I was so happy today! First, It was so warm that my daughter and I sat outside in the sun and had lunch, the sun felt so good and warm It had been snowing the last couple of days (just after all the old snow had melted) we ended up with about 5 inches, but today it all melted, it got up to about 55 degrees this afternoon. Not only did the snow melt, but amazingly some of my crocuses bloomed!! I couldn't believe it at first, but they are so awesome, if it gets warm and sunny enough they will pop right out of the snow. Anyway, it was a great first day of spring.

It's been cold wet and windy with sunny interludes here. There are a million daffodils out, primroses in the roadside hedgerows, hyacinths and crocus outside my window. Hellebores are flowering in the front garden. And some of the trees have leaf buds on. We started digging over a new potato patch this weekend. Creak, groan...

Oooo, saw my first cucumber seedling this morning! Course it's supposed to maybe freeze tonight, which will make me very unhappy.



B

Our darn weather keeps going up and down. One day it is nice the next I'm turning on the heat. Today the sky is so blue and not a cloud to be seen anywhere! I can't be outside to enjoy it and my new little container patio garden though, darn this thing called "JOB"! But then on bright side, I couldn't have my lil' garden without the thing called "JOB"!

The forsythia and cherry blossom are out today.

And I bought a packet of radish seeds. Last year the slugs ate the lot but I'm going to try them indoors and then move them outdoors onto stilts this year. I saw a great system where an organic gardener was floating lettuce seedlings in polystyrene trays in the middle of his pool. It seems slugs don't swim

bethanie, hope the cukes are OK



Kathy, you're growing a garden! Darn work, gets in the way of everything...and pays for everything. Can't live with it, can't live without it. Hope you get to spend some time enjoying your new garden soon.



spud, you're so lucky! nothing is blooming here yet...well, except the crocuses. My giant crocuses are all in bloom now too, the weather has been very nice, today it got up to 60. My tulips and daffodils are starting to poke out of the grounds now about 1 inch. Yay spring!

My Japanese kerria and quince are blooming today. In the garden, the lettuce and peas are up. Inside, the tomato and pepper plants are about 3" high now. I've also started Chinese cabbage, kale, dianthus, petunias, and 2 kinds of basil. DD just got a job at a garden center. She bought some cilantro seeds to plant. Maybe she'll actually take an interest in gardening now. And her boss is vegetarian. Cool, huh!

It was warm enough to sit out in the garden and gaze into space for a couple of hours today, so not much work got done. Yesterday I cleaned out my potting shed, which is a step in the direction of getting seeds started. I saw a giant bee and a couple of butterflies.

The wasps were out today. One got in the house and the cat was chasing it. I was able to capture it (cat tried to help) and release it outside. I've seen a moth, but no butterflies yet.

The white wood anemones are out in the woods -ooh, ooh the bluebells will be here soon

My cumcumber and squash seeds germinated about 2 days ago now they're about 3-4 in., I'm going to take pictures of them each week and make a site to show them off . I'm excited because this is my first time planting my own garden.



Is miracle grow bad?? Cause I used this soil that had some mixed in with it

The forget me nots are flowering today, and the city is full of magnolia blossoms.

Shall I carry all my potted seedlings indoors overnight or chance them against the slugs?

O' spud, you make me so jealous Still only the crosuses for me, although the daffodils that are near the porch (where it's warmer) should bloom in a couple days! Ohhh, and in the fall I bought some frost resistant pansys and planted them in some pumpkins, when everything started to freeze I threw the pumpkins with the pansys into a flower bed. Anyway, they are alive and look like they will bloom in a week or two. Today was nice, sunny and 50, so I lightly cleared the covering from some of my flower beds...everythings lookin good!



I would never take chances with slugs....nasty buggers!

Oh wow!! This is so exciting I just checked on my plants for the millionith time today and I noticed that my broccoli seeds just sprouted

Checked on them again today and my jalepeno (sp?) peppers sprouted

Sorry but I checked on the yesterday and more jalepenos sprouted and 2 more broccoli's and today some of my tomatoes sprouted

Yea Vegan_hottie07! I watch mine like that too. Then I want everyone else to be just as excited as I am, but only the cats are interested and they keep pulling the little wooden stakes out of the trays. I'd love to see pictures. Maybe I'll take some too.



I don't know about the Miracle Grow whether it's good or bad. It's not organic, but I don't know if that makes it bad. I don't know if it is vegan or not. I think it has urea in it, but urea can be manufactured chemically. I've used it before. In case you might be interested, there's a company called Gardens Alive that has an organic fertilizer that doesn't contain any animal by-products. It's called Eden Rich.



Gardens Alive

Oh, I have a question. You mentioned wooden stakes...should i have stakes in mine???



