It may be snowing, sleeting, or finding some other creative way to be absolutely miserable outside, but we gardeners will not be deterred...
we move to the basement and begin our gardens.
Sunday afternoon I've spent a blissful few hours transplanting roma and grape tomato plants, cilantro, bell peppers, banana peppers, chives, lavender, and savory into their next stage of peat pots. I've also begun the germination process for delphinium and leeks.
This garden may be a miniature in retrospect to what will develop in a couple of months, but for the time being it's keeping this Highbanks gardener quite sane and occupied.
So, blow wind blow...frustrate us with those seemingly never-ending polar days. We gardeners have our potting mix, our peat pots, and more than a proverbial mustard seed of faith knowing that the sun will come soon and bring with it that lovely spring warmth that can't be matched.
If you're beginning to feel frumpy, grumpy, and mopey...better head to the basement and start gardening!
Welcome to our little corner of the world--the gardens of the Highbanks. This blog is dedicated to all rookie gardeners out there who truly love the hard work, the bliss, and the never-ending challenges of gardening. Cheers to all who bloom where they are planted!
Monday, February 23, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Mid-Winter Shopping Therapy--Buy More Seed!
I think, judging from people's comments online and in person, that winter has pretty well been here long enough. I looked out over the main vegetable garden yesterday afternoon while cleaning the house, only to see the forlorn little greenhouse, all empty and covered with snow. The spot where I hastily planted some lettuce last Saturday in the polar winds is now covered in a heavy layer of snow. This time of year winter sure seems to like to rub our noses in it.
Tom and I were able to get out and about Thursday, so while "airing out", I did a little retail therapy. We stopped by a Menard's and headed straight for the garden section inside the store, growing very slowly in size just about like anything would grow this time of year. There, in all its multi-colored glory set all the seed packets, just waiting for frustrated gardeners.
By now I've made several treks to these displays at different garden stores as I can find them. Every time I find a different plant or flower to grow, I feel a little closer to spring and my cabin fever lifts a bit. This last trip found some leeks, pinks, phlox, baby's breath, and a wildflower mixture. Three dollars and eighteen cents worth of retail therapy...and a whole lot of fun watching these little fellas germinate over the next few weeks. The leeks can get started now; soon there will be those familiar little green spikes appearing under the germination plastic.
So, if you feel winter getting the best of you, try a little green thumb retail therapy and buy more seed!
Tom and I were able to get out and about Thursday, so while "airing out", I did a little retail therapy. We stopped by a Menard's and headed straight for the garden section inside the store, growing very slowly in size just about like anything would grow this time of year. There, in all its multi-colored glory set all the seed packets, just waiting for frustrated gardeners.
By now I've made several treks to these displays at different garden stores as I can find them. Every time I find a different plant or flower to grow, I feel a little closer to spring and my cabin fever lifts a bit. This last trip found some leeks, pinks, phlox, baby's breath, and a wildflower mixture. Three dollars and eighteen cents worth of retail therapy...and a whole lot of fun watching these little fellas germinate over the next few weeks. The leeks can get started now; soon there will be those familiar little green spikes appearing under the germination plastic.
So, if you feel winter getting the best of you, try a little green thumb retail therapy and buy more seed!
Labels:
buying seeds,
cabin fever,
retail therapy
Location:
Otwell, IN 47564, USA
Saturday, February 14, 2015
"Lettuce" Be Loved--Time to Plant!
According to Dr. Grow (http://www.semissourian.com/story/1498889.html) and a bunch of people that share my love of gardening, today is more than a day of hearts and roses...it's a day for lettuce!
Yep...on this less than stellar weather day, it's time to take that little packet of lettuce seed, pull on the boots, the coat, the gloves, and the hat and do a little gardening.
I haven't ventured out yet, but I will soon, just to give it a try. Had I had any sense, I would have done this when it was 35 degrees outside this morning; now it's the middle of the afternoon and hovering around 30 degrees. Of course, it is February, so it's already blown gale-force winds, snowed a little, and been pretty much regular weather for a mid-February weekend in Southern Indiana.
We're generally not much on drama around here...the weather takes care of it for us.
So, I'll head out to my little garden in a few minutes and plant a little broadcast area of seed and see what happens. Then, with a cold nose, cold hands, and a warm heart, I'll count on my Valentine to warm me up with words of understanding and love. It would certainly take someone who loves me unconditionally (or another gardener) to understand this goofy gardener venturing out of a perfectly warm and cozy house to stomp around in the cold and mud.
"Lettuce" all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Yep...on this less than stellar weather day, it's time to take that little packet of lettuce seed, pull on the boots, the coat, the gloves, and the hat and do a little gardening.
