Oh my gosh, do I ever feel like putting a heating pad on my back! I've been doing garden work all day and I would use the heating pad if it wasn't for my sunburn! Today was so beautiful (after many days of rain) that I wore my swimsuit in the yard. I couldn't reach some spots of my back too well with the sunblock and since my Love is on his fishing trip, I had no help. :P
All right, this is what I did out in the yard today! I have been keeping a compost for the past two years in the back yard by our shed. Today was the day that I de-fenced it and used the rest of the dirt in the new flower bed. I smoothed the area out. I can either put more plants there, or we can just use that space for storage. It doesn't get many hours of sun, but it's the hottest sun of the day that it does get.
Our rhubarb seems to be doing fine in that space. I'm going to see if the chives do well in next to the rhubarb. This is why: Our doggy, Chubahka, has discovered that he loves chives and couldn't stay away from them. He ate most of them down to the dirt. When I saw him, I hollered at him to get away and he ran over to me, wagging his tail and panting. It was the first time that I actually loved smelling his breath. Haha! So, I moved the chives on his account. They now need to be fenced.
So now the flower bed! This garden has all of the little seedlings I started indoors now. I've been bringing them outside for a week or so, before the rains, so I know they've had some time to get acclimated. But they aren't ready for the cool nights yet. They need that added protection. That's why the milk cartons are over them. I plan to run outside as soon as I wake up to check on them. It's not good if they get too hot, either, so I'll take those off when I check on them – if the weather is dandy.
Off topic – sort of. When I went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, I fell deeply in love with Lemon Bee Balm. I want some! During my trip to Walmart today, I saw the seeds and freaked out (inside though). I might have jumped a little. Maybe a small pant or two. LOL! They were a buck! Into the cart they went. I'll put some of this Lemon Bee Balm in the flower bed because the foliage is just gorgeous and it SMELLS SO PRETTY!! Get some and grow it in your kitchen at the very least! :)
All right. I still need to locate the photos to post here and I'm really sleepy. I think it took me an hour to write this entry tonight. LOL! I gotta get to bed. :) Nighty night!
O si yo! ("Hello" in Cherokee for those of you who don't already know.)
Well, we still have some time before we move our seedlings into the garden here in the Twin Cities. We had frost on our yard furniture yesterday morning. DOH!
I am way too anxious to get everything going. I planted seeds in buckets from previously purchased plants and set them out around the raised garden two days ago. I hope the seeds faired well enough through the minor frost to sprout at least ONE seed! I planted at least 9 of each seed: Marigolds, Painted Daisy, Pink/Red Daisy, Alyssum, Columbine, and a couple Sunflowers that reach over 7 foot. I'll post photos on that if any come up, of course.
So the photos today are of my seedlings that I constantly trail back and forth from under the lights in the house to the sun and back again at night - “hardening off”. I will continue this process until it's time to plant them in the garden. It's going to be more work than I thought it might be. I'm already having ideas for a cold frame and a $400 greenhouse from a local hardware shop. I think that's the key to raising beautiful seedlings, really.
So the following photo is my Wallflower Siberian seedlings. These are going to be beautiful soft orange (like the meat of a Mango) in color – and delicate in appearance, much like a pansy. They are perennials. I have already replanted them in large pots because they were getting extremely leggy and falling over. I didn't want them to die. This is my second year trying to grow them from seed. I topped the pots off with moss to prevent root rot - “dampening off”. I hope I am successful with this and I hope I don't suffocate the seedling. I'll soon find out. So far, it doesn't seem like they've grown since the transfer.
The Marigolds look like they are thriving. Not too much to say there other than I wish they weren't so tall.
Lupine are next. I read that Wild Lupine is a host plant to the Karner Blue butterfly caterpillar, which is an endangered species in Minnesota. I see a couple butterflies each summer, but that's because my neighbor has Wild Lupine in her deciduous shade garden. I hope my Lupine become a host plant. The seedlings look to be doing very well.
My basil is doing wonderfully! I actually planted 12 seeds. Six are in soil which contains compost and the last six are in a soil mix of: perlite, vermiculite, and peat moss. The basil I planted in compost mix sprouted almost immediately. The other seeds sprouted some time after, but caught up quickly. I hope to give basil plants to friends and family, if they want some. I'm going to have so many plants that I won't know what to do with them!
All right, time to go pick up some straw for the garden with my mom. Sweetie and I are taking a short break from the garden fence, but all the vertical posts are up now. We have to mid to late May. That leaves me time to plan for cold frames and greenhouses next year! :)
