Indoor Seed-Starting

 I got back to planting seeds inside.  Last post, I had cleaned up the spill from "somecat" jumping on the stack of soil-filled trays and knocking half of them over.  What a MESS!

So I took the filled ones and planted 2 trays of seeds.  "Just 2" you ask?  Yeah...

It was all the stuff I had to do before planting them.  Well, if you go to a fast-food place, they don't start preparing for the assembly-line when the store opens.  They have to have everything ready to use for the first customer, right?

I started by sorting out my plant labels (I don't make new ones every year).  First, veggies vs flowers.  Then various types of each.  Flower labels are easy.  Annuals vs perennials.  Then common ones (Marigolds and Zinnias, etc) vs "fancy" (the ones you don't find on Walmart racks).  I bundled the categories with rubber bands.

Then I had to soak some of the filled trays with water.  The dry potting soil I mix myself takes a while to get wet (really).  

Then I had to check my list of starting dates.  I am behind a couple of weeks (as usual).  So I needed to plant seeds that should have been started earliest first.  It is 4 weeks til "last frost date", so I planted the -8 weeks to -6 weeks last night.  And I planted the common ones, just to get back into practice again.

Later today, I will catch up to -4 weeks and be current again.  

After that, I will tackle the more "exotic" flowers.  Those are trickier.  Those seeds can have some real odd requirements.  Some need to be planted deeply, some need to just be sprinkled on the surface.  Some need to be planted in soaked soil and then be left dry for a week.  Some need constant water.  Some need strong light, others want none at first.  Some need cool temps to germinate, others need Summer warmth.

There is a reason those flowers are not "common", LOL!  I move trays around the house a lot.  Some get set above warm floor vents, some get set in the colder garage.  Some get direct light on the planting stand, some have a towel other them for initial darkness.  It takes some time, but it is a hobby and obsessive attention to a hobby is self-justified.  😎

There is a reward though.  The "fancy" ones are fairly cheap as seeds but expensive to buy as seedlings.  And the ones I am trying to grow are ones that support beneficial or lovely insects (butterflies, bees, ladybugs, etc) for food or egg-laying.  And many support hummers and other interesting birds (some migratory).

So tomorrow, more seed-starting.  And some are nearly impossible to grow (for an amateur like me).  I have an order of 38 pollinator and meadow flower plants due to arrive in late April.  Sometimes, you just have to buy what you can't grow.

Planting Trays All Fall Over

I have a routine in late Winter.  I soak old planting trays in the laundry tub with a bit of bleach to drown/kill any insect eggs and rinse them thoroughly.  Then I fill them with newly-mixed potting soil I make/mix myself.  I fill the trays of plastic cell-packs with my mix.  And then stack them up for easy access.

Well  "Some Kitty" seems to have considered that a good way to jump up onto the old basement refrigerator...

AARGH!  

It sure took a while of sweeping, moving stuff around, more sweeping.  But everything is clean and the soil recovered in buckets.  I'd rather it hadn't happened, but the potting area is cleaner now that it has been for a few years.  

I made sure to leave the recovered trays stacked lower and make more stable.  Set me back a week (I didn't clean it all up in a single day).  But at least I am ready to move forward with planting seeds again...

Spring Blooms, Part 3

Catching up to yesterday...

The Saucer Magnolia tree flowers were fully opened.  But there was a hard freeze 25F lat night.  This will be the end of the flowers.  But no reason not to show them on their last day...

The Daffodils don't mind the freeze.  Someone should splice the Daffodil "antifreeze" into Saucer Magnolias!

But even Daffodils (and other Spring Bulbs) don't last forever, so I walked around the yard taking pictures.  It is always tricky as how to show them off best.  I planted most randomly over several years, so even I am surprised at what comes up and blooms.  This is just a part of the backyard.

I planted 100s of Hyacinths 25 years ago.  The voles love them!  One spot of 20 has 3 left.  I appreciate them.

This Fall, I will make wire cages to keep voles out and replant Hyacinths.  The fragrance is wonderful, so it is worth the effort.

Meanwhile, the Daffodils thrive.  So I took pictures...

 I love the various white/yellow/orange colors.  They really get me out into the yard (as do the cats, but both together is great)... 

