Stuff and Such

"Elvas" Amaryllis

Here is my attempt at layering my honeysuckle vine.  I made a hole in the bottom side and ran a honeysuckle branch throught it. I removed the leaves from the branch that would be touching the soil and then I added potting soil.  I haven't been watering it as I should since it is on the side of the house.  We'll see if this works.  I have two of these.

More Sweet Peas to plant.

I wasn't able to soak the peas so I decided to nick them with sharp scissors.  Here is what it looks like with part of its shell missing.  Please ignore my soiled nails.  Macro lens,"They show all the dirt!" ;-)

I wanted to clean the glass before taking the picture but I would have lost the moment.

Niko is wanting out and Coco is wanting in. I haven't been taking Niko out to the greenhouse because the other day she escaped.  So I had Niko on my finger and we're walking to the greenhouse and she has one of her want-to-fly spasms and  takes off.  Over the neighbors fence and off she went.  I could hear her screaming in distress as she was flying.  I ran to the front yard and down the street.  I found her a block away on someones front lawn, screaming and disortientated.  She's had the tast of freedom and has been trying to escape ever since.  I wish I could give her her freedom, but she wouldn't survive out there.

I started these other seedlings and more to come.

My shelves are getting packed with seedlings and I'm running out of room. Oh, and I still need to make room for summer veggies.

Notice how clean my workbench appears thanks to the shelves(garage sale find) I installed on the left side. 

The thermostat will make it alot easier to control the temperature in the greenhouse which I'm planning to use only when I start my warm season veggies, since I no longer will be starting them in the house.  I need to mount it on a piece of wood first then to the greenhouse.  I'll do this another day since it will take thought to decide where to place it.

The milkhouse heater will be plugged into the thermostat. I'm glad I won't need to do any hardwiring.

My daughter and I went for a bike ride and we watched the geese sunbath.

Till next time.

Happy Gardening!

Update on Paperwhites, Amaryllis and my Thrift store find.

My Paperwhites have flowered.  They are a beauty.

 

I really like these paperwhites because they're not really tall.  I've had some in the past that were so tall they would fall over...a real mess.  I'm glad I overcame my apprehension of trying them again.  I've read that you can add vodka (1:10 solution) to the water and it helps to keep them from getting too tall. 

No sign of growth from my "Elvas" amaryllis.  I've been careful not to overwater so the bulb doesn't rot and the bulb feels firm and it has a green color.  Hmmm...patience!

My thriftstore find.  It started out as an old ugly brown stained stool that you would never think about bringing home, but here it is in its new glory...naked.  I still haven't figured out whether I want to stain it or paint it.  What I like about it is that it has a lazy susan type seat and I can twirl around from one side to the other.  It will come in handy when I place a bench on the other side of the greenhouse.

The four rows on the left have sprouting spanish onion seedlings and the three rows on the right have leeks. So much for my little flag labels...they melted right off with the the high moisture level.  My seed starting box is housed in a heated propagater seen below which I think helps them when the temp drops below freezing.

 Last night the temperature dropped down to three degrees outside and the inside of the greenhouse went down to 20 degrees.  Not bad for an unheated greenhouse with no extra insulation.  This spring I will be turning on the heater when I start my warm season vegetables

Our new greenhouse

Thank you Julie for inspiring to pickup my blogging.  Though I had stopped blogging and had given up hope of starting again due to embarrassement of blog abandonment.  I have put those feelings aside and here I am.  I will share some exciting changes that occurred in my gardening life in 2011. Here goes.  Hope you enjoy.

We removed the lawn from around the garden boxes and cleared the area for the greenhouse.

My greenhouse arrived!

Almost done!

We layed some wood chips around the boxes.  Thank goodness  because it was so much work to mow around them.



Chives



Chives

Hope you've enjoyed the quick tour.  The next pictures that I share were taken in the spring of this year. 
Daisy:D

P.S.  My introduction picture is too big.  Does anyone know how to reduce its size?