Here in Tennessee, the weather is sporadically attempting to warm up and everyone is starting to work in their yards again - mowing grass, clearing out dead brush from the winter, getting new bulbs and trees in the ground. The garden centers are filling up with flowers and fruit trees and young veggie plants.
I have begun to work myself. Today I mowed and edged 1/4 of the front yard that grows faster and also trimmed some bushes. Then I temporarily placed a line of stepping stones right down the middle of rectangular veggie garden, I'm dividing it into 2 sections and this will make it much easier to tend things without getting muddy. Hopefully.
Over the past couple weeks I've been working on starting my seeds indoors. These pics were taken on March 25, mostly everything has grown since then, I'll update again soon.
This is my high-tech indoor seeding zone - a spare bedroom with little furniture (good floor space) and decent light from a south-west facing window.
Sadly, this is the most action the toboggan has seen in a couple years. Oh well.
Here we have cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, pumpkins, squash, zucchini, sunflowers, marigolds, zinnias, morning glories and surely other things I'm forgetting.
Yellow squash.
You can see the first tiny "true leaf" in the center of the cotyledons. When two of them have emerged and grown to a healthy size, it'll be ready for transplanting.
Pumpkins and sunflowers.
As the sprouts grow bigger, I'll transplant them from these cells to larger containers, which will then move to the garage which has windows and gets pretty decent light. Then I'll shift the young plants to the front porch during the days, back to the garage at night and then finally let them stay out overnight night to complete the hardening off process.
In 2011 I had great luck with corn in 5 gallon buckets.
In 2012..... not so much. It was incredibly hot and dry last year and neither my 5-gallon-bucket corn nor my ground-planted corn had any edible success. There were a couple puny little ears but that was it.
This year I'm planning to add more soil amendments to the vegetable patch (claybreaker and organic garden soil) because our yard is really heavy red clay and I think it will help with rooting and drainage.
Tune in later for more!
Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Here comes the Easter Bunny!
Fun with Easter Eggs:
I boiled them just very slightly to get them hot so they'd accept the dye better. They won't be eaten, I bury them in the garden
Happy Easter!
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| I boiled and dyed a dozen eggs. |
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| I used masking tape to create some resist designs. |
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| I love the pastel 80s vibe. |
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| I tried to make this one look like natural stone - not too bad, I think. |
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| Shamsie has laid 9 eggs & I decided to dye some of them, too. |
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| They almost look like candies. |
I boiled them just very slightly to get them hot so they'd accept the dye better. They won't be eaten, I bury them in the garden
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| Chicken egg surrounded by parrot eggs. |
Happy Easter!
Friday, March 29, 2013
Fauna Friday
I was sorting through old photos last night and I ran across some pics of these guys, who we discovered while house hunting a couple years ago..
They were so pretty and sweet. And we didn't get spit on, either - bonus!
I seem to remember their names were chocolate-related...... I believe one was called Hershey, the other might have been Cocoa (not sure). If I had a couple of these beautiful critters, I'd probably name them Fernando and Lorenzo Llamas. Yes, I'm totally positive that's completely original and nobody ever thought of it before ;-)
They were so pretty and sweet. And we didn't get spit on, either - bonus!
I seem to remember their names were chocolate-related...... I believe one was called Hershey, the other might have been Cocoa (not sure). If I had a couple of these beautiful critters, I'd probably name them Fernando and Lorenzo Llamas. Yes, I'm totally positive that's completely original and nobody ever thought of it before ;-)
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Come hike with me
Take a break for 5 minutes and come along for a little hike in the snow. Video taken on March 26 in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Spring Snow
We had a chance of snow in the forecast and it came through! There was about 3/4inch on the cars, grass and rooftops by 10am, big slushy flakes that made great snowballs. We had an impromptu snowball fight while clearing the windshield on S's car. Then the temps came up a bit and it melted down mostly. Sounds like the mountains are in for quite a bit more.
Here's what my Spring flowers looked like at 9:30
Here's what my Spring flowers looked like at 9:30
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| Daffodils and Hyacinth |
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| Hyacinth and Daffodils |
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| Blue Muscari |
Friday, March 22, 2013
Fauna Friday
It's that time of year - the Spring weather roller coaster - warm for a moment, then Wintery again. The flowers are starting to bloom, and the local crows are nesting. I spied this one savaging a dogwood tree in our backyard. The tree is mostly dead so its branches are dry and crunchy. Apparently this is very appealing nesting material!
Ah, success. Off with a nice big branch......happy nesting!
Sunday, March 17, 2013
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