Garden

[Icegoddess]

A few of my transplants from my Aerogarden that I use for seed starting, except for the little Buckeye sapling in the Monrovia Pot.  Still waiting on several to get large enough and started a few veggie seeds today.  I'm really enjoying this method of seed starting.  Never had much luck starting seeds before.

Check out all that pollen on the table top.  No wonder I'm getting so many headaches.

[Lilysmom1]

@Icegoddess , good for you!

I have marigolds and lupins sprouting.  Yesterday was my first day in the garden for 2021 cleaning up beds.  I had some allium bulbs that were in a bed I removed so I dug them up and potted them for later transplant.  Don't know if they will survive but they are going to be victims of the mower if I leave them where they are.

@gardenman is a prolific gardener who always has many seeds on the go, grow lights and all.  

It is nice to be out in the garden again.  S 

[gardenman]

Some photos of my seedlings are below. The first photo shows some of the 30-some geraniums that were started at the end of January and that were supposed to take 12-16 weeks to flower. They were starting to flower in eight weeks under my new lights.

The next photo shows some of the 200-plus Accent impatiens seedlings that are already starting to flower.

And the final photo shows the ten-day-old marigold seedlings and some of the other impatiens under the purplish new plant lights. 

I always try to time my seedlings so they're ready around the end of April. Everything's about a month ahead of schedule so far with the exception of the marigolds that I held off on starting due to how fast everything else was growing. The Geraniums outgrew the light stand, so they're on my front porch now unless the nights get too cold then they move inside until it warms up. (Snow showers are possible later this week, so they'll be inside a bit.) 

There are some geraniums and lobelia out in my cold frame also, but that's been getting too warm unless I crack it open and vent it. I replaced the older cheap poly with a greenhouse covering that's letting it heat up a lot more than it did with the cheap poly. 

The geraniums and lobelia crowded out the dahlberg daisy seedlings, so they're not around any longer. They didn't thrive under the new lights. I started extra marigolds to be sure I get the yellow the dahlberg daisies provided though. 

I bought four new hanging baskets for my front porch this year also. They're the Plantopia hanging planters with six panels on the side that snap out to let you put plants in around the sides of the planters. Each of those planters will eat up twelve plants, six in the sides and six more on top. A couple at least will be filled with impatiens and I'm not sure what I'll put in the others. Maybe a mix, maybe some vinca, maybe petunias. I'll figure that out when I start potting them up and seeing what else is available in local stores. I tend to add an extra flat of seedlings or two in addition to everything I start from seed.

I didn't buy red salvia seeds this year so I'll have to see if I can find seedlings in stores. I like them for the hummingbirds, but they're not a seed that carries over well from season to season. My seed order went to a bigger seller this year (HPS seeds) and even I couldn't use 500 red salvia seeds so I'll see if I can't buy them locally. There are a couple of trailing vinca (Mediterranean and Cora Cascade) that are often available locally, so they could occupy one of the new hanging baskets. Maybe one of the wave-type petunias will fill another. The purple waves are a favorite but they'd get too big. One of the more mounding types might do nicely though. Begonias are a very strong possibility for a basket also.

In another month everything should be out and in place. May 14th is the last frost date, but I can typically cheat that a week or more. Last year we had a late frost, so I'll have to keep an eye on the long-range forecasts as we get closer to May. Local stores are already selling some annuals, but the people buying them now will soon find they bought them too early. People get anxious when the weather gets warm in the spring. Pansies are safe now but that's about it in terms of annuals. Petunias and geraniums are pretty tough and might survive, but it's best not to chance it just yet.

I've been tweaking things to get ready for the warmer weather. The rain barrels are all fixed up and full. I just shimmed one of my railing planters yesterday that had shifted and was tilting forward a bit. I've got the paint to repaint the porch but I need warmer nights to do that. (To say nothing of it needs to be drier. We've got rain every day this week but Tuesday.) The porch will need to be emptied and power-washed, then allowed to dry before getting repainted. Then a couple of warm dry days to set up.

It should be a pretty good year for the garden. I got my Accent Impatiens which are my favorites. The geraniums are doing well. I think the front yard may look especially good this year.