A Start

My first day in the yard, yeah.

This a good day to plant the Daylily given out at the Philadelphia Flower Show. The soil's not frozen and it 2 more days till spring.

The ground may not be frozen, but the water in this covered container was. It melted by the time I left the yard hours later. I spied a neighborhood cat drinking from the container one night. Birds, squirlles, and raccoons also probably found the water. God sure takes care of all of his creatures.

Time to start cleaning up the yard. Prune the shrub, cut dead foliage, and remove fall leaves from the flower beds. As always,  removing chicken wire from bulbs already stuck in the wire.

Autumn fern is some where under there.

My hydrangea may actually survive another year. I see green buds. I'm excited since I have a poor history with them and they're not actually a hard shrub to grow.

All I can think of is the big spider and webs all over this last summer while I was pruning it today.

Peony

Chives did well over the winter.

As always I wait too late and bulbs grow through the wire. Now I have to get them out.

Cleaned the leaves from containers. I pulled strawberries in the fall but I was happy to see a tiny strawberry seedling.

She'll look better when she gets new leaves.

Looking better. On another day I'll leaf mold and mulch. I removed most but not all the chicken wire because it'll break some large bulbs that have already formed heads. I'll have to come out another day with a shard small pruner to cut the wire from around them. In the fall, larger chicken wire.

Autumn fern.

My little rose bush.

While out front. Is that still snow? Yes. 

Still burning wood and can't put away the shovels yet.

It's almost gone. Used all the wood stack up outside and most of this rack.

I have to clean up the porch.

Germination and Terrarium

Sun God Tomatoes

Swiss chard is easy to identify even if not labeled.

Coleus needs to be separated and transplanted to larger sized pot but haven't gotten to it yet.

The only 2 impatient seedlings.

On the bottom shelf for now. I put my miniatures from the flower show into the terrarium. Didn't want to throw out my African violets. They didn't like direct light on the shelf and the leaves curled. New leaves are emerging from the center. When they grow maybe I'll remove the other leaves.

Ivy leaf geraniums in the front growing strong. They also need to be transplanted as true leaves have emerged. Vinca, Echinacea, and foxgloves in the back.

Foxgloves waiting patiently to be transplanted to larger containers. The gazania look pitiful but I'm not going to throw them out. Once outside when it warms up I think they'll take off. They remind me of gillardia seedlings I once grew. Didn't do much inside but one outdoors they thrived and grew beautifully.

On the radiator waiting for germination. Not placed on heat when sowed but after putting them on the radiator tomatoes, mustard greens, kale, and chard emerged the next day. These are peppers and herbs.

Container used for terrarium. I had plants in this terrarium before. Killed them. Did you say, "you seem to kill a lot of plants." Yes many have come to my house and went to plant heaven. Gardening is a learning process. Selecting the right plants for the environment and lighting conditions in homes is important and many times I learn the hard way by "wanting what I want." Not a good thing.

The bottom layer.

Next a layer of charcoal.

Sterile potting mix was added last. It's recommended that fertilizer not be added because plants may grow too large for the terrarium. Although they can be pruned down to fix the terrarium.

I mentioned this plant in a previous post. Purchased from the flower show, it didn't have a tag but I've identified her. It's common name is rattlesnake plant or calathea lancifolia.. I've had a different calathia before but it died at work due to extreme changes in room temperatures. The leaves of the plant close and stand straight up in the evening and open during the day. Plants are interesting. This plant follows the length of the day. By 4:00 it's leaves close for the evening even before the sun goes down. It doesn't matter that at this time it's still day light. It's recommended that the soil be kept moist in free draining soil. This plant supposedly is resistant to leaf tip  and edge browning according to Logee's.

I'm anxious to get out in the yard and clean up but it's been too wet with our snow events and rain. We're expecting our 4th nor'easter next week. March did come in like a lion. But next week it's spring, yeah!