July 4th- where we at

Food Plants:

I started getting some Sun Golds to snack on.  The one in the container is heavy with them, so I should probably tie it up to the wall a little more.  Its leaves look kind of off.  They have a lot of pale spots on them?  I don't know what that's about.  The one in the raised bed is huge, of course.  I think they have the same bio mass, just different shapes.  The one in the raised bed should probably be tied up to the cage a little more because it's getting all rangy and messy looking.

The Brandy Boy is obviously not as big but it is putting on some nice sized green tomatoes.  They're kind of weird shapes, and one of them looks like it split, really early in its growth.  I know that's because I have been watering really sporadically.  I'm watering now, but I need to get on a better schedule with it, like watering twice a week.

By the way, today I heard Mike McGrath say that there's nothing wrong with watering in the evening as long as it's at the roots and not wetting the leaves.  I always knew that was true but I'm glad he said it out loud.

The beans are growing I guess, but not much yet.  I really should have planted more of them, because they aren't really covering the trellis even.  It's a month late to plant more, but I guess I could if I wanted to.

Also around there are the Strawberries.  They keep putting out lots of runners and they're soon going to fill that space entirely, which is what I was going for, but they don't produce any berries really.  Probably what I need to do is add some form of fertilizer, or some rock phosphate.  I don't really know what else I need to do with them,  They get a lot of sun...

The herbs in the pots are doing ok.  They were real dried out yesterday, yet another thing I need to get on a good watering schedule.  The Rosemary that I have in a pot on the ground is fine but it's starting to get totally shaded from the tomato, so I might need to move it.

The herbs in the raised bed are fine, of course.  The Rosemary is great, the Parsley is finally taking off, and the Chives are going strong.  The Chives are the only thing I've really used recently.  The Sage is doing fine as well, although it's practically ornamental.

I am missing not having my Swiss Chard.  But in reality, I don't have space for it.  The two tomatoes take up the majority of the bed.

The Peppers seem pretty good.  The "salsa" pepper is producing like crazy.  There were 7 very large peppers on it today.  I picked one, because it was hitting the soil below it and starting to curl in an unattractive way.  I am leaving the rest on there because I want them to ripen up and turn red.

The Habenero hasn't put on any peppers at all.  It's just now putting on some flowers.

I cleaned out some trays from the worm bin and put down the castings around the peppers, because I thought they could use some extra nutrition.

What should I have done differently?  Or rather, what will I do differently next year?

• I will mark the Tomatoes with popsicle sticks so I don't mix them up again.  I really wish I had the container tomato in the container, not the biggest, craziest tomato out there.  And now I have no real idea how the Fresh Salsa tomatoes worked out.  I can find out from my work friends who have them and maybe I can even adopt the one who is being left behind.  
• I will space the Tomatoes wider in the raised bed.  I think I spaced them more than I did last year, but I would put the one on the end right up against the edge, more or less, because it has plenty of room to grow out that way.  
• I will try a real Heirloom, maybe?  I guess that depends on how much success I have with my Brandy Boys.  If I can pull that off, maybe I can handle a real Brandywine.  
• Plant more beans.  I'm not sure why I was so stingy with them. 
• Start some Swiss Chard.  I'm not sure where I will put it, but I do wish I had it.  

Containers:

The window box is doing really well.  The Calibrachoa look really nice and really healthy, but not as many flowers as I would like.  So I mixed up some Miracle Grow flower food and dumped that on there.  I'm worried I did too high of a concentration.  I also have one Elf Sunflower that is getting ready to pop open.  The others that I started in there are going pretty well.  

The wall planter is such a nightmare.  The Calibrachoa in there have never really bloomed.  I think I should dig up some more Creeping Jenny to put in there.  Of course the tall spiky thing is doing fine.  I think those things might be fake.  

In the Woolly Pockets, the Sweet Potato Vine is doing ok but not growing that fast.  I did take some Creeping Jenny out of the ground and plopped it in there.  I think it will do ok.  I should probably do some more.  Once it gets established in there, I think I might fertilize them because they are just not growing.  

Side Bed: 

I cut the roses way back, because they were mostly dead heads, and lots of tall spindly stems.  But overall that bed is a total mess.  

