Spring planting progress

I love weekends—who doesn't!? Today the temperature reached 60 and Cavan took a nap—the perfect recipe for garden progress.

Erica x darleyensis 'mediterranean pink'

Today was not an immensely productive day, though I did accomplish what I set out to do. I dug up and returned a Mediterranean Pink bush (erica x darleyensis) to Home Depot; mine had not fared well over the winter and HD has a one-year guarantee on all plants. I didn't have my receipt (honestly, who can find a specific receipt from a year ago?) but I knew they were selling the same variety so I hoped for an even exchange. I left happily with my new, but significantly smaller bush, and six 14-inch terra cotta pots for our deck. I am planning on planting red impatiens to accent the red door to our screened-in patio. But that will have to wait for about three more weeks until after the last frost here in NY.

So, I replanted my bush at home, planted six more Starlight Lily bulbs to extend my summer lily border on the north side of our house, removed more dead foliage from the winter, and planted snapdragon seeds in starter pots. Yet another flower with minuscule seeds. We'll see how they do! Hopefully I'll see at least a couple of seedlings emerge from each pot—I'm sure I dropped at least 20 seeds in each 3-inch dwelling. I have high hopes for all my seeds, but I haven't yet ruled out buying flats of annuals if they don't work out.

Speaking of high hopes, here's my seed update from last weekend's plantings: All 12 of my marigold starters have emerged. Most of my broccoli, spinach, and bibb lettuce has as well. No noticeable progress on the peppers, eggplant, or carrots, but I think they all have a longer germination period. Hopefully all will poke through by next weekend. I'll keep you posted.

The best gardening task for a two-year-old

Today I discovered the best gardening task for my two year old. My daughter, Cavan, decided (after a long afternoon of running errands) that she did not want to take a nap. Fantastic. The tedious job of filling hundreds of starter seed pots I had planned for the afternoon was on the verge of derailment (and I'm already weeks behind schedule for having blooms as soon as the cold weather breaks).

Cavan is not quite at the age where she can just occupy herself in the yard, and she still needs to be monitored loosely. So that meant she would be hovering in my work zone, begging for attention. Brainstorm: I set out my bag of soil and the rows of seed pots and asked her to fill them up with her little yellow trowel.  She loved it. Other than having a more-than-usual amount of stray soil all over our deck, she helped me accomplish a necessary task, and I got to spend quality time with her (while nurturing her baby green thumb).

But then, she wanted to put in the seeds too. Eek. This resulted in a no-nap meltdown. I barely have the dexterity to manage some of those teeny-tiny seeds, so relying on her fine motor skills would be begging for disaster. (By the way, portulaca seeds are about the size and consistency of dust, so I probably put about 500 seeds in each one-by-one pot).

But all in all, it think it was a successful pre-season planting day. I now have marigold, zinnia, portulaca, four-o'clocks, candy lily, and gaillardia flower seeds started, as well as my herbs for the season—rosemary, dill, cilantro, basil, mint, chives, lemon balm, and parsley. This is the first time I have diligently tried to grow from seeds. (It can't be that hard, right? Aren't plants designed to propagate via seeds?!) Oh yeah, and 12 begonia tubers. These are also a new experiment this year—I am hesitant to plant tubers or bulbs that require lifting and winter storage (that seems like a whole lot of maintenance), so more on this at the end of the season.