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

 

 

At the garden centre, 6 May 2025

Vincelli’s Garden Centre is long gone but we still have,  locally, the Reno-Depot Garden Centre on rue St-Jacques, and this is where I was on Tuesday, 6 May 2025. A good selection of flowers but nothing extraordinary. I bought three hanging baskets at a reasonable price (each $14.99 plus tax) and I plan to return for two or three more; I could plant hanging baskets myself but then there is waiting for them to be as mature as these baskets already planted and purchased by me. There isn’t a lot of gardening time in this climate. 

"In the Month of May" by Robert Bly

 

23 May 2013

In the month of May when all leaves open,
I see when I walk how well all things
lean on each other, how the bees work,
the fish make their living the first day.
Monarchs fly high; then I understand
I love you with what in me is unfinished.

I love you with what in me is still
changing, what has no head or arms
or legs, what has not found its body.
And why shouldn’t the miraculous,
caught on this earth, visit
the old man alone in his hut?

And why shouldn’t Gabriel, who loves honey,
be fed with our own radishes and walnuts?
And lovers, tough ones, how many there are
whose holy bodies are not yet born.
Along the roads, I see so many places
I would like us to spend the night.

A Canadian Cottage Garden

 On May 5, 2024: rain all day; +10 C. this afternoon.

It’s taken over ten years for this lilac bush to recover from being cut down to the ground,
but here it is with many blooms; now 15 feet tall.

Day lilies, hydrangeas, and hostas.

Hostas coming up…

It was a mild winter but lots of rain, muddy and the grass has died here.

Hosta

The sumac on the left self seeded about three years ago.

A spring day, March, 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 on 28 March 2013, bottom photos taken on 27 March 2024:

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 garden, early May

It was Coronation Day, 6 May 2023, and the garden was coming to life. After a lot of rain and cold in April the sun was bright and the sky blue, birds had returned to the bird bath, hostas and ferns were growing fast. Trees were turning green, the lilac bush was ready to flower.

There isn't much to the garden this early in spring but it is coming back to life. After months of cold, short days, snow, and more or less being housebound, spring had returned to Montreal. I've already planted six new hostas (and I'll plant another six next week) and we now have a second bird bath. It looks like we'll have a nice garden this year!

The fence has enclosed the garden and I've begun planting a second row of hostas

That bench is sixty years old but still in good condition, I look forward 
to sitting outside on it and getting a different view of the garden

A new, second bird bath

More ferns than ever this year

Return of the crows

Summery weather has arrived, early this year, it's been +20 - +25 C since last Friday, and I've been outside raking the grass of last winter's debris; litter, dirt, twigs, some fast food wrappings, all of it collected in the snow over the last four or five months of winter. Fresh air, blue sky, birds singing, plants coming up, buds on trees and bushes, and a feeling of renewal, and genuine renewal, and how quickly we forget what we've just been through: a long winter, short days, heating bills. One of the first things I did when this good weather arrived was put water in the bird bath and almost right away there was a crow visiting, usually in the morning. Perhaps this is the time, in the spring, when crows visit the most, not only for a drink of water but to soak their food in water, and after they leave there are peculiar white stringy things they've found in the garbage at a local Chinese restaurant. Later there will be more birds at the bird bath; however, crows are always welcome and are certainly entertaining. 

Photos taken from our dining room window with an IPhone.

Added photos