The weather this week has just been miserable! Rain, mist, drizzle, downpour, storms - - - the variety of ways to get wet while performing ordinary tasks outside has been breathtaking. The eggs got broken in the grocery parking lot while I was busy trying to wipe rain out of my eyes.
BUT, I had to keep smiling because this is perfect weather for seeds! On Monday, just before the rain began, I mean right before the rain started....I planted my seeds for this summer. I've kept seed packets from every year of planting, and even some that I got from a friend that are really old! So, instead of buying (alot) of seeds this year, I used leftovers from previous years. This is good for the budget, but not very hopeful for a yield since old seeds don't do as well as new.
I always try my hand at sprouting some sweet pea plants and am never successful. My Dear Mother-in-Law has heaps of these - they are SOOO beautiful as a cut flower! I'm always trying to grow some, but it's always a dismal failure! This year may be different - the gardener's motto - the orangish blooms pictured above on the right are the ones I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this year. "Everlasting" - great name!
Every year, though, I plant zinnias - the most cheerful summertime flower. All kinds and they always produce wonderful plants and blooms with minimal care. This was another one of my buys for the season - "Peppermint Stripe" zinnias. !!! Can't wait to see how those turn out!
"Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
Mark 4:8
I think we live in parallel universes! I've also had what can only be described as 'one of those weeks' and although the weather is beautiful now we had rain for several days, and we also smiled philosophically, saying 'Ah well, it's good for the garden!' We've also been planting lots of seeds last weekend, including zinnias. And our sweet pea crop failed so a friend of my husband's gave us about 12 little plants all ready to plant out! What's more, when I first opened your blog I thought the first photo was stamps (the eyes are going!) and it looked almost exactly like one I'll be putting up shortly on my blog as part of a scavenger hunt I've been participating in!
ReplyDeleteHope your weather improves - I'm just about to take a cup of tea out to the lawn!
Janice.
I'm stumped. I thought I remembered Zinnias being low matenience and easy to grow so I made two special little beds for the kids right by the sand box but only ONE seed bloomed in each bed and they are really having a hard time getting past an inch. What in the world went wrong? Also, I have some beautiful indoor potted greens from my grandmas funeral. Can I keep them outside or do they need to be indoor plants?
ReplyDeleteThat really IS weird on the zinnias not growing! You can usually buy them already big, if you want to skip the frustrating growing stage! I'm currently frustrated by an entire tray of seeds that I have "started" in the greenhouse --- except NOTHING on the tray has started! Ugh!
ReplyDeleteThe plants from the funeral probably have to be kept inside. Depending on what they are, but usually those planters are made of tropical/indoor plants.