Oh my goodness! I started the first of our up north test garden veggie seeds last Saturday (May 4). 5 days later this is what we have.
I suspect we will have plenty of kale and pickling plume lettuce this year. Still waiting on the asparagus. I might have messed those seeds up. I didn’t soak them ahead of time. We’ll see.
This week we received the heirloom seeds we ordered for the first test garden up north.
Next up is upcycling toilet paper and paper towel rolls for the next month, to be used as biodegradable seedling starter plant pots.
Since the size of our townhome is modest, and I am super into a peaceful, uncluttered home, I am struggling a bit with the amount of stuff that is being staged in our townhome, waiting to go up north, at least two months out. If it has to collect, it needs to stay organized 😉 Hence, the pink craft box. Hopefully things can stay relatively contained until I begin to start the seedlings. Then, unfortunately, I suspect things will be pretty busy looking around here until all those seedlings are safely in the ground.
More to come on how the seedlings will stay safe from the deer, rabbits and moose.
Yesterday I bought heirloom seeds for our test garden up north – pickling plume lettuce, scarlet kale, asparagus, echinacea, zebrina hollyhock (one of my all time favorites), and some more milkweed. I’m getting excited to get started. It feels a bit like old times when I had seed starting trays by our west facing patio door. I suppose I will start the seeds indoors again, but will wait for a month or so. My guess is we won’t plant up there until the end of May or even early June.
Yesterday I also did some “indoor gardening” on the shamrocks and the amaryllis. The shamrocks are the healthiest they have ever looked in March.
Usually by this time at the end of winter they are very scraggly and I can hardly wait to get get them back outside in April so the birds pluck away all the dried stems in between the live ones and use them for their nests. This year it may be a bit longer.
The amaryllis did not bloom for the second year in a row. I suspect I should follow best practices going forward and put it in a dry dark place for a few months. I am, however, tempted to send it to compost in the spring, along with a leggy succulent. We’ll see.
Susan's Daily Garden 