I haven't ventured out yet, but I will soon, just to give it a try. Had I had any sense, I would have done this when it was 35 degrees outside this morning; now it's the middle of the afternoon and hovering around 30 degrees. Of course, it is February, so it's already blown gale-force winds, snowed a little, and been pretty much regular weather for a mid-February weekend in Southern Indiana.
We're generally not much on drama around here...the weather takes care of it for us.
So, I'll head out to my little garden in a few minutes and plant a little broadcast area of seed and see what happens. Then, with a cold nose, cold hands, and a warm heart, I'll count on my Valentine to warm me up with words of understanding and love. It would certainly take someone who loves me unconditionally (or another gardener) to understand this goofy gardener venturing out of a perfectly warm and cozy house to stomp around in the cold and mud.
"Lettuce" all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!
Labels:
Valentine's Day planting lettuce
Location:
Otwell, IN 47564, USA
Thursday, February 12, 2015
Retreat!!
The pea and cabbage plants have been happily hanging out in the greenhouse with a little space heater keeping them healthy at around 42 degrees.
And then it got cold.
When I checked the thermometer a couple of hours ago, it was 10 degrees cooler at 32. And it was still daylight.
Brrrrr. Poor things.
I couldn't chance it; I wimped out for them and called their camp-out over for awhile until this cold snap ends. They're now hanging out in the garage again. I don't know if they feel better, but I sure do. The thought of going out tomorrow morning and seeing them frozen was too much for this gardener. Survival of the fittest just didn't seem necessary to test--they look so happy and "spring-like"!
So, now I pretty well have plants in varying degrees of pre-germination, germination, and post-germination sitting about the house--upstairs and down. Some are under the lights, some are in natural sunlight (stay with us, sun!), and some like the shady spaces of the house.
So...let it snow, let it blow, let February do what February does. We're all under roof, present, and accounted for in our happy little retreat.
Stay warm!
And then it got cold.
When I checked the thermometer a couple of hours ago, it was 10 degrees cooler at 32. And it was still daylight.
Brrrrr. Poor things.
I couldn't chance it; I wimped out for them and called their camp-out over for awhile until this cold snap ends. They're now hanging out in the garage again. I don't know if they feel better, but I sure do. The thought of going out tomorrow morning and seeing them frozen was too much for this gardener. Survival of the fittest just didn't seem necessary to test--they look so happy and "spring-like"!
So, now I pretty well have plants in varying degrees of pre-germination, germination, and post-germination sitting about the house--upstairs and down. Some are under the lights, some are in natural sunlight (stay with us, sun!), and some like the shady spaces of the house.
So...let it snow, let it blow, let February do what February does. We're all under roof, present, and accounted for in our happy little retreat.
Stay warm!
Labels:
cold snap,
February,
greenhouse,
retreat
Location:
Otwell, IN 47564, USA
Sunday, February 8, 2015
An Early February Respite
There's nothing that warms a gardener's heart quite like a respite of February weather;
Cold, gray skies give way, turning into a horizon of sapphire blue--a true warmth from the sun allows a coat to be shed.
What better Valentine could one want than a glimpse of glorious spring?
I know well that the frigid winds will return,
The temperatures will dip dramatically,
But...just for a day...
This day of respite in the gardens gives great joy.
The leeks are ready!
Two of the cats found a hint of Catnip
Beauty in the eye of the beholder...last year's
straw ready for be worked in for this season's garden
The new peas and cabbage are now in
the greenhouse awaiting their day...
Labels:
February respite,
harvesting leeks
Location:
Otwell, IN 47564, USA
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Seed Shopping--Contain(er) Yourself!
I have been on a seed-shopping mission three times now so far this season, coming home with those little packets brimming with promise and some tiny seeds. Seed shopping is something in which I could certainly lose all control. The beautiful packets with the perfect vegetables, herbs, and flowers on them entice me in a way few things do. I have learned to peruse the seed catalogs before the stores start stocking seeds; I make a list based on what I'll want to plant in the gardens and try my best to stick with it. There is the occasional lag in good judgment, but I do my best to be on good behavior.
What's the big deal about indulging in little, harmless packets of seed? Surely there are more harmful vices than a $1.79 splurge....
Ah, if only it were that easy...
The packets are the easy part; they don't take up much room, are inexpensive, and will keep fairly well in the right conditions...like in a box in a closet. Pretty simple stuff.
It's those little powerhouses inside those packets that require self-control on my part. Those teeny, tiny little seeds can become, happily, sweet little baby plants in a short amount of time. Sweet little baby plants that need space and light to grow into big strapping plants that beautifully grace their respective seed packets.
