The days are lengthening and the ticks are back in full force.  The mosquito's have not returned as of yet but I am sure they will be here soon.  Most of the birds are back.  Caught a glimpse of he Baltimore Oriole the other day.  They are so shy and hardly ever allow us to see them.We have a pair of owls nesting in our valley again and the baby is often squawking letting the parents know of being hungry.  

We are finally able to plant out a few more things.  The weather was wet and cool so we are delayed this year.  The hoophouse above is full of plants waiting to be planted as opposed to flowers being planted in it.  The Tulip season is almost complete.  We have a few Charming Beauty's yet to be harvested.  There definitely were more disadvantages as opposed to advantages again this year in tulip growing.We will have to weigh the pros and cons and make a decision whether we will grow them again next year.

Mulching our newly transplanted babies.

We are at the Saskatoon Farmers Market this weekend, Saturday and Sunday with lots of green plants.  We have over 40 varieties of Dahlia plants again this year and shade and sun loving perennials.  Anemone and Ranunculus along with our assortment of succulents.  The succulents are sold singly or in decorative containers along with a few hypertufa planters again this year.

The tomato plants are stocky and healthy.  We have a few extra Black Krim tomatoes we will be sharing along with our Jalapeno and Cayenne pepper plants.  Cucumber, zucchini and spaghetti squash also available.

Perennials potted up for sales at the Saskatoon Farmers Market.

Black Hero Tulip.  One of the specialty tulips we grew this year.

The Sounds of Spring

Since we last posted we have been very busy getting our flower growing season off to a start.  April 1st we opened the greenhouses and started moving seedlings and Dahlias out of the basement under lights to the pure sunshine.  This is the earliest date yet opening the greenhouses, since we started flower farming.  The weather was so beautiful we could not see any reason not too.  Right now we are experiencing a cold trend.  The night time temps are going down to -10C, but the heaters have been able to keep the greenhouses above zero.  An extremely positive thing because they are bursting with plants inside, and their are so many yet to be moved out.  As soon as the weather levels off again and stays regular we will start shuffling the cold hardy annuals outdoors to make room for the babies and Dahlias germinating in the basement.

There are signs of Spring everywhere.  The Sandhill Cranes are floating over the farm everyday right now.  We are on their migration route to the North and they stop in the area for a few weeks to a month before they move further north.  They are a huge bird and make this very unique sound.  You often can hear them before you see them as they tend to float about, very high above, and catching a glimpse of them when they are that high can be difficult.  There are Robins frolicking and Sparrows flitting around and a couple of Bluebirds are back checking out the birdhouses Pat has built.  Every year we have many new birds visiting and staying to raise their young.  We keep a log book of dates when the different species are sighted for the first time in Spring every year.

The Beavers are out and about in the pasture slough and the geese and ducks are joining them and hanging out.  Hopefully we will have a lot of water fowl taking up residence this summer.

It really is a wonderful time to be living in the country.  Watching the flora and fauna embracing the warmer temps and waking up never ceases to amaze us.  

The grandkids are off from school this week so we will have sleepovers at the farm, which means picnics in the pasture, skipping rocks in the sloughs, crocus hunting, getting the bikes dusted off and tuned up, and playing on the swings and in the sandbox.  

Succulent assortment we will have available this Spring at the Saskatoon Farmers Market.  More info to come. 

May Happenings

May is really a wonderful month.  Everything in nature is so busy.  The trees, shrubs and perennials are all signaled to start growing with the warm weather.  The birds are busy building nests and finding mates.  The sky is very active in our yard right now, with all the different birds flying about.  It so nice to have some company in the yard.
The greenhouses are really filling up, so we are starting to adjust some of the annuals to the higher light levels outdoors.  Every day we allow them to bask in the full sun for a little longer.  Soon they will be tolerant of the sun for the entire day and at the end of May we will start planting them in the ground.  We have halted seeding for now as we received some much appreciated moisture this past weekend, so in a few days we can continue with that schedule.
Today we are showcasing a couple of annuals we have available this year for sales at the Saskatoon Farmer's Market.  The first is a vine called Blue Passion Flower.  It is very fast growing with exotic looking flowers.  It is great for pots or beds and grows up to 12'.  Allow it to grow in full sun for best flowering.  Hardy to Zone 6.

Passiflora caerulea

Pennisetum Fireworks

Another annual we have is the Proven Winners Fireworks grass.  Grows to 24-30" tall and is variegated with reds, pinks and greens.  Likes full sun and can be grown in the landscape or in a pot.

This weekend at the Saskatoon Farmers Market we are going to have some interesting gifts for Mother's Day.  They will include our hypertufa containers potted up with succulents or herbs, decorative containers, rubber boots,  vinyl records re-purposed into plant containers, and the most fun item will be a pair of red high heels all planted up.  Stop by early to check it all out.  We will be selling the pepper and tomato plants along with celery plants, annual flowers, dahlias, shrubs, lots of new perennials and our selection of culinary herbs.   I will be posting pictures of our unusual plantings available on our facebook page this week.  Search Mistik Acres and like our page.  We will be participating in the Sunday market this weekend, but we will be outside due to a celebration all about Mom's, taking place indoors from 11:30-2:30.  Pamper yourself or your Mom with a mini manicure, massage, facial or yoga instruction.  There will be live entertainment and lots of food. 

