Mystery dahlias update (a lady gave a bag of tubers to my mom and my mom dumped them on me): Every tuber I planted has sprouted and they're doing fine. No flower buds yet, but maybe soon. Judging from the purple splotches on the stems, the flowers could be red or purple.

A bouquet of American white water lilies just for you. This bouquet requires full sun or the flowers close up. Nymphaea odorata smells like sunshine on clean laundry blowing in a warm summer breeze.

Made another chaos bouquet from the garden. I absolutely packed it with delphinium and lily buds so it should look much grander over the next week as they open.

My blueberry bushes are doing so great you guys. So green, so healthy.

The food garden is starting to come along. I'd like to double its size next year so I can grow a wider variety of vegetables. Right now it's rows of beans, potatoes, squash, garlic, and culinary herbs with strawberries, currants, gooseberrries, and elderberries in the very back.

My black henbanes (Hyoscysmus niger) I grew from seed are ready to transplant and a rainy day is perfect timing!

Native black raspberry is looking good!

My thornapple patch in the poison garden is doing great despite all the extreme weather Ontario's been having. This purple variety is Datura stramonium var. lilac. Thornapple is the wildest and weediest datura species and the flowers are so small compared to other daturas. Small, but lovely!

Oh hell yeah! These black peony opium poppies are amazing! So gorgeous, so poisonous. I'm definitely saving seeds to grow them again. I sourced them from my favourite local green-thumbed Mennonites.

I only had to fight two snails for these! Dryad's saddle aka pheasant back mushroom (Cerioporus squamosus) is normally an early spring edible mushroom but these grew overnight on a maple stump after a monsoon's worth of rain yesterday!

There has to be an animist working at my village library because there's always good reads to choose from on plant, animal, and fungi intelligence.

Yesterday was for planting a large garden bed of datura inoxia, cutting garlic scapes to dry for making seasonings, and then wild harvesting st john's wort to make oils and balms. Being a herbalist and gardener has its perks!

My cobalt dreams delphiniums are blooming! I love the supernaturally rich colour of this variety. All parts of delphiniums are toxic to ingest and skin contact with the fresh plant sap can cause irritation and rashes. They are in the same family as deadly aconites (aka wolfsbane /monkshood).

More roses blooming in my garden today!

My opium poppies are looking lush! No flower buds yet, but any day now. They're supposed to be a black-flowered variety so I'm excited to see them.

Two of my downy thornapple (datura inoxia) plants are already blooming! It's a nocturnal bloomer so the best time to catch the flowers is early morning when it looks like moonlight is coming from inside the trumpets.

My white henbane seedlings (Hyoscyamus albus) pictured below are looking great but my pale hebane seedlings (Hyoscyamus niger var. pallidus) got aphids somehow and my black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger) accidentally got waterlogged. Might start some more seeds as there's still time!

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It's milkweed season! 💚 This poisonous, edible, and medicinal native plant is always welcome in my garden but you need to have lots of space as it's an aggressive spreader!

One fox slips under my shed while another sings in the strawberry patch in the background. There's a third one out of sight too!

Anyone else get super excited to find evidence of snakes in their garden? It's too cold here for venomous snakes so it's less scary of a prospect. Love me some garter snakes and ratsnakes!

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I know the fox family is still living in my garden because of all the fox poop in my garden 😆 This morning I watched one roll out of its bed under my shed, wander through my veggie beds eating beetles, and then slink over to my rowan tree for a morning poop.

My lily of the valley just finished blooming. Their scent is one of my favourites in the garden and I look forward to it every spring. Yes, lily of the valley is poisonous, deadly even. It contains toxic cardiac glycosides just like foxgloves.

Hardening off my datura seedlings while the temperature is reasonable. This year I'm growing datura inoxia (downy thornapple), datura stramonium (thornapple), datura metel (wild, white), and datura metel var. fastuosa 'ballerina purple' (a cultivated ornamental).

Potato planting time! My favourite nightshade. I planted reds because they're the ones I love to eat the most. Once they sprout above the soil I'll cover the whole row in insect netting to protect from potato beetles.

Just realized this mandrake illustration I love from a 17th century Japanese herbal is copied from John Gerard's herbal published in England in 1597.

Because I didn't get my quota of iris joy from my garden this year I've been going to the river in my rural village to stare at native blue flag (iris versicolour).

I have like a gajillion irises in my gardens but only two plants bloomed this year. No sign of my favourites, just leaves. Not sure if it's due to the severe drought last year or the fact the previous occupant kept planting them in partial shade next to super aggressive invasive plants.

A page on the medicinal uses of mandrake root from a 13th century copy of "De Materia Medica" by ancient Greek physician Pedanius Dioscorides originally written circa 50-70 CE. He mainly describes mandrake's use as a soporific herb and anaesthetic for surgery.