Snow Day

Oh my god, it is snowing outside.  It's April 9th, and I would have thought we were out of the woods, because the average last frost date is like a week away.

So I'm not doing any outside gardening today, maybe something tomorrow.  I've still got a ton of Liriope divisions to plant, I think I've got 9.  And I've got long containers full of smaller ones that sat in containers over the winter and may or may not be viable.  I've got many Day Lilies in the other containers and I think they're ok in there for now.

I still haven't pruned the roses, and maybe that's a good thing since it is so cold now.  That would be a good project to do tomorrow.

Inside stuff-

I watered all the Rudbeckia, which I have not done in quite a while.  One of them looks really sad, all wilted and limp.  The others look really great, and they are putting on new growth.  The new growth looks kind of like the perennial Rudbeckia that is coming up outside (now under the snow).  They are getting pretty rooty at the bottoms, so I really hope I can get them planted next weekend.  I have not given them any fertilizer, because I don't really want them to start growing yet.

I transplanted six of the better looking tomato plants into larger containers, the tall black plastic ones that you buy perennials in.  I did two of each variety.  I turned the tomato out of its little square container, and placed it in the bottom of the big pot, and then added old potting soil around it to bury the next like, 4 inches of stem.  I worked a decent amount of Espoma fertilizer in there.  (I actually forgot to do the fertilizer when I planted the first Sun Gold tomato, but I think that's ok.   That plant is a monster, and if I feed it I'm afraid it will take over the laundry room.)  For most of them, this deep planting seems to make sense because they are getting pretty long and don't have a lot of leaves down low.  So in theory, these are still basically the same height, but now there is like, 8 inches of pot and 4-6 inches of Tomato plant.

What am I going to do with them?  I guess I will just put them in front of the lights, so they are getting it from the sides.  I definitely don't have space to get them right under the lights and they are going to touch them and burn if I do.

I've still got 2 Fresh Salsa, 2 Sun Gold and 3 Brandy Boy.  I don't really want to throw them out, so I will keep them around I guess.  They will probably die eventually.  But if I keep them alive and they seem ok, I guess there might be people at work who want them.

Then I've got tons of Basil plants, and they seem ok.  I just need to stay on top of watering them.

I've got 2 trays of Zahara Zinnias, and 2 trays of big Zinnias, a tray of Cilantro, and a kind of half tray of small Basil.  And I've got several Morning Glory starts in the square containers which seem fine, but I should transplant them into containers outside really soon, like next weekend.  In the 12-pack, I have started some Sunflowers that will be the bigger ones.  (still only 5 feet, I don't mess with those giant monsters.)  I have 3 new trays I could fill out.  I could do Cilantro, or the Tumbelina Zinnias, or more Sunflowers.

The Sunflowers that I planted in the 12-pack have all germinated.  I had 2 seeds per cell, and I think all of them germinated.  As I thinned out the extras, I did pull out a root that was like 4 inches long.  And this is a seed that just germinated, no leaves yet, still has the seed shell hanging on.  So I'm thinking it is correct that I should not try to start more Sunflowers, especially in the normal sized six-packs.

The Zahara Zinnias that are in 2 six-packs are looking pretty good, although still very small.  I popped one out of the cell and there is some nice root growth, and it would not be bad to transplant them.  It was 4 weeks ago that I started them. And I think it was 2 weeks ago that I started the other 2 packs of the big Zinnias.  If I were to start the Tumbelina ones now, I would not be able to transplant them for at least 2 weeks, ideally 4, and that would be in early May.  So I'm deciding if I want to start some inside here, or if I want to wait until next weekend and just direct sow them.  I can do both, I have plenty of seed.  It's either that, or Cilantro.

Maybe after I do these 3 trays, we can call it off.  Seed starting season should be over soon.  After this week, it makes almost as much sense to just start things like Sunflowers and Zinnias in the ground.  Maybe I should just do 3 trays of Cilantro.  I will want a lot of Cilantro plants, right, I want at least 3 for myself, and I'll give a few to my mom and some to people at work.

Oh shit, I forgot about Swiss Chard!  I had that on my list to start this weekend.  I knew there was something else I needed to start inside.  The internet is saying start inside 3-4 weeks before the last frost date, which is only a week away, but I wasn't going to plant them outside for a little while because I still have all that Kale in there.  I probably won't plant them until the same time I plant the Tomatoes.

So let's do one pack of Cilantro and two of Swiss Chard.

In any case, I need to buy lots of potting mix.  I have pretty much worked through all the leftover stuff that I had.  Actually I have one more perennial pot filled with the soil that was growing in, but yeah, let's get a lot more potting mix.

What containers am I going to do?  I want to have at least two pepper plants.  And I need to plant all these Morning Glory into the long containers.  I am thinking I'm going to put the really big Zinnias in long containers as well, inside the patio on the short wall.  They will block the gutter garden, but there isn't much that I can put in there that will do well in the summer, unless I watered it every day.

In the window box, I'm going to try to do the Elf Sunflowers again.  They were pretty short lived, with only one flower, so I think I will try to stagger them.  You know, I do want to start them inside so I can get a head start... So does that mean I need more seed starting mix?

I also need more space.  The Basil could probably be moved out pretty soon.  I think I can start giving some away at work.  I found some motherfucking aphids on a few of them.  I guess I should try to wash them off, but with these little tender plants, I don't want to mess with them and damage the leaves.  But I don't want to give away plants that have aphids.  Let's say I have gotten rid of the aphids.  I think I can start giving away Basil, as long as I tell people that the should not plant them outside until May (specifically when the temperature at night is above 50).  I've got 10 plants, and I can probably get rid of 5.  (Alina, Nathan, Kadine, Bharath, Madhu, maybe Terri or Yash or Charles or Jim or Chris... aww, I've got so many friends at work.)  Hm, maybe I can get rid of more than 5.  I want to give at least one to my mom, and I think I want to keep at least 3 for myself.  Although I can keep getting new plants all summer long, so if I keep 2 for myself I think I'm good.  So I will bring 6 plants to work.  That will probably be in a week, a week from Monday.  Maybe 2 weeks.  But that will free up a ton of space.  It would be great if I could get most of those containers back, but I'm not counting on it.