Some Tulips will come later.  I see the leaves emerging.

Spring Blooms, Part 2

 A week ago (still going with the recently found pics).  The Daff were still blooming well.  It is a joy to see them from the deck.

And the backyard Saucer Magnolia is still in full flower.  We had non-freezing nights for a week.

The frontyard one gets less sunlight, so it is also behind the other by about a week.  But it is looking good.  I sometimes notice neighborhood walkers stop and look at it carefully.  Well, it is pink, but it obviously isn't a cherry tree.  

The front Daffodil bed is in full bloom.  They last a couple of weeks in bloom.  But they seem to live forever.  These have been growing there happily for 30 years.  I do need to dig up the wild blackberries that are growing in there, though or they will take over.

There are an early and a late variety mixed there.  It extends the blooming season.  But the latter one actually has some fragrance (which is not common for Daffodils).  It is nice to smell flowers in Mid-Spring.

In May, the Hostas will emerge and show all Summer to Fall.  The Daffodils and Hostas get along together just fine.  I've also ordered some plants that are "deer-resistent" to deter them.

The deer won't eat the Daffodils, but they love Hostas.  Even then, though, they love some Hostas less than others (because of fuzzier leaves).  So those are in among the Daffodils now.  And I plan to place dark green vinyl cages around those Hostas (they are invisible from the street).

Spring Blooms, Part 1

I found the pictures I thought I had lost.  Turned out I messed up my filing system.  I keep my processed (smaller) pics by subject (cats/yard/house/family/other), then by year and subfolders for each by month and day.  So the columns of folders (today) look like CATS - 2023 - 2303 -230321, with a dozen or so pics in the "23030321" last folder.  Well, it's the only way I can find stuff anyway...  I don't give pics names.

So, I managed to accidentally save my recent YARD processed pics to the wrong subfolder.  I found them today while processing the newest ones, LOL!  At least they were still "somewhere".

So the next few days are not "today" pics...  Couple weeks ago at first, but I will catch up quickly.

The earliest Daffodils were blooming nicely.  I planted them by blooming date, so the blooms rotate left.  If I had a "do-over" I would have mixed them all together so that there was some color all over the bed.  I mixed 2 in the front bed and I like that better.  But the back bed does make a nice slideshow as things change.

The earliest views from the deck...

The backyard Saucer Magnolia tree bloomed beautifully this year.  Some years a last frost kill the flowers early, sometimes they last a week.  

A closeup of the flowers.  

I became fascinated with Saucer Magnolias when I worked in central Washington DC.   There was a small park next to us.  The National Park Service had done a lot of limb-shaping work, so the trees were open but heavily-flowered.  I used to eat lunch out there in early Spring.

What I didn't know at the time was how much effort it takes to guide the direction of branches for that "open look" and how long it takes for them to mature to that "graceful old look"!

I planted my 2 about 25-30 years ago, and they are still barely mature and the "graceful old look" is at least another 25 years away.  I will never see it.  But I still love them (I think of them as in their "teenage years"; they are a promise to the future.  

Spring Flowers- Last Week

The Crocuses were in full bloom in the lawn and beds.  The very earliest Daffodils were opening their flowers...

The Daffodils beds are almost ready...

It will be full-flower soon! 

  ---------------

Huh, I took a few dozen pics of The Mews, Flowers, and Yard the past few days and they are all gone.   I had expected to show closeups of the first large beds of this year's Daffodil flowers, some garden work and they are all gone!    No idea what happened.  I'll have to try again later today. 

Annoyed Serious Gripe

 I shop at a Safeway store.  They have great produce and I love fresh veggies and fruits.  And it is not a busy store.  Checkout lines are usually just a few people.  But I have a gripe about one checkout woman.  And I've emailed the store about it but gotten no reply.  So I feel like complaining about it somewhere.

I have a store-loyalty card.  You show it to the checkout cashier and they scan it immediately.  But there is one cashier who always says "I'll do that at the end". OK.   But she never remembers to do that.  The first time, OK, she was busy and forgot.  

