Flowers in the Lawn

We found the first couple crocus blooms today. It's been so cold that the bulbs have been taking their time. I have to enjoy these flowers every second I can, since the bunnies typically eat them later the same day I find them.

 

My seed starting experiment is going pretty well. I definately haven't had 100% germination, and i think i've killed a couple seedlings, but overall it's successful. Some of the first seeds i planted now have a second set of leaves. And i discovered that Castor Beans grow really fast and emerge from the soil in quite the dramatic fasion. Those are the squiggly pink ones on the far right. The tall seedlings next to them are Black Eyed Susan Vine.

 

 

The Tulips Have Arrived

It's about 35 degrees out and there's still close to a foot of snow cover in most of the yard, though it has melted a lot in the past two days. Adam and I took a walk around the yard today to see if anything is awake yet, and we spotted the tulips on the south side of the house and a couple teeny tiny bloodroot shoots. Here are the tulips.

I checked my garden journal and it looks like this year is actually pretty similar to last spring. Here's an entry from 3/23/13:

"Tulips are coming up. However, because we still have around 12" of snow in the yard, the bunnies don't have anything else to eat so they've munched all the tops of the tulip leaves. Weather has been unseasonably cool. It's currently snowing."

The only real difference between last year and this year is that I think more of the bunnies died this winter because of the extreme cold. I have not noticed as much rabbit damage this spring so far. Of course, if you compare to 2012, it's quite different. According to my journal, I spotted tulips on 2/19/12 and the first one was blooming on 3/24/12.


Update on my seed venture:

My first seeds sprouted about 7 days after i planted them and now have two tiny leaves. I planted additional seeds today.

A New Venture: Seed Starting

Given the relatively short growing season in southern Wisconsin and the fact that starting my own plants from seed indoors has always seemed a little daunting, thus far I've been confined to growing the types plants available from local vendors and those that germinate quickly enough for me to directly sow them into the ground in the spring. When tomatoes and peppers were the prime plants that I had to purchase, this wasn't so bad. The selection of unusual and heirloom tomatoes and peppers in Madison is pretty good. But now that I've fallen in love with many annual flowers, it became a pricy proposition to include a lot of annuals into garden beds. Enter the grow light. My MGV friend Melissa decided she wanted one for her birthday last month and it was like a lightbulb went off in my head (no pun intended). Why couldn't I have a grow light in my basement too? Luckily, I have a very handy husband who promptly set off to Home Depot to build me a grow light. You can buy full kits, but like most things, you can build this yourself for less.

The last frost date in Madison is May 15th. So counting backwards, of the seeds that I bought, the seed packets that indicated they needed to be started earliest were Coleus, Verbena, and Angelonia. March 2nd was the day. Here's the rest of what I plan to plant in the next few weeks.

 

The grow light Adam built has 4 full UV spectrum florescent bulbs, indicated for plant use. They are 4' wide, so it fits just over two standard size trays. The trays I bought have 36 pots each, so I have a total of about 80 pots total. This should be plenty for me to get my feet wet with seed starting and grow a few things that  I otherwise couldn't have grown or would have to buy at $1-5 per plant. The grow light is on pulleys that allow me to raise and lower it to the desired height. Here is my system with the light raised.

 

 

Here are the first 25 pots I started. I have a plastic dome that goes over the seeds to keep the temperature warm. I misted the seeds with a smaller mister bottle I already had and I'll check the seeds every day to make sure they stay moist. The light is currently just above the plastic domes. After the seeds germinate, you take the plastic dome off and begin to raise the light to keep it 1-2" above the tops of the leaves.

I'll post again once seeds start to germinate. It's rather amazing how long some seeds take - up to a month in some cases.