I wrote about pruning the Crab Apple tree a couple of weeks ago but I actually did it this morning. The sun shone, the temperature was almost pleasant and I finally felt like venturing outside for more than a few minutes. I do try to go out once a week to ski but it’s hard to prune a tree in your ski suit. The snow has melted enough that I could get to the front yard trellises and take down the Christmas decorations. Finally today the witch Hazel was starting to bloom and it was warm enough to actually watch the snow melt. Two of the ponds have large holes in the ice and I can see some fish slowly moving around. The lower pond is still frozen solid and upon investigation I found a leak in the air hose above the ice so that the bubbler has not been working for some time. Through the ice I seem to be able to see a few dead fish. The bubbler is important to their survival. The ice on the bottom pond is still at least 15cm (6in) thick. Hopefully some of the fish in that pond have survived because it was probably the pond with the most fish in it. They have a tendency during the summer to go downstream and wind up in that lower pond.




I spent last Saturday at the local mall participating in the city’s sustainability day. I answer questions and demonstrate seed planting techniques for about 8 hours. Apart from a rather sore back and the fun of getting people excited about vegetable gardening and starting their own seeds, I manage to get all of my Tomato, Pepper and Eggplant seeds into the soil. It’s about 8 weeks before the first of June when those plants will want to go into the garden. I had about 6 varieties of each to plant and I brought them home from the mall and put them onto my germination bed. I expect the Tomatoes to respond to the heat they find there and be up in less than a week. The Peppers and Eggplants will probably take a few days longer. The three Tomato seeds that I planted for a video a few weeks ago are now the perfect size to move to the garden and I will have to move them up to larger pots and try to keep them growing for another 6 weeks. Maybe I’ll have the first ripe Tomatoes in the neighbourhood.

Now it’s time to answer a few of my reader’s questions. Don’t forget to check the front page of the Website for frequent short ideas for current gardening activities.