When I pointed at my loyalty card sitting on the small surface next to her, she said I hadn't shown it to her.  Of course I had.  I had held it right up to her.  Well, fine, people get busy and forget things.

The next time I was in her line, same thing.  But this time I mentioned she had forgotten the last time.  She blew up.  "I never forget that" she said, and then forgot again.  I pointed out that it was the 2nd time.  She blamed me for not showing the card first (I had).

Today, I had to go through her station again (only express lane).  Again she said "I'll do that at the end".  I insisted she did.  She said she never forgets.

This time the same thing.  And she did not have a name label.  I said "I bet your name is "Patsy".  She asked how I knew.  I said because you do the same card-scan-avoidance everytime "for later".  I demanded she scan the card immediately.  And she seemed both aggrieved and angry.

But she did scan it.  In anger, and she practically threw my bags at me afterwards.

What is with some people?  All she has to do is scan cards when presented.  Everyone else does.

Crocuses And Daffodils

 Early for crocuses here, but climate change is happening.

Some daffodils seem ready to bloom soon, too.  Not yet, but here is a picture from last year...

I'm looking forward to that soon.

Sales Tax Holiday

I thought I was going to buy a new refrigerator today.   

Nope.  Out of stock, line to order too long (wasn't worth the Maryland sales tax holiday $60 benefit to stand in line for an hour).  I want the ancient basement refrigerator gone (too much chipping off frost the the cooler section), the current temperature-recovery-challenged kitchen one moved to the basement, and a new one installed in the kitchen.  

I do a lot of fresh food prep, so I am in and out of the refrigerator a lot.  I need faster temp-recovery (like to save the milk).  The stores had the stainless steel variety, but every appliance in the kitchen is "finger-proof black" so that (SS) would feel out of place.

I'll live with the current stuff for a month or so until the one I want is back in supply.  Or until Consumer Reports suggests a better one...

Yeah, there is always a better product a few months away, but that ancient refrigerator has got to go soon!  It is like an incandescent bulb in an LED world.  I bet it is 25% of my electric bill these days.

Which reminds me; I should replace the 37 year old water heater with a tankless (and maybe heat pump powered one).  After all these years, I might be drinking moldy high (bad) mineral water.

Starting The Gardening Season

 Every year, I need to reorganize the potting table.  It gerts clutterred...

Before:

Middle:  

Done:

The barrel is filled with sterile potting mix I make.  The stack of trays on the left are filled with potting soil ready for seed-planting.  The buckets below are filled with leftover vermiculite. perlite, peat. 

I have a lot of less-than-usual flower seeds this year (meadow and pollinator flowers), so I will be starting more than usual.  But at least I have lots of planting trays with good soil.

More Things I Did

OK, nothing major.  Just small things I did staying busy and productive...  As I've said before "try to do something useful every day".

1.  My clock/radio has a backup battery to keep the clock running in a few hours of power outage.  One of those old-fashioned rectangular 9 volt types (its a very old clock radio but it still works).   The last few times when there was a brief blip in the power, it failed.  I get tired resetting it.  So I turned over the clock/radio and found the battery.  The plug-in attachment was broken.  How something that does not move "breaks" is beyond me.  

And it took a while to even see that "something was broken.  My initial response was to buy a new rechargeable battery.  But it would attach.  That's when I discover part of the old battery was broken off in the plug.

I have a lot of good tools.  One is a tiny, thin needlenose plier (and this one is really "needlenosed").  But I don't have the steadiest of hands these days.  So it was really hard to get the plier to grab the old  broken-off battery attachment.  Sometimes I scream in frustration trying to work at tiny things!  And the plug-in didn't offer any firm leverage. 

It took 15 minutes to get the broken battery attachment loose from the plug-in.  That may not sound like very long, but 15 minutes of frustration is like an hour of real time.  

The tiny little bit of broken metal suddenly popped out!  The new rechargeable (and newly charged) battery connected perfectly.  I can't wait for a 1 minute power outage to see if it works.

2.  Checked the snow-blower.  That meant dragging out 150' of heavy-duty extension cord to reach the toolshed.  And remembering to plug it into the outside outlet before I went, LOL.  It has an electrical power-start which I love.  I can't pull those damn "cord-pulls" like I used to.   