Mid-June Updates

Well, the good news is the Tomato in the container on the patio is blowing up.  It's a monster.  The bad news is that this is now clearly showing itself to be a Sun Gold Cherry Tomato.  So I mixed up the plants, perhaps even earlier in the process than I thought, and I've got a Sun Gold on the patio and a Sun Gold in the raised bed.  And I do not have a nice Fresh Salsa determinate tomato at all.  The Sun Gold on the patio in the container is probably bigger than the one in the raised bed.  That's probably  because it gets sun forever, could be because the soil was mostly new, or because I planted it a week or two before the ones in the raised bed.  So I'm going to end up eating a lot of cherry tomatoes.  Good thing I love those little fuckers.

The raised bed tomatoes look good, of course.  The intentional Sun Gold is growing just fine, I ate one off of it a week ago, and I've been trying to force it into the cage.  I did end up breaking off a few stalks in that process.  The Brandy Boy is also growing really nicely, it's a much more upright, thick stalked plant, it actually looks kind of nice.  I guess it has been in the ground for 5 weeks (35 days) and it's rated at 75 days to maturity.  So I should be patient, I know it is going to be slow and that was part of my planning when I picked varieties.  Although the Sun Gold is supposed to be 65 days to maturity and I've gotten one already.  (One cherry tomato!  Woo!)  So I think it's safe to say I got a little head start by starting these tomatoes in January and planting them into larger pots.

The Green Beans are starting to grow and twine around the trellis.  I did not plant a ton of seeds, and I was kind of lazy, and I didn't even plant any of the purple ones.  I love growing the purple ones but they look kinda sad after they are cooked.

The Romaine lettuce I had in the raised bed was growing like, 3 feet tall, so I cut all those down to the stalk.  I feel like I heard they were going to grow back from the stumps but I don't know if that is true.

Herbs all look great.  I've been trying to remember to water them, especially the ones that are under the roof on the plant stand.  The Rosemary in the larger pot looks great.  And in the raised bed I have an old Rosemary from last year, and a Parsley and Sage that I bought, and the Sage is growing but the Parsley is really slow.  The Chives came back but they look pretty sparse, I don't know about it.

I also have two pepper plants- one is a Habenero and one is some other weird thing, called a salsa pepper or something, and we ate one last weekend and it is just not hot enough to be much use.  But those plants look great as well.

Ornamentals:

The shady stuff in the patio bed looks pretty good.  The coleus are growing well and I just went and pinched back the flowers.  The begonias look good but they haven't grown as big as I would like.  In the Woolly Pockets, I've got the Sweet Potato Vine, which is growing but something is taking little bites out of the leaves.  I think it's ok, I think they will take off and outgrow it.  I am thinking of digging up some Creeping Jenny and planting it in there as well to give it some variety and some nice trailing stuff.

In the wall planter, I've got two Calibrachoa, the striped ones, and they don't look so great.  I have watered that thing about once a week but I think I should be doing it more often.  Obviously that tall spiky thing looks fine.  I put a small Creeping Jenny cluster in there, and I think it's still alive but I might add some more.

In the window box I have three Calibrachoa, and they look great.  I have one of the Elf Sunflower, because the other seeds I planted didn't really get going.  I should probably throw some more seeds in there so it fills out with some nice stand-up plants to go with those bushy pink flowers.

The Roses are growing well and flowering a lot, although they are growing a few very tall stalks and not the dense, bushy shapes I would like.  I think I will prune off the really tall stalks with the hope that they will instead grow flowers at the lower branches.  It's also just looking really stupid in there- There's like a ton of stuff right in the middle, and a big empty space in the back.  I am thinking of digging up the fern and moving it to the space in the back.  I'm not sure if I can dig it up easily, since it is right in there with the roses, but if I can it will look a lot more balanced.

Time to get to work

I have been ignoring the garden and all the plants for about the last month, and now it's summer.

I finally planted the coleus and the begonias in the Patio bed today, so that's good.  I also bought Parsley, Sage and Mint today, and I planted the first two in the raised bed.  I'm giving up on the idea of the Swiss Chard, because I never got around to starting the seeds.  I don't think I will put anything else in the raised bed, I'll just have the two Tomatoes, and these herbs.  I also planted one of the Rosemary plants that I carried over through the winter.

