2014 Seed Starting, part 2

Pam, you can certainly start sweet pea outside! Like most legume family, they don't like to be transplanted; it's great that you can do that. Maybe because they're tiny? But they do fine with New England cold springs.

Are you kidding? I'm trying to catch up with you, lol!!! Talk about the grass being greener... This is too funny, it's even more pointless than zone envy, ROFL!!! Anyway, the way we're going we'll end up with all each other's plants in our gardens! Ready for the next trade, lol?

Maybe T&M is just doing the same as so many other companies, not raising prices, but putting less in the package. I see that a lot at the supermarket and the drugstore.

I do love a good sale, and Bluestone's Friday sales, 50 plants marked down 50%, have enticed me to order 3 times already. Each time I only order a couple of things, but they add up. Oops!

Becky, you can still start them inside if you like. No matter what, they won't bloom this year. Or you can throw them down where you won't be disturbing things much over the summer, and they'll germinate when they're ready. In the garden, they go to seed in early summer, so that's probably the ideal time to do it. I'm thinking I might freeze some seeds in ice cubes for a day or two to stratify them, then put them out in the garden. That should make them germinate this summer. Hmmm...

Cross post... Thanks for the Sweet Pea advice! I soak them, then do Deno. When they sprout I plant them in TP rolls, several to a pot, and harden them off outside when the shoots appear if it's not too cold. But how much easier just to put them out in the first place. Should I soak them first?

I think the weather will scarify them for you! It's time to plant garden peas, right? They should be fine. Nasturtiums I would soak, but sweet peas should be fine. Remember to plant them near something they can climb a little.

:-)

Pam, I soak mine overnight and direct sow before the last frost. I usually have an early harvest and could even re-plant if I felt so inclined.

I can't grow anything from seeds outside (boo hoo ) (sigh )
Weeds love , the leave us by our self , and We will grow and bloom for ya ! though
Yeah I know , What is a weed , what is a flower ,
an idea for you all ;
Stinging nettle ;
Cutleaf Coneflower
Milk thistle
Wild aster
Goldenrod
Burdock
Do not stand in one place too long or these will carry you away , or ?

Well besides the cubes sitting outside that is , In the ground outside I have no chance at all .
This is my fiddle managerie of seed cubes ,,
One of the containers has 24 different seed types in cubes in the first pic the second is snapdragons , should of been done a while ago ..
I will try a couple of standard seed size starting trays in a few days ..

There's two Lavender cuttings on the table outside that seem to be alive ,, only 3 to start with ..
I am lousy at lavender from seed.

You all look like your zooming on quicktime .! Lots of blooms and nice plants coming our way hopefully

Pam it looks like all your hard work paid off, beds look great! I need to look up my specific digitalis varieties and figure out where in my gardens they will be happiest. So if I sow them this summer, they'll come up before winter and bloom for me next year, right? I can live with that, LOL

Juhur yes I have a hard time separating the weeds from the flowers as well, I love my weeds :))

Becky, I think you have to stratify the seeds first to get flowers next year. I think in nature, the seeds go through winter before they germinate. So it would be flowers year after next. Does anyone else have experience with this?

There were five Strawberry Foxgloves Digitalis) here , Now there are two ?
There are a few, very few that bloom in their first season , Same with, only very few are true perennial types ,
Mild stratification , yes , that is how , I have grown a few that have gotten destroyed ..For me . they are difficult from seed.
Sometimes though , a few seeds that are suppose to have to be stratified, grow from the same seasons seeds , I have done this with perennial poppies , sometimes a fall planted plant had grown , I lost them the following spring to voles , they love poppy roots ..
If you have the seeds , I would try a few for fall planting , if not , a couple of cold months would be the time . If they dry , even as a plant ,, they die ,, mine anyway ..

My above post , is really about losing transplants , I lose plant seedlings that way to inordinate extremes .
My cubes in rolls , seems to helping that problem . The seeds sprout nicely , I decide where I want them , plant the cube with the seedling , Having more success , but still working on predator cover ideas



This message was edited Apr 14, 2014 10:45 PM

LOL Pam....Ya, noticed you still didn't tell me the size of your beds....how long and how wide.... and I'm thinking Susie has more planting areas than I do toooo... lol.

Got 5 1/2" of that snow...most is gone now, it melted yesterday. Now they are talking a few more inches tomorrow....ok, I know, only a few more weeks and it will be all gone for this season!!!!