We aren't forecast to have heavy snow this Winter, but surprises happen.  So testing the snow-blower made sense.  But it wouldn't start.  OK, I tend to leave gas in equipment.  Purists say to drain gas every month, mechanics say once every 6 months, and there are additives that extend gas life to a year.  I don't do that.  Most equipment starts when I want it to.

But the snow-blower didn't.  I checked a few obvious things.  Then looked in the gas tank.  Couldn't see a thing!  So I found a 3' bamboo stick and put it in to see if there was gas.  No gas.  I actually stored it properly (drained of most gas and then run til it stopped).  I had forgotten that.

Added a little gas and pushed the priming button a dozen times.  It started right up.  So, I'm ready for any serious snow...

3.  Filled the thistle seed birdfeeders ( a daily thing - I have a flock of about a dozen goldfinches here and I bet no neighbor can claim that) and the black oil sunflower birdfeeder (for the other songbirds).  Filling the sunflower feeder is wearing me out.  I need to drag over the 8' stepladder to reach the top to dump in a bucket of the seeds.  It gets harder every year.

What I need is a pole that lowers and raises the sunflower seeder.  I've looked for one to buy for years but I never find one.  I think I'm going to have to build my own. I 'm thinking a pipe through the center with a rope through it, a couple of pulleys, and a small winch.  I need to sit down and draw the details.  But there is always something else higher on the To Do List.

4.  Went shopping at Walmart.  I go there for odd items.  Or maybe I should say their "profit-losers".  There are some things I buy there that are way under-priced compared to competitors.  So I take advantage of that.  Fancy Food canned cat food is cheap there.  Tidy Litter is cheap there.  Milk and Ice Cream is cheap there.  Some other things aren't, so I buy them elsewhere.  I have NO store loyalty.

5.  Bought a steamship round roast at the meat.deli/liquor store.  Roast beef is $7.99 a pound and too often "medium-to well" cooked.  I like medium-rare.  So I marinate and cook my own.  I have an electric slicer and do my own sandwich-thin slicing (set into 2-day batches in zip-lock bags).  And a few 1/2" slabs for different meals.  

6.  Took one of my 24"x6"x6" planting trays and dumped the soil into a bucket to mix it up with organic slow-release fertilizer .  Put it back in the tray and planted more lettuce.  I love salads, so I can't really have "too much" lettuce.  Red leaf, green leaf, and romaine.  And since lettuce has jumped from $2/pound to $4.50, that's a sensible thing to do.

7.  I've been collecting fallen branches.  I don't often have fires in the basement fireplace, but a short one would be nice to watch.  Sadly, my little electric chainsaw is giving me problems.  The chain just doesn't want to adjust in tension properly.  A project for another day...  But the fallen branches are small enough to cut with my "saws-all".

8.  I use a drywall tape tool to scrape the litter boxes clean.  It works great for cleaning the edges and loosening everything from the bottom for scooping after.

But it has always "caught" on the middle of one of the litter boxes.  So I empties the litter into the other boxes and scrubbed it.  There was a slight raised spots in the center.

Hurray for sharp chisels!  I scraped away the high spot!  Perfection in scraping is available again.

9.  Sorted out a 10" stack of bills and notices.  I have a very good system of file folders, but I am terrible at keeping up with the filing.  I got 90% of them divided and filed in subjects.   That was a relief.  The other 10% is hard to decide where to file.  And I only did it because of possible bad cat.vet records as you see below.

10.  Looked up a lot of stuff on email and websites.  First, I think my new vet was sent bad records from the old one.  I don't yet want to say it was deliberate, but a lot of what the new vet is telling me doesn't match up with my mental recollections of annual visits for shots.  I have the previous vet receipts on the dining table and will make a list on times and dates.  Then I will bring that to the new vet so that we can compare records.

Second, some poster (elsewhere) suggested "diclophene" for knee problems.  The stuff seems almost lethal.  I'll stay with generic 4% lidocaine and Walmart 'Equate' equivalents.  

11.  Almost time to start planting some slow-growing perennial seeds.  I mix my own starter-soil .  Made a list of the parts I don't have enough of.  Time to visit Lowe's or Home Depot.