Rainy days in the garden
Costco Bulbs
Looky what I got at Costco. Look for these varieties and many more at Costcoriffic prices.
Hail yesterday, cleaning denial today
On the plus side, it’s not raining. On the minus side, it’s too chilly outside to do anything but run back inside! I was resigned to the necessity of tackling deferred domestic drudgery today, but then I saw my morning glory seeds bursting to life in a water-filled juice glass. Saved by the seeds.
They were an impulse purchase (Raley’s sells morning glory seeds? Cool!). I’d decided to plant them in the ground in early April until I lifted the seed packs off my kitchen counter yesterday and discovered they were wet. Whatever the cause, I needed to nick and soak the seeds in case they’d been inadvertently awakened from dormancy. The packet recommends using nail clippers to nick the hard dark seed coat. I nicked, then I plopped and today I planted all fifty or so plump, already-sprouting seeds.
I mixed a pack of ‘Early Call Mix’ with a pack of ‘Flying Saucers’ so I’ll be looking at an unrestrained mix of lavender, white, hot pink, purple, pale pink surrounded by white and “tie-dye” blue and white.
I’ll be checking today’s mail for tomato seeds. My TGS order is taking its sweet time getting to me from, jeeze, where the heck are they? They’re in Florida! I can just picture a heroic Floridian mail carrier rescuing my seeds from snapping alligators or crocodiles or whatever man-eating creatures accompany them on their daily mail routes. If the gators didn’t get my tomato seeds, then maybe a hurricane did. Luckily, I’ve got ‘Black’, ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Copia’ already up and runnin’ in the greenhouse.
Well, it’s time for me to face the cleaning music. That’s it… I need some cleaning music. Wonder what’s new on iTunes?
Bean Teepee
In preparation for warm-season veggie gardening, I made two bean teepees… for my beans, of course. I added horizontal rows of twine for additional support. The teepees are open in front to allow for harvesting inside the teepee.
I was a little concerned about the beans casting shade on my greenhouse until I realized that by the time the beans reach the top of the teepee, the sun will be nearly overhead and the greenhouse probably won’t be in use since I mostly use it in Fall, Winter and Spring.
Starting Plants
I bid on and won two unrooted cuttings of ‘Slightly Sassy’ epiphyllum on ebay and was given ‘Ferris Wheel’ and another variety as a bonus. I’m finding more and more that ebay can be a great source for new and interesting plants. And “Epis” can be addicting. I started with an unrooted cutting of a red-flowering epi from a friend. It’s done very well and now I’m able to share it around. Yep, epis are addicting and epis are for sharing.
On the seed front, several flower varieties are germinating in the greenhouse. Pictured below are my nasturtium ‘Whirlybird Cherry Rose’ seedlings. Nasturtiums are so fun to germinate because they always seem to come up, the seeds are big and round and easy to plop into seed-starting mix, and they germinate very quickly. Whenever I start wondering if the seemingly microsopic seeds I planted simply blew away or are just taking their sweet time germinating, I just look at my nasturtiums for comfort. Good old dependable, visible-to-the-naked-eye nasturtiums…
Angela’s Stock Photography
