Coffee & Seeds

Sun rising on the Texas Mountain Laurel

After yesterday's emotionally tiring day, I thought about skipping coffee this morning, but finally decided to serve it up anyway. Plus, I have some things I need to add to my garden log. And I really wanted to go outside and photograph those blooms!

Read more about the Growing Challenge: From Seed to Seed at One Green Generation.

Tuesday, March 17 - I finally cut up the pumpkins we had from last fall & took the seeds out. I don't know if they're hybridized or not, or if the seeds are still any good. We were surprised when we cut into the big one to find that the seeds were sprouting inside the pumpkin! I tried putting those sprouts into some little pots. We'll see if they do anything.

Oh, remember that David planted some carrot seeds last week? Well, he forgot he planted them & dug in that pot. So I planted some more.

I also planted my hollyhock seedlings and rocket larkspur seeds along one of the fences out front (above). Once those get big enough to bloom, they should provide some pretty photos for us!

Wednesday, March 18 - After leaving my plants on the back porch for a couple of days, I finally decided to start planting them in the ground! Into Raised Bed #1, I planted the Rio Granda Roma Tomato,

2 - Mariglobe Tomatoes,

2 - Toma Verde Tomatillos, 2 - California Wonder Bell Peppers, and 3 - Sunbright Peppers. Then sprinkled everything with some DT, because I saw an awful lot of pillbugs in there. I'm afraid my pepper seedlings may have been to small still. They're having quite the struggle. I did not plant all of them, so if these don't make it I have more. The more I deal with pepper seeds & seedlings, the more I realize they need more codling than a lot of other plants!

I had a Jalapeno that was going outside, too, but David accidentally pulled it up. I re-planted it back in it's little pot & will give it more time to recover from that!

But the potatoes are not so particular!

Can anyone tell me at what point I need to start mounding up over this plant to cover it up???

Potato Cage #2 has started sprouting as well!

The lettuce is still sprouting sporadically.

And the swiss chard shot up after the rains last week. It actually looks like teeny tiny little swiss chard now!

Onions appear to be doing well. I think this dirt would benefit from some mulch, though. It's gonna crack pretty quickly. I've got onions scattered all over the place - some in raised bed #1, these are in the trough with the Mountain Laurel, some are in with the iris, some in another trough.

Now on to the flowers! I am so proud of the Texas Mountain Laurel that was the first photo of today's post! Dad grew that from seed that we collected in the Texas Hill Country. These are very hard to grow from seed. He's been raising it in a pot for several years now. Last year it had one small bloom cluster on it. This year, it's in it's permanent home by our back porch and has about 8-10 bloom clusters on it! Standing nearby, you can whiff it's intoxicatingly sweet fragrance. Such an amazing plant! I should really take another picture of it in the evening light.

The pansies from last fall are blooming again.

And I just went blank... : \ but isn't it pretty?

Grape hyacinths bloomed all week. Cannas are pushing up.


And the Phoebe nest looks about finished. I saw one of them catch a flying insect on the back porch this week. Go for it, birdie!

Updated to add: This morning I added some old hay to mulch raised bed #1, the giant potato, and the hollyhock seedlings. I hope maybe the shade from the hay & slight wind protection on those smallest seedlings will help, especially with the peppers.

Updated again to add: This afternoon I planted the Wild Cherry Tomatoes, Mortgage Lifter Tomato, and Yellow Pear Tomato into raised bed #2 and mulched around each with the old hay.