I have adjusted to life in the North in many ways and most of the time I am happy living in Prince George rather than Victoria. However, there are some times that I desperately wish that I was back living on the coast rather than in this frigid gardening zone.
My gardening style is best described as "benign neglect." I read books and magazines and surf the Internet about what I would like my garden to look like. Then, I go to a nursery or garden store and buy whatever is on sale that looks familiar to me. Once I get home, I ignore the plants for a few days until they look wretched and then, because I feel guilty, I proceed to plant the little dying things in what I hope to be a spot where they will look nice when they are bigger. Sometimes I remember to water the garden. Most of the time, I forget.
Although I am not the most thoughtful gardener, I do enjoy it and I love to watch my garden change from year to year. When I lived in Victoria, I could put anything in the ground and (if I remembered to water it) it grew. I would buy perennials for $1.99 at the end of the season and by the time that winter hit, they would be twice the size and looking awesome. It helps, of course, that Victoria is a nice Zone 8 and friendly to a wide variety of gardening delights. You could plant bulbs in the spring and have them ready by summer. Here, you have to plant the bulbs in the fall and you will not see them until July the following year. In Victoria, you can have flowering hydrangeas in virtually every colour. In Prince George, you can have a white hydrangea. In Victoria every February, the cherry blossoms line the streets with colour while we are still in the clenched in grasp of winter's frigid fist with dirty snowbanks lining our streets (if the streets have been plowed, that is).
I find it a bit frustrating when I try to plant flowers or shrubs that I had in Victoria that I love and it's the wrong zone for here and it makes me wistful for the mild southern climate. However, I have been trying to notice the beauty in the forest around us and the beautiful drifts of buttercups, fireweed, lupins and paintbrushes that are present all around us. I am trying to remember that my garden is not in a competition with the garden that I had in Victoria. Truthfully, in any sort of garden competition, I would lose to anyone else who remembers to water their plants. The best gardening advice I was ever given was by a friend who told me that gardening is about the journey, not about the finished product because a garden is never done. I feel the same way about living in the North. Prince George is not perfect but you can make the best of your life and your city while you are living here. Pull one weed at a time.
