May Flowers or Out in the greenhouse part 2

To get a jump on the growing season, some plants can be started indoors.  After all the danger of frost and cold temps finally pass, the mature seedlings can then be transferred to their garden beds outside.
When walking about the garden center of the local big box store, one will see all sorts of stuff available to help the gardener grow seeds.  Special soils, additives, trays, heat mats, lights, gages, and probes fill aisle after aisle leaving the noice or professional wondering what she gotten herself into.  It doesn't have to be complicated.  Let's get back to keeping it simple.


I love seed catalogs.  They always come when the weather is cold and nasty reminding us that it won't be winter forever.  The hardest part is staying rational/reasonable in planning the new year's garden plot.
With the greenhouse, we were able to get our cucumbers, watermelons, and gourds an early start.  Each of these plants like warm soil to germinate.  When temps were hovering around 40F outside, the greenhouse was a lovely 70F.  As an experiment, we decided not to heat the house but rather let the sun shine in.  Fortunately this year, that was enough to make the little seedlings happy.
Now that the weather is becoming steadily warmer, the little plants are being transferred out to the garden bed..

May Flowers or Life in the Greenhouse

 

May is the time when many farmers in our area assess the land, check the health of their trees, and start planning for the coming growing season.  The deer and bunnies apparently had a good winter out in the blueberry patch.  All the plants that hadn't been protected by cages, were nibble down to their stems.  

Not to be discouraged, we had some cuttings that had been rooted.  To ensure a healthy start, these cuttings were potted is good soil and have been receiving lots of TLC out in the greenhouse.  As the weather outside fluctuated wildly, as it is known to do in May, the greenhouse temps remained mild.  

In what seems like no time at all, a little green twig in the dirt has turned into a lovely little bush waiting to join the others along the hillside.  You can be sure that when these are planted, a little extra protection will also be provided.

While clearing weeds from the raspberries, much to my surprise, I found two healthy stems nipped off at the base.  My suspicion is that this was the work of voles, a mouselike varmint that is the bane of orchardists. 
After clipping the ends to form clean surface the ends were dipped in rooting hormone, then planted in clean pots of rich soil.  In less than two weeks, the stems were putting on leaves and looking relatively healthy.  The plan is to replant these after Memorial Day.
There is something very satisfying about caring for little plants and critters.  Watching thing grow, we're looking forward to the fruits of our labor.

shhhhh! First flower sighting

I wanted to share this with you: after months and months of snow and cold, we have had a few whiffs of warmer temperatures, just enough to waken a few hardy bulbs.

We may still have snow or another hard freeze.  For now, I'm enjoying this pinky promise of Spring.