Currently, I have peas that are growing and ready for the garden if the garden is ready for them--c'mon 50 degrees this weekend! I also have spinach, lavender, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, mesclun, basil, and chives all teeming for space under the grow light system in my indoor growing space. Conventional containers as well as creative containers are now where the neat rows of germinating pods once sat. Added to my to-do list, is, of course, searching out more clay pot containers to hold these wonderful and rambunctious seedlings.
So...if the gardening bug has bit you, one piece of advice...
Contain(er) yourself!
Happy growing!
What's the big deal about indulging in little, harmless packets of seed? Surely there are more harmful vices than a $1.79 splurge....
Ah, if only it were that easy...
The packets are the easy part; they don't take up much room, are inexpensive, and will keep fairly well in the right conditions...like in a box in a closet. Pretty simple stuff.
It's those little powerhouses inside those packets that require self-control on my part. Those teeny, tiny little seeds can become, happily, sweet little baby plants in a short amount of time. Sweet little baby plants that need space and light to grow into big strapping plants that beautifully grace their respective seed packets.
Currently, I have peas that are growing and ready for the garden if the garden is ready for them--c'mon 50 degrees this weekend! I also have spinach, lavender, radishes, cabbage, lettuce, mesclun, basil, and chives all teeming for space under the grow light system in my indoor growing space. Conventional containers as well as creative containers are now where the neat rows of germinating pods once sat. Added to my to-do list, is, of course, searching out more clay pot containers to hold these wonderful and rambunctious seedlings.
So...if the gardening bug has bit you, one piece of advice...
Contain(er) yourself!
Happy growing!
Labels:
containers,
germination,
seed packets,
seed shopping,
seedlings
Location:
Otwell, IN 47564, USA
Tuesday, February 3, 2015
Welcome to the Highbanks Gardener
I think it might be an early sign of spring...a new blog up at Highbanks.
I walked out to the main vegetable garden this afternoon to check the degree of frozen-ness of the straw bales that didn't get spread out for ground cover this autumn. Only two weeks ago when a similar attempt was made, the bales were frozen solid.
But today...they're thawed! What a treat! I can't help but think that this is a sign that the grip of winter is weakening...and then I watched the weather forecast.
Hmmm...snow and slick roads tomorrow night. I still stand undaunted! Those who gravitate toward the out-of-doors can tell you that the light seems a bit different outside--not just longer days, but different-different. The air feels different, too. Agreed...it's cold out there, but it's just not the same kind of cold.
So, other than a little experimental lettuce sewn in the "floor" of the little greenhouse, the gardening is kept to the basement and the graph paper. ("Baby" pictures of the basement garden later--what fun!) The plant catalogs are beginning to become dog-eared, and it's pretty obvious where I "plant" myself in my comfy chair on on the couch downstairs...there grows the "garden" of reading materials. This gardener, even when shut in with cold winds and blowing snow, is still in a wonderful anticipatory spirit of bliss.
Hope those of you who are lovers of gardens and the experience of gardening are having fun, too!
So...welcome to the Highbanks Gardener. Come back, take a literary/visual stroll, and enjoy the blog as it blooms.
"A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and him above the stars"--Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
I walked out to the main vegetable garden this afternoon to check the degree of frozen-ness of the straw bales that didn't get spread out for ground cover this autumn. Only two weeks ago when a similar attempt was made, the bales were frozen solid.
But today...they're thawed! What a treat! I can't help but think that this is a sign that the grip of winter is weakening...and then I watched the weather forecast.
Hmmm...snow and slick roads tomorrow night. I still stand undaunted! Those who gravitate toward the out-of-doors can tell you that the light seems a bit different outside--not just longer days, but different-different. The air feels different, too. Agreed...it's cold out there, but it's just not the same kind of cold.
So, other than a little experimental lettuce sewn in the "floor" of the little greenhouse, the gardening is kept to the basement and the graph paper. ("Baby" pictures of the basement garden later--what fun!) The plant catalogs are beginning to become dog-eared, and it's pretty obvious where I "plant" myself in my comfy chair on on the couch downstairs...there grows the "garden" of reading materials. This gardener, even when shut in with cold winds and blowing snow, is still in a wonderful anticipatory spirit of bliss.
Hope those of you who are lovers of gardens and the experience of gardening are having fun, too!
So...welcome to the Highbanks Gardener. Come back, take a literary/visual stroll, and enjoy the blog as it blooms.
"A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and him above the stars"--Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
Location:
Otwell, IN 47564, USA
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