Tossing and turning.

Sunday night, I went to bed early, but found it difficult to sleep. Instead, I spent most of the night staring out the window toward the raised beds I built this fall. In my head, I made plans for where things would be planted this spring.

In the upper bed, I will plant squash every two feet along the southern edge. In between, cucumbers will grow on a trellis I need to build. To the north, I'll plant pole beans. The trellis will span the beds leaving room in the center for a few companion plants like nasturtiums and herbs. They'll help protect my squash from certain bugs and provide flavor for summer recipes.

The two lower beds will hold tomatoes. Last year, I started my tomatoes on February 8, indoors, under lights. I'm waiting two more weeks this year. Spring is forecast to be cooler and arrive later than normal. That being the case, waiting makes sense. I just hope the Farmers Almanac is right.

This is the plan. I'll have 36 tomato plants, each with 1.5 square feet. Since they are all indeterminate varieties, they will need to be staked. I am still working on that problem. The goal is to grow enough tomatoes to can one quart for each week during the winter. I still can't eat what grocery stores try to sell us.



The upper bed needs more amendments to the soil. I'll take care of this in April when I remove the hoophouse. If my compost isn't ready, I'll buy bagged compost, peat, and perlite. I'm hoping for a dry spell in the near future so I can pick up some horse manure from a coworker. There's still a chance that I will build one more 4' x 8' bed next to the two lower beds. That may have to wait until fall again. Getting the soil right is the most important part of the equation. Lots of nutrients are needed to grow vegetables in such small spaces. I feel pretty good about what I've done so far. My cabbages will be planted out this week, if I can get the bottles to use as cloches in the lower beds. Carrots have germinated too. They'll mostly be harvested by the time the tomatoes are ready to be planted. But just in case, I'll plant these along the grid lines rather than in the spaces that the tomatoes will occupy.

It's another cold, rainy day here. It's 36 degrees and cloudy. By noon, the rain will be moving in. High wind advisories are in effect for this afternoon as well. The ground is still soggy and wet. The 10 day forecast shows us finally returning to normal February weather in about a week. Highs in the 50s, lows in the 30s are the average. I can't wait.

Evening Showers.

We had late evening showers yesterday. It was a hard, pounding rain that lasted for about 30 minutes. It tapered off for a while until the skies cleared around midnight. This morning, everything seems to fresh and clean again. It's 66 degrees and sunny. More evening showers in the forecast for the next 5 days.

The datura that bloomed last night. Some fragrance still lingers.


A neighboring datura is budding. Two on this one.


Knola Black morning glory at the base of the China Fir.


The Mammoth sunflowers are now taller than me - 6'1.


Bursztyn tomatoes.


San Marzano


Green Zebra


Corn and beans.


Blooms on the butterbeans. I got the seeds from my dad. He plants gobs of these every year.


Squash.


Cucumbers on the trellis.


In the front bed, the Mystic Spires salvia has recovered from the move.


The ever flopping perennial bed.


This BES is almost 3" across.


Hardy hibiscus, Turn of the Century.


Malva or Hollyhock?


Coreopsis, Mahogany Midget.


Self sown Four O'clocks.


Direct sown Forget Me Nots.


Echinacea and brugmansia. The echinacea is almost 4' tall. The brug is closing in fast. Subequal leaves have been discovered. Checking each day for buds. I'll feed them again today.


Going to spend a couple hours sawing the wood for my trellis this morning, maybe. I have some things that need to be repotted. I've still got Janie's brugs that need to be transferred to soil. I have moonvine seeds that need to go in. Mine aren't doing much in the garden so I thought I would sow more, just in case.

Tomorrow, whatever I don't finish today will be done. I also want to try to paint some of the trim on the north side of the house. The side porch may get a couple coats on the railings. Maybe that will help liven up that area.

A high of 92 today. It's a beautiful morning. Too nice to have my next cup of coffee inside.

PS...for those of you that comments, I do appreciate your kind words and suggestions. I don't always respond, but I do read. Just like I read your blogs, I may not respond there either. I love seeing what others are doing and what's blooming all over the country. Thanks for stopping by.


1:21pm - Busy morning. 81 degrees and cloudy with occasional sun.

Got the pot ghetto moved out of the driveway.




