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.
I have been puttering around in the basement with my underground greenhouse. The stock plants are growing again after the up grade to 3" pots last month and the cuttings on them are starting to become substantial enough to make this year's coleus crop. Once that is done, I will be able to open up a few spots under the lights and get busy seeding.
The onions got their first hair cut today. They were getting a little floppy so off with their heads! This will push growth to the roots again and start strengthen the bulb-effect which onions are meant to do.
After looking in every catalog and seed rack for annual baby's breath I finally found it! Aldi market had a few odd items on their seed rack and I scored the baby's breath which is on my daughter's wish list for her October bridal bouquet. Perennial would bloom to early. With annual baby's breath, I can seed successive crops in hopes of getting them when I need them.
My mushroom plugs came yesterday for Chicken-in-the-woods. We have several spruce "stumps" from the removal of our Norway spruce two years ago. Spruce is ideal for this variety of shroom. I have to wait for the ground to thaw to start this project.
I often wish that people would be willing to comment back on the blog. I am interested in knowing what some of the other gardeners are up to. Maybe someone will get brave.
The larger, hardy plants have gotten their eviction notice. Such a cruel thing to do on a cool, rainy morning. But, it had to be done. My jasmine, scented geranium trees, mandevilla vine and rosemary all got moved to the north side of the garage to start the acclimation process. They are just steps away from the service door, so should cold weather strike, I move them in there to take cover.
I moved a few of the potted items outdoors as well this morning. My ivy geraniums and citronella geraniums were put into larger pots and put on the rolling rack. The alpine strawberry boxes are added weight to the shelves for now, but will find a home hanging on the fence or someplace else soon. I added casters to this shelf last fall. Now I will be able to roll it into the garage on cold nights instead of moving the flats in one by one to the floor of the garage. Next week will result in more evictions as I need the space indoors.
The reason for the evictions was two fold. First, the larger plants need to acclimate. Second, I ran out of room and transplanting had to be done. My tomatoes have a good set of second leaves with strong centers. I upgraded my Black-eyed Susan vines (Thunbergia). I flatted up the rooted coleus. Also completed transplanting of tomatoes, agastache, some petunias, and parsley. I came up with a solution for getting the new transplants within 6" of the lights. I turned over 4, 4" pots at the corners of the flats to give them a boost up towards the lights.
I had great germination of the Thunbergia which are starting to vine. For Christmas, my sister gave each of us a Topsy-Turvy strawberry planter. I was not going to use it for strawberries so that became my transplanting vessel for some of the vines. The variety I bought this year is Spanish Eyes, which is slightly lighter than the traditional Black-eyed Susan vines I have had, which I grew from saved seed with a 25% germination rate. Some of these will go along the fence to vine in with the sweet peas, which will fade during the warm weather. I also had some with the Sweet Autumn clematis last year. The yellow and white combination was beautiful last fall.
I have to balance the check book now so I can get over to the garden center today for more potting soil. I am sticking with a light-weight mix which has served me well for indoor use. I will also get some for the pots which will be coming together soon. This winter I purchased an organic blend which was intended for indoor use. I was skeptical of the heavier weight it had and it seemed to have "something" weird about it. White flies showed up soon after (which I never had in my house before). Another minus of this blend was that all the seed I started with this as my base layer had extremely poor germination. Hard lessons are learned when I try to move forward against my better judgement. Maybe I will listen to myself next time. I really need to get a move on as time is running short in the day. The garden center will not be a quick trip as I will want to browse. Enjoy your own weekend. Now that spring is really here, take time to stop and smell the flowers.
 |
| Jasmine |
