Seed Sowing Time and a Crocus!

This time of year things can change quickly in the garden, especially after a couple of warm and sunny days. I didn't think I had anything blooming yet. Just a few days ago I had walked around looking at the gardens and didn't see anything even close to a bloom and today just before running an errand I looked at one of the flowerbeds on the side of the house and saw this beautiful purple crocus. I wish I'd had more time to play with the camera, but I was in a hurry and just took a few quick shots.


It won't be long and Ill have daffodils blooming too! It really is amazing how quickly things have grown!

Trying to learn from past mistakes, I was determined not to sow my seeds too early this year, so I have patiently waited. Today was the big day! I sowed dill, fennel, parsley, Rose milkweed, butterfly weed, (all for the butterflies), pink and purple wave petunias, impatiens, coleus, Rose Pinwheel zinnia, cilantro, Iceland poppy, and lavender.



This is a picture from last year of my indoor growing system. I have this in the upstairs loft area. It works well and I've had pretty good success so far with this system. As you can see from the picture I sometimes have to get creative with my containers. Last year I also overwintered several gerbera daisies, African daisy and the sweet potato vines . This past autumn I was not feeling well and nothing was brought in to overwinter.

The birds have been singing even louder these last few days and they are starting to get frisky with each other. Ahh... spring is in the air! I'll definitely be keeping a closer eye out on the gardens now, I don't want to miss a single thing.

Seeds

I've been a very patient gardener so far this winter. Last year I wasn't patient and started some seeds as early as February 5th which was way too early for my zone 5 garden. I'm getting antsy to start sowing and will probably begin in the next few days.

Just out of curiosity, I counted my seed packets tonight and so far there are 52, including the ones I collected from my own flower garden. I'm sure I'll be buying more when I go to the Indy Flower and Patio show in a few days. Most of them are zinnias, cosmos and sunflower seeds which will be directly sown in the ground. I can't have too many of those in the garden.

Of course Libby had to get right in the middle of things.

She plopped down on the seeds and began to play with the string on my pajamas. Silly cat!

I had to change my RSS feeds due to the changes with Feedburner and Blotanical. This stuff confuses me and I almost have to do it with my eyes closed because I'm so afraid I'll mess something up. I hope it doesn't cause problems with anyone. Please let me know if something isn't working right.

Autumn Around Robin's Nesting Place

Thank you all for your sweet comments and get well wishes. I apparently don't have the flu, just another virus. I was feeling better today and actually got out to vote. When we pulled into the parking lot, the line was out the door but thankfully our particular precinct had no waiting at all.

It was such a beautiful day and I just couldn't stand to be inside all day. I walked around the yard and took a few pictures. The seed heads of the butterfly weed have opened up and the silky seeds are flying about as the breeze blows.

The way the sun was shining on the seeds reminded me of July 4th sparklers.



The lady bugs are everywhere right now.

I was sad to see the swallowtail caterpillar on the parsley this late in the season. I don't think this little one will make it before the cold weather hits.


The maple tree in my front yard is beautiful right now. I believe this one is an 'October Glory' maple.

I saw another bluebird at the birdbath today but we were on our way out the door to go vote. Hopefully he will come back tomorrow for another dip and I can get more pictures.

Winter Sowing

I read about winter sowing last year and knew I wanted to try this method for growing seeds in 2008.

Last year I purchased shelves and lights to create this makeshift indoor growing system, the ones I saw in the gardening catalogs were way out of my price range. This set-up worked beautifully and I successfully grew many of my own plants from seed. There is a wonderful sense of joy and satisfaction in taking a tiny little seed, nurturing it for weeks and watching it grow right before your eyes. There is also immense pleasure in gardening during the winter months. You have a daily reminder that spring is just around the corner.

Even with this large indoor growing system in place, space was still limited. Winter sowing sounded like the perfect solution to me for getting even more flowers for spring.

Kylee, from Our Little Acre had posted about her winter sowing on her blog last year and I had been watching her blog closely this year to see when and how she would do her planting. She posted a few days ago, and gave wonderful directions.

I finally got around to sowing some of my seeds on Tuesday. I used a small drill bit and drilled my drain holes in the bottom of the plastic milk and water jugs.

