Friday, March 30, 2018

The Best Places to Be In


Spring has sprung and so have most of my ligaments. I spent hours weeding and cutting away perennials on my knees in wet soil. My roses never got their late winter cutback and now they are 4 feet high.  


Then there is the danger after taking a warm shower to sit down for an hour or so and go through emails. On these days I need a crane to get me off the couch when all the joints have joined in protest against moving ever again.


A pod from my gardenia.

I have spent much time going through expired packs of seeds and scolding myself for not throwing them all out or even to sprinkle in an area of soft soil, and thus, giving them a fair chance to rally. I also collect seeds in the fall and sometimes I am good about labeling and stratifying and or keeping in sealed containers, but other times they end up in an unmarked envelope and then leak all over the plastic shoe box in which I keep my seeds.  80% will most likely never germinate.  I faithfully gather black plastic seedling flats and fill with seed soil and place on a warming pad under a grow light and try to talk them into emerging.


I learned that pea and bean type seeds can be shocked with very, very warm water for a minute and they will germinate more rapidly when planted.  That is my experiment with my hyacinth bean this year...we shall see.


This week I took a tour of a magical composting facility which is too good to not have a post all its own.  By hanging out with gardeners and farmers I get into some of the very best places!




11 comments:

  1. Spring is continuing it's climb northward. I too buy seeds, collect seeds and then fail to plant or scatter them at the right time. even now I have seeds that should have been planted a month or more ago.

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  2. My hat is off to anyone who can grow a garden. My pet geranium has been very lucky.

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  3. We too crawl around on the wet ground, cleaning up and cutting back and weeding, and then feeling very stiff after sitting. People who don't garden wonder why we do it, but we gardeners know we are compelled by some seasonal force.

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  4. Love spring, sore scratched and all

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  5. Interesting post. Prayers for her health, and Puerto Rico


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  6. There is a rythmical pulse when spring emerges, it drags us out into the gardens to sprinkle seeds in the hope they will look as sumptuous as on the seed packet! But the old fashioned roses are lovely, David Austin is already tempting me through the weekend papers........

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  7. Spring has a way of testing the body the way no other season can.

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  8. Your gardening is far beyond mine. Two great pics in this post btw.

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  9. I still have to go outside to my garden and tackle my spot before planting. It's almost time, but when I go out there and take a look, I eventually come back inside and say, tomorrow is soon enough. Hope most of your seed germinates. :-)

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  10. Gardening is good for finding all your aches and pains. It was one of the reasons we moved to a place where we don't have to do the gardening. Just throw all the seeds in a bed and see what happens. It would be fun to see what comes up.

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  11. The flowers are beautiful, well done Tabor.

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Take your time...take a deep breath...then hit me with your best shot.