Next I have to fill the Woolly Pockets with soil, and plant the Sweet Potato Vine.  I have 3 that I bought a month ago, and 3 that I bought today.  The old ones actually seem ok.  I am giving up on the Morning Glory, because I never really planted any and the few I had are not doing anything.  So I can take the soil from those containers, dump it into the Woolly Pockets, and we're good to go.

Tomorrow it's going to rain all day, so I would like to get most things planted today.  It would be great if I could get things kind of under control today and sweep all the crap from the patio while it's really dry.

I bought two pepper plants- I did not find a Jalapeno and I don't feel like going to another store so I bought a Habanero and something called a Salsa pepper, I guess?  I put one in a container and I will do the same with the other once I've got the potting soil situation figured out.

I would love to "finish" the planting today or this weekend, and in doing so, I can put away all the containers and crap laying around everywhere upsetting my neighbors.  It's just really hot outside right now.

I've been checking on the Sidewalk bed a little bit, and it's not a good situation. Nothing really looks good.  The Zinnias don't seem like they area growing at all.  Especially not the little Zahara Zinnias right in the front.  They have not changed at all since I planted them a month ago.  They don't seem dead, really, but they have not grown at all.  No progress on the Sunflowers.  One of the big Zinnias has a bud on it, but that's all.  Well, there are a few buds on the Rudbeckia.  The sun and water situation has been pretty decent.  We did have some really cold weather for a bit and that might have slowed everything down.  None of those things are frost-sensitive, so that would explain them not being dead, but yeah maybe it's just a delay.  I also think I might need to feed them.  I figured the soil there was pretty rich, but it's had really serious weed cover for a long time.

The front bed looks pretty decent.  The Day Lilies have totally filled out the space, which is great, but I think I should feed something to promote flowering.  The Clematis is growing really nicely but no sign of flowering.  I think I placed the trellis in such a way that it is too shaded. so I don't know what I want to do with that.  If I tried to move it now, I think I would rip the whole plant out.

I still need to plant the Mint that I bought in a small pot, and I bought a big Basil, and I have a tiny shitty Basil that I grew.

One of these days I will need to really deal with all the weeds.  That's not going to be today.

So about this Side Bed.  The Roses seem to be doing really well, lots of flowers and some new growth, but it is definitely overcrowded with these little sad Hotsas and the one Fern...  there's so much crap in there, the leaves, the wild strawberry, the muscari growth...  If I just got the extra crap out of there, it would be pretty nice.  For that space, if I'm going to have 4 Rose bushes in there, I can't have much else.

Spring Recap

It's May 1st, and this seems like a good time to look back on what I did so far and what I would or would not do again.

Spring Bulbs

Last fall, I bought a lot more bulbs than I planted.  I did not plant the Alliums that I bought, and I think I ended up throwing them out because half of them were rotten.  I don't think they were like that when I bought them, but maybe?  I also bought a lot of Daffodils- some Dutch Masters, and Tete a Tete.

I forced a bunch of Tete a Tete in pots, and that was totally successful.  I will definitely do that again.  The whole "no fruit in the fridge" thing was not an issue, probably because I don't really eat fruit, but I think I must have had some limes in there for a while.  The timing of it was good, too.  I put the Daffodils in there in October, and I think I took them out in early February.  Perfect.  The only thing I will not do again is bring them in to work, because apparently they can upset people.  I also did a few Crocus, and they did not fare so well.  I'm not really sure why.

Next year I will force the Daffodils the exact same way.  Maybe I will also try some Tulips.

I did not plant any Daffodils in the ground.  I did plant a bunch of them in a container, but they didn't come up.  I got a few green shoots but they were brown on the tops and didn't grow.  Maybe it didn't drain well.

I kind of wish I had planted some Daffodils in the Sidewalk Bed.  The old ones came up, but not as many flowers as I would like.  Maybe if I am up for it, I could plant a bunch more Daffodils in there next fall.

I had pulled up a lot of the Darwin Tulips last spring, and I replanted them in the fall.  I also planted these short, fluffy daffodils in there, in two big clumps.  It looks so terrible now.  I don't know, maybe if I had spread them out a little more?  This year I'm not planning to pull anything out.  But next fall, it would be really good to put in more Tulips.

