I looked at last year’s letter and discovered that I was writing you during a winter snow storm. Guess what? Today we have been hit by a really bad storm, the very first we have experienced thus far this winter, and it is extremely rugged out there. Actually this fall and winter thus far has been very mild indeed. I was out picking mesclun, spinach and green onions growing under row cover on the 7th of December!

Rain predominated throughout this past spring until June. When the sun finally decided to come out, we realized that everything in the garden had grown by leaps and bounds. We had a butterfly bush on steroids (at least 15 feet tall). The hostas also loved the wet weather, and so did the daylilies. We had huge clumps of both. The daylily scapes were numerous, the branching and bud count superior. Thus we had a phenomenal bloom and re-bloom season throughout July and August.

First of all I wish to thank everybody who purchased my 2011 charity daylilies. The sale of these daylilies realized close to $1200.00. This year I have seven daylilies I am offering for sale at $20.00 per plant. Two are earmarked for Canada wide charities (Make-a-Wish and The Heart and Stroke Foundations.) The rest will be distributed to community groups here in Shelburne. They are A Child’s Wish, chosen by our friend Linda McLeod from Fenelon Falls, Alberta Fraser, Birchtown Black Loyalist, Kelly is Our Sunshine, chosen and named for our “adopted daughter”, Kelly Jones, Loyalist Heart, Myrna Norine, named for a dear Shelburne friend, and Osprey’s Eye.

We continue to love our Nova Scotia home on beautiful Jordan Bay. Almost every day Don either walks or rides his tractor to the ocean, and was in the right place at the right time in August when a large whale surfaced chasing a school of herring down the bay. I am becoming more and more interested in vegetable gardening. Thus, we have decided to expand the veggie area for 2012. Many of our neighbours have or can supply us with cow, goat, horse, and, believe it or not, oxen manure, along with the absolute gold of eelgrass. A summer storm washed seaweed up onto our beach, which is a rare occurrence. Don, racing against the incoming tide managed to salvage most of it.

Don and I both continue to enjoy our Shelburne County Garden Club which meets at our local library from March through December. I have completed my first year as the President, and it has been a lot of work. However it has been most gratifying seeing the club grow in numbers. I also have a wonderful executive who make my job so much easier. Don is planning for our largest fundraiser which is the May plant sale.

We are busy scouring the seed catalogues, and plant suppliers, and sending off our orders for another year. I am sure many of you are doing this as well. It is wonderful to feast one’s eyes on all these plants, even if they are pictured in on-line or hard copy catalogues.

Don and I wish you all a great 2012 growing season. Lastly, we wish to extend a big thank you to Kelly for allowing us to share her Rural Roots Gardens website.