Planted out or potted up lots of butterfly bushes, dogwoods, rose of sharon, lilac, and sweetshrub seedlings that were wintersown. Took cuttings for the cloner. Potted up Janie's pink brug cuttings.

Planted out white crape myrtle seedlings.


Confederate Rose seedlings.


Sweetshrub (Calycanthus florida)


Planted two six packs of petunias in the front bed. Pink and purple mix.


Off to work. Closing, late night. Tomorrow I will build the trellis for the chimney.

Organized.

Late Wednesday evening, I finally got my plants organized. I dumped many containers with no germination or dead seedlings. I put everything at the end of the driveway. They'll get morning sun here, but be protected next week when the temperatures reach into the upper 80s. Welcome to summer, folks.

Wintersown pot ghetto


Picked over annuals


Organized and arranged


There are only 3-5 wintersown containers I plan to keep. There are dogwoods and cherry laurels growing on in individual cups. There are a few seedlings and cuttings I plan to put in the ground at some point. The rest just need to go.

In the garden, I planted the Kongmansia and 4 squash cups.





carrots, strawberries, peas, and borage


Cabbage and lettuce


I also planted out lots more annuals like zinnia and a few morning glories. I'm trying to get my purples in the bed by the front door. This summer, I'll take cuttings from my rose bushes and propagate some reds to mix into this bed. At some point, the Japanese Maple will need to find a new home as the area transitions into a rose garden mixed with purple salvias and lavender. Coreopsis "Moonbeam" will be added here along the edge in the fall when I divide the two I have growing in the perennial bed.

On one of my daily walks through the yard, I started pinching plants. The agastache, petunias, pineapple sage, butterfly bushes, and lots more got pinched. I'm hoping to inspire more growth and bushier plants. It may mean losing some early blooms, but it should be worth it in the end. Another week or so and I can pinch the zinnias and other tender annuals.

I spent some time sitting on the front steps trying to figure out what I want from the entry. I've decided that since I already have lots of broken concrete in the gully, I'll rip out my old walkway, break the pieces into irregular chunks and lay them in a curving pattern. The bricks of the steps will become my firepit in the backyard. I'll tackle the steps from the driveway to the front yard at some point this summer. They're in really bad shape and just need to be rebuilt from scratch.

Today is a work day. I'll be off again on Friday. Depending on circumstances, I might get another load of leaf mulch from the landfill. I want to extend the white bed in the rear corner along the wall marking the property line. I've got the stones already for the edge, I just need to work some organic stuff into the clay and rock back there. I'd like to plant castor beans along the wall and let the moonvines grow through them. We'll see how I feel on Friday.

Flowers are food for the soul.

But tomatoes...well, that's a whole 'nother story. I love tomatoes. I love them a LOT. I can stand in the middle of the garden in summer with a knife and a salt shaker and forget about all my worries and the troubles in the world. In fact, the knife and salt shaker are optional.

So today, I got my veggie garden ready, or the potager as it's labeled on the map. Tomorrow I will sow the corn, beans, and plant out some of the seedlings I started a few weeks ago. The cucumbers and squash have just gotten their first leaves, so it will be a bit longer for them. The eggplant hasn't done squat.



I may just buy a single plant when I pick up my cayenne pepper plant this week. I'll direct sow the okra soon, but not just yet. I don't know why I'm waiting, it just feels right.

I also have nasturtium and marigolds to plant out in the potager. Some cosmos, zinnias, and marigolds have already been direct sown in one area. I might sow the rest of the marigold seeds in amongst the tomatoes. Sunflowers will also get planted out soon.



I'll make a list of what gets sown tomorrow. Already in the garden I have some snow peas that have sprouted, a few cabbage plants, some lettuce, a few handfuls of carrots, and some strawberries I bought last year. I moved them into a better spot this past week. But today, oh glorious day, I planted out my tomatoes.



I hate these little cages, but to do what I know I should have done would have cost half a week's salary. I'll get some stakes and drive into the ground to wire these things to over the next couple of weeks.



That big pile of leaf mulch was spread over two areas and tilled into the existing soil. I mulched with wheat straw and will plant directly into these beds rather than starting the seed in cups. Beans, corn (for a trellis), squash, cucumbers, okra, etc will go here.





