April 9, 2007

Ugh.
I think if I want to start seeds indoors in the future I'm going to have to invest in some sort of table top green house. The little plastic lids that go over the seed pot starter kits are OK for smaller plants, but once they touch the top of the plastic I have to take them off, then they get too cold to grow any further.

This is what I have discovered after finally talking to some nursary folks. I described my entire seed-care process and the lady can only assume that my living room is too cold for the plants to grow decently. I've replaced the cover on my tomato seedlings to warm them up, but I have lost all the zucchini plants and most of the bush squash as well. Several cucumbers are still alive, but they have also simply stopped growing. I'm debating about looking for a little green-house type set up this season or just chucking the whole seedling thing and buying plants from the nursary. My garden is nowhere near ready for planting anyway, so I have a good few weeks to think about it. My tomato vines can at least stay under the cover for a bit, but everything else has been repotted and is far too large to put back under that wee little cover.

I figured I'd end up buying plants anyway. I learn something new every season, hu?

In other yard news...

I've been hearing the frogs in the yard again, and yesterday I noticed what looks to be egg sacks in the pond. Yay! I plan on pulling some out and putting them in a fish bowl so we can watch the tadpoles grow up close (and out of harm's way, since the raccoons like to eat the little buggers out of the pond) but I also want to bring some to Munchkin's school, so I need to find a container at a store for that. I have to pull them out to clean the sludge from the pond anyway, and I'll probably put at least some of them back in the pond once I'm done with that chore. (can you feel the excitement? Scraping muck from the bottom of a pond is just so fun!)

I mowed the lawn for the first time this season on Tuesday and it makes the entire yard look tons better. The lawnmower picked up a lot of the fiddly little branches we missed in our post-storm cleanup and helps the yard look nice and even. Dan is still convinced that we need to kill off the moss, but I've learned to live with it. It's still green, and there's enough grass growing through it that it looks like lawn for the most part. There are a few areas that look like forrest floor instead of lawn, but I'm not complaining. It's green, so who cares? If we concentrate on ridding our lawn area of anything, I vote dandylions and clover, because the flowers attract bees.

More pictures next entry... we bought a lot of new plants last weekend and are in the process of finding them homes.