Well, it did rain yesterday. All day. But it feels like it has been a dry spring so far. I cleaned out and planted the (formerly) raised veggie garden today and after I put in spinach, radish, arugula, cress, lettuce and carrot seeds, I watered it really well. There isn’t any rain in the forecast in the next ten days.

I may need to water the memory garden this week, as well, since much of it is under the Douglas fir and none of yesterday’s rain actually reached it.

This was a seed-heavy weekend. I planted a bunch of pots of seeds yesterday. The seeds included veggies destined for the veggie bed or pots in the greenhouse or on the patio including tomatoes, peppers, spinach, eggplants, zucchini, cucumbers, kale, and pumpkins. There were also flowers, including a second batch of Nicotiana langsdorfii, petunias, sunflowers (two types), and marigolds. Some of the seeds ended up on the heat mat under lights and the rest are sitting outside on the potting bench.

The other seeds I planted were morning glory vine seeds of a Mt. Fuji Lavender strain. I put these in a couple of pots alongside Leon’s “Pods” sculpture. This was brother Tim’s idea for a fun way to grow a vine. I did this several years ago, but the vines only made it half way up the sculpture. I’m hoping with an earlier start and some fertilizer, I can get these vines all the way up the sculpture.

Below are some photos from the garden today–lots of beauty and colors!

Last weekend I was able to tackle the Streptocarpus plants. Several of them did not survive the winter–tough to know why. But most of them were just dormant and looking terrible. So, I tipped them all out of their pots and trimmed an inch off the bottom of their roots, put fresh soil and Jobe’s organic fertilizer spikes in each pot (1/3 beneath the plant and 1/3 each in two places next to the plants.

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I cut all the leaves and stems away with scissors rather than trying to pull the dead growth away. Pulling flower stems also pulls some of the new divisions away from the mother plant and I wasn’t in propagation mode.

Tulips have long been a favorite of mine and this year they reinforced my admiration by putting on a long and brilliant flower show in and around the memory garden.

I’m super excited that two of the Clivia plants blooming in the greenhouse are light yellow! They also have a graceful form of flowers. I think this is the first time for both of them to bloom.

More and more things are blooming in the greenhouse, too.

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Every day finds more things blooming in the garden, too, despite the cold nights and late-ish spring.

More photos from today of the garden and greenhouse.

As usual, spring has taken me mostly by surprise. And here it is April already! One benefit of the garden is that is gives context to time passing. No matter how busy life gets with non-gardening tasks, just looking outside and seeing the forsythia in full bloom and the tulips brightly shining tells me that we are crossing over from winter to spring.

The greenhouse has timing all its own tied to the way the temperature and light have landed inside those walls. Apparently, the Pleione orchids have been happy with all of it–they are blooming remarkably well this year.

The new tulips along the sidewalk near the memory garden are coming into bloom. One is a species tulip and the other are hybrids that were planted pretty late but didn’t seem to mind.

Here is a holiday cactus in the greenhouse that is blooming late but madly. The color is a bit much for me, but it can’t be ignored.

Spring is confirmed by the blooming of the Forsythia along the driveway, as well as the Corylopsis.

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