I can be such a klutz sometimes and this part was a bit unnerving for me, after all I'm the same girl who once stuck a letter opener all the way through her finger while opening mail at work when I was about 20 years old. I still don't like sharp objects. I used the smaller blade for the softer plastics but had to use the box cutter for the harder ones. I'm not sure how you're supposed to cut these things straight, mine certainly were not. I am happy to report that this task was completed without injury to myself.


Next, I numbered the containers on the bottom and the top with a permanent marker. I then filled the bottom part of each container with potting soil and planted my seeds.

This project would be quite enjoyable were it not for the fact that you have to tape the jugs. I was getting frustrated, since the tape just would not cooperate and I had a difficult time aligning the flimsy uneven plastic. Kylee's containers looked so neat and mine, well, their not neat, but their done. Yippee!

Here is my list so far, I say so far because I still want to do a few more, but ran out of containers.

1 Foxglove, Candy Mountain
2 & 3 English Poppy
4 Foxglove Excelsior Mix
5 Blanketflower Gaillardia Aristata
6 Delphinium, Blue Bird
7 Delphinium, pacific Giants, Mixed color
8 Milkweed, Rose, Asclepias incarnata
9 Viola
10 & 11 Cosmos

I'm still trying to find out which seeds can be winter sown in zone 5, so I'm not particularly confident with my choices. I usually have volunteer cosmos, so I thought I try to winter sow it to hopefully get an earlier start, I have so many packages of it I thought I'd experiment. Hopefully the others will be successful, especially the Candy mountain Foxglove and English poppies.

Crazy for Seeds

I have major spring fever and I've gone just a little bit seed crazy, I guess that's better than going stir crazy from being cooped up inside. Most of the seeds I'll direct sow, some I'll winter sow, others I'll grow using my indoor growing system, and some I plan to sow at the nursing home where my mother-in-law resides. The vast majority of seeds were purchased, but a few were collected from plants I already had.

Here is my list of seeds so far: (I'll probably get a few more in March at the Indianapolis Patio and Garden Show, which is where I purchased the two seed packets shown in the above picture.)

3 African Daisy
1 Annual Ornamental Grass Mix
2 Aster
Balloon Flower (collected)
1 Bee Balm Monarda Panorama
1 Blanketflower Gaillardia Aristata
1 Butterfly Weed Asclepias tuberosa
1 Cardinal Climber Vine
1 Coleus
1 Columbine Dragonfly Hybrid Mix
1 Cobaea Mountain Glory Blue
1 Cosmos Bright Lights mix
1 Cosmos Seashells Mix
7 Cosmos Sensation Mix
1 Cosmos Sensation Radiance
2 Cosmos Summer Dreams
3 Daisy Garden Mix
1 Delphinium Elatum- Blue Bird
2 Delphinium Pacific Giants
2 English Daisy
1 Feathertop Grass Pennisetum Villosum
1 Fountain Grass Perennial Pennisetum
1 Four O'Clocks Mixed
1 Foxglove Excelsior Mixed
1 Gaillardia
1 Gaillardia Sundance Bicolor
3 Gazania
1 Hare's Tail Grass Lagurus Ovatus
1 Hollyhock Alcea Rosea- Chater's Double Maroon
1 Hollyhock Alcea Rosea Indian Spring Mixed Colors
3 Impatiens Dwarf Pink Baby
1 Ipomopsis Hummingbird Mix
1 Lantana (collected)
1 Larkspur Giant Imperial
1 Marigold Disco Yellow
1 Milkweed Rose Asclepias Incarnata
1 Painted Daisy Pyrethum
2 Pansy, Swiss Giants, Mixed
1 Parsley Dark Moss Curled
1 Parsley Plain
2 Purple Wave Petunia
1 Rudbeskia Irish Eyes
2 Salvia Bonfire
1 Scabiosa caucasica
1 Scarlet Sage (collected)
1 Sunflower Autumn Beauty Mix
1 Tithonia Sundance
2 Viola Helen Mount
1 Zinnia Cut and Come Again Mix
1 Zinnia Green Envy
2 Zinnia Exquisite
2 Zinnia Fruit Smoothie
1 Zinnia Highlight
1 Zinnia Lilliput
1 Zinnia Purple Prince
2 Zinnia Rose Pinwheel
1 Zinnia Swizzle (collected)
1 Zinnia, Violet Queen

As you can see, I love zinnias. I can't possibly have too many of those wonderful butterfly magnets.

