Thursday, March 28...
So, even though it's pretty darn chilly out.. spring is rolling on. None of the wintersown pots are popping yet, understandably. But the bulbs are all doing right fine, nicely enough. The grape hyacinths are all springing forth- some of them have redder bases than what I'm used to, I'm assuming this is because those are the not- purple grapes I'm used to. That's why I picked up a mixed variety this time past- something different to put in between the grapes I planted out a couple years ago.
The narcissus that I picked up on clearance recently is doing just fine in their pots too- still need to figure out their final resting place. And nicely enough, the blue irises and white irises I picked up last fall to plant down by Moons grave are growing up right fine. I'll soon be able to clear out the area around her grave and plant those in.
I got seedlings popping up like crazy indoors. I've finally had to wrap the back of the mini-greenhouses on one level with plastic wrap to prevent Ocelot from chomping down my plants, darn princess. She likes to chomp. I've started the process of repotting the peppers- right now I'm 60 solo cups in, and still have another 15-25 or so to go. Since I'm only planting in 30 or so of them here, I'm hoping I will be able to sell off the rest of them in a month or so. Kind of neat considering I started out with 18 3 inch pots full of seeds, and they grow so nicely! I still have to start thinking about how to handle all the tomato seeds too, sheesh. I just picked up a few more solid trays the other day from Menards, and I'm thinking I might have to pick a few more up before the season is done. I'm also seriously considering starting up a few trays worth of herbs, mostly parsley, dill, and basils. Can't hurt to offer those up too along with the pepper and tomato plants. And after all, if they don't sell, I can always plant them in my garden :)
I'm excited that it looks like my redring milkweed is starting to pop up- the ones I started indoors. I don't know about the ones I wintersowed yet. That's why I decided to do it both ways, try to hedge my bets and hopefully get at least a pair of plants I can put out into the sanctuary. Why am I so excited about milkweed? This one is a particularly beautiful pincushion globe of white, and is pretty damn rare around here- and of course, the butterflies love it.
Also pleased that several pots of the boldegold German chamomile are sprouting up. I seriously want to get trouble hill more filled in this year. Little by little, it's happening. I'm considering growing in toothache plant on the bottom of trouble hill because it get's better sun than where I planted it in the mint border area last year. It did do rather well there last year- but after my seriously sickness a couple weeks ago, I want a bigger crop of it this year.
Bummed that all 6 pots of apple mint were a total failure. Looks like I will have to keep my eyes out at the local nurseries and actually have to buy some :( I seriously want apple mint for my third mint in the mint border.
Bummed that a couple of my peppers and tomatoes were nulls too- but I guess that's ok, gives me a chance to re-arrange my plans for some things. Like now I'm going to be putting more of my experimental "container" varieties of tomatoes in the ground- the bigger ones of course- and see how well or not they grow.
I transplanted the Patio tomatoes today too- they were getting kind of big and floppy in the decorative tub I originally planted them in, and I happened to have three last 12 inch pots I could transplant them to. Hopefully they will be happier and grow better in those pots, especially since I made sure to stake them when I transplanted them. I might have screwed a bit with the tiny buds about to bloom- cuz now the plant is going to be putting more energy into root formation since I planted them deep. But ah well, I'm still thinking I will have tomatoes earlier rather than later, yay!
Out in the yard I have a lot more Siberian irises popping up- I really should look into how to divide those and spread them out more, lol. And yay, more of the snowdrops have bloomed. I got a handful of other bulbs I planted in last year that haven't started showing yet, but I'm pretty sure they too will make an appearance. And of course, all around the solarium is popping up a whole bunch of bulbs- I seriously need to get out there and do some spring cleanup of the beds, it's just been too darn chilly to do so. And I've been working too much to want to. Good for working, boo for not feeling like gardening. But next week we are supposed to be hitting a great warm streak on days that I'm off, so I will kick some ass and take names then. I'm actually kind of itching to get outside and get stuff done. I walked the yard today to check stuff out, and by the time I was done fussing around I was totally cold and needed to get inside again. I know, I'm a cold wussy.
I still have plans to build another lasagne bed so I can plant in yellow beans this year. Been hell trying to figure out how to plant in everything I want to plant in, lol. And I am seriously thinking of picking up a few extra straw bales to do some straw bale planting this year of squashes, cukes, and melons. I just don't want to and don't have the extras to build extra beds at the moment, and it's easy enough to jump start a few bales. I tried this many years ago while still living in Wisconsin- but the garden area was all shade, I didn't know any better to prep the bales right- and it just wasn't a good thing. I'm pretty confidant I can do a better job of it now.
But I better be off- got to get ready to go to a meeting for work shortly.
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