It was time to get busy with my plants in the basement again. Some of the stock plants were up to the lights and ready for cutting. Others were pot bound and needed a bigger home for their roots. Others were ready for a good cleaning again. A few of them needed some insect control (white flies on the Lantana again). The bench was ready for a good shuffling around and cleaning out of all the trays. Everything was swept up and taken out to the compost pile if it was no long attached to a plant.
The Canna rhizomes were hadn't been cleaned and potted yet and it is getting a little late in the winter if I want good sized plants to put in the garden in June. I also put my favorite yellow begonia tuber in a pot for the umpteenth time. I never have successfully gained more than one plant from year to year, but it is such a sunny spot in the shade. Promises to myself to buy more each year go unfulfilled.
I divided plants again as I had last year so my Mandevilla vine is up to four. I have not propagated it by cuttings, just divided the original pot each year as the four cutting became bigger and stronger plants each season. It was fun to pull them apart and see what is going on in the pot. The roots reminded me of dividing asparagus ferns when I worked in the greenhouse with their swollen, watery root nodules. I also divided my Pennisetum grass into four. All the dividing and new seeding means it was time to set up more areas for plants. Some of them are in a sunny south facing window on the second floor. I have never set up a table here before, but it was handy and easy to set up. The small room is cramped for space now, but it is so pleasant to sit and look at all those plants and think about spring.
I also had to add the power cord to my kitchen window light and add the boot trays for catching the water from the cuttings and seedlings. I have my second round of coleus rooting in jars and have moved my seedlings under the light as well. I left the micro-greens in the basement since their was still room for them yet. It is a nice problem to have when the space is getting tight. For me it means that spring is just around the corner. My next round of seeding is the first weekend of April for some of the early crops and longer season varieties. It was good to sit down and get it all in order so I can see at a glance what is coming up. Knowing that seeding is close meant looking at my supply of clean plastic trays and inserts. I was low on some and had to run a bucket of hot bleach water to sterilize pots today, so some inserts also went into the soaking bucket for 10 minutes of sanitation time.
With the wedding last fall I did not clean up pots with my fall clean up last year as I did in 2012. As a result, I have a shelf full of dirty pots, trays, and liners in my garage that I will have to deal with soon. It is nice to not have to think about cleaning pots every time I want to do some upgrading or pricking out of seedlings. My store shelves are empty and will have to be replenished. Unfortunately, my garden gnomes have not been much help in this area. I found a warm spot on the south side of the house and got busy cleaning a small batch to get me started. The snow has melted here, but you can see in the background that there is plenty of white on the yards yet. I am still looking at getting that cold frame put together so I can use this nice, warm patch of ground for an early crop of lettuce. Maybe next weekend.
Things are getting hot and heavy in my little basement greenhouse. I had an excellent weekend of outdoor gardening so the indoor seeding waited for another couple days. I hope I don't regret putting it off with plants too small to transplant later. I was able to prick out my peppers, Celosia, and Heliotrope. I had to make decisions about only keeping what I need instead of saving every plant. Sometimes it is hard to toss some things on the compost pile, but I make myself feel better that I saved the best of them for planting. My last batch of coleus is also almost fully rooted. The first batch is ready to be nipped back to promote side shoots. This makes a better plant over having a single stem heading up. Try it, you'll like it! Tomatoes are almost ready to be upgraded, too.
I have also had to make some decisions about what stays in and what goes out. The violas are small but hardy. A few of the seeds I am sowing now also like it cooler so outside they go. I have a rolling rack that can move in and out of the garage for night time protection. I think the petunias are next as they are also a hardy plant once they get hardened off. The geraniums, jasmine and potted mandevilla vines are already on their way to complete outdoor happiness.
The garden beds are filling up with early crops as well. I put in seeds for carrots, beets, chard, kale, radicchio, and pak choy. I also put in my baby cabbages (an actual variety, not a size descriptor), romaine lettuce, onions, and radicchio plants. All have been given a row cover to help them acclimate to the conditions. With temps around 80 today, they are also going to be ready for water. Time to break out the hoses until the rain barrels get their first fill. I did not turn them until this weekend as we still had nights in the 30's when we were getting all that rain.
I dug in my asparagus roots on Sunday with compost from last year. I used some of the soil from the trench to pot up my honey berries and kiwi vines as they came bare root. The areas that they are to be planted in are in prep stage. The plants were starting to leaf out, so holding them in pots is better for the health of the plants. The chicken-in-the-woods mushroom plugs are also going into the same area. These can wait in the frig for longer.
