A spring day, 28 March in 2013 and 2024

 

Winter is too long here in Montreal. It's almost April and the snow has just melted, some plants are beginning to grow; spring has arrived but it feels like winter is still here. One month less of this would be perfect. Top photos taken in 2013, bottom photos this year on 27 March 2024:

Late March 2009

 Photos taken on Atwater Avenue under the Ville Marie Expressway. 

A Canadian Cottage Garden on 14 March 2024

It’s been a very mild winter and spring will soon be here; so far, among other things, I’ve seen many Canada geese in their V-formation, cardinals singing in the early morning just before sunrise, and crows looking down at us from telephone wires. I’ve already raked the front lawn and done some work in the backyard before we had some snow a few days ago. Soon garden centres will be open and we’ll begin planting this year’s garden.  14 March 2024

The perennial garden in winter

There isn't a lot to do in the garden in winter, maybe there is nothing to do but walk through two feet deep of snow and the snow over the top of your boots. Or look out the dining room window at the snow and cold and be glad you're inside and not out there. These bright sunny March days can be quite warm in the sun, you might even get a sun tan sitting outside in the garden if there isn't a cloud cover. In the shade it's cold, it's -2 C. I had forgotten that March is my least favourite month.

A perennial garden doesn't require work in winter, no skimming this years seed catalogues, no buying seeds, no germinating seeds in-doors, there is none of that. All it requires is patience and try to get through our overly long winter.  So, just get on with your in-door life, go for a walk, make supper, vacuum the carpets, and soon a mostly white and empty garden will be transformed into something so different from the garden in winter that it is one of the wonders of our northern life. Nevertheless, by late February and the three weeks of winter in March one is fed up with winter, the cold, snow, and we just want it to end. 

A white garden/ a garden under snow

There isn't really a lot to commend winter, I suppose beauty is in the eye of the beholder but winter drags on too long and, like a house guest after two weeks, can overstay its welcome. The first snowfall in November or December is serene, quiet, lovely to see the snow lined branches of trees, and even a big snowfall (let's say 20 cm) isn't all that bad, not if you're at home, don't have to go out, and can enjoy quiet time during the falling snow. What is not fun, pleasant, happy, serene, meditative is how our winters drag on into late March and sometimes even early April; four of five months of winter is just too much. A three month winter, from first snowfall to the snow melting, is about all many of us can stand. 

Here is my Canadian cottage garden in early March this year. I gave up even walking back there two months ago, previously I would go for a walk and then, arriving home, I'd check out the backyard. We miss the diversity of summer, the colours of flowers, the many plants, birds singing, insects, and then we surrender all of this to winter. "Mon pays c'est l'hiver" sang Gilles Vigneault, but it's not my country. 

Sunny March day at Vincelli's Garden Centre

I took these photos of Vincelli's Garden Centre from Westminster Avenue on 24 March 2020 around 4 p.m..