Nothing like a few sunny days in March to get us in the mood to do SOMETHING in the yard. Bert was compelled to dig in the dirt, so it was time to take care of the sad lilac bushes. They have been there for over 40 years and hardly flowered anymore. In the tour of the grounds I posted on March 1, I had a photo of those poor bushes.
After digging and chopping some of the roots, Bert pulled out the bushes one at a time with the help of the truck and some chains. This gave us quite a view of the John Deere business up the road! The rototiller dug up more roots until Bert thought he could dig the holes for six Arborvitae bushes. It looks so much nicer! Of course, we may be long gone by the time they actually block the view up the road!
I like to check on the buds of the Dogwood trees along the front of the property. They still look pretty dormant, but the buds give me hope!
Rain is expected today and temperatures are still too cool to do much more outside for a few weeks. Bert couldn’t help himself and found the seeds for the garden. He tries to start some of them around this time so by mid-May things are ready to go in the garden. In the past we have pushed the start date to early March, and that’s just too early. The risk of a late spring frost is pretty high until the third week of May around here. Last year we put our tomatoes in the ground around mid-May and of course, we had one final frost that killed them all in one night! Very frustrating! So hopefully the extra week delay will help.
Bert started our Super Sauce Tomatoes and the four different Echinacea seeds. We’re hoping that section of the garden will just reseed itself each year and we’ll have nice flowers for the bees!
We start the seeds in the shop under grow lights and that works well. The cucumber seeds will not get started for another month and the beans, carrots and beets will be planted directly in the garden about mid-May. I’ll add some herb plants from a local greenhouse as we get closer to May.
More later as Mother Nature wakes up. After the last year we’ve had, Spring is such a hopeful time!
Please leave a comment or email me directly at marykisner@comcast.net. Thanks!
Hi Aunt Mary,
I also have the itch to start planting indoors, and I often have no problem with germination. However I fail during transplanting; the seedlings are weak, and my great head start usually ends up a wash since it takes them forever to build up enough strength to grow well. I might as well just plant the seeds directly in the ground or buy plants from theme nursery (especially tomatoes). Do you have any tips to build strength in the indoor seedlings so they take off right after transplant?
Hi Todd,
As soon as the plants are about 6″ high Bert will start setting them outside at least for a few hours a day, at least when the weather allows it. By the time May rolls around they are outside almost everyday. He’ll bring them in at night until we plant them. I think that strengthens them and we protect them from frosts. The plants are arranged on trays and can be carried out to the picnic table right outside the shop. That seems to work for us. Try it with just a few plants to see if that helps. We really like the Super Sauce Tomatoes and they do well in our garden. We can’t easily buy replacements at the nursery or Lowe’s so if we want them we do have to start them ourselves. Good luck! Mary