Spring Fever
One
bizarrely clear sunny day in January, yes January, I decided I was ready
to start planting my flower pots. My pots are currently a huge mess,
thanks to our new dog Piper and her desire to dig. I decided that all
the pots that were on the deck at the back of our house need to be moved
to the front, out of Piper's reach and filled with flowers.
When, with great difficulty, I managed to move one, of the five, large pots to the front of the house, I looked at my rather forlorn front path and had a new epiphany. I should rip out all the plants along my front path and start again.
Then, my husband, Tom, and and my good friend Jenn pointed out that I was absolutely nuts to plant anything in January in Oregon. Knowing they were right I decided to SLOW DOWN and went to my good friend Pinterest to drool over gardening ideas instead. It was then that I developed my new rather more realistic plan. Here it is.... I will update as I go.......
I did plant, so there! However I planted seeds indoors.
This is week 1.
I planted Cosmos in soil in an egg box and placed them in the sunniest window in the house. I did not picture it here but I have also placed Cling Wrap over the top of the soil to create a sort of greenhouse effect. The egg box works great for two reasons. 1. It keeps the Cling Wrap from touching the soil and 2. I am told that when the seeds grow and are strong enough to put in the ground I can just cut them apart and plant the whole egg cup in the ground.
In the picture you will see I also have a spray bottle of water I am spraying the soil each day to keep it damp.
These are Cosmos destined for my front path. Apparently it will take six weeks before they are ready to be transplanted.
Next time an egg box is available I will plant Snap dragons and lastly wave petunias. Taking a break now to go and spray my soil ..........
At the beginning of this post I said I had wanted to start planting some pots with flowers? That was January 20th. Today is February 7th and here is a picture of said pots.
Not much
progress with my seedlings this week as you can see below. I think I
will have to reseed. I think there is simply not enough daylight yet. I
have also found i have to spray them down twice a day to keep the soil
moist enough. However, I am not deterred, I am planting snapdragon seeds
this morning as I have another egg box at my disposal.
Week 3
No change to my seedlings, Tom decided they needed water, he was probably right, but in my opinion only one person should be in charge of watering a plant. Also, I have been unable to plant my snapdragons because I was planning to use soil from the garden and its all frozen solid right now. The great thaw has begun so hopefully in a few days I will be able to eek out some soil from a nearby pot.
Week 4
We have some progress but I'm hardly blown away. The spray bottle wasn't keeping them damp enough so I started using the spray head on my sink faucet. I sowed another whole egg box with snap dragons, and have two boxes waiting for Chinese Bell Flowers and Cape Marigold (couldnt find any petunia seeds not sure why)
When, with great difficulty, I managed to move one, of the five, large pots to the front of the house, I looked at my rather forlorn front path and had a new epiphany. I should rip out all the plants along my front path and start again.
Then, my husband, Tom, and and my good friend Jenn pointed out that I was absolutely nuts to plant anything in January in Oregon. Knowing they were right I decided to SLOW DOWN and went to my good friend Pinterest to drool over gardening ideas instead. It was then that I developed my new rather more realistic plan. Here it is.... I will update as I go.......
I did plant, so there! However I planted seeds indoors.
I planted Cosmos in soil in an egg box and placed them in the sunniest window in the house. I did not picture it here but I have also placed Cling Wrap over the top of the soil to create a sort of greenhouse effect. The egg box works great for two reasons. 1. It keeps the Cling Wrap from touching the soil and 2. I am told that when the seeds grow and are strong enough to put in the ground I can just cut them apart and plant the whole egg cup in the ground.
In the picture you will see I also have a spray bottle of water I am spraying the soil each day to keep it damp.
These are Cosmos destined for my front path. Apparently it will take six weeks before they are ready to be transplanted.
Next time an egg box is available I will plant Snap dragons and lastly wave petunias. Taking a break now to go and spray my soil ..........
At the beginning of this post I said I had wanted to start planting some pots with flowers? That was January 20th. Today is February 7th and here is a picture of said pots.
Week 3
No change to my seedlings, Tom decided they needed water, he was probably right, but in my opinion only one person should be in charge of watering a plant. Also, I have been unable to plant my snapdragons because I was planning to use soil from the garden and its all frozen solid right now. The great thaw has begun so hopefully in a few days I will be able to eek out some soil from a nearby pot.
Week 4
I couldn't wait any longer and spent $5 on some primroses.
Just so you know this is the potential "blank canvas" front path that all my seeds are destined for.
Losing my enthusiasm and confidence that this is going to work. There has been some growth this week but its pretty slow. I did pick up a mini greenhouse from Goodwill for $6, we will see if that helps.
Week 12 ish
Things did not go as planned. Many seeds didnt grow. I sprinkled a few packets directly in the dirt to see what would happen, I figured I couldn't be LESS successful.
This is my surviving box of Cosmos I have eight that look like they have potential. So for $1 I suppose that is some level of success.
Here is my front path as it currently looks. My original plan was to tear everything out adn start again but I dint have the heart to remove all those hyacinths.
Things did not go as planned. Many seeds didnt grow. I sprinkled a few packets directly in the dirt to see what would happen, I figured I couldn't be LESS successful.
This is my surviving box of Cosmos I have eight that look like they have potential. So for $1 I suppose that is some level of success.
Here is my front path as it currently looks. My original plan was to tear everything out adn start again but I dint have the heart to remove all those hyacinths.
So knowing that the hyacinths will have died off by the summer I planted my cosmos around them. My intention is that the cosmos are the middle height flower.
Here they are on Day 1.
We shall see I guess.
Okay so this was, as my son would say an "epic fail" All transplanted seeds died within two days. So I bought the real deal and planted them. Picture coming soon.
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