Jen and I are trading out the cars this week to have oil changes performed and routine maintenance finally performed. This means I got to scoot into work in Jen’s Saturn, which features standard shift and a sunroof. A couple of years ago, I had a functional standard-shift convertible, and driving Jen’s car always makes me homesick for the Scout. The other day I was driving home in the Jeep with the windows down, and some strange confluence of scents on the air reminded me of driving on the beach. I immediately thought about Assateague, and had the idea to take Jen camping on the beach again before the summer heat and bugs move in. We have a bunch of commitments in the middle of May to attend to, but I’m going to shoot for a long weekend sometime that month to smell salt air and camp smoke again. Time to dig out our camping gear and take inventory…
In the small amount of downtime I’ve had today, I’ve been doing some preliminary reading on starting seeds from scratch. It appears we’ve missed the recommended window by a month or so, but I don’t think that will hurt anything in the long run. Most of the plumbing is roughed in as of last night, so I’m just waiting on the plastic and the final fittings from the greenhouse supply company. I’ve set the whole thing up so that we can attach and detach different piping based on what’s growing underneath, and there’s an inside fitting roughed in for a hose attachment and the valves to support it. I also found a downspout diverter for the rain barrels; this will get hooked up to the gutters I’m going to be installing on the garage and routed into the greenhouse piping system, so that we have a natural gravity-fed watering solution.
Starting seeds from scratch–I have the fever, except I have to use those little peat-pot greenhouses. Someday I will construct a full-size one on the back of my garage. Someday. But once you try it, you’re hooked…this year, it’s lupine, blanketflowers, carnations, blue carnations, zinnias, forget-me-nots, cosmos, and columbine. Oh, and basil and rosemary.
yeah, I love to start stuff from seed, but I’ve had some things on my mind this year.
I’ve had the most success with morning glories, moon vines, various kinds of hot peppers and some night blooming phlox (very nice). I have tried growing about 50 different things from seed, but most of them got the Catonsville mildew and died a young death.
That’s why I have made a catalog of perennials I’ve seen do really well here and am going to move to seeds after those are established.
Well, this fall I’ll have a bunch of stuff that needs to be split up, so plan a weekend.
Don’t even try to give me any orange day lilies. We split ours up the weekend Billy-D got the ivy, and the two yellow and two red ones I bought to liven them up seem to be dying out there.
I split and transplanted some last fall and they’re coming along…huh. No, I’ll have, let’s see–shasta daisies, maybe some purple coneflower, beard tongue, sundrops, hosta out the wazoo, irises…we’ll have to see what survives out of the stuff I started before I make any other promises.