Now, the tulips in the Patio Bed- those are fantastic.  I'm so happy with the decision to put them in there, to pack them in so tight, to stagger the early, middle and late Tulips back to front.  I'm really pleased that they last this long, too.  They've looked good for several weeks, and they aren't even all up yet.  I think the weather has actually helped with that, because it got chilly again after they flowered.

I'll need to pull them out eventually to plant it with Coleus and Begonias.  But I need to wait as long as possible to do that so they get as much sun as possible and hopefully flower again next year.

I might be able to wait long enough and pull them out and save them.  But I'm not going to wait forever.  I'll give them until June 1st, and then I will pull them out.  Maybe I'll move them to some containers or something so they get more sun, maybe not.  But I want to get the Coleus and Begonias in there soon and get that area going.  In fact, I think I need to transplant the Coleus to something bigger soon so they keep growing and stay alive.


Seed Starting

The first things I started was Kale, which was reasonably successful.  They all grew nicely and they were easy to keep alive.  I think I transplanted them in late March, and they've done well enough outside, but not grown tremendously.  I will do some Kale again this fall, because that is really the better time.  I'll also do Radicchio at the same time.

Next was Coleus.  I'm glad I started the Coleus when I did, of course, but I am really disappointed in how few plants I got.  I think I spent $20 on seeds, and I could have bought these plants for not much more than that.  It's cool to grow them from seeds and all, but not especially rewarding.  I guess I could try saving seeds?  It's worth a try.

Then  I started the Rudbeckia.  So far, I think that was the most successful endeavor.  I started 18 and I ended up with 17 big, healthy plants.  I transplanted them into soda bottles, which works really well.  They were pretty low-maintenance after that.  I finally transplanted them in the Sidewalk Bed, I think April 16th.  They all seem to still be alive, although I don't see much new growth.  To be fair, we haven't had a lot of sun recently.  They are supposed to bloom early summer through fall.  If they do well, it will be fantastic, a mass of flowers like that all grown from seed.  I win!

Let's talk about Tomatoes now.  I started these mid January as well.  I am glad I started them in the larger pots, not in the little six-packs, so I didn't have to mess with them too much.  It might be a little early to start tomatoes, sure, but I don't think any harm was done.  I'm ok with the number of plants I started- 5 of each of the 3 varieties.  I'm down to 3 Sun Gold, 3 Fresh Salsa and 4 Brandy Boys.  And what would I do differently?  I would actually label them properly.  I'll get popsicle sticks for each container so I can move them around and still know which is which.  I also could have potted them up into larger containers sooner, and fed them a little better.

So next time- wait until late February to start tomatoes, label properly, get some more large pots and some potting mix ready for transplanting in like, April.

I guess the next think I started was Romaine.  I think they ended up dead from lack of water, or because it got too hot.  Then I think I started more, maybe, and those are in the Raised Bed now.  I like the idea of starting them pretty early because they are fast, and I could get decent Romaine heads in late Spring.

I had no success with Bok Choy.  I think I started some and they just looked so bad that I gave up.  I will certainly try them again in the fall.  I'm not really sure what went wrong.

I started Basil in late February.  It probably didn't need to be that early, and I definitely was running out of room.  I think the extra round of Basil was started about a month later, and they are actually kind of an appropriate size to transplant now.  The main group of Basil were getting pretty big and I had to keep pinching them back already.  But I think it's safe to say I cannot plant too much Basil, there are plenty of people willing to adopt them.

Then I started on some Zinnias.  Of course those grew well.  I maybe started the State Fair Zinnias too early, because they got quite big and I couldn't really do anything with them.  I also read that it is very important to zinnias to have a normal sunlight/dark cycle.

So next year, I need to get a timer for the grow light.  I think that will help a lot of things, and it won't get so hot in there.

In early March, I planted a bunch of Radish seeds in the window box.  I like that idea, even though they are not really a very attractive plant.  I can plant pretty much any time, because that soil is always warm.   I didn't remember to water it, and that definitely slowed them down, but I still got a nice harvest of Radishes after like, 6 weeks.  The hard part is now sowing way too many seeds, because then I need to carefully thin them.