Wheat Grass

I'm anxious to start my winter sowing project and decided to go shopping today for more seeds. Most that I've already purchased are for direct sowing. I thought one of the largest nurseries in Fishers might have seeds, so I stopped in today. They didn't have single packet of seeds in the whole store. Not only that, but most of the time, I was the only customer in the store, there were three people working and no one so much as acknowledged my presence. I don't understand why they would work so hard to create such a beautiful nursery, but then snub the customers. Maybe they don't really want customers in the dead of winter, I don't know. I didn't need help with anything and I was just browsing, but they walked past me several times while rearranging things and never even made eye contact. It was very unwelcoming. Anyway, I saw several things I'd love to have, but I'll either do without or find them elsewhere.

One thing that really caught my fancy while there today was the display of wheat grass. I have lots of wheat here because several years ago I bought a large amount from a co-op. The wheat had rocks in it and I didn't want to use it in my grinder. It really wasn't that expensive, but for some crazy reason I haven't been able to throw it away. Come to think of it, we even moved it here from Alabama with us. I guess subconsciously I've been saving it in case we have a great depression or something.

Anyway, growing this wheat grass would be a perfect use for the wheat. I'm sure my kitty will love it too. The glass containers are filled with the water polymer crystals and the wheat is poured on top. No soil involved at all. I have the wheat, the glass container, now all I need is to get the water crystals. I'm looking forward to doing this fun project.

The best seed buying places I've found so far are Menards and Meijers. Both have really good selections. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have time to post my seed selections.

Reward for Hard Work

It was a very humid and hot with thunder off and on all day. We got just a little sprinkle of rain, it didn't even get anything wet, quite disappointing.



I have been waiting for the weather to cooperate to sow these seeds. It doesn't look like there's going to be a good time to plant them this spring, so I decided not to wait any longer. I sowed some of my favorite zinnias last night in containers so that I could have a little better chance at germination. I put some of the zinnia and cosmos seeds in the bare spots in the flower beds and few of the packets I will save and try to grow indoors for next year.

I made this birdbath tonight. All of it is from leftover materials that I already had in the garage.


I moved a lot of purple coneflower from my front flower bed last fall. I love this hardy flower and am glad to see that it transplanted well and is blooming in several places now.

My butterfly bush is just beginning to bloom. I planted three of these last fall and only one survived. I think I will move this one in the fall to the right side patio flowerbed, I want that to be my butterfly and hummingbird garden.

The robins don't seem to mind my presence, they will come pretty close to me while I'm sitting on the patio or working in the yard. I was on the patio when this robin hopped into the birdbath.

Tonight I was sitting on the patio wall with my camera, just waiting for a bird to photograph, when some of my neighbors walked past my yard to go to the basketball court. The teenage girl said to her mom and boyfriend, "Her yard is so pretty." The boyfriend remarked in a sarcastic tone, "Well she works in it everyday." They were a little embarrassed when they saw I was sitting right there and heard their remarks. I was just glad they said something nice, and was very pleased that a teenage girl would take notice and compliment my yard. I do try to work at least a little bit everyday and many days I spend hours working on my many different projects.

It is hard work but the rewards are many. I find great joy in creating a comfortable habitat for the birds and butterflies and it is a thrill for me to watch them enjoy what I have created for them. I enjoy watching my kitty being entertained by the activity outside the windows. I love it that we finally have a bit of privacy when we sit outside and are all using the patio more than ever before. It is rewarding when neighbors comment on my yard, it brings me great pleasure to know that others are enjoying the beauty from my very visible yard. I love taking pictures of the work in progress and sharing them with those who happen upon my blog and with the wonderful garden blogging community. This is actually the most rewarding of all right now, and keeps me motivated when I might otherwise become frustrated with all of the obstacles, ( late freezes and frosts, droughts, and pests). I've only been doing this blog for about two months now, and it has been great fun, and honestly is a great motivator to create more beauty to share.

I just want to take this opportunity to say thank you to those of you who have taken the time to browse my blog and leave such nice comments, you are the reward for the time and work that goes into this blog.