City adding flower gardens to street corners

A few years ago the City of Montreal began building wider sidewalks in this area of the city, they have also added flower beds at the end of streets. There are other flower beds, like the ones pictured below, in other areas of the neighbourhood, but this is on the next street over from us. Planted here are perennials, cone flowers, brown-eyed susans, day lilies, hydrangeas, and so. They are all perennials and should be left to winter over, no problem with that, but it occurred to be that this fall they will probably get remove all of these flowers instead of leaving them for next spring and summer. Bureaucracy likes to tidy things up, efficiency and economy is what counts. In the meantime, let me congratulate the city on this excellent addition to urban living.

Corners of Coronation Avenue and Chester Avenue

That's Gilbert Layton Park in the background, 
the grandfather of former NDP leader Jack Layton

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

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.