Things are starting to open up at the pond. We’re not at full bloom yet, but getting there. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

The new green deal.

In my last gardening post I made a passing reference to my garden’s “green wall.” This occurs at the point in the summer when the ivy has made a solid wallpaper effect, the blue false indigo (identified by an elite horticulturalist in the comment section here) is no longer in bloom, and the sweet pea vine is filling its pods, with only a few blossoms remaining. It’s green on green on green, in what I think is a wonderful mat of life.

Not everyone feels the same way! The last couple of years I’ve had friendly neighbours tear out most of the sweet pea, thinking it was a weed. I’ve also had not-so-friendly neighbours — the kind who go out to the garden centers every Spring and buy colourful annuals that they plant in pots and baskets — that the green wall looks like crap, that it’s just a mess.

Well, all I can say is that I’ll take my green wall and its riot of messy climbing things to their pretty flowers any day. We should enjoy nature at its most natural. Plus, I spend nothing on my garden while all I hear is endless complaining from the flower crew about how expensive plants have become. I have no sympathy for these people. They know what they can do. Build the wall!

The lotus pond flowers are getting ready to launch! (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

There’s a house near where I live that dug out a lotus pond in their front yard. At least I think these are water lotuses. And let me tell you, they are some giant flowers! I thought I’d post some pics of the pond as things go along so you can enjoy them  coming into bloom. (You can click on the pic to make it bigger.)

I’m normally against lawn and garden ornaments, but (1) this was a gift from a neighbour who has since moved on, (2) later in the summer the “green wall” effect in my front garden covers him up completely, and (3) I think he’s a good looking fellow.

Another pic from my garden. I don’t know the name of any of the stuff in my garden, as careful readers have pointed out on previous occasions. I’m just not a plant person. I don’t know what this purple ground cover is, but for a couple of weeks in the spring it looks nice.

This little guy is always the first out of my garden in the Spring. But it’s only March 4 and though it’s 20C today that’s too early. Like every year, he’ll soon be buried in snow.