Iris pot from the UBC Botanical Garden Store. Notice the little lichen-covered branches added to the arrangement to add interest.

February leaves me bereft of inspiration. Blaaaaaaah. So, I decided to stop at the UBC Botanical Garden store to see if I could find a bin to inspire me to collect dead leaves and branches. The green plastic garbage cans I use to collect and store yard waste are too heavy when full and every single one of their handles are broken.

Not only did I find the bin I was looking for, but I also picked up the iris pot (above) and some interesting information from the Botanical Garden Ladies:

• many local bees live in tunnels in the ground and will be harmed if you disturb the ground before they leave their tunnels in mid-May;
• if old raspberry canes and other hollow stemmed plants such as lupins are left on the ground, bees will live in the hollow stems;
• bees don’t fly in the rain.

The first point gives me an excellent excuse not to dig too much now. Instead, I spent the rest of the afternoon pulling up weeds and crab grass, and gathering up all the larch cones and branches that had fallen during the winter. Lots of things are starting to come up now including cyclamen, snowdrops and crocus bulbs. See photos below of early spring flowers.

Little cluster of flowers…snowdrops?

The first cyclamens of sping!