I started some lettuce in the Gutter Garden, but that hasn't done very well.  It's too cold for it to germinate properly, and I'm just starting to get some growth now.  I will definitely get lettuce going in there in the fall.  Actually, maybe it would be better to plant the lettuce in the window box next spring, and the Radishes in the Gutter Garden.  At least they would get rain.

I started some Morning Glory in little pots under lights, but really I should have filled my long containers with potting soil and started them in there.  I would have a lot more plants, obviously, and they would be getting going pretty well by this point and producing flowers much earlier.  The reason I did not get that going was because I didn't have potting soil and I had other crap in those containers.  So maybe next year I will be more organized about that.  I will also try to save some seeds again, because it's actually pretty easy.

I should have started some Cilantro, and I should have done it a while ago, like back at the same time I started all the Basil.

Also Swiss Chard.  I kind of started some a few weeks ago, but because I'm not paying as much attention, they've just kind of dried up and died.  That's on me.

I think I had a reasonable scope of what plants I can start from seed.  The tomatoes were the new thing and they have done well.  I will probably change my timing a little, and I'll get a timer for the lights.

Earth Day

It was a pretty big day for gardening, considering I was at work all day!

I brought all of my first-round Basil plants in to work to give away.  Last night I sent a kind of embarrassing email to everyone who might be interested, describing in great detail what the basil's history was and what they should do with them.  All of them got taken, and when someone wanted to take the last 3 I got a little worried and felt like all my Basil was gone.  Then I remembered that I have 4 that I started like, a month ago.  And I just transplanted them up last night, so I don't know why I would forget that.

Part of the reason I like giving away this stuff is because it prompts a lot of discussions about what other people have grown and what's worked, comparing our respective landscapes, talking about all the ways we have all failed along the way.  It gave me some ideas of other things I might want to try.

More than one person has successfully grown carrots.  I'm not sure why I thought they would be difficult, maybe because Mike McGrath is always so exacting in his carrot advice.  The only real complaint was that they come in all at once, and they don't stay good for long.  Maybe I will try them in the fall.

Also got some insight into growing cauliflower and broccoli.  It sounds like the plants are actually a little different- the cauliflower has just one big head, and the broccoli can form multiple florets.  That actually should have been obvious to me, just based on what the veggies look like.  Both are pretty big plants and take a long time, and you basically get one meal out of them.  If I want something like that, I think it would be Brussels Sprouts.  They're just so cool looking.

Then, maybe because of all the gardening enthusiasm, I finally worked up the motivation to go to Lowe's.  A while ago, I pretty much decided I wanted bright pink tuberous Begonias for the Patio Bed, Sweet Potato Vine for the grow bags, pink and yellow striped Calibrocha for either on the ground around the roses or the window box.  Even though I can't plant the Begonias until the Tulips are totally done, I decided I would buy them whenever I saw them because there's a chance I won't find them if I wait until like, June.

Amazingly, Lowe's had all of those things.  I found one begonia and had to ask someone to help me find more, but they were super helpful!  Then I found one on the clearance rack for $1, which was not in significantly worse shape than the full priced ones.

I got two 64-Quart bags of potting mix.  Regular kind, not organic, because for some reason, ones that don't have fertilizer cost more?  I swear it wasn't like that last year.  Maybe they wised up to the fact they could get away with charging more.  I struggled to get them in the cart, and in the trunk.  I'm not looking forward to carrying them in from the parking lot.  I did see an old lady put one in her cart and she was having no trouble at all, so I'm just a failure.  Or she's a secret bad ass old lady.

And I got a new soaker hose and a new watering wand nozzle.  It's the exact same one I got last year, because I left mine out and I guess when it froze it split some kind of seam.

You know, if I took better care of my shit, I wouldn't have to keep buying this stuff...

Somehow I managed to spend $91, even though I didn't think I had that much.  I hate how they never have any prices posted for any of the plants.  That's not really why it was more than I thought- only half that total went towards plants.  In fact, now that I see the prices on the receipt, I probably would have bought more.  Like, if I had known the Sweet Potato Vine was only $3, I would have bought twice as much.  And I would have broken $100.

