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! 

Container planning starts now.

I have a lot of containers. I've never counted, but I'm sure the number is around 50- maybe more... I don't know. Doesn't matter how many I guess. I have tropicals from my grandma's and mother's gardens, and various treasures I've collected on my trips to California. I have plumeria's from Hawaii, and cacti from So Cal. Some plants' names I don't even know- and they make me so happy! My containers dress up the front and back porch, and broaden the scope of my gardening skills and aesthetic.
This time of year I always pull up the pictures from last years container gardens and examine what worked and failed, and what needs to be re-potted or moved about. Last year was pretty great for the containers. So I mostly remind myself of the sleeping bulbs and plan what is going into the vacant spaces annuals filled last year.
Here are a few of my favorites:
Black Colocasia with two tone caladium, chartreuse sweet potato vine, new guinea impatiens, and a teller white hydrangea, that is pink.

Love this bronze grass with purple wandering jew, and yellow zinnia. Plumeria is out of the bloom on the right.

Begonia with 'molten lava' oxalis.

A wild combination of persian shield, coleus, dusty miller, polka dot plant, and white caladium.

More elephant ears with caladium, zinnia, and more sweet potato vines.

So where are they all now? In my basement garden, of course:

These are not grow lights, just shop lights. Works for me. Some things go dormant, some just slow growth. I don't fertilize until right about now... and they all make it through. It's wonderful.

This flowering maple is even, flowering.

Today, I'm potting up my dahlia tubers, which are waking up in the basement already. I found container soil on sale for $1.79 a bag. I am also adding 'firebird' canna to the container that has salvia 'black and blue' growing in it. I already planted stock and lobelia seeds this week. I find both of these annuals easy to grow from seed in the basement- I love lobelia 'cambridge blue,' but buying dozens of plants is not in my spring budget- so filling my containers with the seeds now means I get my fix of bright blue lobelia when summer arrives.

I'll also be adding some fresh soil, and double checking the root sizes on some of the larger plants. This is definitely satisfying the gardening fix!

Happy soon-to-be-spring!