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 last fall although some leaves were 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 many plants this year, I can just leave most of it as it is. The garden is established and it doesn't need my input as 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, or just out of thin air. Last year I decided to let part of the garden go "wild", not cut the grass there, just leave it; so, it's been from planning to abandoning (not interfering).The garden is an invitation to urban wildlife, birds, and insects, and any plant that wants to self-seed. It is an invitation to visit or live 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.

The garden on 9 May 2026

It was a long and cold winter, a nightmare of a winter, and now spring weather is still cool. Usually by this time I have installed our air conditioner and it is hot outside, that's how the seasons work here, one day it's winter, the next day it's summer, but this year I am still putting on the furnace when I get up (it's only +5 C and overcast on 13 May 2026).The other day I looked out of the dining room window and there was the rabbit that visited us this winter, he was sitting in the garden and having a nice quiet time. Then a cardinal flew by and landed a few feet away from him, it scared the rabbit who ran away. There is a lot of life out there but you have to make your garden a place where birds, insects, and animals want to visit. As a Canadian writer said, "if you build it they will come." That was W.P. Kinsella. The crows are often flying overhead, sometimes they are eyeing squirrels that would make a nice meal for them. A few days ago I went out to put clean water in the bird bath--birds don't like dirty water--and everyday I leave a few unshelled peanuts in the bird bath for the crows--but this day I found something else in the bird bath, it was a squirrel's paw. Well, that's life around here, last year I saw a crow fly away carrying a dead squirrel. I am no friend of squirrels, they made life hell for a few years, there is no bird feeder here because the squirrels ate the bird food I would leave, and then the squirrels entered the attic and wanted to live there; squirrels can be squatters. The noise they made was terrible. At great expense I had their entrances closed up and that was the end of squirrels in the attic, although for a few years they would return to try to enter what had been their home, but without luck.

Squirrel paw found in the bird bath

 

 

Mr. Crow is Eating Lunch

 

I made this video yesterday and put it online last night; Mr. Crow is looking for a good time! 

And then there were two . . .

Taken on 9 March 2026, milder weather has arrived and now we have two rabbits visiting; but the first rabbit wants nothing to do with the second rabbit when it comes to carrots. It's Hammer Time!

The rabbit is happy

 

A few days ago I sprained my ankle and couldn’t feed the rabbit. He went two days without carrots from me and then I decided I had to feed him. Because my ankle was swollen and black and blue I couldn’t put on shoes so I walked, or hobbled, to the back yard in socks and left the carrots and then came indoors right away; I looked out of the dining room window and the rabbit was there, he must have been watching me leave the carrots for him. My wife said he was “starving” and that he’s dependent on me. I hope not. Well, there you go, I didn’t want to let him down and we're both happy. I mean, the rabbit and I are happy.

Urban wildlife

 

My cousin Bob suggested leaving some carrots near the pile of branches at the back of the garden, maybe the rabbit would show up and we'd see if this was his home. And that is what happened, the rabbit appeared and now he sits in front of his home. The days are getting longer, over an hour longer since early January, and spring seems to be on its way. This has been the coldest and snowiest winter that I can remember, everyday it seems to be -12 C but "feels like" (with the wind chill) -22 C. We'll all be glad when this winter is over. We wait and wait and then we have a single mild day and think we've turned the corner but we haven't, it's -9 C right now (on February 21st) and we had more snow last night. Oh well, I am enjoying seeing the rabbit and leaving him a few pieces of carrot everyday. It's a small reprieve from the relentless and unpleasant winter we're having. But the rabbit is thriving, it's like the country out there even though we live in the city, less than twenty minutes from the downtown; there is a considerable amount of green space in parts of the city, not just parks but people's backyards. When I was growing up here you'd never see any urban wildlife, now we share our environment with rabbits, racoons, skunks, groundhogs, the ubiquitous squirrels, many different types of birds but notably cardinals who I hear singing every morning, and chickadees. There are fewer insects, we are destroying monarch butterflies and other insects. Most of what used to be nature, abandoned farmers' fields, they have all been built on and so we're all in this together, urban wildlife has had to move into the urban sprawl that is city if they want to survive. As Joni Mitchell sang, “We’ve paved paradise and put up a parking lot.” That is exactly what we have done. Above are some photographs and a 13 second video of the rabbit. 

