no seedling left behind

 What a contrast!  A week ago, everything was blanketed with thick snow and ice.  This week...sprouts.

Daffodils are coming up!  And more great surprises...a local lady had posted on Facebook last year, asking if anyone could come and thin out her bulbs.  I came away with hundreds of daffodil and naked lady lilies.  I planted them in clumps around the yard, but the greens were prematurely mowed down, and then we had a horrible drought.  I didn't bother to water, thinking that they were most certainly dead by now.  But yesterday...

I can't wait until they bloom!  These are wonderful harbingers of spring, along with the raucous red-wing blackbirds and the gentle rhythmic chirping of spring peepers that I've been hearing for the past few days.  Hooray!  

I've been very busy with my plants.  First, my ranuculus and anemone corms - they were soaked and pre-sprouted, and developed very nice roots.

I planted them in temporary pots until I can get them out in the ground, not expecting much growth, but they are really taking off!

I set up a caterpillar tunnel in the garden and they should be fine to grow within it, just with a frost cover (like a thick sheet) at night for protection.

I'm extremely pleased with my sweet peas!  They've grown steadily and now are in our cold, unheated potting barn addition with bright grow lights but no heat protection.  They love the cold and can survive freezes.

Other things are slowly and steadily germinating in the house.  I have multiple different plant varieties on the same tray and just scoop them up with a brownie spatula and move them upstairs under grow lights once they germinate.  I love seeing them sprout!

Sometimes a seed has fallen between soil blocks and germinates in the soil debris at the bottom of the tray.  No problem.  I mound up some soil and pop the seedling in.  Do I know what it is?  Nope, and don't care.  I'll give it a chance to grow.

I planted 12 - 15 varieties of snapdragons, and all the tags have gotten displaced from sliding trays in and out from under grow lights to water.  Does it matter?  Not really.  For a Type A person, I am remarkably unfussy about this.  As long as they grow and prosper, I'll pop them in the garden and see what comes up!

Even though March is a fairly grey month, I love being outside in the spring.  There's a lot of work to do in the garden, and I like listening to the horses...

...and keeping a certain nosy cat from impeding my work.

Sunrises have been GORGEOUS.

When it's too cold and rainy to work outside, and when I need a break from plant care, I try to focus on other hobbies.  I finished my Ley Lines wrap, and I quite like it.  It sometimes gets chilly upstairs and just draping it around my shoulders takes care of that.

I also knitted a hat.

AHEM.

I'm not really happy with the color choices, though.  I'm trying to use up scrap yarn, since I have so much of it, but skeins that look appealing next to each other don't necessarily carry over into the finished project.  I'm moving right on to a cardigan, and this time, I decided to test my theory before starting.  I picked yarn and colored in my choices (pencil colors not quite the same, of course)...

...then knitted up a swatch (wonky because I cut the yarn strands at the end of each row...just wanted to get a general idea).  I'm glad that I did, because together, the colors all seemed too washed out and pale, especially with a pale main color.

I chose new colors - brighter, with more contrast, and I think it's going to look a lot better.

Between my regular work and my plant propagation, this is plenty to keep me busy for a while.  The soil blocks need to be watered multiple times per day, especially ungerminated seedlings that are under grow lights because they need that light in order to germinate.  They dry out quickly and have to be closely monitoring.  I also am keeping a close eye on my winter sown containers.  If there's early germination, I have to remember to throw a blanket on top of the containers when we have heavy frosts.  Signs of life!  There's condensation on top, but peek in the sides and you can see a bit of green:

So far, out of the thousands of seeds planted, I've got very sturdy Bachelor Buttons and Corn Cockle coming up.  It's a great pleasure to daily check these containers to see what will be showing up in this year's garden.

Enjoy your greens and have a great week!

Spring Fever

On a recent trip to storage, I found a Kitty Garden kit that I'd bought years ago for my cats. I was a little skeptical that it might still yield the promised organic oats, wheat, rye, and barley, but I thought, what do I have to lose? Imagine my surprise when I had sprouts after only a few days!

