Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal (residents) and Seedling Updates.

We have a pair or two of cardinals who stick around pretty close. I've seen two males squaring off at each other on our front deck and a couple females are close by.





My seedlings are storming ahead in their growth. I've had to add a grow light. The lettuce looks like groundcover and the chives are hale and hearty.




And I have a forest of TOMATO PLANTS!!!

Lettuce!!!!

In the last post I showed you my daffodils starting to come up in the front yard. That was a couple days ago.

Yesterday, only 4 days after being planted, here is my long box planter, cilantro on the left, lettuce in the middle, chives on the right.


And TODAY, 5 days after planting, here is what I found:

One cilantro is showing, and two chives are showing but look at the lettuce!


This is such a miracle! I LOVE watching seeds sprout and grow! Yippee!!!

How many of you have heard of "Square Foot Gardening"?


It's a really cool plan to make gardening in general much easier. The author has a website which explains most of his theory. I'm going to try it in my backyard veggie garden for sure and maybe other places too. TBC....

Gardening Indoors

Look at this....two posts in two days.

I posted the whole attic thing to explain why my sanctuary, workshop, quiet place, INDOOR GREENHOUSE is in such disarray.


Not much of a sanctuary and certainly not very inviting, but it WILL get better and very soon....or else!

If you look closely at the far end of the room you can just barely see my indoor greenhouse. Here's a closer look:


And most exciting of all, while I was acting as gopher for DD who was in the attic doing that attic thing, I planted a long planter and a seed starter "system"!!! Hooray! It's starting.



The long planter has cilantro on the left, lettuces in the middle, and chives on the right. I plan to keep them there and not transplant outside.

In the seed starter tray are 12 each of five different types of tomatoes. First is one set of 12 of Sweet Banana Peppers, then a set of 12 of Tomato Sweetie Cherry, then Tomato Chocolate Cherry, next Tomato Pineapple, a set of 12 of Tomato Brandywine , and finally a set of 12 Tomato Cherokee Purple.


I know, I know.... I'm going to have tomato plants coming out my ears. I've never started plants from seed before so all this is very exciting for me. I'll be watching every day for a hint of green.

Speaking of green. Look what I found today in one of my front gardens.


Now THAT'S exciting!! It's tulips, I think. HOORAY!!!

Story Before the Story...

Sorry it's taken me so long to write again. Much has been happening, snow, rain, sun, drear, wind, calm. All the usual for Ohio late winter. We've had a few days with highs in the 50's believe it or not and days with highs in the teens. All very normal.

As often happens when I'm delayed in my writing, I have to tell a second story before I can write my primary one.

When we bought this house, we suspected that there wasn't much insulation in the ceilings and attic. So we purchased several rolls of "the pink stuff" and DD crawled into the two side attics that run along both sides of the one large room that comprises the upstairs....my workroom/shop area. He layed the insulation on the floor of these two attics. Then he wondered about the ceiling over the middle third of the room which is the only accessible part of the second floor. So to find out, he had to cut an access hole in the ceiling.

DD has a real knack for decorating. LOL

Once we could see into the upper attic we knew what had to be done first. The house needed a silvered reflective lining next to the ceiling joists. This would help keep the upper floor cooler for me to work in next summer (yes, it is coming) especially since I don't like hot heat very much. Most of the radiant heat will be reflected back out and not come into the attic at all....supposedly.

Very tight quarters. DD handled all this. It's too much for poor little me.... The strips of the liner (two layers of aluminum foil with bubble wrap in between) had to be stuffed down between the rafters.


Then at a different location, strips had to be attached to the joists themselves (leaving air flow gaps)



Finally when we got to the part of the attic that looks like an attic (through the new access hole) huge 4' by whatever pieces got stapled again to the joists.


My hero.....


All this to explain why my usually pristine, neat, orderly, very organized work space now looks like this:


GAAAAAACKKKKK!

No snow....for now.

We've had temps above 40....clear up to 65 F. for a couple days. Now we're back down to 40's again and going to be dropping.

Lots of wind last night, kept me awake. You know when you're in that half asleep stupor where you worry about all sorts of stupid stuff? Well, last night with all the wind (gusts to 50 mph) I was just sure one of my bird feeders would fly off and crash into the livingroom window. I am happy to report that did not happen. Although they blew around enough that Mr. Squirrel was able to reach it and have a good feed. Here's one of 72 shots I took this morning at a very disgusted Mr. Squirrel after I moved the feeder back out of reach again.


And another where he is holding on with literally one claw....top rear foot. In both photos, it's all a balancing act.


Since it was warmer and there was no snow, I took a look around "The Estate"

Here is the lake in our back yard. It drains fairly fast.


In a similar shot, you see our garage. My veggie garden will be the length of the garage and half the width of the yard at that point.


In my search for something, anything growing, I found Bearded Iris. How do they survive sticking out of the ground like that?


Here is a valiant little old-fashioned Shasta Daisy still showing a little green.


And here is the front half of The Estate.


Everything, including me, is poised and waiting to pounce on that bare brown garden.

Tracy DiSabato-Aust, Live and in Person!

I drove to Cleveland Botanical Gardens today (Cleveland, OH) to go to its annual Sustainability Symposium. It was a fine presentation and well worth anyone going and participating.

I, however, had only one reason for going.

Tracy DiSabato-Aust, my dear friend, mentor and favorite gardening expert/author, was the keynote speaker. Check out Tracy's blog "Tracylive.com". Tracy is not only extremely knowledgeable and an excellent speaker, she is also very dynamic and fun to listen to. She was animated and excited about her craft as always, even though she had just undergone ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgery on her left knee last Tuesday and was under strict orders to remain seated during her lecture.



Her visual aids were exceptional, showing many of the plants in her new book, "50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants" in an animated, clear fashion that was easy to follow. Tracy's natural humor and presentation style grabs her audience and holds it from beginning to end. She spoon fed knowledge into us and we weren't even aware of it. As noted photographer and author, Ian Adams (also present) said, "She is a force of nature". He was as enthralled as all the rest of us were. We all were enjoying the show and learning at the same time. Such a pleasure!

Fans greeted her after her lecture.


Then, during the lunch break, Tracy spent over two hours signing her books for her gardening fans. All three of her books were on sale at the CBGarden gift shop.


(Shameless plug, I was extremely honored to get to do the line drawings of pruning and other maintenance techniques in her first book, "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden".)

All three of her books, the two afore-named plus her second book, "The Well-Designed Mixed Garden" are available at Timber Press.

Also on Tracy's website, you can get a sneak preview of each of her books. I encourage you to get these books. They are essential additions to your library and to your gardening work basket for reference as you're out there enjoying digging in the dirt.

While you're at Tracy's website, you can see her calendar. If you have the opportunity to go see and hear her, you won't be disappointed.

One final photo. Tracy and her husband, Jim, her buddy and fellow tri-athlete.

My Seeds Have Arrived!

Yeaaaaay!!! Part of my seed order from Park Seed arrived today.

Snap Pea, Super Sugar Snap
Pepper, Sweet Banana
Cantaloupe, Scoop II Hybrid
Pea, Blondie
Pak Choi, Toy Choi
Cabbage, Sweet Surprise Hybrid
Squash, Sweet Lightning Hybrid
Spinach, Malabar Red Stem
Tomato, Pineapple
Tomato, Chocolate Cherry
Tomato (organic), Cherry Sweetie
Tomato, Brandywine

Now I have to get serious about learning how to set up for
starting plants from seed.