders in our back yard. We know about the beach as under the beautiful clayey loamy stuff and rocks there is sand......so drainage is good; we know about the prairie winds as we didn't get up the day after we moved here three and a half years ago and plant a shelter belt of trees (Bad Mistake!); we are learning about the true meaning of winter which is learning to appreciate and embrace the ice and snow and the wind and the blowing snow because although there's just the trees to watch waving about, the birdies to feed and the dof to walk there is plenty of time to dream about the green grass and the colours, tastes and textures of Summer.

So it's February 12th 2015. The day is bright and sunny with blue skies, pristine, deep and very white snow is covering the veg patch and flower beds and our weather watching gnomes are a bit out of their depths. This afternoon it has warmed up to -12 deg C. with very little wind.

The Veg Patch is inaccessible. It looks just like last year's photo so have a look in the archives. You can just see the Garden Shed way up on the right hand side poking above the swimming pool of snow. The snow fence round the patch gathers snow in winter and stops veggies escaping in summer. (Yes it's too low and too flimsy to keep out deer but having a dog helps. Everything else seems to burrow under it including a truly amazing Manitoba Salamander.........pictures too exciting to publish)

So what's going on while the snow is busy lying around being obstructive? Well away in our little growing room come workshop come veg store we have had created in our garage things are stirring.

We have oyster mushrooms bursting out of their bag.

Then there is the world's smallest garlic farm trying to stay cool but not frozen

The daffs are in for a shock when they get outside but who wants daffs in June?

The thyme has been happy in here all Winter and is still growing strong

And although holly doesn't do well here My Suzanna brought home some berries from Vancouver and yesterday I got them ready for stratifying and now they are in the fridge for the next few months.

Putting them outside in -16 deg C would probably be a bit too much.

The bag asks for " Shhhhhhhh! Quiet, Holly Tree seeds Stratifying." 11/2/2015. Yes the date is written that way round where I come from.

Today I must go off and plant some cat grass seeds. The cats have devastated the last lot.

...and to finish today here is yesterday's sunset featuring Mr Sun with one of  his Sun Dogs and Mrs Moon together with the shelterbelt next door that they very wisely planted before they even moved there!