My Northern Perennial Garden – April to May 2020

We bought a new house last Fall, and moved in just before the snow settled. That gave us just enough time to kinda know what the garden would look like in the spring, but there are many plants we still don’t know what they are. I have big plans to write things down in a notebook, but I haven’t made the time for that.

I did want to share some photos and watch as my garden grows. We’ve already moved a few things around and I have plans to move a few more things.

While I love this big perennial garden, a part of me wishes it was more food and less pretty. It’s well-established and I’m not going to rip things out immediately, but I do think we will slowly shift parts of the garden to food and less pretty. I’m sorry past-home owner. But tough times call for food priorities?

We live in Zone 4B in Prince George, British Columbia. There are many things in my garden that should not be growing in Prince George – but they are growing in Prince George. I still don’t know what many things are, and we are working on pruning and taking care of plants. It’s a big job – I probably under estimated the amount of maintenance garden beds take. It’s also proven to be a little pricey buying gizmos and gadgets to cut things, turn soil, add soil, and support overall health.

If you notice a plant, or have a suggestion, I’m all ears. 

This is just the back yard.  The front yard has a Virgina Creeper, hydrangeas, more flowering trees, tulips, and more things I don’t know about. The first picture is from May 13, and the second photo is from today, June 1. Eric was busy doing a photo shoot today so there’s camera gear in the way.

Centre Garden

In the middle of the yard is a round circular garden. Here there is peony, rhodendrum with hens & chicks, hydrangea, hydrangea tree, and some small early blooming flowers.

Side of the House

This flower bed is full of different leafing perennials, a bleeding heart, and some flower someone told me about but then forgot about. I actually ripped out most of this bed because it had horsetail in it. It was also an excuse to reclaim some of my garden bed. I split up the bleeding heart, and I’ve actually planted some onions in here. This is a fairly shaded space. It gets about 3-4 hours of sunlight in the afternoon before shade again.I would like to put some fruit plants here, or find a way to make it productive with another food item.

Side of the Shed

You’ll notice that I have since stripped the paint off the shed and started priming the shed. The paint was chipping and I was dreaming of painting projects. I am currently applying an oil based primer to the shed in a heavy coat and then will top with two layers of acrylic as per recommendation of a local paint shop.

This bed is interesting. It needs more top soil and some love in it. But it has an assortment of things.

On the left is a rose bush, followed by another little bush (that I’m giving to a friend), a grass, some other little plant, and then a clematis (that I thought I killed last year but surprisingly its come back stronger than ever. This is full sun all day. I’m thinking of moving my rhubarb plant here, and then adding some strawberry plants. Once I’m done painting

Vegetable Garden

This is our vegetable garden. I’ve planed onions, potatoes, beans, zucchini, radishes, carrots, beets, and sweet peas. Things are starting too sprout. My beans are not, which I’m starting to second guess that location. There was two haskap plants in this garden bed that I translated to the adjacent garden bed. However, the shade of the cedar tree keeps the corner from getting watered with the rain, and is probably too acidic for some of the plants I’ve tried there.

That rhubarb has done well. We have done three pullings so far, and letting it grow for a fourth. I preserved jelly and syrup from this plant.

Back Garden Bed

Here and behind the fence is a row of raspberry canes.

This bed also has a wolfsbane, bleeding heart, this bush we thought was gooseberry but now has this yellow flower, some more grasses, and my dogs like to dig here.  If the yellow flowering bush is purely decorative, it and the wolfsbane is coming out and again swap for a berry or more veggie plots.

Back Garden Bed

This is the biggest garden bed and features more trees and bushes. I’m still figuring out what is in here. There is a light layer of pansies that came up? I moved the haskap here to this bed next to the barberry that I hate. There’s another prickle plant behind it, and then these trees.  We need to prune the big bush but I don’t have a hedger.

This bed features an old lilac tree. It is not aging well and needs some love. We need to take down a big branch that has not leafed and is dead inside. My lilac currently has a ton of shooters and likes to send them really far away.

Under the lilac, that corner is very shady and damp. It was the last area to dry out this winter and features a wide array of stuff. I’m not sure what these yellow flowers coming up are. There’s also a peony in the back which I thought of moving if that’s possible.

A clematis is along the bench, and there is an aronia berry bush to the left.

 

Stay tuned as my garden grows, changes shapes, and we adapt it to something we can manage. Right now the back bed feels unmanageable. But it’s kinda crazy watching how three weeks changed everything so drastically.