Time to make some plans for the weekend!

• Put down the new soaker hose in the sidewalk bed and water the hell out of it.  Actually, water the hell out of everything. 
• Pull out the leaves and weeds from the Side Bed.  And cut back the Hyacinth leaves. That area will actually look pretty good once I do that.  The Creeping Phlox is at peak bloom right now.  I was going to grab some of that at Lowe's if they had it.  Maybe I will check out Home Depot tomorrow.  
• Take down the god damn Christmas garland and put it away.  Maybe put up the summertime lights.  
• Harvest all the Radishes!  I've decided Sunday morning is the best time to do that, because that night is going to get down to 41, and that is definitely the lowest in the next 2 weeks.  
• Fertilize all the bulbs with some Bone Meal.  
• Deal with the compost.   Oh my god I really don't want to.  But at this point it's not going to do anything else until I get out the non-composting stuff.  And then I can use the compost, obviously.  That was kind of the point.  
• Plant the Zinnias and Sunflowers in the Sidewalk Bed,  Actually I probably should do that before I start watering.  
• Start working on some containers!  I finally got some stupid potting soil.  I should get some Morning Glory going.  I've got very few that I started a few weeks ago, but I will soak the rest of the seeds tonight so I can plant tomorrow.  
• I was going to talk about planting the container tomato, but it is probably going to be a little chilly still.  I mean, it's not even May.  I think I should use the giant pot, and I'm not bringing that fucker inside every night.  
• I want to plant these Sweet Potato Vine in the grow bags, on the back patio wall.  This would be a perfectly good time to do that, as long as I don't fuck up the Tulips in the process.  I think it's ok- I would attach the bag first, with zip ties, and then fill it by scooping in the soil.  I probably want to get more of those plants, so I can do 2 per baggie.  

I have a Tomato problem.  I planted these things in January, right.  And I've kept most of them alive, and for the majority of that time. I kept them in rows so I knew which was which.  But then, like 2 weeks ago, I was re-arranging them into vertical rows instead of horizontal or something, and lost track.  I realized it as it happened, and maybe I could have re-traced my steps and put them back, identified them, and kept it under control, but I didn't.  

The Brandy Boy are distinct, because they have a potato-like leaf, but the Sun Gold and Fresh Salsa are really identical at this point.  Last night, I spent a long time looking at the leaves of the ones I have labeled, trying to identify any differences and extrapolate from that which of the smaller ones were which.  

This is kind of a problem, because you would treat these plants a little differently, as far as where you would plant them, how you would support them, etc.  It's not a big deal for me, because I have several bigger labeled ones, and I have my keeper Brandy Boy, Sun Gold and Fresh Salsa all picked out and ready.  But I would like to give these other plants away to a good home.  

I asked one of the more competent gardeners at work if he wants any tomato plants.  A few years ago he and his wife grew a cherry tomato and their yield was insane.  I seriously think they could have filled a hot tub with cherry tomatoes.  Maybe 2 hot tubs.  They threw out many buckets of them.  He does not even like fresh tomatoes!  He made sauce from them!  Sauce, from cherry tomatoes!  He even blanched them and took off the skins!  I can't even.  So he is definitely only interested in a Brandy Boy, so that's fine.  

I think some of my other colleagues are limited to containers, so I was thinking the Fresh Salsa would be a big hit.  But now I can't give someone a tomato and tell them what to do with it.  I mean, cherry tomatoes grow fine in containers.  It's not a big deal.  I'll just have to be honest and say, this is a tomato, and part of the adventure will be seeing what kind.  Enjoy!  

This could have all been avoided if I had bothered to label them properly.  Just needed to grab some popsicle sticks from work, and write BB, SG, and FS as needed.  

I am not going to give away tomatoes until a more appropriate tomato planting time.  So like, 2 weeks.  The reason for the delay is, ok, that's the best time to plant, but also it will give them some time to keep growing and harden off more,  They don't really look great right now.  I'm not exactly proud to show them off at work.  And maybe in 2 weeks, after they've grown a lot, something about their growth habit will suggest which tomato we got.  But they will all grow more and get more presentable.  

Other stuff.. I might want to replant the Coleus again, into something bigger, cause they are getting big.  And I gotta get some decent Swiss Chard and Cilantro going.  