Rabbit on video

 One more video of the rabbit. . . 

 

Home of the rabbit

I assumed the rabbit lived in one of the backyards adjacent to ours. If you look at our street, or most other streets around here, you'll see people's homes and in front of the homes there is a sidewalk on both sides of the street and an asphalt road running between the sidewalks (I am being simplistic but I want to make a point). It seems to be relentless city but there are backyards behind each of the houses, there are two backyards adjacent to each other; on some blocks this land is taken up with a lane (the lanes of NDG are a great place to take a walk) and some backyards have flower or vegetable gardens, some are just grass, some have a swimming pool, and most aren't used much. So, the rabbit and other urban wildlife have a lot of land to enjoy and a lot of places to live and places where food can be found. And then, looking at our backyard, my Canadian Cottage Garden, I saw the rabbits' footprints, his trail, and it led from where I leave carrots for him to a pile of branches and weeds, I left these in a pile at the rear of the garden not wanting to bag and discard this stuff, but also wanting to add to the diversity of what grows and what is present in the garden. There are flowers and bushes and there is a growing wild space, planned by me last summer, and part of this is a pile of green vegetation. Now I see the rabbit probably lives in this pile of vegetation, people say rabbits live underground, perhaps under the vegetation. Anyhow, I'm happy with his presence and I don't plan on growing vegetables, just flowers and hostas, hydrangeas, and so on, nothing he'll want to eat. 

Here are photographs, taken from the second floor bedroom window of our home, of the backyard in winter with the rabbit's path from where I leave carrots for him to where he possibly lives.

                    

Where the rabbit lives.

Where carrots are left for the rabbit.

The rabbits' home?

The rabbit's ears are burning, he knows someone is talking about him... 

Someone phoned yesterday, the first thing they asked was "how's the rabbit?"

I am now eating carrots and they're pretty good, not much taste but good.

Yesterday, around 6 p.m., I looked outside and there was the rabbit eating his carrots; he's really just a little guy. When he finished he ran off to a neighbour's backyard.

Note: Top photos were taken on 13 February 2026; other, bottom photos, taken in January 2026.

Rabbit time, u can't touch this

Today’s carrot purchase.

Our resident rabbit with carrots.

At the IGA today, two pound bags of carrots were selling for 87 cents a bag, of course I bought three bags for our resident rabbit; that’s $3.00 for six pounds of carrots while five pounds of carrots is usually $5.00. This should last me over a month or so of daily feeding the rabbit. Yesterday, I saw the rabbit running across the backyard, the days are getting longer and the crepuscular light he favours is later in the day. This morning, after I finished shovelling last night’s snow, I saw what looked like a small dog running along the sidewalk on the other side of the street; then I realized it was the rabbit. He’s a busy little fellow! He's also avoiding the crows who would love to swoop down and fly away with a rabbit; however, I suspect he's too heavy for that.

Rabbit Returned

The days are getting longer by about a minute a day, so when we get home around 4:30 p.m. it is still a little bright outside, it isn't dark as it was on Christmas Day. Anyhow, we arrive home and I go outside and leave a carrot, cut into pieces, for the rabbit. Yesterday I noticed the rabbit is leaving little gifts, rabbit poops, where I leave the carrot, and the rabbit gave me a good laugh over this. I am not certain he even liked carrots when I first left them for him, but now he visits everyday for his carrot snack. Yesterday, he arrived within minutes of my leaving his snack; after I left his carrot beside the bird bath, he appeared as though he had been waiting for me to leave the carrot and go away. This rabbit brings me a lot of happiness, now we both stand by the window looking outside at the rabbit as he eats the carrots that are left for him. Video online 04 January 2026.

A year ago today

Here are photos of this day in 2024, a year ago today. A year later it's -15 C and snowing, so far one of the colder winters on record. 

The day after Christmas, 26 December 2013

 

Christmas Eve, 2025

Arriving home Christmas Eve. It was dark and cold and snowing. Even in winter the garden is a place of life, seeing a rabbit digging in the snow and eating some grass. The garden is an invitation to birds, insects, and urban wildlife.

Crows, photographs of crows

 Crows, photographed in 2020 and 2021.