We had a nice showing of sunflowers this year. Most of them were volunteers, and most blooms are done now. I do enjoy a good volunteer. The birds seem to like the dried blooms. We will most definitely be feeding the birds more sunflower seeds this winter. Sorry to mention that season already.
(Here is the sunflower set on Flickr if the above slideshow doesn’t play for you.)
In this yogurt container grows a future magical forest. Each acorn was etched with unicorn horn by the unicorn himself. Sometimes though the engraved designs were a little juvenile, akin to what you might see in bathroom stalls, but still very magical and very powerful.
(Click the image for a larger view)
The grouping of the acorns corresponds to the stars in the late March sky. The alignment is critical to bridge the realms of our worlds. It also makes for a nice photo.
(Click the image for a larger view)
And so the forest grows and brings haven to all magical creatures – except for magical snakes because Anne doesn’t much care for them.
Most gardening books and seed packets will suggest planting for the least amount of re-planting. It makes a lot of sense. It saves soil, time and effort. It also likely produces less shock on the fragile seedlings. But in the Midwest and north, Winter is long and boring. If you glance back a few posts, you can see I gave in and started some veggie seeds in late February. With this jump start on the season, it becomes necessary to have lights, a good watering ethic, and eventually the resources to manage potting on.
Potting on becomes a very quiet, meditative experience. There is a certain rhythm to it. I can’t claim to have actually found that rhythm. I have always been a bit rhythmically challenged. Still, it was a day spent with dirt and sun, and that was nice. I did find myself a little bored toward the end of the day, but I potted on over 30 eggplant, over 50 tomatoes, and several peppers. Have loads more to go, but ran myself out of room.
That’s the other thing you need when potting on – space, and lots of it.
Starting vegetable seedlings indoors seems to awaken a completely irrational part of my brain. I even planned things out this year with a spreadsheet and everything. Didn’t matter. When it came time to actually plant these cute little storehouses of potential, I couldn’t help but do one more flat of peppers, and entire flat of basil, several extra okra… Whatever I was planting, I consistently over-planted.
Naturally, I justify such actions with a nod to science (“with one seed per cell, I can better calculate germination rates”), and a glance to past experience (“I will likely lose some of these to carelessness and weather, so I better plant a few extra”). It’s all a bunch of crap really. I want to watch my forest of seedlings grow. I want to plant them all in this magical garden that weeds itself and only takes a few bug-free moments to harvest. I want to eat the freshness of the sun and rain. That’s my intention with these seeds. My expectations are enormous, and completely irrational.
*Click on the images for a better view*
I did plant many of these to sell at the plant sales – so I haven’t completely lost my mind. So, come shop for plants and buy a few veggies while you are at it. More info coming soon on the sale days, times and location.
I’ve waited as long as I can possibly wait. This weekend the veggie garden seeds were started in a bigger than usual way – a full orchestra accompanied the task, complete with oboe! Okay, that’s a lie, but I did plant more seeds than before. I normally seed two/three seeds per cell, but given the small-celled plug trays we bought, I decided planting just one seed per cell would be a more economical use of seeds. Less economical use of soil, but these are really small cells (200 per tray in the photo).
Yep, I planted 200 pepper seeds. It seems like a lot for us, but some varieties are interesting (YumYum Gold, Healthy Organic Red, Bulgarian Carrot…) and could possibly appear at our plant sales starting in May. I anticipate more potting-on will be required with these plug trays. That will be time-consuming, but worth it maybe. I also started tomatoes, artichoke, eggplant, a few Chinese lantern flowers, and radish this weekend — the radish were planted in the hoop-house. Obviously, there are no guarantees on any of these. Our seedlings usually do very well until we neglect to open a cold frame and fry them, or forget to close a cold frame and freeze them. With any luck, we will have learned these lessons already and not need to learn them again.
We’ve placed our first seed order for 2010 from Pinetree Garden Seeds. Take a look at the potential garden.
SMALL SUGAR PUMPKIN (95 days heirloom)
KIWANO HORNED MELON (90 days)
RED BURGUNDY OKRA (55 days)
BEER FRIEND SOY BEAN
ROSE ORACH (heirloom)
TABASCO PEPPER (85 days)
MINNESOTA MIDGET MELON (60 days)
KENTUCKY WONDER BEAN (66 day heirloom)
CYLINDRA BEET (58 days heirloom)
GERMAN GIANT RADISH (37 days heirloom)
CHERRY BRANDY RUDBECKIA
TENDER SWEET (heirloom)
LEMON CUCUMBER (65 days heirloom)
HOMEMADE PICKLES CUCUMBER (54 days)
TURKISH ORANGE EGGPLANT (heirloom)
LAVENDER TOUCH (F1 hybrid 66 days)
PENGUIN GOURD
PEPINO (95 days)
BANANA MELON (80 days heirloom)
FRECKLES LETTUCE (70 days)
SUHYO TK CUCUMBER (65 days)
ORANGE SUN PEPPER (81 days)
PAPRIKA PEPPER (80 days)
CAYENNE-LONG PEPPER (70 days heirloom)
EIGHTBALL ZUCCHINI (F1 hybrid 35 days)
PAPAYA PEAR SQUASH (F1 hybrid 40 days)
CARNIVAL SQUASH (F1 hybrid 85 days)
DELICATA SQUASH (heirloom)
OREGON SPRING TOMATO (68 days)
KELLOGGS BREAKFAST TOMATO (79 days)
WHITE SWAN ECHINACEA
CHIOGGIA BEET (55 days heirloom)
VIRGINIA GOLD TOBACCO
MOULIN ROUGE SUNFLOWER
FANTASIA MIXTURE SUNFLOWER(F1)
STATE FAIR MIX ZINNIA