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.

I actually did some physical work yesterday!  I dug out several Liriope and divided them into quarters.  That was actually pretty easy and went quickly.  Then I dug out all of my neighbor's Day Lilies.  That was a lot harder.  Some super genius planted them right up against the sidewalk, so you can't get a shovel in there, and the roots are all up in the concrete.  So that was tough.

I planted 8 of the divisions in the place of the Day Lilies.  I spaced them decently far apart but close enough that when they grow they will more or less reach each other.  She was actually  fine with just the 4, but I was like, Let's do 4 more!  Partly that is because it was so much easier to plant them in the soil I had just torn up than to dig a new hole in the sidewalk bed.

I still have not planted the other like, 8 or so divisions I dug up.  I left them sitting out there overnight, actually for about 12 hours, and it was 12 hours of insane wind, so it probably dried them out a lot.  I just put them in containers because I don't want them to totally dry out forever.

I have a lot of Day Lilies still to plant as well.  Those I did put in containers so they won't dry out or die or anything.

I can't  quite decide if I want to go outside now and try to finish planting these poor things.  In theory, yes.  I should plant all the Day Lilies first, because they are near the center, then do the Liriope around the edges.  I also want to dig out the little Stella d'Oro Day Lilies.  I don't think it makes any sense to have them in there when it's mostly roadside Tiger Lily types.  And I really want more little yellow Day Lilies in the front bed.  I think I have about 6 of those in the sidewalk bed.  I just don't think I can do it all today.  I probably should have kept going when I had the momentum yesterday.  Now my back and arms and legs and butt hurt.

So I don't know, should I push myself out there, in the "feels like 31" weather and dig some more holes?  Of course I should... but I should also get my shit together inside.  Next Saturday is not looking a whole lot better, but next Sunday looks ok.  And next Sunday I want to plant these Rudbeckia. Or I could wait another week.  That puts me beyond the last frost date.  But at that point I would be in pretty good shape- I'll have gotten all the Day Lilies in the sidewalk bed, close to the middle.  I will put the Liriope divisions around the border.  (I have 9 of them.  I don't know how I ended up with an odd number, but there we are.  I do have one more I want to divide.)  Once those things are in, I'll have the kind of solid, perennial things set up and I can fit in these annuals around.  It looks like I'm putting the Day Lilies near the front, so I'll group them in there, and maybe group the Rudbeckia down at the other end.

And I will have 12 Zinnias, the Zahara Bonfire mix, which are red, orange and yellow, and they will get up to 18 inches tall.  I think those need to go right up in front, probably on my side of the bed.  They will work well in front of the Yarrow, I think, and the red will work well there and the orange will tie in with the big Day Lilies.

Also, more seeds!

I planted the 12 pack with a variety of Sunflower that I bought from Home Depot or something which gets 5 feet tall.  All the ones I ordered specifically are more like 3 feet tall, but now that I am laying out the sidewalk bed, some 5 foot Sunflowers would be really nice.  I know you are not supposed to start them in containers and transplant because they get deep tap roots, so I am thinking these super deep cells will be better for them. Then I did 2 packs of the State Fair Zinnias.  I've got two more packs that are filled with soil that I can still plant... I could do Zinnias, or I could do more Sunflowers...I guess I should do Zinnias.  Maybe I will try to grow the green ones that I bought a few years ago.

Where would I plant them?  Actually, I haven't figured out where I am going to plant these other big Zinnias.  A couple options:

• Plant them in the long containers, on the ground inside the patio.  They would cover up the Gutter Garden, which is probably fine in the summer.  And I could tie them to the wall when they get big.  They would get pretty good sun there.  But being in containers, I would need to be more diligent about watering. 
• Put them behind the roses along the sidewalk.  That could be a little problematic because they would be spilling over into the sidewalk, where I need to walk frequently.  
• Plant them in the front bed, kind of in and around the other perennials in there.  That gets pretty good sun.  It would be a little problematic to get back there to stake them and cut them for vases and everything.  

I'm leaning towards the container option.  If that's the case, I can't even have that many.  I already have 12 pretty big ones, and 6 per container is probably already pushing it.  Of course, I can do all of the above.