bright eyes and (anti-mouse) war cries

In these chilly early spring days, we're getting a few projects knocked out of the way before the fencing and trenching crews come.  Todd cut up the last few stumps in the back field to help them burn easier.

When we first moved here, the lean-to on the white animal barn was full of metal and rubber debris.  Todd hauled it into the barn yard so that it can be hauled away...then he shoveled out the rich soil and laid out a new bed for spring (I'm thinking hollyhocks and sunflowers).

Finally, he put up shelving in the newly-cleared space for wood storage.  It's so tidy!

I planted more seedlings.  The sweet peas, which love the cold and will fizzle out when the heat hits, went in right before the rain.

I amended the soil with compost and popped them in.

To protect against birds, deer, and rabbits, netting was strung out over the whole row.

It's amazing what you can find, even in the cold.  This trio of dead plants look, well, dead.  They sat outside all winter, buried in snow.

But I never throw anything away until late spring,  because sometimes you will find...

New growth!!

Other exciting new growth...I paid $10 - $20 each for my first group of dahlia tubers last year.  I've been reading about multiplying them by potting up the tubers in late winter.  Now, I didn't store mine well, and several were wrinkled and shriveled.  But I potted up a couple of them anyway, and...

When those sprouts get a little bit bigger, I can cut them off and plant them.  The tubers will send up MORE sprouts, and repeat.  Best of all, I can still plant the original tubers in about a month!

Our first bulbs are sprouting...dwarf iris.

And hooray!  I had about 30 little pea-sized "bulbettes" that had broken from the main bulbs in one of my packages in the fall.

I didn't know if they'd grow, so I potted them up in a container and forgot about them.  This week:

I planted THREE pink bee balm plants in our back side bed last year.  They re-seeded...prolifically.

My winter sow containers have been sprouting, too.  IF all little seedlings prosper...it's going to be quite a year!  This is flax "Bright Eyes" and I think they're so charming!

photo courtesy of Etsy

ALL of these containers have sprouts!

The year of experimentation continues.  I've been potting up more seedlings that are a bit too crowded on their soil blocks.  It is so satisfying! 

It hasn't been without troubles.  I've been seeing a lot of this:

Because my set-up is so scattered, I don't have fans set up.  Good air circulation helps keep mold from forming and strengthens seedling stems.  Without it, they grow to a certain height and then flop.  I've replanted this one, deep, in hopes that it can be salvaged, but we're going to have to set up fans soon as the seedlings get larger to ensure good health.

I found this when I went into the potting barn yesterday:

Mice had gotten in and eaten about 40 seedlings!  Todd set some humane traps, and Claudia is sleeping in the barn for a few nights, to get rid of any pests.

March is definitely a bit of a challenging month.  Mainly chilly, mainly overcast...

We've gone hiking, but everything still looks like this:

To keep my "spring!  spring!  spring!" excitement up, the flower puttering helps...as does seeing all of the promising green in the garden.  It won't be long now!

Have a great week!