Frost hit hard.

So, Tuesday night it all came to an end for us.  The frost hit so hard, our thermometer recorded -11C.   Nothing was spared.  We had covered quite a few dahlia's in hopes of it being a mild frost, but the covers were no match for -11C.  The flowers are limp and lifeless.  We certainly were not ready for the flower season to end so abruptly, as we had a fantastic summer for flower production.  So now the cleanup begins.  The weather looks like it is going to stay nice for a while so it will be pleasant working in the gardens.  We will dig all the corms and tubers we want to save for next year and start shredding the dead foliage and incorporating it into the soil along with leaves and the barley mulch.
We made our first batch of salsa this evening, using the tomatoes and peppers that we harvested, and the house smells wonderful.  Tomorrow we will make leek and potato soup with our produce. The carrots, leeks and beets are still in the ground and will be harvested at a later date.  Unfortunately I think our entire celery patch froze.  Will take a closer look in the next couple of days and see if we can salvage any of it.  We really enjoyed using the green celery that we grew, but the red celery variety was quite tough and stringy.

This weekend at the Saskatoon Farmer's Market we will have a few fresh flowers that I had picked before the frost hit, but I will be making dried flower bouquets and will have those available for the next few weeks.  We are going to bring some perennials that are still in pots, which will be price reduced and I also potted up some more succulents, so lots of selection available for the two for one sale.
The vegetable selection this week is green onions, cooking onions, tomatoes, leeks, and garlic along with dried herbs.

Saskatoon Farmer's Market Pictures.

We have included a few pictures we took at last Saturday's Farmer's Market.  The flowers are plentiful right now and producing wonderful blooms.  I must say that all in all this has been a very good growing season.  We have had ample moisture and lots of hot weather lately and all vegetation is responding favorably and most important the wind has been pretty calm this year.  Fantastic summer, hope you are all able to enjoy it.  

Cosmos and Zinnias

Flower arrangement's created for Living Sky Winery.

Thanks Sue!

The ever popular Sweet Peas are producing like never before this year.

Mmmmm the vegetables and raspberries.  

Squash, all shapes and colours.

Salmon Star Oriental Lily.

This Asiatic Lily has grown to about 4.5' tall.  Never have seen anything like it.  Unfortunately the Asiatic Lily's have completed blooming but now it is the Oriental Lily's turn.  Will have fresh cuts available this week and next. 

What has been going on around Mistik Acres lately...mmmhhhh.  As far as the critters go, there are plenty of birds still around.  Lots of Robins, Wrens, Barn Swallows, Catbirds, Bluebirds, Sparrows and Eastern Wood PeeWee's.  Have been enjoying watching the young birds getting used to their wings and catching their own meals as well as feasting on the plentiful Saskatoon Berries.  The Hummingbirds are very busy in the flowers and on the feeders.  We have counted up to six, we have seen at one time, which would include the young birds.  We have not seen the male Hummingbird lately, so not sure what came of him.

We have been enjoying cucumbers, tomatoes, peas, beans, potatoes, onion, squash and beets.  Also picked a few green peppers.  Hopefully the corn will be ready soon.

This weekends Farmer's Market will once again be plentiful with produce and flowers.  This weekend we will have sunflowers in larger quantities.  They have been a bit slow to mature this year, but they are looking great.  Raspberries, Sweet Peas, Gladiola's, beets, onions, squash, are just a few of the items displayed at our booth.  The Special this week is buy one get one free succulent.  Be sure to stop by and check out the colours, flavours and smells.

Spring????

Warmer weather...fantastic, been patiently waiting for it to arrive. The snow is melting, saw a few blades of green grass poking out of the snow...I believe we are on our way. I don't know about you, but does it not seem like winter was extra long this year?

An array of succulents we will have available this year.

Winter travels.

In January we travelled to California for a winter holiday. We really enjoyed our trip, travelling through the desert and the central coast. We travelled to a lot of really interesting towns and cities and did a lot of sightseeing. We visited lots of Farmer's Markets, botanical gardens and beaches. We also visited the Salad Bowl capital of the world, the valley around the town of Salinas. There were fields and fields of lettuce, as well as broccoli in this area. We came across many orchards of grapes, nuts and fruit trees. All meticulously groomed and irrigated.

In the urban areas most of the landscaping utilized succulents and cacti of all shapes and sizes. Recognized a lot of the varieties we grow here, except they were usually much larger. Some of the blooms of the plants were spectacular. I have included a couple of pictures from one of the botanical gardens we visited, a young lady all dressed up in succulents.

Isn't her hair fabulous.