From Sophie's Perch

Yesterday was a beautiful day. As soon as Ron headed off to Dad's in the morning, Sophie and I headed out to the garden.


Of course Sophie thought this was great! The whole morning to play with Jim! Sorry Sophie but I have some things to do that have to get done before May.


After trying her best to 'help' me (she really does pick up sticks and believes she IS helping, but wants to eat them first!), she went to her favourite 'perch' to keep an eye on things while I was digging.

Two summers ago I discovered that the Rhododenrons I had layered the year before had 'taken root' along with a few 'volunteers' that had layered themselves. I put them in the nursing beds to get established.

They have done really well in these beds and are now ready to be transplanted into a permanent location in the garden. This is a great time to do it.....coolish not cold, and the frost in the soil almost all gone.

So where to put them? Last week I found a pretty good place along the western side of the garden under, but not too close, very large Spruce trees. They will get morning to noon sun throughout the summer which should be enough.

Rhodoenrons grow very well here in Nova Scotia mostly due to the acidity of the soil and they are relatively easy to grow.


So I needed about 10 holes dug. Good thing about these plants is that their roots are shallow and do not go very deep......they spread out instead of going down deep into the soil. This wouldn't take too long.

I will not be planting them until the weekend, besides I needed a couple of large bags of peat first to mix with the soil. I read that rhodos don't like rich soil but do well in lots of peat moss. It's true and this has worked for us over the years.


I kept checking on Sophie and she was either at a neighbours fence waiting for their dog to come out or over at her perch.


So the holes were done. Now to pull out the two year old pine trees I put in the compost bin over the winter to protect them. Most had survived the winter. I think I may have lost a couple. You can see a brown one there on the right.

I pulled out maybe half. The others were still frozen into the compost!! That's right, we still have some frozen ground here.....but not much. Hey, it's early April here in the north Atlantic!

By this time I wanted a rest. The sun was shining and it was about 11 degrees Celsius. Sophie was very comfortable in 'her spot'. I thought what a smart dog, if we humans could only look so relaxed. I thought why not give it a try.


So I went over by her and sat down next to her. She was happy, the birds were singing, I could hear the flag from across the road flapping in the breeze. Everything was there that I needed to sit and relax.

So I did for about a half hour, just the two of us looking and listening to what was around us. Of course Sophie would be sniffing the air constantly picking up scents that would get lost in my olfactory system.

Usually I would have 'kept going' in the garden till lunch. I was glad I looked over at Sophie and let her show me the way to just stop and enjoy what is happening around me.


And I did.