Winter Sowing - Part 2

Rah Rah Amy!! (I got into cheerleading late in life....)
Dawn, when did you start? What did you sow? How has your weather been? xx, Carrie

Today i sowed anagallis - blue pimpernel. (i also direct sowed a few seeds in a warm place, and have some in peat pellets in doors that are doing nothing...) Also "Picotee" cosmos - $.30 seeds, who knows, and a few marigolds.
And two neighbors said they'd bring me milk jugs...
^_^

16 - Lupine
44 - Holly Hock
36 - Pansies
99 - Blue Fescue
4 - DL

My hands are dirty and my toes are wet.

You count your seeds? 99 of them???

I started these like 2 weeks ago in the house. I should of said I planted them in pots.
5 flats of 18 + 9 singles ( I could not throw them away) = 99

Ah. Ok. Otherwise i was scared you are more OCD than me!

That would be something, Amy, more OCD than you would really be something! xx, Carrie
(fondly)

I threw154 seeds and 99 came up on the Fescue.
I threw 54 holly hock seeds and 44 came up.

Oh boy.................

What are you doing with all that fescue? (Not meant rudely, just curious...)

All those flowers are MINE if I can find a place for them...
This is starting to get to me as I don't know what I am doing!!!!!!!!!

I don't know where to put this topic. Anyways here is project 1. You can see the driveway and my little DL garden up back with the fox and the wheel. This walkway goes to the back of the house where we walk in. Small garage is on the right and is of equal lenght. 1st a concrete slab is getting poured and those stepping stones are going some place else.

When you look at the picture you are facing north. East to the right and west to the left. This is going to be my 1st major? Project. There is no over hang on either side. I don't have a clue as to what I am going to put there. Possibly some I DONT KNOW! Maybe a hedge on each corner and flowers in between.

Then I got the whole back of the house that faces south. I am going to those Fescue's some place. I need a shrink.

I started mine at the end of March...I wintersowed snapdragons, coreopsis and nasturdiums - we had weather that was around 50F for about a week and still nothing......it is too early to see anything yet for me?? Zone 4.

Sherrie, now that we know you have plans for the 99 fescues, where in tarnation are you going to put 44 hollyhocks? Do you have a long barn to line them up against? LOL!

Dawn , maybe, I would counsel patience. (I know, it's easy for me to say.) xx, Carrie

NEXT YEAR: DH will simply have to allow me to use "his" electric drill - or maybe I won't tell him. My drainage holes (courtesy of DH and the aforementioned drill) just weren't adequate.
xx, Carrie

Hint - get your own drill and hide it. Get a battery powered one that way it can stay with you. Also get one where the battery can be put in the drill, a saw and other tools. I know where you are coming from with tools. example I just had to walk up to the garage to get a pair of wire cutters.

Keep going on tools. In the past years I had a fetish with needle nose pliers. I had 50 plus in my tool drawer. It seems like now I only have like 3 left! They don't leave my house!

Don't get me started on SCISSORS or SHAVING CREAM! I have to stockpile DH's favorite brand of shaving cream!! When I shave, which is rarely, I use someone's unused conditioner or shampoo to shave with. DH has a VERY tough beard, so I buy him special shaving cream for heavy beard, sensitive skin, whatever, and it was disappearing at an appalling rate! Turns out my young thoroughbreds were using it to shave their LEGS every MORNING!! Arrgh! xx, Carrie

I have been interested in wintersowing but I have been feeding the squirrel population of pregnant and now nursing mothers.i'm afraid they would be too interested in them.Has anyone had any experience with this?AG

We deport squirrels from our neighbourhood.

fried a few snaps.... left the cover on too long... OOPS

Not even going to show a picture of the dead seedlings I found today - my lesson for next year is:more and bigger holes, and don't be tricked into using trays, you don't have time to be out there coddling them. (The bold text is to impress upon myself how important this is.) But I did learn the paint pen lesson pretty well!!!!
Carrie

I have my own tool box. DH has "millions" in the barn, shed, and basement, but usually uses mine because I keep it in the kitchen where it's handy. I've even started acquiring some tools to keep in the garden shed - screwdrivers, needle-nose pliers, wire/bolt cutters (for fencing).

About half of my WS's are coming up nicely - the Sweet Peas haven't shown up yet - I might start them indoors again next year. The Bachelor's Buttons have been the best and fastest. Next in line are the poppies.

Poppies - YACK. Go up to my post April 12th. I started 36 - 15 days ago and they are about 1/2" high. I am begining to not like those TINY little seeds. I struggled with my tiny fingers doing the Canterbury Bells yesterday. The seedlings are sooooo tiny you almost need a pair of tweezers! Put soil in the pots, get the soil wet and plant. It took about 2 hours to do 96 plants! grrrrrrrrrr . I dont think men with big fingers could plant them.....

I know what you mean.... amazing how time consuming it is

You're talking about the seedlings or the seeds? My mother actually got me a seed planter that sort of works. Seedlings I usually do the H'o'Seedlings method. xx, Carrie

seedlings.... potting up takes so long to do

It the tiny tiny seedlings that are a pain!

I start with the black tray with a micro seed soil. Water the soil down and take some seeds and toss them in. Fine layer of mico soil on the top and put the cover on. Once the seedlings pop up I take the cover off and water again. Then plant.

Don't forget I do more of a small mass type production. Example one tray I got over 400 Big Boy Tomatoes in ONE tray. I will reuse and reuse the seed starter mix. I will put the cover back on and out in the sun for days. This will fry any seeds that did not germinate. When I sell a green bell pepper, I don't want them to get a jalapeno plant. Last year when I started I undercut the price of the big dept. stores. So the word is getting out, that I will have more plants this year. I am starting to get a clientel after a year of trials and murder.

There is a method to my madness. I have spent $700 for propane and supplies this year. So I have to sell 350 plants at $2.00 each. To make my money back, and I get a free garden, what ever it is I grow. As of right now I have 1,250 plants potted up with more on the way. You do the math.

wow that's big time work... you sell them in the driveway?

ok here is what i got

not going to use the flat again next year.... better luck with the milk & soda bottles

Boy do i have strawflowers now. i don't think i can count that high. What was i thinking!?!
And i've got something like 36 Summer Dreams cosmos. And 16 Picotee cosmos. And more reasonable quantities of marigolds, pennyblacks, CA poppies, and portulaca. 12 gazania. And a lot of blue pimpernel between what i started indoors, what i winter/spring sowed, and what i direct sowed. Depending on their survival rate, i may have enough for the whole state!

amy
*

I will take some left overs at the RU

:)

Of what? The pimpernel? My problem is, what do i do with all this until then!?! i keep buying pots, but what a mess!

then don't worry about it if it's going to be too much to hang on to.... there is always a garbage bag

i'm not worried - just wondering what you want!
And i feel too guilty to throw the poor things away...

blue pimpernel? Is that flax? Is that perennial? Do you know? Sorry....

annual / tropical

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/1290/

onewish my own opinion. The soil in the seed starter tray looks dense. If I did the tiny pansy seeds in that soil they would not of made it. I use micro soil for starting seeds BUT then the seedling has to be transplanted into another pot with denser soil and fertilizer to get established. Then go from there - they got to be hardened off bla bla bla......

it was all i had at the time....they are snapdragons... and were growing fine.... but i cooked them not enough holes in the cover I guess... the bottles are better ventilated

edit - the pansy are started in the same mg mix

This message was edited May 16, 2008 11:37 AM