Charlie, these days I try and plant mostly stuff that I don't have to deadhead a lot. I like geraniums but find that they don't do well here with our cool nights, I haven't tried dahlias, I do like them.

We had quite a bit of rain last night, this morning it's 8C/46F, gray with a chance of thunder showers.

No mosquitoes yet, but yesterday I got bitten by a black fly, I hate hate those nasty pests, I get a reaction to their bites, big ugly red spots, like a bruise, swelling and it itches like crazy.

Sorry about the black flies, Margaret.
In Ontario too, they're much worse than the mosquitoes, but you don't see them in the south where we are.

A friend of mine who fished way up north said they were terrible, but they don't bite through clothing.

Some plants are sometimes sold as "self-cleaning".
Salvaged a lovely mauvey red double flowered rose of sharon from Mrs. L's garden and put it towards the back of our garden.
It was close to the front, previously, and definitely not self-cleaning; thought the dead blossoms detracted from the overall effect of the shrub in flower.
It's now far away enough from the front of the bed that you don't notice the dead blooms and two years after its move it's doing very well.

My most important reason for deadheading is to prevent seeders from reseeding all over the place.

Am assuming that some gardeners, like you, with even shorter growing seasons than us, are now beginning to get very busy with gardening and outside maintenance.
Got to let you get to it.

Now have the first peonies blooming.
'Edulis Superba'.



Lots of rain, so lots of weeds and weeding.
Am also upset that the Terra three-way-mix I used last fall was full of weed seeds.
When I complained, they said they had changed their supplier just before I bought the stuff.

Will now only used mushroom compost (has some coarse sand in it) to upgrade our clay.
Found the seaweed compost, last year, smelled.

Doing lot of staking, thinning out and separating.



And some renovating.



Not always easy to sort things out.
The leaves from the tulips are a nuisance and am deadheading the (Spanish or hybrid) bluebells to prevent them spreading too much.

Charlie, everything looks lovely, your hard work is paying off.

I really love tulips and daffodils, but they were spreading like crazy, and I got so tired of all that foliage I dug them all up last year and gave them away.

Weather has been cool and showery, was very windy today. I am slowly getting the annuals in, and the planters done, I'm afraid like you, the next thing I will be tackling is the weeds.

Hope all OK with you and family, Caroline.

Hearing about the very serious flooding in Calgary.

Away a couple of days in Huntsville, On.
Has been flooding there, but nothing like in Calgary.

Hidden Valley (ski area).
No snow now and the water's where it belongs (usually in lakes for us).





On way to Dorset.
Roots of ancient mountain system (not the Rockies!).

Thanks for thinking of us.
My home is on higher ground, and so are both of my daughters'.
They are telling everyone to stay home, and off the roads, so emergency vehicles
can manouver freely.
I stocked up on groceries on Wednesday, as they were saying the big rains were coming.

The authorities have a very good emergency plan in place.
They have a process for checking evacuated neighbourhoods, before allowing people back to the affected areas.

Great to hear things OK with you and family, Caroline.
Glad everything is well organized.

Glad you are ok!!