I have no idea how long and wide the beds are! I do know that a 100' hose doesn't make it from the house to the end. Maybe this year I'll try to take some measurements...

Ok...any idea on how wide they are, (I'm guessing atleast 10+ feet wide?). Ya hoses....I try to only but the 100 footers.... From the house spigit to the garden takes at least 2 and then another to get to the end of the bed.... I'm going to have to see if I can finish up my irrigation system this season.....Last summer only got the west side of the border done and still have to work on the east side so it will overlap and all plants get a more even distribution of water...I have most of the things I need it's just a matter of putting things together.... Darn....another thing that I need to put on my to do list!!!! LOL.... Almost forgot about that..but atleast I won't have to drag the hose around all summer and have pix with my watering tower...... Still another thing to work out is the pressure as I can only run 1 sprinkler head at a time since I'm on a well and pressure is not what it is in the city...

Sooo many things that need to get done...Yikes!!!! Speaking of which I need to get off and go do laundry...lol... Later all...Kathy

Pix......see on the post is my sprinkler head (middle of pix), ya I know it looks goofy but it works!!!

Oooops, sorry wrong pix, I'll have to see if I can find one... anyway sprinkler heads are about 5 ft off the ground about every 8 ft ish... ( Like my garden art..lol, I got it out of the neighbors trash...I love it...)

Pam I recommend Cosmos from seed. Don't even try until it gets warm. Then they grow fast, and bloom like crazy for months. A great 'filler' for areas that need something growing instead of weeds, like if you planted small perennials that won't get big for a year or two. Nicotianas (the big ones like sylvestris or langsdorfii) are somewhat slower to get going, but also do get big and flower that same year. I know you have big gardens, so this could be an easy way cover the ground.

MLM, great advice for Cosmos...that comes in real handy sometimes.

Some White Swan Echinacea have sprouted , regardless of the cold temperatures .
Kale and such has not , being slow .
These are new seedlings of purple prairrie Echinacea yes indeed . granny's coneflowers ..lol

I do Nics and Cosmos indoors every year for earlier bloom. Volunteers are much later. Our season is a lot shorter than zone 8!

Most of my beds are long and narrow, with wider areas at the ends. On the uphill side to the left of the middle lawn, there are two levels, above and below a low stone wall, which makes it seem wider. On the right (lower) side, the wall is much higher at each end, and in the middle the wall becomes a sloped rock garden, heavily planted in crevasses and pockets of soil.

The bed on the other side of the next level down is quite narrow, except in a few spots like the PG hydrangea, the Blue Garden in the middle and the grasses at the end. That wall is about 5' high, lower at the far end, and there are shrubs planted below.

Pics 1-3 are from last spring, 4-5 last fall.

Geesh Pam, that's so beautiful! How long have you been working those beds?

This will be my 8th summer. Obviously, the bones were there, hard scape, shrubs, trees, etc. But the beds were a mess, overgrown badly, full of invasives, and fuggedaboud the edges, lol. It's been a lot of fun- and very educational- to try to make some sense of it. I feel very lucky to have such a special spot to play in. Pics are from 2007.

OMG, thanks so much for sharing...you've got a little slice of heaven right there! I LOVE the stacked stone...love it! Any complaints about mowing?

We have a guy that sends a crew. Someone rides the big 54" mower, someone else weed whacks the edges and narrow places, and I think there's even a smaller riding mower... But we're usually not there when they come, so I'm not sure. The guy says every time I clean up an area, their job gets easier.

DH said the first year he was there, 1978, he bought a riding mower. But all the lawns are on a tilt, and there are some really scary places toward the back where the walls end and there are sloped paths. He used it once, then sold it and has hired people ever since. ;-)

Oh ho...easy-peasy!

Some things have to be ;-)

Yeah, you've got to pick and choose where you put your energy...

unless you're super human (never met one of those)!

Kathy maybe? Lolol!

HAHA!!!! You must be joking….

Kathy can pretty much do it all!

Didn't "Super K" refer to something ? lol like maybe?

Super Nitrogen , Super Phosphate , Super Potassium ,, Super Kathy !!!

I think I've got it ,^_^ LOL !!! Learn things here all the Time...lol

Super K is even better than Special K.

Well ,, I think I better "Eat My Wheaties" before I go any further here with this .

Mayb... Meanwhile this thread has become super long, so I'm starting a new one

New thread:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1356823/

This message was edited Apr 16, 2014 6:34 PM