Yay I'll get some batteries for my digital camera (it sucks up batteries like crazy) and take some pics. My cat noticed them today...he was already up on the shelf picking at them lol

My tomatos are coming in the mail b/c I killed all my seedlings. Not enough light in the house. I do have some Peter Peppers, Fish peppers and other peppers in the ground. The cages are set up for the tomatoes. I have arugula growing everywhere. I planted some watemelons and suspect they are spouting but I've been working the last 2 days so I can't confirm that.



I planted a moon garden this year, lots of stuff growing. Pretty much all from seed, so much will be a surprise, just kinda tossed it all in one area. I do see some white nigella and different kinds of daisies, some feverfew, white hyacinth bean, moonbeam(?) nasturtium and datura.



I have a "black" garden too, some black hollyhocks might flower this year (pretty scrawny looking), black shamrock, purple heart wandering jew, black nasturtium and more mystery seedlings. I also bought some "black" roses this year.



I am gonna try for the third time to grow devil's claw, ironically enough by my "devil's trumpets." I have to grow it outside my fence because I have young kids, so I'm growing it in a ditch. I am a little worried about neighborhood animals getting into it when the claws come out so I am gonna try sticking forks in the ground and maybe some spray. Also that will help keep them away from the datura which is probably worse anyway.



On the back of my house I am growing broom corn, popcorn and several kinds of sunflowers.



I built a gourd room out of rebar and chicken wire for my kids to play in.



I have a kind of "miscelleneous weird stuff" section where I'm growing weird looking roses surrounding by love lies bleeding, eyeball/toothache plant, sensitive plant and whatever else I can't find a home for.



Are you drooling yet?



I have tried this the last 2 years, but this will be my year! You know why?



1) I bought a tiller. this means the seedlings are not dying at 1 inch high from the clay.



2) I fall & winter sowed a ton and it's all coming up.



3) I am not pregnant like I was the last 2 years so that means I won't be too tired to water.



I CAN'T WAIT, I CAN'T WAIT, I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Does this mean Ostara has passed? Keruoac was supposed to send me vegan cookies for Ostara.

Sorry, How about I send you some phallic cookies for Beltane? I'll wrap them in ribbons before mailing.

If there's one thing I like, it's a good phallus-shaped cookie. If there's another thing I like, it's a non-phallus-shaped cookie. As long as they're vegan. I don't take my phallic food any other way! Hah!



Would you really?

Sure, why not!

I've never made vegan cookies before, I'll do a trial run 1st.



I'm definately goona be pickling some peter peppers this fall. This is the year of the phallis at my house!

Sweet! As Donald Rumsfeld told reporters last week, "If it ain't shaped like a penis, it doesn't belong in the kitchen!"

Vegan_hottie07 - the wooden stakes I mentioned are what I use to write the names of the plants on because I'm growing several different varieties of tomatoes and peppers and I want to know which is which. I used to use color coded toothpicks to mark the different varieties. That works pretty well too if you keep a list along with it.

Wow Witch, you have a lot growing. Too bad about losing the tomato seedlings. My tomatoes are getting a little leggy - not quite enough light inside, but they can be set out in about 10 more days. Or I could set them out a little early if I can come up with some 2 liter plastic bottles to make covers for them.

Sky, I love the soda bottle idea! I'll have to start saving them.



Well things are finally starting to bloom around here. One of my daffodils opened on Easter, now there are a bunch of them and my mini tulips opened too. I will post some pics soon. The only other thing I've seen around here in bloom is forcythia. My lilacs are budding and it looks like I'll get flowers this year. I got the baby bushes from my flower beds in back where my neighbors lilacs dropped seeds. I let them grow to about 1 or 2 feet and then transplanted them on the side of the house...this was 2 years ago and they have never flowered. I figured they just needed to get bigger,this year they have grown to be between 3 and 5 feet. The weather has been really wonderful so I've been busy out in the yard the last couple of days. I went ahead and cleared almost all my flowerbeds and the veggie garden. Everything looks good so far, I even have chives and I when I uncovered the veggie garden I was surprised to find my oregano and tyme...alive! and some letttuce that seeded from last year had started to grow under the leaves...but it looks like the slugs are still alive too

Anyway, Yay Spring!

My asparagus is up! Yippy! This will be it's first harvest year.

Slynny, the 2 liter bottles work great for making mini greenhouses in the garden. I've done that in the past to get an early start on tomatoes.



I miss having asparagus in the garden. I had a patch at one time, but I did something wrong like chop off all the stalks when cleaning out the garden.



I set tomatoes out, but it was a cool rainy week. The ones I still have in trays (that I'm saving for friends and family) look so pale now. I don't know if they got too cold when I set them out on the deck or if they are missing vital nutrients. I bought some tomato food just in case that's what they need.

Like I said, Awesome idea! I put one over the lettuce that seeded from last year (the slugs didn't get it all) to try this out. Last night was the big test...we had frost...and it's doing just fine. I will be able to start my garden early this year!