Yes, I meant to post this yesterday, but the weekend extended into yesterday with the kids being off for Spring Break. It’s amazing how quickly you lose track of which day is which when your schedule has been altered.
We managed to get a lot done, and I’ll post a separate entry in a little while with some pics related to the gardening aspect. The biggest thing I’m celebrating at the moment is I got all my pics uploaded to Flickr…all 6200+ of them. No, that is not a typo, and yes, I have a professional account there, lol! The photos span approximately 10 years, and in this way relatives all over the US can peek in and see us grow as a family. Most of the photos are set to personal/family viewing only, but I’ll go through and make some public as I get a chance to sift through them. Luckily I made sets according to the year the photos were taken, so they’re at least organized that much.
I keep adding seeds/plants to the garden as the days go by, and slowly but surely things are starting to settle in and grow. The husky cherry and hybrid tomato plants have tomatoes on them, and the yellow pear tomato has blooms, so hopefully it won’t be too far behind in production. The Marglobe tomato bushes are still small, so nothing to report there. I made my one cabbage that survived the freeze a “sacrificial” cabbage–critters have been nibbling on it, so I left it in the garden since they seem to be paying more attention to the cabbage and leaving the rest of the plants alone. As big as it is, there will be plenty to nibble for quite a while. If it distracts the animal life, it is more than serving a noble purpose.
The snow peas have sprouted, the cantaloupe is coming along, one squash is peeking through the dirt and the cucumbers are putting on their third set of leaves. Still waiting on the cayenne and Anaheim peppers, but they were planted last. The carrots are ticking me off–none have sprouted. Yes, I still have a bed full of carrots, but I need to get the next generation going. And considering the seeds were from a multicolor pack of carrots, I’ve been anxiously waiting for them to do something! Yesterday I took a large pot, filled it with potting soil and sowed a handful of the multicolored carrots in there. I figured that way I could keep a close eye on them and see if I can spot a problem or not. With carrots, for me it’s all or nothing–they either all sprout, or they don’t. There’s nothing in between. The pumpkin seems to be extremely happy, and the bell peppers are chugging along. Oh, and the broccoli is coming back from the roots of the plants that froze this past winter–woohoo! Spinach is still doing great with no bolting in sight, along with the onions.
The windowsill herbs have sprouted–sweet basil, oregano and dill. The chives did not, so I bought a new packet of seeds and replanted the blue vase. The other seeds were old, so I’m hoping that’s what the problem was. I also put fresh dirt in one of my long windowsill planters outside and planted more basil and dill. Didn’t have to plant any thyme, since the large planter I have has more than doubled in size.
We stopped by Mexico Lindo, a Mexican pottery place out 1604–only place I know of where you can get large pots, and I do mean large, for $5. We picked up a half dozen. Grabbed some plants, seeds and dirt from Lowes, where they were having a sale, and planted all six pots, setting them along the perimeter of the front yard where we have a bench and some chairs. I also replanted a bed near the front door that had been killed by the freeze, and I put in yellow gladiolas, white caladiums, and a mixture of Nasturtium, Johnny Jump Ups and mini dahlia seeds. I’ll go into more description in the pic blog, especially regarding a tropical plant I picked up at Lowes.
Hubby and Andrew worked in the yard, picking up limbs, raking leaves and tidying up winter’s discards. We’re getting ready to put in a third bed in the backyard using the lasagna method, and I’m going to let Katherine have that one this year. She saved up her money and bought her own gardening gloves and watering can–you should have seen the customers and cashier clucking over her when they realized what she chose to save and spend her own money on, lol! I let her pick out all the flower seeds she wanted and I bought those, so we’ll have an eclectic flower bed in the backyard this year, if all goes well. Keep your fingers crossed!
Well, I’ll wrap this up here. Still have a lot on my to-do list to get accomplished while the morning is still, well, morning. *Grin* Next blog entry will have lots of photos, I promise!
Petals of Yesterday 