Spring Delights.

Dear Gary and all,

I am a Sydneysider who has survived living 36 years, in the opposite climate here, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. I have been growing Lilies, mostly cold-hardy Asiatics and Martagons, since 1984. I now have over 1000 different ones, in my about 1 acre of gardens, on Lake Winnipeg, about 75 miles from here.

I returned to our cottage last night, after being in the city during the past week, to resume the many Spring tasks waiting for my attention, in my bushland gardens. It was so nice to be here again, as Nature is waking up again, and beginning to "stretch its limbs", from its Winter slumbers, in all its majestic splendour, awesome scale, and wondrous ways, that inspire and comfort us, as we try to work within its ideal requirements, so as to to become entitled to share a little in its many benefits.

When I left here last week, I had done all that I could till then, removing most of the mulches down to what was bonded to the then still-frozen ground level, then piling them up at the edges of my two lots, to compost for digging-in next year, cleaning up the remaining debris, to expose the gardens to the warm sun that has been plentiful already this Spring (3-4 weeks early, on pre-1999 experiences). Only the snowdrops (galanthus), crocus, and scillas had just come through the frozen ground by their amazing "hot-tip" effect, a warm, living version of a soldering-iron, when I left to return home. And the mighty frozen Lake in front, was then only becoming translucent in the shallow waters on the edges, which warm up first.

But what a change in one week of warm Spring weather! The above little Spring bulbs are in full mass-flowering, with their dainty white, multi-coloured, and rich blue tints of beauty, nodding their many pretty little heads in clumps all the place, in gardens, on the edges of pathways, and alongside the bush, fulfilling my hopes that they would naturalise themselves, more and more each year, since I planted them about 20 years ago.

Today, I was able to rake most of the remaining mulches, leaving just enough for digging-in with the old cattle manure-straw bedding, that I will spread around tomorrow, with some stove ashes from my Winter visits here, with slow and fast-acting mineral fertilizers, that I will then add, before digging between most of the planted-row areas with my trusty BCS Rototiller, down to about a depth of 8-9". In my sandy loam, this produces a fine tilth that is ideal for planting and subsequent growth.