Keith’s Spring Highlights – FineGardening

Keith Irvine is sharing his garden with us today. We’ve visited with him before (Keith’s Zone 3 Garden), and it’s a pleasure to revisit this beautiful garden.

I have put together some photos of the highlights of spring 2023 in our Zone 3 garden in Oxdrift, Ontario. It has been a very dry spring here and considerably warmer than normal. We usually have an old-timers rule here that it is not safe to plant out the annuals until after the full moon in June. This year we didn’t have any frosty mornings after about mid-May.

Virginia bluebells (Mertensia virginica, Zones 3–9) show off in the foreground, with ‘Tahiti’ daffodils (Narcissus ‘Tahiti’, Zones 3–9) behind. The Virginia bluebells have pink buds that open pink and then quickly turn blue. After they bloom the plant will dry right up and disappear until the following spring. When I first planted them I thought I had lost the whole batch but was pleasantly surprised the next spring.

Brunnera ‘Jack Frost’ (Zones 3–8)

Fern leaf peony (Paeonia tenuifolia, Zones 3–8)

Early in my gardening life I visited an abandoned logging camp where lupins (Lupinus polyphyllus, Zones 3–8) had naturalized. I dug up several of each color—purple, pink, and white—and transplanted them to my property. Since then they have naturalized, although sometimes not where I want them.

Tree peonies, such as this magenta-colored tree peony (Paeonia hybrid, Zones 4–8) in the Japanese garden, require winter cover in Oxdrift. I make boxes from blue building styrofoam to provide insulation.

Bridal wreath spirea (Spirea prunifolia, Zones 3–8) has taken off beside the entrance to the house.

In this mass planting of ferns, the shorter ones at the front are nursery-bought ostrich ferns (Matteuccia struthiopteris, Zones 3–7). The taller ones in the back are native ferns. They are much easier to manage. The ostrich ferns spread like wildfire.

Yellow tree peony

I keep a very large collection of tender succulents in the basement every winter and put them in my gardens in the summer. This bowl was a gift for my 70th birthday last summer. Creating this planting was the first thing I did when I started up my greenhouse in March.

I built this succulent container about five years ago, and it is always fun to create a new arrangement annually. This one has a mixture of hardy and tender succulents.

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