Yesterday (Saturday) was a gorgeous day – bright sunshine and a high of 64. The only issue was the wind – I had some empty plastic pots blowing around & had to chase some (unopened) seed packets around the field more than once. When I laid the packets on the rows where I wanted to plant seeds, the wind would pick them up & off they went – I finally got smart & put something on them to hold them down.
So, all the veggie seeds are planted (major happy dance going on here – been trying to get out into the garden for quite a while). Earlier this month, the nursery where I get my veggie plants wasn’t open other than online/phone orders & they picked your plants & brought them out. I like picking my own plants. Fortunately, I got 4 tomato plants , the variety I wanted, at Lowe’s & bought seeds for a few other ‘must haves’. I also have some old seeds for radishes, spinach, lettuce, scallions & some herbs - if they come up – great …. if not, then that’s just the way it is. I am real curious to see what happens with those older seeds - I planted old kale last fall & about 1/3 of them did come up.
I was able to get the fencing up around the seed beds – don’t want the dogs gallivanting through them and digging holes (which they did about 2 weeks ago). The tomatoes are ok for now – I have 5-gallon buckets to set over them at night or if the weather is too rough for them the next week or so while they adjust to being outside. Last night, we had a light frost, so they did fine under the buckets & were looking pretty happy this morning. I bought them several weeks ago & they were getting unhappy in their little pots – definitely needed to go in the ground.
Today the wind is less, just a slight breeze. I’m planting the flower beds: tithonia, sunflowers (Teddy Bear, which I’ve never grown, plus a mix of varieties) & zinnias. I found some old, unopened packets of poppies & cornflowers, so they’ll go in the ground too. I’m really looking forward to seeing flowers bloom.
For a Christmas gift, I received a thistle sock. That went out two days ago because I saw Goldfinches working the black oil sunflower seeds. They like the thistles – I ordered a thistle feeder today, something more durable than a sock. Also, I ordered a 2nd hummingbird feeder – they are showing up now in our area. This feeder has perches - my original one does not, although I’ll probably make some perches with wire (saw how to do it on a video). The bluebird mama is still on the nest with eggs or keeping fledglings warm – not sure which & I don’t want to peep in the box at this point.
Birds, flowers, butterflies & a veggie garden … it doesn’t get much better than that! :-)
The wind has FINALLY calmed down, so I will be playing outside the rest of the day and will report back in later!