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!

My Newer Manure Set Up

 The big melt is coming!  Temperatures up to **55 degrees** by Friday, so...

The snow has been amazing, though.   We got 11 - 12 inches, and then got another powdery inch after a few days.  Borga was not too keen on a snow walk...

...but did her best to keep up!

It wasn't long before she was worn out...

...and ready to head in.

Claudia, comfortably ensconced in her heated garage bed, had absolutely no interest in going outside.

The wind smoothed out the snow and made gorgeous drifts, and the sun made perfect diamond sparkles across the expanse.  It was so lovely!

It was almost a shame to break a path through it, but it had to be done so that we could easily get to the barn.

The birds have been steady visitors at the feeder and have pecked their way through all twelve inches to the bare ground below the feeder.  I love watching them through the living room window!

Valentine's Day has come and gone.  I didn't feel very festive because of poor Bosewichte, but I did make a "heart inside" loaf cake...

...topped with my favorite new toy, a handmade paper chain.  I used 1" x 1/4" strips of colored paper and constructed in the same way you'd make a full-size one.  It was somehow soothing and therapeutic, and I have claimed said chain to drape on my computer!

Now that the season is getting on, I've turned my thoughts toward indoor planting.  Ranuculus and anemones have to be "pre-sprouted" by soaking in warm water for a day, planted in soil for 2 weeks to stimulate root growth, and then planted in the ground.  

They don't look like much now...

...but I'm hoping to see THIS within a couple of months!

(photo courtesy of Floret Farms)

(photo courtesy of Eden Brothers)

I also started 17 varieties of sweet peas nearly 2 weeks ago.  I read so much conflicting data about sweet peas...scratch the seed!  Heat mat!  No heat mat!  Surface sow!  Plant 1" deep!...but I decided to go with the one that made the most sense.  The seeds don't get scratched in nature, and they're a cool-weather plant.  The seeds are larger, so I planted them about 3/4" deep.  All in tall yogurt containers...

...well-watered and placed in our dark, chilly attic.  Germination is supposed to take about 10 days, and I really sweated that time, checking the containers daily for signs of life.  Should I have nicked the seeds?  Don't they need temperatures warmer than 50 degrees to germinate?  But sure enough, after 10 days, I started seeing little nubs...PHEW!  

I hope they'll be beautiful in about 5 weeks!

(photo courtesy of Floret Farms)

I'm continuing to winter sow as our weekly plastic containers are freed up.  I also started soil blocking this week.  Soil blocking is an alternative to using the black plastic containers that you normally use for seed starting.  It's supposed to cause stronger growth and allow you to start many more seeds in less space than with the plastic.  

First, you have to sift all of the big chunks out of your peat moss.

Sixteen cups of this sifted peat moss is mixed with 4 cups of composted manure, 1/4 cup of rock phosphate, and 1/4 cup of green sand (those last two are...fertilizers?).  You add water until you get a mud pie-like slurry and then pack it into your handy soil blocker, which compresses the mixture and pops out 2" blocks, ready for seeding.

Blocks are seeded and placed on cafeteria trays, which are then placed on heat mats until the seeds germinate.  You bottom-water by adding the water to the cafeteria tray, and the blocks wick it up.  A sprinkle of vermiculite on top helps retain moisture and stop algae growth.  These little blocks can hold a seedling for 4 - 6 weeks and then be popped directly into the ground, so no transplant shock.

They are VORACIOUS drinkers and I'm watering these twice per day.  Plus some other seeds that I started upstairs on heat mats. Plus keeping the sweet peas, anemones, and ranuculus watered.  Oh, and the Aerogarden.  It's taking a lot of time and energy!  I just hope that it works!  It's all new to me this year.

It's just too cold to work in my potting station, so I've dragged everything into the house, which has been completely overtaken by debris.  We're crunching over big grains of salt from our walkway that we've just been too busy to sweep up.  A big bag of composted manure...manure!...is spilling over on our dining room floor.  Big bags of other ingredients are spread around, plus two big mixing tubs, cafeteria trays, grow lights, heat mats.  Oh, and the house smells like old, wet dirt from the soil blocks.  It's making me crazy, but hopefully, within a week, it will be warm enough to move out to the potting addition.  Todd has worked hard to set up a "grow tent" in that cold space, and once the indoor temperature hits at least 45 degrees, I should be able to move around comfortably.  

One...more...week...and no more manure in the house!  One of my current top life goals right now.

Have a great week!