It grew and grew!

It's healthy for your cats to nibble on greens, and I know that Bosewichte in particular is always begging to go outside and eat grass. I set the Kitty's Garden on the floor for his inspection.

Then he had a nibble...

...some lick-smacking...

...and back for more!

I'm so happy that he likes it. I'm starting to take him outside more, mainly because he's such a beggar and I'm such a softie. He loves laying in the sun.

I've started my garden work this year...clearing the leaves out of the beds and pulling the young weeds. I know that a little work here now...

...will produce this in a few months!

Because I want even more flowers this year, Todd and I decided to invest in a heat mat and grow lights for our basement. Todd built this wooden stand for them.

He drilled holes in almost 200 Dixie cups and I carefully separated out my seeds. I chose easy-grow annuals because I wanted to learn the grow light system well: green Envy Zinnias, colorful and spiky Larkspur, soft pink Cosmos, sprawling Nasturtiums, climbing white Sweet Peas, unique green Bells of Ireland, and so on.

Once the seeds were planted in their domed containers...

...they were taken to the basement and set up on the heat mat.

I made a grave error, though. I put soil in the cups, then seeds, and then watered them. It wasn't enough water to penetrate the soil and many seedlings just didn't germinate because of it. Sadly, my germination rate was only about 15 - 20%. I still got a sampling of each flower, though, except for Sweet Peas, which continue to confound me.

When your seedlings emerge from the soil, they must be removed from the heat mats, which will cook their roots, and put under the grow lights. Because I had seedlings that germinated at different times, some had to be transplanted early.

They can become root bound in their little pots, which is unhealthy.

Or, you can have too many seedlings in a small space, like these snapdragons. They must be thinned, or none will live.

Ahhh! All transplanted to bigger cups with more space and nourishing soil.

I couldn't bear to throw away many of the snapdragon seedlings, so I separated them out in old planting containers. They're doing well!

Meanwhile, we've still been taking long hikes with Borga at our local state park. Corgis need to feel like they have a job, and Borga considers walking us her job. I've never seen a dog so crazy for taking walks.

(Excuse this series of photos, taken with Todd's iPhone!)

We have to admit that we enjoy 'being walked'! I was just remarking to Todd today how wonderful the spring is here. When we first started taking our long hikes several weeks ago, the ground was bare except for a carpet of leaves. Just a few spring plants were pushing through: mayapples, spring beauties, golden ragwort, and dutchman's breeches, to name a few. Then, most of those plants died back, and huge carpets of virginia bluebells sprang up everywhere.

Lovely little ferns broke through the carpet of leaves and unfurled in the sun.

We noticed tiny spiderwebs stringing from branch to branch in the trees bordering our path, as small spiders were beginning to be more active!

Then, last week the virginia bluebells started to drop their blossoms, and shooting stars came up.

Fields of shooting stars!

Honeysuckles burst into bloom, both white and yellow...

...and pink!

The air was unbelievably fragrant, especially around these mystery bushes, which were numerous around the lake.

Wild delphiniums popped up, too, adding some color.

Today we saw that the mayapples were sprouting a single white bloom. Creeping jenny has started poking its way around the lake's edge. Leaves are beginning to unfurl on lower branches of small trees. Every week it's something different, and we are delighting in our little discoveries. Walking along honeysuckle-scented paths, with carpets of flowers all around, though the ever-changing forests and along the lake, with iridescent blue tree swallows and red wing blackbirds flitting overhead and singing lustily...we have to wonder why more people aren't enjoying it, too! Even last Saturday, the park was almost empty. What else could be so wonderful?

We both love to see what's new every week...and Borga loves the satisfaction of a job well done!

I haven't posted any recipes or knitting for a while, but I hope to get back on track with things soon.

Have a great week...and take a walk in the park, if you can!