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From 7am until around 10, D and I worked in the yard, planting. He ordered a whole bunch of bee balm and hardy fuchsia varieties plus one really cool butterfly bush from Big Dipper Farms which arrived the other day. He bought them all for the humminbirds' benefit. Who's obsessed with hummers now, hmmmm??
So, we planted the butterfly bush and a few of the bee balm in this bed...
and the fuchsias went in the fenced veggie garden (along the fence) because we don't know if the deer'll eat them.
The bed pictured above has changed quite a bit since this pic was taken. I've since ALSO inserted two mugo pines near the front and removed the dogwood. The deer have eaten EVERY SINGLE LEAF off of the dogwoods I've planted. They've all gone in pots and onto the deck. I don't think the deer are brave enough to get up on the deck YET.
My seedlets are doing well in the greenhouse. The zinnias and tomatoes have all sprouted so I put them right up under the lights...
And, the hummingbirds (I estimate there are 4 - 6 of them already) are CRAZY lately. They had us ducking and cringing this morning when we got too close to their "area". It's amazing they can zoom that close to us and NOT hit us!
I got some good video of the hummers jockeying for space at the feeder, but don't know if I can post video on here.
All for today!
Well, that greenhouse has powers. I planted all those seeds on Saturday and couldn't believe that some of them have already sprouted. That was fast! I propped the plastic lids up on those trays. When all of them have sprouted, I'll remove the lids altogether and give 'em some artificial light.
I'm way behind on posting pics, darnit. I can't get my act together. I even planned to take pics of the seed packets I used, so I could remember which EXACT kind I bought in case any were real keepers, but I STILL haven't gotten around to it.
However, I remember that the tomatoes were: steak sandwich hybrid, sungold, yellow pear, currant, beefsteak, delicious, and...one more I can't remember. Maybe sweet 100. Yeah, I think that's it. For herbs, I planted 3 kinds of basil (my fave), thai, sweet and purple. Then, there's two kinds of dill, greek oregano, cilantro, and flat leaf parsley. For flowers, I planted two kinds of columbine, two kinds of zinnia, foxglove (the deer never touch 'em), and some more I can't remember. OH! I planted some bell peppers, too. I'm going to try growing the peppers in containers and move them into the greenhouse at the end of the season so I can actually get ripe peppers for once in this zone. It'll be interesting to see if it works.
3 more schooldays till break.
This weekend, I finally was able to plant all the seeds we'd bought AND sow the pea and greens seeds in the garden.
So, using 3 of the Jiffy trays (with the little soil cells that swell when rehydrated), I planted over 200 cells. I'll have to post the list of the seeds I planted later when I'm on the desktop. Then, in a raised bed, I planted arugula, mesclun mix, spinach and kale. Next to the fence, I planted a long row of snap peas.
And now, we wait!
It's been cold and rainy, but today we had some sun. I was out today, weeding and cleaning up and I grabbed the hummer feeder to take it in to be cleaned/refilled and a hummer buzzed right nearby. I froze and waited and for the first time, a male hummer ate "out of my hand". I was beside myself and D stood on, frozen as well, silently cursing our lack of camera. Of course, I went in and got the camera later and tried to repeat the event, but the hummers wouldn't play along. I know lots of people have gotten hummers to feed while they're holding a feeder, but I've been trying for years, and this is the first time it happened.
Spring break countdown: 5 more schooldays
My husband secretly took the day off of work today to rent a trench-digger, hire an electrician and get our greenhouse up and running. All winter I was bummed that we hadn't gotten the thing electrified as I'd been looking forward to starting my veggies really early this year. Today, when I got home, he kept telling me to go take a look at the strawberries we'd been overwintering in the greenhouse. "They're practically producing berries already," he kept sayingI could've cared less about checking out the strawberries and was tired and hungry. Finally, he got me to go to the greenhouse while he waited inside. The second I saw the trench, I looked at the greenhouse and saw LIGHTS on inside! Needless to say I was pretty excited. I jumped up and down and clapped like a goofball. When I ran back inside and screamed at him "HOW DID YOU DO THIS," he told me he'd stayed home all day to get it all done and had had it planned for a long time. It's my late birthday present. He's a good one, eh?
