The garden on 17 May 2026

Winter began early last year, around the beginning of November, so there wasn't much chance to rake and bag leaves, or tidy up, or put away garden furniture, or do whatever else one does at the end of fall. Years ago a friend, who had an incredible garden, told me that he rakes the fall leaves onto his flower beds. Of course, gardeners tend to be neat people and don't like the look of last year's leaves the following spring; I never had a chance to rake and bag the leaves although some of them were quickly raked onto the garden beds. Now, it's been a long and cool spring and the dead leaves are still there, and I've decided to let them decompose where they've fallen or been raked. It was a terrible winter, it was relentlessly cold, no January thaw and below average winter temperatures. Perhaps partly because of this leaf mulch the garden survived, although most of my lavender has died, other bushes are only half alive, including rose bushes. Most of my hostas survived but they are very slow in making an appearance even by mid-May, and some hostas are indeed slowly pushing through the bed of leaves. 

One last thing, after six or seven years of working on my Canadian cottage garden, it has finally become truly established and I doubt I need to buy any plants this year, I can just leave everything as it is. The garden is established as it is and it doesn't need my input as much as it did when I was planning this garden. Ideas for the garden come at unexpected time, for instance, when watching a mystery on TV or while watching Escape to the Country Last year I decided to let part of the garden go "wild", not cut the grass there, just leave it.The garden is an invitation to urban wildlife, birds, and insects, and any plant that wants to self-seed. It is an invitation to come here where they'll be left alone and admired. Like the rabbit who visited the other day or yesterday's visit by a cardinal and sparrow, both at the birdbath, and then a robin who had waited his turn before having a drink of clean water I'd left for them. Here are some photographs taken on May 17th; photos mostly of hostas that are pushing through last fall's leaves.