Author: Steve

Sunflower ideas

I got a response about good sunflowers to grow from someone on GardenWeb who grows a lot of cutting flowers. Here’s what he said: Autumn Beauty mix from Johnny’s has been our mainstay for years. I also plant Jokers and maybe 1 or 2 for fun each season. And, also Sunbrights – which are our […]

Soil temperature and vegetable planting

I found a reference to this interesting article by the Minnesota extension service. It shows how long vegetable seeds take to germinate at various soil temperatures. It helps illustrate which veggies are cold hardy, too.

Figured out how to sprout Lavatera seeds

I wasn’t having any luck with the Lavatera seeds I harvested from my garden, so I thought I’d try again. This time, I soaked them for one or two days (can’t remember how long!), and then I put them in the moist paper towel in a little ziploc baggie. Good news! It’s working. Well, one […]

First blooms of the year

My Forsythia started blooming about four days ago and really got full in the past two days. I love this shrub! It really brightens up the earliest spring. I hope its blossoms do OK in the freezing weather we’re having for the next few days. It hailed a little today and is expected to snow tonight […]

Update on seeds, lawn, maples, etc.

My flower seedlings are coming along fairly well. Here’s an update on each kind: Geraniums — outstanding! growing nice, stocky-stemmed plants Delosperma iceplant — good, but the little guys haven’t grown very fast Verbena — very good, getting taller and getting their second set of true leaves. But about half the seeds didn’t germinate in […]

Photos of seedlings

Here are some of the seedlings growing in trays in my basement: Annual Verbena seedlings. They’ll have purple flowers. Delosperma, or cold-hardy iceplant. Hey, if they’re gonna call it iceplant, it darn better be cold hardy, don’t you think? Annual geraniums (pelargoniums). They’re just starting to get their true leaves. California poppies; these are hopefully […]

Sul-Po-Mag?

I found a post on the Rocky Mountain Gardening thread at GardenWeb where someone mentioned putting “Sul-Po-Mag” on their roses. I was curious and found the information below from a google search. I wonder if my roses need something like this to make them flower better? Sul-Po-Mag (0-0-22) Sul-Po-Mag also known as K-Mag NATURAL (Mosaic) […]

Seeds are growing!

On the weekend, I transferred all the sprouting seeds to their growing cells, which are either Jiffy pellets (a peat product with a thin mesh around each) or little six-packs with Jiffy planting mix (pretty much just peat, too, I think). Here are the seeds that are sprouting and are planted: Geraniums – 100% germination […]