So...now we're trying to figure out the heater/thermostat and the automatic vent/fan and light system out there. I have some seeds I need to plant and I STILL need to buy some tomato seeds. I don't know much about greenhouse gardening and I don't want to waste electricity by heating/cooling uncecessarily out there, but I think this'll just have to be one of those learn by doing things. Either way, I'm going to plant my seedlings this weekend at the latest and hopefully get a really good jumpstart on the season. I guess we'll just turn our heater on when we know for sure the night time temps will dip below 50 degrees or so (which'll be every night for a long while, I think). The trick will be to remember to turn the heater off before we leave for work. I don't trust the thermostat to turn the heat off when the temp gets too high while we're gone. Maybe this weekend, I'll test it out when I can be around and watch it working.
Well, signing out for tonight. MUCH more excited about spring gardening now, thanks to the hubby.
I just heard the MC Hammer song in my head when I typed that.
So, I knew the hummers were back in this area because a friend said her mom had one on her patio on Thursday/Friday, so I was watching like a hawk. I KNEW we'd see on this weekend and yesterday I was just staring out at the feeder, willing a hummer to fly by, and LO, there he was, buzzing by and landing on the snowball tree, in the rain. HOT DAMN! I was so thrilled.
This morning it's snowing, so I have to keep clearing the snow out of the holes on the feeder. I wonder if the hummers are thinking "I flew back for THIS?!" There is NOTHING blooming for them yet. Not even the currants have bloomed yet. Without a feeder HOW do they find nectar? It's a mystery to me!
I've decided that until we get electricity in the greenhouse, I'm just going to plant peas/lettuce/spinach now and wait until May and buy tomato plants instead of planting my own now. Maybe I'll find some cool variety of tomato at the farmer's market in town again like I did one year with the famous "Russian tomato" I bought. They were the best tomatoes ever and I don't know the name of them. I bought 'em from a Russian guy, so I've called them "russian tomatoes", but I haven't seen them there again. Bummer. They were big, ugly looking things that tasted like heaven.
Actually, I'll probably get them online. Gurneys, maybe. Anyone have any favorites you've grown in the Pacific NW? I've had a lot of luck with sungold (I think that's what they were called) yellow cherry tomatoes. Early girls never taste that great when I grow 'em and I haven't tried a lot of heirlooms yet.
I love yams and I've been wondering if anyone's ever tried to grow any in the PNW? Is it possible, or is the season too short/cool?
Also in the plans is a new, large bed in front of the garage, facing the road. It really needs some landscaping desperately. I'll post pics later on.
Off to do the laundry!
Countdown to spring break: 10 weekdays
It's time to start thinking about gardening again. For some reason I'm not as excited as I usually am. Checking out my old entries helped a little, but, still...I'm not in the right mindset yet. Partly, I'm a little frustrated that we haven't gotten our greenhouse electrified yet. I was looking forward to planting all my veggies early in it, but now, I don't know how well the seedlings will do when we still have so many cold, overcast days to go before planting time. I don't want to start them inside because the cats will eat the seedlings unless I lock 'em up in the laundry room and that room is tiny and doesn't get great light. Maybe by NEXT spring we'll have electricity out there!
I bought some lettuce, spinach, peas, cilantro, basil, yellow squash, zucchini, cukes, and red and white onions. I also got a little herb garden kit from a friend for my birthday which includes dill, marjoram, thyme, chives, oregano, lavender, and a few others. I'm thinking about planting two small whiskey barrels full of just herbs to keep on the deck close to the kitchen door.
D and I went to Raintree Nursery today to explore. Their prices are HIGH, but they have some interesting varieties of fruit and nut trees/bushes you can't find anywhere else. All we really wanted was a hardy fuschia, and some bee balm, so this was a "just for fun" trip to the nursery.
We already have the hummer feeder out just in case. Hopefully, we'll see them soon.
From this site, I can see that we were still getting SNOW in late April, so I know we have a long way to go here, but I am excited about the few signs of spring I've been seeing. The autumn joy sedum, catmint and stella daylilies are coming up in the deck bed. The currant has nice big buds which is especially exciting because when if flowers, the hummers should be here!
Wish it was a 3 day weekend, but BACK TO WORK tomorrow. Pout.
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