Admittedly, after the December and January we’ve had, the gardening bug in me disappeared for a while. I had anticipated a warmer than usual winter because of La Nina, but it was late showing up (and seems reluctant to stay). Earlier this month, we did have one really nice week with temperatures in the 60’s, so I was able to get some stuff cleaned up, but then it turned really cold again. This week is also another nice week, but I have so many other appointments and commitments, I haven’t gotten out to do much.
Because of the really cold spells we’ve had, I’ve lost some of the seedlings I sowed over the past few months because I refuse to move a lot of trays of both seedlings and young plants back and forth from my unheated greenhouse to my garage. If temperatures drop below 30 for a couple hours at night, I usually move some of the more sensitive stuff to the garage. But I just haven’t cared this past month. I’d rather just resow if I have seeds remaining.
My original plan for February was to sow a few varieties of seeds each weekend, doing just a little at a time so things wouldn’t feel so overwhelming this season. But life stuff got busy chaotic, and we were also caring for a cat with a feeding tube, which required frequent, smaller feeds. I don’t know how the boyfriend and I could have cared for Bailey if we didn’t work from home. Bailey lost his fight to cancer and crossed the Rainbow Bridge on Feb 21st.
With more really cold weather earlier this month, I ended up not doing much of what I had planned. And I was a little blah because this season is already off to a not-so-good start. But I am so determined to make this season my best growing season since moving here in 2019. It has been something every year so far. I NEED a good growing season so I can see that that past 5 years of work to get things to where they are were not pointless.
I’m a little late with posting this blog since these seeds were sown on February 9th. Mainly because this round of seeds isn’t doing much. I direct-sowed some (and then it got really cold again – down in the 20s). Most of the seeds started are out in my greenhouse, and I haven’t bothered to keep them consistently moist so they will germinate. So I’m not sure how well these will turn out, but as of 2 days ago, I’ve started watering them more consistently, so we’ll see.
Here’s the list sown from February 9th.
- Alyssum – Wonderland Deep Rose (because the seedlings I had planted died due to extreme weather)
- Calendula – Zeolights (because previous seedlings looked terrible which was probably my fault for neglecting them)
- Catmint (nepeta) – Blue Dreams
- Chrysanthemum – Snowland (because previous seedlings died in the greenhouse – again, probably my fault)
- Clarkia – Elegant Salmon (because the seedlings that were planted out died; I direct sowed these.)
- Coreopsis – Double the Sun
- Cress – Persian (because the plants that were doing decent died because of the weather). I direct sowed these and saw they were germinating last week and are still alive as of yesterday (Feb 26th)!
- Eucalyptus – Silver Dollar (because the ones I had that were looking good in the greenhouse and then started dying off; I suspect fungus gnats.)
- Feverfew – Vegmo Single
- Gaura – The Bridge
- Lobelia – Riviera Sky Blue (because the first planted batch died due to extreme weather)
- Nigella – Albion Black Marbles. I direct sowed some of these around the little tiny seedlings that I had already transplanted out. Out of the 5 I transplanted, I had lost one more than likely to the soil staying too wet for too long, so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to sprinkle a few seeds and see what happens.
- Rudbeckia – American Gold Rush. This is an experiment with seeds I saved from my plants last season.
- Saponaria – Pink Beauty (because the other seedlings looked terrible and dead/dying). I direct sowed these again.
- Sweet Peas – Watermelon (because the 4 I transplanted were toast and the others looked almost dead because I didn’t transplant them soon enough…) I soaked these 24 hours before direct sowing these and mixed them with an inoculant like I did back in October. As of February 26th, none of the 20+ seeds I sowed have emerged from the soil.
I am normally not a fan of direct sowing seeds but I did direct sow 5 varieties to cut down on the amount of work planting them out. And if the ones that were direct sown don’t germinate and come up, I won’t be resowing those for spring as it will be too late by then. It’s technically too late to start the sweet peas as days to maturity is 80, which is May 18th, and they haven’t even germinated. I’ll be planted summer stuff before May 18th. I think we are about to skip spring and go straight into summer as usually the case here in the southeast. Out of all the seeds sown on February 9th, the cress is the only thing that’s germinated so far. ☹️
I thought there would be a part 2 for February, but I’m just not going to get any more seeds sown before tomorrow. I’ve got lots of appointments today and tomorrow and a guest this weekend, so here’s to a better March!
