Of Green Growing Things

The Wintersowing is pretty exciting. Even with one setback. The Cosmos Sensations seedlings grew fast, reached the top of their "greenhouse" and many rotted. I've opened the containers up for the remaining ones. But, there are other seeds up, including some Bells of Ireland, which I've wanted to grow for years.
Yesterday, I noticed my first indoor seedlings up. Broccoli Calabrese were the first up. This morning, some Catskill brussels sprouts have joined them. Yay!
I had told you about the calla lily J gave me for Valentines Day. The pansy picture tells more of the story. Can you see the sticks in the left foreground? It's one of six roses J gave me, planted into a rose garden! Is this man a keeper, or what?!

Seed Starting Fun

Seed starting has begun in earnest. J has planted carrots, kohlrabi, beets, spinach and rose orach in the garden. The orach is similar to spinach, though more heat resistant. It is the first time we've grown it, and in reviewing directions, he may have planted it a bit early, as it should be planted 2-3 weeks before the last frost. That is rather optimistic, but you never know! I started seeds in pots.

The varieties planted were:

Tomatoes:
Homestead
Marglobe
Brandywine
Tiny Tim
Stupice

Tomatillo:
Mexican Husk

Eggplant:
Pingtung Long

Brussels Sprouts:
Catskill (Long Island Improved)

Cabbage:
Early Jersey Wakefield

Broccoli:
Calabrese
Pinetree Mix

I also planted Viola Yesterday Today and Tomorrow and Lavender Hidcote Blue. The Wintersown plants are still looking promising. The photos were taken last week, and more have come up since. Daffodils, forsythia, scotch broom and one of the hellebores are blooming. I need to get all my pruning finished up, as many buds are fattening up around the homestead.

I should clarify yesterday's reference to our new "toy". J had been dealing with an abominably slow laptop, whose screen darkened to black whenever it took a notion. This spiffy new model is fast, and enables him to do drawings, which he's already used for fab shop jobs. Very cool. *Sorry about the post layout in the beginning. I played with it, but never figured out how to fix it.

Wordless Wednesday: New Toy

It's a Wrap

Stalks of asparagus are pushing skyward. All is well with the world :o) Warm, gusty winds are threatening to send my laundry hither and yon. I suppose this last day of February is getting a jump on March's "coming in like a lion".

These are my lovely nieces and sister. They came out on Saturday, and got a crash course in soap wrapping. Thanks so much ladies! It was a fun time. My nephew helped J plant onions. Well done, all!

I signed up to take a beginner's crochet class tonight at Circa Gallery. Not that I really need another project to add to my growing list. We'll be making a face cloth, which I'm thinking can't take terribly long. I'm not sure how much I'll learn in a two-hour class, but I am sure it will be a fun time.

Green Business

The fab shop got spiffed up by J, with a coat of green paint on all the trim. It's coming right along. I planted green peas this week- a mix of Little Marvel, Pioneer and Early Alaska. This morning is warm and rainy, so I'm hoping the peas and all the cold frame greens will be encouraged to grow. We haven't gotten much from our cold frame this winter, except for some lettuce, a couple picks of spinach, and parsley for soup, sauces and potato salad. The kale, swiss chard, mixed winter greens and broccoli are doing very well the past few weeks. I have high hopes a winter salad is in our near future. We had a couple early in the winter, made with mostly volunteer garlic mustard, but it just wasn't the same. Bring on the greens!

I've been soap wrapping up a storm, and have recruited help for the weekend. Though I haven't managed it daily, I have had some one-hour paperwork sessions. It's amazing what can be accomplished in a focused hour. Hooray for organization.

Several things are up in my Wintersown containers. So far, I've seen Cosmos, Bachelor Buttons and Poppies. High hopes, I tell ya! Have a happy weekend, everyone!

Blooming Wednesday

The flowers are returning. Hooray!

A Clean Slate

I'm filled with high hopes this morning. The end of last week, I did a thorough house cleaning. Not a full spring cleaning, but a good cleaning, complete with mopping. Which is a thorough cleaning in this house. Having peaceful, orderly surroundings has inspired me to tackle my paperwork. Paperwork and email are the two most challenging things for me to keep up with. So, I've decided to dedicate an hour a day to getting my paperwork in order. I'm going to take the lead of others, and set a timer. When it goes off, I'll move on to the other things I want to accomplish this week-- lots of soap wrapping, seed starting, and stitchery of both the machine-stitched and handwork variety. Maybe it will even inspire me to tackle my email inboxes.