Thursday, March 25, 2010

Breaking News at Millertime!

We interrupt the review of 2009 garden adventures for this breaking news: Spring is making a stand at Millertime in a big way! After nearly 2 weeks of highs in the 40's and 50's with lows above freezing, I have germination in my wintersow trays! Perennial lupine 'Sunrise' for one-how exciting! I had left the lids intact with no holes, and had the trays on the porch. Time to put holes in the lid and set the trays out to get exposure to rain now that I have germination! (Conventional wintersowing wisdom has the tray lids with holes and trays out in weather from the start, I have done it both ways with decent results.)To put holes in the thin plastic lids, I selected a drill bit designed to cut holes specifically...
....and it worked out rather well! I didn't get any tears or jagged holes unless I got impatient and pushed too hard.
I did have to pick up these little cutouts, no big deal.........there! Out amongst my "pot graveyard" for now. We have quite a cold snap settling in today though.......and I hope some of these seedlings don't freeze out! Along with the lupine, my broccoli 'Packman' has germinated....
....alyssum 'Benthamii'....

...and cabbage 'Caraflex'. If the lows in the teens and 20's over the next few days don't kill them outright, maybe the temps will stay higher after that. (Yea, it is way too early to believe our freezes are over, but I can dream :)

Elsewhere around the yard there are lots of leaves that need raked, but it's a tad early to remove all the cover from the flowerbeds....
....but some piles accumulate from raking the yard only. I also got some planting done...
...perennial Dame's Rocket from my mom (she is in zone 5 where temps got them growing well already)....
...also this blue, brushy-looking sedum. (I'm not sure of the name).

Winds died down in the evening enough for the first fire of the season...

...but only in my fire pit. (Way too dry to burn anywhere else.) Hooray spring!

6 comments:

MrBrownThumb said...

I'm sooo jealous of your seed starting organization. I haven't even gotten around to it, yet. Too wrapped in garden blogging nonsense to get organized.

lisa said...

For me, that's a drawback of blogging: I often find myself spending too much time typing and not enough time DOING. Once the weather starts to break like this though, a wheelchair couln't keep me indoors! :)

troutbirder said...

My you've been busy Lisa. I don't come out of winter hibernation quite so easily! :)

lisa said...

I can understand that! I'm just so happy to get this season underway...can't help myself! :)

Anonymous said...

I can't even get IN my garden with all the rain we've been having.
It's great for pulling weeds and unwanted plants, but too boggy to plant.
Good old Texas...the land of One Extreme or The other....
v.

lisa said...

That's just so weird to me...it has been a very dry spring up here so far. I've even been watering!