Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Melt Snow, Melt!

So, I've been ever so patiently watching the snow in my yard melt - and noticing how big the patches of dead grass are every day. We had a lot of snow this winter, which is pushing back the start of spring and making me anxious. I think I would have been fine had we not driven down to the coast for Easter last weekend and seen their green grass and flowers and leaf buds - so well my old home of Victoria has cherry blossoms and daffodils, this is my yard today:
Although, compare it to my yard on March 12: Notice the bird bath - at one point this winter it was completely covered in snow, and we couldn't see it...

On another note, my seed babies are doing really well. My geraniums and salvia have been re-potted into 3 inch pots, and I have peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, pansies and scabiosa up. I will have to "cull" my peppers this week (remove the weak ones from each pot) which I really don't want to do. But I already have way to many peppers growing and am quickly running out of room on my indoor greenhouse. I am worried about the hostas - none have germinated, and it's been a couple weeks. I spent $5.99 on those seeds - I really want them to germinate, but one website I found says they can take a month, so maybe they are still coming.

2 comments:

Tina said...

Hiya, Breanne.
Yeah, hostas are total slowpokes. Some people have much more success wintersowing them in jugs. (I just think it's because they can't go stare into the container every five seconds when it's covered with snow! lol).

About the pepper sprouts - some people pull the extras, some snip. I prefer to snip them off as it is so easy to do damage to the root systems of the ones you want to save if you pull them - I have, when not gentle enough. But, yours look wonderful! And if you'd prefer not to do it at all (I've switched to this method completely - much less stress!) you can pre-germinate the seeds by the 'paper towel' method.
Just pour your seed on a wet paper towel, fold it over and stick it in a ziplock baggie in a warm place. Then, when most of them germ, you can stick 'em in the dirt with not one wasted spot!
It works for almost any type of seed (I haven't found one yet that this won't work with) including the hosta. And if they need warm/cold/warm, you can just stick the whole baggie in the fridge.

Oops, sorry for being so long and rambling!
Anyway, your sprouts are looking awesome. Go you!

breannep said...

yeah - I'm new to this seed starting stuff - so I've been learning quite a lot - mostly from people's blogs. I'm also finding that the way I have done things has taken up A LOT of room - and next year I might try to pre-germinate and then plant the sprouts - and I think I will try to winter sow a few things as well. thanks again for the advice!!