My Early Spring Show and Tell!

I have had these pictures loaded for several days now-just haven't had the time to add narrative. But tonight, after reading so many spring blogs, I so wanted to add mine to the show and tell.



Isn't this a lovely flower? I love the blueness of it. Anybody want to take a guess as to what it is?

The forsythia stems my cousin sent home with me a couple of weeks ago have provided many smiles for me as I do the dishes. I have the vase sitting in my kitchen window and the bright yellow blooms are so cheery. (I am hoping they will take root!)

I did get a couple of flats planted on the 10th. I planted several varieties most of which came through the seed exchange or from very generous bloggers.

Sunflowers are up in 5 days.

As well as several others.

A week ago the these tulips were just a couple of inches tall.

60+ degree temps and they are growing very quickly!

All of the iris I transplanted from my Mother-in-Law's last summer have new growth. I am SOOO happy.

And in the few days since I loaded these pictures, I have seen day lilies sprouting, green shoots of yarrow, and new growth on the Silver Mound Artemisia! Yea spring. I think it is truly here.. :} I hope you are enjoying spring in your gardens.

Getting Back on Track!

I'm pretty sure some of you think I might have fallen off the face of the earth. I seem to be posting less and less these past few weeks. For that I am sorry. It's been a cold, hard, long winter and I have gotten very lazy. I have enjoyed reading others' post, trying to leave cheerful and witty comments, but even that has been an effort some days.

Today, however, we had lovely blue skies and temperatures close to 60! Those things combined with a seed starting seminar at a local garden center have somewhat renewed my energies. At least my thoughts have once again turned to gardening and more importantly, to blogging and sharing.

Rose and I made our way to the garden center about 9:00 this morning. Grabbing a cup of their free coffee, we seated ourselves close to the front-all the better to see my dear! I think she is going to do a post on the actual information we received so I won't go into that, but we did get a 20% discount on all seed starting necessities.

I bought several of these type of peat pots. Last year I had very good luck with them and when it came time to transplant they easily went straight into the ground or container without worrying about damaging the roots. I think I will use these for morning glories ( Heavenly Blue!), sunflowers , Sweet Autumn clematis(from Racquel) and Verbena Bonariensis and Shirley single poppies (from Cheryl). Also, I am going to try, moon flower and Purple Hyacinth beans (from Monica).

I also got a plastic tray with the cell packs and a top. I used this last year also and was pleased with the results. I stopped short of buying anything else as I knew I had some things left from last year and just need to take inventory before getting too carried away.

In these flats I intend to plant some zinnias, Antirrhinum, Love-in-a-Mist (from Cheryl), Mexican Mint Marigold, Cow Pen Daisy (from Aunt Debbi) and probably several other varieties I haven't bought yet. The seeds from Monica and Aunt Debbi were part of a seed swap started by Monica that Rose and I participated in. That was a lot of fun and we had a great afternoon looking through all the seeds and deciding which ones to try.

When thinking about doing this post, I Googled seed starting and found a few great sites with much more info. One has the time it takes for different seeds to germinate and be ready to transplant outdoors. This one is really interesting and tells how to plant each flower by name. The other site has information on seed starting medium, light, water, etc. Also very interesting and was a lot of what we discussed in the seminar.

With all this seed starting to look forward to-still a couple of weeks too early here-I am beginning to dream of flowers blooming in great masses all over my gardens.

Hope you have a garden dream going!

Zick Dough, Starting Seeds and Geese!

It is a beautiful spring day with the sun shinning and the promise of temps near 60. I have concocted a double batch of Zick dough for the birds and am letting it cool before putting it outside. Seeing this dough mentioned on several blogs peaked my curiosity and finally Beth had a link to the recipe. She promises my camera and I will be very busy taking pictures of all the birds coming to dine!
I have all the essentials gathered to start my seeds indoors. I have the Jiffy instant peat pellets, and will admit it's been years since I have tried these. Actually, it's been years since I've attempted to grow my own seedlings. But as there have been many of you posting on the how's, I am feeling fairly confident. I am also using the plastic trays with individual cups that you fill with seed starting soil. Both of these trays have clear tops to keep in the moisture. I even bought a grow light, something I have never used. In past attempts, I placed the newly sown seeds in a west facing window and assumed nature would do her thing! Last, but certainly not least, I have a new pair of gardening gloves. Any gardener, novice or experienced, knows gloves are part of the ensemble. Usually the more tattered and threadbare, the more one is perceived as a 'green thumb' gardener. In my case, I have no such illusions and besides my old ones were last used pulling wild berry briers out of the wisteria.

So the problem now becomes what to plant. I have really let my eyes overload my plate so to speak. My enthusiasm is greater than space or my purse allows, and I will have to give careful consideration to my choices. If, in a few days, I post pictures of tiny seedlings growing, you will know I have had success. If no photos show up... well, let's just hope for a bumper crop.

I did find a new garden marker that pretty well sums up my gardens!While I was is town doing my many but necessary (ugh!) errands, I decided to take a few moments for me. Along one of our newly developed business areas are several water retention ponds. They are populated mostly with Canadian geese who have multiplied by scores in the last few years. And they are almost tame now, with people feeding them year round. They are so funny to watch as they turn en masse on the water and swim toward the new source of food. The braver ones come bounding up the bank as fast as their gated wobble will let them. They hiss and honk, flap their wings, and charge at the more timid ones sneaking in on their booty of bread crumbs. Some are even bold enough to take morsels from your hand. It is pure joy to be among them.

Refreshed, I went back to doing errands!