Crap. I had this long talk with myself about how I oriented the camera phone for the picture that was right. And did it wrong. So much for my memory. In the background you can see what is left of my greenhouse after the winter winds - there is no roof. The chicken house with chickens and the southeast corner of the studio. The weird block thing right behind the flower is shingles, the top of the car port. A rare cloudy day but still no rain.
The amaryllis in all it's glory. All 4 blooms wide open and amazing. I have so enjoyed the blooming.
I officially have Spring Fever. I blame M. I hadn't gardened for many years. I had to let something go after I got hurt so badly, and the garden was it. But she got me started with the little rock garden and well, now I'm all crazy garden girl again.
After such a long time and many construction projects, all my tools are broken or in such terrible shape that they are unusable. I bought all new garden tools today. I must have looked at every tool in the store. The handles are wood so I checked the grain very carefully. I bought tools made by Vigro as they had some gardener tweaks to them. For some reason, it was really hard to do, I kept saying "I am not emotionally prepared to do this." I hadn't really researched tools. I hadn't checked for deals. But I really need a shovel to dig up some things that I don't want where they are and once I had a shovel in the basket, it seemed silly to not finish. All in all I spent just a tad over $100 and got a full set of tools. I'm pretty happy about it.
I need to sand the handles down a bit and sharpen edges a bit but not too sharp. Our soil is mostly rock so edges need to be not too fine.
I found a website that lists when to start what in Northern Colorado:
http://www.nocogardenscapes.com/636.html
I got some kale and fennel started today, along with a few borage and petunia. I did a "whatever" planting of old seeds. I put a whole packet of feverfew in 2 six packs and mixed up 5 packages of various old basil seeds and poured them into 4 six packs. If they grow, great. If not - oh, well. I ran out of seed starting medium otherwise I would have planted up more flowers and herbs.
I put together a fairly complex garden plan to try and outwit the bugs. Also I'd rather mulch with flowers than newspaper. So I am going to use petunias, radishes, alyssum, and other low growing herbs and plants to plant around tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, etc. Some companions are there to cover the scent of the food crop, others to provide shelter and food for beneficial bugs, others to lure the bugs to a surplus plant that can then be destroyed. Some are there to be pretty and shade the ground.
I am hoping there will be enough produce to put up food for next winter and some to sell at the Farmer's Markets I plan on going to. I think I'll get customers more willing to come into the booth if they see vegetables. I'm excited about this.
Something else cool:
A giant conference about knitting socks. I am so there. I am done with one of the orange alpaca socks and on the heel flap of the other one. There has been much improvement of my knitting between the two socks so there is a lot of difference between them. I don't imagine my feet will notice. As it happens,by the way, one of M's feet is smaller than the other so the pair of socks I knitted fit her! Brilliant happenstance.
I hope to get the peppers/eggplant/tomatoes started Thursday. I am teaching a couple of classes this weekend that I really need to work on. I've taught both of them before so I keep telling myself it will just take a little bit of work and to go to the barn or go work in the garden. I am probably a silly and will regret it. Maybe I can be stern with myself and get some work done on Thursday as well. I don't want to leave it for Friday. That's just lame.
I vow to only plant a very few tomatoes/eggplants/peppers. It is so easy to over-plant.
I am keeping a good garden journal in a handmade book a friend of ours made me many years ago. It was always too nice/special to use. I am proud of myself for saying - this is special enough to use this wonderful gift.
Anybody know a rain dance? We sure could use it here.
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