One thing I hate about my yard is also one of the best things. It slopes downhill but towards the south. So while I can plant tall plants in the front of the garden if I'd like, I have to deal with lots of drainage issues. The soil holds very little moisture. Hopefully, mulching twice this summer with wheat straw will help. Plus, it's the Ruth Stout Method.



I still have my cherry tomatoes to set out. I started a lot more than I need. I think I'll try to give the rest of these away at work. I don't need 30+ cherry tomato plants. One of each variety is plenty. They'll be planted here and there in the flower beds. Only the sweet 100s and Black Cherry varieties will go in the tomato plot.



It's 55 degrees and drizzling rain. Storms may be moving in later.

Dense fog advisory and the 10 day forecast

Spring is here. There's no doubt about it. At 55 degrees this morning, it's almost too warm outside. There's lots of humidity and showers are expected again this afternoon. It sprinkled on and off yesterday. The sun even came out once or twice for a moment or two. It felt incredible on the skin and made the rain more tolerable.

Things in the garden are putting out lots of new growth, even over the course of a couple days. Rain brings down nitrogen from the atmosphere so everything, including the bermuda grass in the back yard, is bright green and healthy looking.

On the 10 day forecast, I'll be paying very close attention to the April 5 date. If on that date, there are no freezing temperatures for the next 10 days, the tomatoes will go into the garden. This weekend I will start my cukes and squash. I should be able to move a few things out of the hoophouse and make plans to bring them indoors should it freeze overnight. I'll sow them in cups like my zinnias and other flowers. I hope by mid June to be harvesting the first tomatoes and cucumbers. I hope the lettuce holds out until then. It would be nice to make a salad from my own garden for the first time.

More rain expected this evening. Strong thunderstorms are churning near the Gulf. Those should be here on Saturday. Hopefully, we can sell a lot of plants this weekend. We've got inventory coming up on Monday and Tuesday. Counting thousands of plants is not my idea of a fun afternoon.

Up to my eyeballs in seedlings, plants, cuttings, and seeds.

It's 70 degrees, breezy, and sunny. A stunningly beautiful day here in NC.

I didn't feel too well this morning. Must have been all that food my parents cooked and brought last night. But I finally made it outside.

In the hoophouse, I had started my cool weather veggies. I transplanted red/green cabbage, carrots, and lettuce to the rear bed in the backyard.









Since I had the hoophouse open, I took some photos of what's inside. Not everything is actively growing. Some of these were cuttings that I rooted this past fall. There are gardenias, confederate jasmine, euonymous, roses, and privet. Some are stuck in sand or soil that I'm trying to root now like Japanese Maples, dogwood, redtwig dogwood, double mock orange, etc. There's more I know, but I didn't take the time to make a list. Instead, here are some pictures of the plants.





I have 32 Black Eyed Susans that I started from seed in October. I'm hoping they will bloom having been through a cold spell out in the hoophouse. I did the same with Shasta daisies, but they didn't all make it. I've also got 15 coreopsis "Early Sunrise" divisions from a single plant I purchased last spring. Most of these will go into the plant sale in early April. You'll notice I use plastic cups instead of nursery pots. Two reasons, I can get them locally and they don't take up as much space while providing lots of room for deep roots.







I also have plants growing inside under lights. I've got zinnia, pineapple sage, brugmansia, and other tender perennials and annuals.







I started some more seed yesterday in one of my bottom heat contraptions. This one has 1 set of 150 Christmas Lights buried in 2" of sand. I mist the sand with a spray bottle to keep the humidity level high. The lights warm the sand to just over 80 degrees. That warms the cups to about 75 degrees. I have been trying to germinate yellow datura now for 2 weeks. I think my seed have rotted at this point. I'll leave them a few more days to be sure. There are annuals like petunias and zinnia as well as a whole container of different tomatoes. I want to use the cloning machine to propagate enough plants to sell at the farmer's market this year.





I've also got rooted figs, lady banks roses, and confederate roses. These were cuttings received in trades for other plants that I have/had. It still amazes me that I can stick a twig in dirt and have it grow into a new plant within a few weeks. The areochamber will get a nice workout this summer propagating softwood cuttings.







baby figs!



I can already see and taste the fruits of my labor. Spring is just around the corner.