Six on Saturday: Feb 24 ’18

The final Saturday of February, and as predicted this month just flew by in a blink.  I’d thought I’d finally have photos of bud tips and crocus blooms for this post, but alas, it is not to be.  We’ve had days and days of endless rain.  All the rivers and creeks are filled to the top, just like my little iron bird bath, which has been overflowing for days.    It’s looking pretty bleak and dismal outdoors, although there is some greening of perennials here and there.  Happily there are plants and seedlings indoors to keep me sane as I count the days (hours!) until I can get into the potager and gardens.  The seedlings in the basement are growing nicely.    This is just one shelf in the light stand, which is now completely filled, as well as the 4′ heating mat.  The indoor seeding is right on schedule with 38 varieties underway.  That’s down a bit from last year, but I didn’t need quite so many perennials this year and also delayed a few things until a bit later.  Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to start things TOO early.  The front flat is “Penny Orange” violas which have been transplanted from a seeding flat (like the one behind it) so each plant has its own little cube.  They will form part of the mixed edging for the potager’s central paths.  Almost 500 various plants have already been transplanted, so that’s on schedule, too.  Notice how the onions on the far right side of the second tray have germinated since last week?  There were only 3, now there are dozens.  The calendula on the far left are ready to transplant.  Happy dance here!

Now, what to do, what to do if a gardener can’t garden?  Retail therapy!  It was time for my allergy shot (I’m highly allergic to honeybees! Sigh!) so a trip to town was necessary.  I’m not sure how it happened, but this bright red hand seeder jumped into my cart while I was looking for fish emulsion.    I’m eager to try it out, but there’s nothing to seed until March 4th.  Drats!  Maybe I’ll just have to ignore the well-thought-out schedule in order to give it a try.  And while I was gazing in wonder at the seeder that magically appeared in my cart, this lovely ergo-arthritis-friendly trowel leaped in as well!  It just happens to be my favorite color!  Strange!  Unfortunately, once I was back home, I still couldn’t garden.  I consoled myself by cooking…isn’t it lovely how most gardeners either are, or become good cooks?  I just had a craving for pralines!   And the roses were cut from one of the 3 tree roses that are living in the basement.  I’m not sure tree roses will survive our deep freezes, so I trundle them indoors and back out again come nice weather.  Meantime, they are totally confused and believe it is June? Aren’t they lovely?  And lastly, the amaryllis I showed as part of last week’s “Six” has opened even more blossoms and been joined by a bulb produced by the first bulb over the summer.  The original bulb was a 50 cent after-Christmas clearance item purchased a couple of years ago. You can see the family resemblance.  There are four more pots to come, now in various stages of growth.  That’s one of the best 50 cent purchases in history, don’t you think?  Hopefully by the time they are all done flowering, there will actually be flowers outdoors to photograph!  I’m just happy all this rain didn’t come down as snow!  See you again in a week, and it will be MARCH!!!

Thanks once again to The Propagator, who hosts this meme and forgives me each week for not being able to figure out how to link from the comment section of his excellent blog site.