Almost Spring

Winter is continuing to try to hold on with a snow storm Sunday night into Monday morning. This should be the last snow until next winter. It really was a "real" winter, the first one with extremes in weather and temperatures in a while. It seems like I am always thinking of what's next. Thinking about next winter, and spring has not yet arrived. Only 2 more days. I looked out the window into the yard the other day and saw that bulbs had started to come up, daffodils and some tulips. Monday's snow which had blanketed the yard is now melted. Patches of grass and moss are growing. I wonder what the winter sown seeds and garlic are doing? Maybe I will get out back on Saturday when temperatures are expected to be in the 60's.

I've been looking for gardening classes. I find that I really enjoy them. I located a class on caring for orchids. It really would benefit me to to go. It's ashamed to buy them when they are in bloom and so beautiful and not be able to keep them living and see them bloom again. Many people are successful with them and say they are easy to grow. I purchased several in one years time and one by one they slowly died. I do still have three I bought this winter but who knows if they will continue to live. My mother bought me a small one last year when I was in Georgia and amazingly it's still alive and has new leaves. The kitchen window may be a good spot for them. It's facing south and gets morning sun. To keep the one orchid alive I water it in the morning and pour off any extra water. I added orchid food in the form of a stick. At the Philadelphia Flower Show I was tempted to buy one of the more unusual orchids but I didn't dare. I haven't been successful enough to risk an expensive purchase only to watch it die. Maybe by next spring I will have learned how to take better care of them.

As for my seedlings many are living and many have "bit the dust". Next year I'm starting early like I did last year and I had nice sized plants by now. They seem to be growing very slowly this year. This makes me nervous. If the geraniums/pelargoniums and coleus live I will have a lot of plants. My plans for what I wanted this year may need to be revised since the impatiens didn't do well or the vinca. I bought more vinca seeds but even if I start them it may be too late to have good sized plants by the last spring frost. I wanted these for color in the shaded areas of my yard. I will probably have to buy some begonias. The one planted out back last year did real well. The begonias I started from seed are doing good but I want them for containers not planted in the ground. Dichondra silver falls was growing beautifully and then one day it started to not look too good. I had 10 seedlings. I hope they survive. All of my petunias are tiny. The first set I sowed were 10 pelleted wave varieties. Only one seed germinated and is healthy but small. Two seeds purchased on line from India for blue sky vine germinated out of 10 and so far look healthy. They took over a month to germinate but were big seeds and I guess it took time for the seed coat to be broken. The flowers are so beautiful on this plant and I hope they survive. 

Vegetable seeds have not been sown yet. It's not too late, but I have enough to take care of already. I may end up doing what I have done every year and buy plants at the nursery when they are available. Haven't decided yet. There's still time to sow them.  The canna I ordered arrived. I also have caladium, helenium, and some other things I ordered. I plan to start these in pots on my porch in April to give them a good start until time to plant outside. 

Spring cleaning has started. Winter curtains have been replaced with lighter colored ones. I also like to change pillows on the sofa and chair with lighter colored ones. I usually remove the rug in the living room but I didn't get to this yet. I am actually reupholstering my love seat! I don't know what made me take apart the love seat but, can't turn back now. I already bought the fabric but I haven't made progress in several weeks because the staples have gotten the best of me. There are so many staples to remove and it takes time. Before I can completely remove the old fabric and use it to make new patterns I have to remove the staples. It's discouraging, but not compared to paying a small fortune for a love seat when I can recover it. I normally put slip covers on but I want to recover it now. I will eventually post pictures. I have so many interest but so little time. It would be wonderful to have more hours in a day. Time seems shorter when you start to grow older. I look at things a lot different. Work, home, family, spring cleaning, reading, blogging, gardening, helping to take care of my father; I need to simplify my life or my body will simplify it for me. I also have a list of home repair/projects to do like finish tiling the kitchen floor I started.These are the thoughts of a soon to be 51 year old.