Fertilizer Friday

Good Friday Morning. It's Friday and that means it's time for Fertilizer Friday hosted by Tootsie. Ya'll go head on over and check out who else is flaunting their beauties this week.

There isn't much to flaunt at my place so I'm kinda winging it. The daffodils have died off and so has anything else at my place. I say it is time for some color - so what's a gardener to do - head over the local nursery or Home Depot and purchase color. That is what I intend to do this weekend. It'll be a while before the seeds put on a show if at all this year.

Imagine my delight when I found this little baby from last year. It survived this harsh winter we had. Most of the time begonia's are treated as annuals. Actually I have always had such good luck with begonia's. They are resilient and they surviving the harsh winters and the unyielding heat in the summer. With a little trimming they grow fuller with flowers that just keep on giving. When you trim the begonias if you take the trimming and just stick the ends into the ground they usually will take root.

I am about over the seeds now. This is all I have left and they are going into the ground or pots this weekend. Some have made it and some just didn't do anything at all. I have discovered that seeds are peculiar. This is what I did. My first batch of seeds I sowed some of them did very well and some nothing. When I did the second batch of seeds I sowed some seeds that I did the first time that I had good success with and they didn't do anything and some that did nothing in the beginning did the second time. Oh well I have plenty to deal with and some have not made to the gardens yet. I am planning to get started on the newly tilled area that I showed on Tuesday's post. Many of the seeds that have yet to be started will go into the new garden space.

The dahlia's just can't stand not having a daily dose of water. We had rain last week so they should not be so greedy but they are. The empty areas you see here will be filled up this weekend with some newly purchased blooming plants. I can't stand not having color in any of the beds.

The lupines are such strange plants. They have interesting leaves and the leaves are always face up. Even when they flop over like this one has. They just simply lay on the ground. I can't wait to see some blooms on this.

The yellow hibuscus with a red eye from Darla is doing very well. Hope they put out some flowers this year.

Darla's milkweed is also doing well. Hope they mature and the butterflies are able to use the plants this year.

That's it for the gardens this week. I hope everyone has a super good weekend. I'm ready for the weekend now. Just a few more hours to go. We get off at noon on Fridays.

PS Has fuel prices jumped where you are? Gas has gone up 8-10 cents a gallon overnight this week. There isn't even a shortage of gas. I bet we see prices of at least $3. a gallon before Memorial Day.

Babbling...

I had a great weekend and very productive. With weather like we had over the past week, even if you aren't a gardener the outdoors was calling all people.



I planted the Russell Strain Lupines and the Red Breadseed Poppies. Both seemed to be happy outdoors. I planted clumps of Poppies like Darla suggested. I managed to plant 18 small clumps of poppies and 17 seedlings of Lupine. The snapdragon is still so small I didn't want to plant yet. The seed start mix is so fine that it is difficult to retrieve the seedlings from the container. I decided to add an organic indoor potting mix to the seed start. I mixed 4 parts seed start to 1 part potting mix. I believe that this is going to give me a better root system for transplanting. I also figured that if I don't get a BUNCH of seeds started this week that I will be running behind.

I spent a great deal of time trimming trees and bushes. Much more to do since my yard is so huge. I can walk under them again.

My washer went on the fritz in the middle of the week last week. It was taken out and went for repair and is to be returned today. A very old fridge also sat in the utility room and was removed (thank you Lord). So my utility room is getting a clean up. Everything is still sitting in my kitchen and is getting pretty annoying. The room needs to be painted but we'll see if that happens. I am adding some shelving and hopefully a pantry of some sort. I really hate when an appliance goes on the fritz - this often means replacing it. Thankfully it has been repaired but don't ya hate when everything else is put on hold pending the repair.

Spent some time with Mom and Pop. I planted her seeds in some containers for her. I'll plant more this weekend for her. They are not feeling good these days. Both of them take 1 or 2 naps a day. Last year at this time Pop had both of the huge gardens plowed and some stuff planted already. The fall that he took 3-4 weeks has really affected him. Falling 10' is bad for anybody and falling into a greenhouse that is full was really bad.

We are expecting a 2-3" of rain today and tomorrow and then clearing off for another beautiful weekend. Hope my plants don't drown.

Time changes this weekend. Don't forget to spring forward.

Hope everyone has a great day and maybe enjoy some outdoor stuff. To all of you gardeners out in the yard today - I'm jealous.

My First Fertilizer Friday

http://www.tootsietime.com/ The title links.
This is my first Fertilizer Friday and hope to join in each week. I hope I linked up properly. I am not real computer savvy.

Ya'll if you haven't already and I bet most of you have checked out Ms Tootsie's blog you are really missing out. She post so many great topics and has the prettiest home gardens.

I can't hardly wait to get all my seeds planted - but I expect I'll be doing seeds for the next 2 months. Exciting huh.

This is what I have to share today....

Indoors this baby is really growing since I repotted it 2 weeks ago. Ya'll tell me what it is please. I forget the name. Question how do you root this plant?


The Red Breadseed Poppies are looking good. I have thinned these babies 2 times already. Do I need to thin more? I can't wait for these to bloom.

The snapdragons are looking good too. They are a little slower growing than the Red Breadseed Poppies.

Sorry the photos are dark. These are the Russell Strain Lupines and they are doing beautifully. These came from Hometown Seeds. Can't wait to see these bloom too.

I am so looking forward to having a salad with my lettuce. These are Hometown Seeds - Lettuce Gourmet Mix.

This is Hometown Seeds Broccoli Waltham. I've never grown lettuce and broccoli before. I am going to add to this bed with more salad fixings.

New growth on the Johnsons Blue Geranium.

These daffs didn't get planted till mid the first of Jan. They will be late blooming if they bloom at all. I planted 55 daffodils I bought for $5.

New growth on the Purple Hydrangea. I am going to plant this in the new bed at the porch.

Picture blurry. I took at least 10 pics of the Georgia Peach blossoms but they were all blurry. In a few weeks it will be in full bloom.

And I have to finish off with my favorite fellow - Little Buddy. Buddy is loving playing with his friend, Molly who visits regular. They get so rough with each other sometime - but I'll tell ya he holds his own with Molly the Rat Terrier. Buddy like to pose for the camera.

Well I'm hoping that all of you are starting to warm up a bit. We have had and expect the next 5 days to be beautiful and warming more each day. Next week we are expecting temps to be in the low 70's. YEA!! Spring is around the corner.

Have a great weekend and don't forget to check out Tootsie's blog and see who all else is flaunting their goodies.