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!

the way old friends do

 Nights are still cold, but days are warm enough to start working outside.  The more hands, the merrier!

I've been so happy to see the cheerful faces of old friends, slowly emerging from their sleep.   

Catmint

Obedient Plant

Phlox

Sedum

And, of course, all the new bulbs planted last year continue to push out leaves.

Daffodils

Naked Lady Lilies

Tulips

Most of my indoor growing is progressing, although I don't have enough experience to know if they're doing really well.  Some of the stems aren't perfectly straight...but I'll keep moving them along, downstairs to upstairs to potting barn...and if they grow, they go (in the ground, that is!).

They are so tiny!

My two most frost-tolerant plants are already getting their daily treatment outdoors.  Sweet peas love it cold, so every day I take them out into the cold sunshine and move them back inside at dusk.  They will go in the ground within...two to three weeks?  The netting over top protects from birds.

My ranuculus and anemones, also very frost-tolerant, are now in the ground.  I grew them out in containers to give them a little bit of size and strength:

I dug into the soil under the caterpillar tunnel, amended with compost and a bit of fertilizer, laid down some newspaper to suppress weeds, cut holes for the seedlings, and planted.  A layer of mulch held down the newspaper and will help insulate plants.

It doesn't look tidy...

And...whomp whomp!...I made the row too wide, so the caterpillar tunnel doesn't cover all plants.

Well, it's sink or swim around here.  Either they'll do well with the slightly below-average protection, or they won't, and I'll plant something else in their place.  For future beds I'll be using a large roll of brown paper from Uline.  I can just unroll it over the entire row and cut holes for the plants, rather than fussing with small bits of newspaper.  I hate, hate, hate seeing weeds in the garden so this extra step is necessary for me!

As a reminder, this is what the ranuculus will look like if they prosper.  Just the possibility of it is enough to make the work worthwhile!

photo courtesy of Eden Brothers

Claudia is still prowling around...

...and starting to deliver the daily vole again, which is great - because the yard is absolutely full of tunnels.

Tabitha is always on guard for this dangerous trespasser on our porch. 

This gives her something important to do between naps.

I love seeing the return of the red-winged blackbird.  They're so vocal and their call just sounds like spring.

The new season is definitely keeping us busy...we're replacing fences, having mulch and compost delivered, plowing another field, laying out walking paths, building a fire pit, having our front porch partially rebuilt...and that's with our regular work and all of my plant preoccupations.  But I love the hustle bustle of activity on our little farm.

Have a great week!  

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!