Spring in Minnesota

As promised, I ventured out to the greenhouse with my phone today to grab a few pictures of the seedlings. On my way through the snow... yes snowy wintery mix fell all day yesterday here in grand ol' Minnesota, I found this columbine covered in water droplets. I love the colors of new columbine foliage.! As it varies from species to species, quite a few of the varieties I grow have a purple tone like this one here, and also the newest leaves look like a sweet potato color... pretty perfect.

I also admired my own handy work. I made these leaf bird baths from hand last year, and the water looks so gorgeous in them, especially on the table my husband made. Yay! He was about to scrap this huge chunk of metal when I nabbed it for my gazing ball. My son scored the raccoon for free at a yard sale last year.

Okay, so here we are in the greenhouse! It was 38 outside, and 50 inside the greenhouse. I don't have a heater in there, so with temps regularly dipping in the mid thirties I've experimented with bringing several strands of lights that keep warm-  so far it has worked to keep temps about 10 degrees higher. Seedlings here are stock "katz mix", Mexican feather grass, and blue bachelors buttons.  

Here are some of the tomatoes.  

I have two kinds of black eyed susan vines this year, blushing Susie and Spanish eyes. I've just transplanted the to large pots and included a little teepee for them to cling to.  Beside it you will find lettuce and cats grass.

Just a few days ago I planted all of the profusion zinnia seeds. I ordered them offline, and love giving them a little head start. I won't be transplanting them for two more weeks, weather permitting.  

 

I have transplanted some things that germinated in the basement into the greenhouse, including: basil, true lavender, rosemary, peppers, black eyed susan vine, stock, Mexican feather grass, eggplant and tomatoes. For my own record keeping purposes, and perhaps your curiousity, I'll include a list of seeds that germinated in the unheated greenhouse so far (note: I'm seeing new germinations every day, despite the cool temps overnight and the highs in the greenhouse reaching less than 50 for a few days): Mexican feather grass, lettuce, cabbage, kale, radicchio, broccoli, brussel sprouts, cat grass, borage, calendula, Spanish lavender, tomatoes, peppers, squash, pumpkin, cucumber, several varieties of basil, marjoram, true hyssop, hollyhock, zinnia, bachelors buttons, snapdragon, cleome, aster, lobelia, painted daisy, foxglove, and more...

 

 One more outside picture- taken from the back window. I have never seen this kind of bird at my feeders, so I had to get a shot of it for ID purposes. My neighbor and friends tell me its a brown thrasher. I thought it might be, based on my bird book, but I so frequently get the bird IDs wrong!

 

Happy gardening!