Last week was eggs. This week is flowers.

[clarentine]

Uvularia perfoliata, Bellwort

While the warm season grasses rise above last year’s stubble and the trees are beginning to leaf out in earnest, all of the ground layer of plants are grabbing sunshine while they can. The meadow is sporting blue eyed grass (Sisyrhinchium), violets, pussytoes (Antennaria), and wild strawberries (Fragaria). The cool season Junegrass (Koeleria) is already spreading its pollen, along with all the Carexes. In the woods, the violets are joined by a delicate carpet of bellwort (Uvularia).

The redbuds are wrapping up; as hot and dry as it has been, those flowers won’t last much longer. The dogwoods are well into their season. I’m hopeful we’ll get some of the rain forecast for the coming week, or these won’t last long, either. The highbush blueberries have only just gotten started. I don’t think the groundcover blueberries have opened yet.

In the greenhouse, I’ve transplanted the peppers into larger pots. It may be hot, but I don’t trust that we won’t have a sudden cold snap, and these plants take a long time to reach plant-out size. I’m not taking that chance. This year’s varieties are sweet peppers Super Shepherd, Sweet Banana, Corno di Toro, and Ashe County pimento, and hot peppers Jalapeño and Tiburon poblano–most of them aren’t locally available.

Today I also sowed the larger portion of the plants I’ll be setting out in three or four weeks. So many seeds! We’ve got six varieties of tomatoes (slicers Vinson Watts, German Johnson, and Illini Star; plums Illini Gold and Black Plum; and Pink Princess cherries), three varieties of tomatillos (Everona, Cisneros Grande, and Purple), and herbs Thai and Genovese basils, catnip, borage, parsley, and cilantro.

Daucus carota ‘Dara’ – OMG

I’ve started another several pots of the Daucus carota ‘Dara’ I flipped for two summers ago in hopes of actually getting a decent stand of them this year. I also started a bunch of Red Drummond phlox, something that came up on its own from a set of plants I purchased elsewhere and which I liked so much I located a source to start my own crop. And for the bees I’ve sown three marigold varieties (Jaguar, Spanish Brocade, and seed saved from marigolds that self-sowed in the garden a couple of years ago), Tithonia, and two varieties of sunflowers (Tiger Eye and Lemon Queen).

Later this week, I know I’ll be laying hoses and running water out to the garden, even though the outside beds won’t be in use for another couple of weeks. There’s only just so much hauling of jugs of water a person is willing to do, and I just doubled my watering duties.

 

Comments

[ranunculus]

Sigh. I wish I could grow good tomatoes here, but SF is just too cold for anything but the hardiest cherry tomato and last time I planted one the squirrel ate the whole small crop.

We had a pretty hard frost night before last in Ukiah. Enough so there was ice on the windshield of the truck, and while the wipers did more or less scrape it back it didn't melt till the glass heated up.

[clarentine]

Our historical last frost date here is April 15, but I'm a good bit west of the area that applies to, not far from the foothills of the Blue Ridge. I usually don't even try to put tender stuff out until May 1 - we've seen snow at the end of April. Still, though, I should have started my tomatoes a couple of weeks ago.

Sounds like you need a small greenhouse.

[ranunculus]

I'd love a small greenhouse. Maybe one day when we remodel the back of the house we will put in a downstairs glass room where I can winter tender plants and grow tomatoes.
When I was in my 20's I worked at a nursery in Ukiah. We used to tell people that they were not "safe" from frost until mid-May, by which time most people had long since planted!

[clarentine]

And why, DW, did you not translate the smiley I typed at the end of that comment?

:-)

[ranunculus]

It forgot? ;)

[wayfaringwordhack]

I have had zero luck growing peppers here in Egypt, but I've never sown them in potting soil, just regular dirt with some compost mixed in. How do you start them?

I don't know if the forecast will change, but around the 20th of this month, our future home has four days of predicted freezes, two of them at -3 degrees Celsius..> Brrr

[clarentine]

I mix up my own potting mix, because plain soil so often contains organisms that will kill off seedlings. So - essentially, it's perlite (or vermiculite, or both), peat moss, and some high quality potting soil. You can find all sorts of recipes for potting mixes. If you have space to store large quantities of soils and amendments (if you need a lot of potting mix, that is), you can buy in bulk and save a lot of money, barring the shipping. I don't need that much. :-) I ensure I have bottom heat and a dome on my seedling tray to hold in the humidity, which is key. And I generally have great success. The worst problems I've had occurred last spring, when a freak thunderstorm tripped a breaker on the line to the greenhouse and we didn't notice until after it froze the next night. Ugh!

Brr indeed. I am ready to retire the cold weather gear for the season. We tilled up the garden (a second time, double ugh) this past weekend. I really want to get planting!

(So glad you're here. Squee!)

[wayfaringwordhack]

J and I were just saying that it is time to pack up our winter things. Def won't need them in Cairo any more. :P