Cardinal Climber

These are the Cardinal Climbers. They are already about 5 inches tall and almost ready to be potted up to the 4" containers!

Today we got a load of compost and I spread it all over half the garden whew. WHAT A FABULOUS DAY!!! sunny and warm aahhh! I put in the supports and planted the snow peas and sugar peas. Noticed self seeding nasturtiums, callendula, and love in a mist. Sure hope we don't get any long freezes between now and spring!

Petunia seeds, where ARE you

I am impatiently awaiting your arrival.

Spent a rejuvenating weekend with Heather pouring over magazines and books like we were cramming for a test (although with a great deal more enthusiasm than I recall from college). Thankfully we had her daughter there to keep us company and make sure we came up for food etc. We narrowed down a few bushes and plants for her amazing yard projects and checked out her new seed growing operation. After meandering through her gardens discovering what had come up overnight and which plants were needed for each location we made a trip in to the feed store in McMinnville, which is adorable. We both bought more seeds as well as the chicken and bird feed we were there for. I came home with a renewed interest in getting the rest of my flower seeds in, which I did while the family was at the Superbowl (oh darn, I missed that).

Plant spacing - this has always been one of my big problems. If you have seen my garden you know that it appears a crazy lady lives within (and perhaps a troll?). The thing I was trying to do was place all my flowers about as if they took root at random. Of course this means I get stuff to close together and forget where half of it is. After spending 3 days with yard and garden books it occurs to me that most lovely gardens have slightly more control. Of course Heather and Jessica have been suggesting this all along but whatever, those two are WAY too structured :) Anyway, this year I am going to attemp more control. I am gonna need help ladies so keep up the prodding! I am going to choose one maaaaaaaaybe 2 places where each type of flower is located and plant them in groups. I figure this is a good way to start. It may end up looking too controlled but I'll take my chances since you cannot control nature once it gets going perhaps if I start out knowing what is going it would help.

Anyone have any experience using a glass bell? You see them in catalogs but they are generally pretty costly. I was thinking perhaps I could find glass containers at the Goodwill and use them. This would contain the area where I germinate seeds that are sowed directly outdoors. Thoughts? I think Huck gave me a mini greenhouse last year that would work for some things - lemme see if I can get Maddie to give it up.

I cannot tell you how great it is to see all the little seeds coming up. My growing center is coming alive each day. A few things even have their fist set of real leaves! i have pictures but they are not up yet sorry.

My first blog

So, Beth tells me I need to blog about our project and of course being me I am like "I don't know what to say" or "I will sound stupid." So I decided enough is enough....I am just going to do it and be proud of it. So here we go!

We planted these the other day: Cardinal climbers, Pansies, and Gaillardia. I know that Beth and Maddie planted some others but I am not sure what those were. We also went to Goodwill and found a lot of interesting pots. It was of course the usual crowd at Goodwill but we survived. Found some cute pots (and more). We planted some cilantro and I put mine in the garden window. I haven't seen any sprouts yet but I know they are coming! It's always exciting to see that first little sprout pop out of the dirt. You are like...it worked...it actually worked! That little, teenie, tiny seed (any some of those seeds are so tiny that you almost need a microscope to see them) produced a living plant. And that plant will grow and grow to who knows how big and give you beautiful blooms and wonderful vegetables.

Also, my husband, Kevin, has started building tomato cages out of cedar. They should last a long time. I will post pics when he is done. They are very sturdy and should work really well. I was just tired of the flimsy wire cages that always seem to fall over at the drop of a hat (Especially with our tomatoes!).

Well, this weekend I plan on planting some more herbs for my garden window and a couple of flowers too. Which reminds me....Kevin went to Fred's yesterday and saw the buy 2 get 1 free deal on seeds. I came home from work and saw the 3 packets sitting on the counter. I thought...hmmmm.....Beth must've brought them over. But why would she? So I asked Kevin and he said he saw the sale and thought they were "cool looking." I never thought my contractor husband would think flowers were "cool looking!"

TTFN,
Jessica

Finally

I got a new camera for x-mas/birthday and every other holiday coming up this year. Unfortunately it turns out my computer is not fast enough to handle the high speed USB so all my carefully crafted pictures were stuck on my camera. I finally realized I could just take out the memory card and use Miles' camera to upload them. Which explains why you now have pictures to view.

Yesterday Maddie and I planted a bunch of flowers. I am sure that some have been started too soon but oh well. I could not hold off any longer. We planted every one of my favorites and a few that were favorites of friends. We spent the afternoon in there discussing the shape and size of each seed some she called "too tiny to see" and others were "big and clumsy".

Today I bought $38 dollars (including shipping) of petunia seeds. I know that some of you think my "petunia habit" is a problem but what is not to love about that plant? It comes in lotsa colors, it grows like a champ, it will allow you to transplant as many times as you fancy, it blooms all season long, AND it is scented!! Really now, tell me another flower that will do as well as this? So this year I bought a bunch.... One double petaled, one hybrid with pink and white called "tie dye" (please who could resist that?) and one pink with a yellow center called "sunshine". And then to even it all out I bought a yellow petunia and Rose wave - which is really short and intense with color. Oooh and I also bought pansy seeds, ones that are supposed to be good in hanging baskets. So that should be fun. They are blue and white. speak up if you want any of these.

Brian has been sick with a flu thing all week and that has kept me from writing you. In addition I have been attempting to keep my house clean and the laundry done. Sooooo this leaves me with about 15 seconds of time to myself which I generally use to floss my teeth since I have serious dental problems right now.

I am planning to go and visit my very good friend, Heather, this weekend and we are going to pour over the scads of garden design books I got from the library and also plant all her seeds. I cannot wait. What joy!