I decided that I’m giving myself a bit of a blog holiday today. It is Victoria Day Weekend here in Oh Canada. I’ve never been one to “celebrate” this particular holiday. I mean, when you’re raised in The Land of Free and the Brave you just aren’t accustomed to lighting up fireworks for a British monarch, eh? George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, absolutely, but Queen Victoria? I don’t think so. So, usually when this end of May weekend comes up, I totally ignore it.
But, this I can’t ignore. This weekend marks the exact time when it is safe to start planting a garden in the Great North. If you bung things in the ground or, in my case, my Empty Pots of Possibilities, earlier, Watch Out! You are chancing that all those sweet little herbs and flowers and vegetables will be zapped by a nighttime frost. When I first came up here from DC, I thought this was absolutely absurd. I mean, by the end of May in the South, I would have flowers on my tomato plants and already complaining about summer heat — not here in To-ron-to. Last weekend we had snow in places and sleet right here in downtown.
I did decide this week to be a little daring and test the fates. I carried all my pots of geraniums out on the porch. When I posted that I had done this on Facebook, I immediately got a “comment” from my super-gardener friend, Steven. “You have to wait until the 23rd or 24th,” he wrote. “Dipping nighttime temperatures were still a possibility.” I decided that 2 days was not going to make a difference. I would have felt bad if it had — especially since Steven would have been right there with one of his “I told you so.” These geraniums are the great-great-great granddaughters of the original geraniums I bought when I first came here. Every year, I bring them back inside and trim back the old and root new from the same plant. They’re getting a little ratty looking, but I can’t bear to get rid of them. Anyway, by July they’ll be full of flowers and I’ll forgot how old they are.
Now that I have permission from the weather gods to plant, it’s just a matter of doing it. I’ll start tomorrow. Surely Victoria will smile down on my efforts — even if I am a Yankee.
My Pots of Possibilities Awaiting My Care.
Annie's Odyssey 
Happy Victoria Day! Come on over and visit my blog, and leave a comment if you like what you read 🙂