Home
Almanac
This WeekSherwood's Almanac
Week starting 22 March 2009
Lobelia aren't very big when they sprout. What can you expect from seed that looks like somebody swept up a bunch of punctuation used for the phone book. Squint crosseyed to make sure it's there. I don't attempt to plant them neatly. Mix with a half a cup of dry sand and try to get that sprinkled evenly.
22 March
Bedding Plants of the world, arise!
I was late this year starting my bedding plants. This year the ninth of March, almost a month late, when I turned the dining room into a conservatory. Normally I start in mid February at least with the ones that take a while, like the snapdragons.
The way winter is holding on like a Wallstreet CEO to his bonus, maybe being late isn't a bad idea.
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for marigolds. I plant a couple flats a year just to use here.
This is my first attempt at growing dahlia (Stargazer). So far it looks like 80% germination, and everyone is healthy.
For marigolds I prefer the foot high mixed color varieties. This year the first packet Pike's Safari Marigold, had a total of 27 seeds. Can you say stingy? It's not like marigold seed is hard to grow or collect. Most years I get 4-6 flats (18 pots per flat) from a packet. Took the packet back to my supplier, complained, and bought another packet of seed. NOT Pike's.
Pansy seed is bigger than lobelia, but a young pansy is still something to go cross-eyed over.
23 March
Odds and sods
I planted three flats of Dianthus 'Microchips', the same of Dianthus 'Arctic Fire" a flat of Fresia bulbs, four flats of Alyssum "Violet Quen" and four flats of Viola "Toymix". The dining room table has room for 3 more trays of something. Not sure what yet.
Dahlias and Marigolds are putting on their first true leaves. The pansies require less squint. The Lobelia are bigger -- I think. Certainly taller. I'll try to take pix tommorow.
Set up an account for Adwords with Google. My head is spinning from all the things you can do. Nothing is easy. Everything is in layers. If I can get good at this, I may have another marketable skill.
Shoveled out the driveway. Snowblowers are only a pleasure compared to doing it by hand. This is one job I actually wish I had a cab on the tractor.
Already however we have bare patches of ground, not because of warmth, but this last storm came with enough wind that some spots just didn't get more than a skiff of snow.
March 26
Nurseryman.com
Hurray! I've got my stuff now on Nurseryman.com. They have a service where you can list your inventory on the site for people to search. Directly I don't think this will help much. It's mostly for people who distribute nationally, but just the presence of the company name there gives us more credibility.
Lot of work to get this to happen. They need their data in a specific format. I really didn't want to type in all this stuff a second time so I hacked on my database, learned how to create a calculated field in a query, then exported that query in a form that their computer could understand.
Newly up. These purple alyssum don't wait around. Seems like
I planted them only a few days ago.
The dahlias seems to be doing quite well, thank you very much. At this age they look an awful lot like dandelions. Wonder how many dahlias have met an untimely end due to this unfortunate resemblance.
March 28
Bedding plant progress.
I was looking at my seedlings, and while they were really quick initially, growth seems to have come to a screeching halt. Then it dawned on me. They are in a sterile mix. Not much in the way of NPK. So this morning I watered them all with half strength Miracle Grow.
On the other hand the last few days have been overcast and gloomy.
The lobelia were the ones that started the alarms. They've been up for over a week, and the leaves are still smaller than the diameter of paper clip wire.
Not a lot of growth happening here.
Marigold seems happy enough.
I accused this pansy of being like Peter Pan. Refusing to grow up. Leaves have doubled in size since the last picture, but no true leaves yet.
On other fronts: Today got up to +3. The dogs and I went for a walk on snowshoes to the back field. Snow there is still a good foot, but as we walked there would be the occasional 'Whump' as our steps triggered a collapse. While I look forward to spring, I also know that a gradual spring will let the land soak up a lot more water. The ideal weather is it hovering just above freezing. This lets the heat from the earth melt the snow from the bottom, so it soaks in.
It's a theory.
Cleaned out the dining room conservatory.
All the extra tubs of dirt and pots are back in the green housee.
Back to Top
Copyright © 2008 - 2013 S. G. Botsford, Sherwood's Forests Tree Farm, All Rights Reserved
This file last modified on Saturday, May 18, 2013
Sherwood's Forests is located about 75 km southwest of Edmonton, Alberta. Please refer to the map on our Contact page for directions.