I can’t decide if I wore myself out yesterday cleaning up the flower beds, or if I’m still in a sugar coma from all the jelly beans I’ve consumed throughout the weekend…

Either way, it was an excellent weekend in the garden. Our warm weather was back. We headed to the park to enjoy the springtime wildflowers, and I went wild planting up the next round of seedlings. I started some zinnias, german chamomile, marigolds, prairie dropseed, little bluestem, button flowers, two types of thyme, and the next of our parsley.

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I also started some seed potatoes in grow bags on the deck. This is my first time growing them, but all the gardening videos I watched on YouTube indicate that potatoes are pretty easy crops, and obviously, I am not one to turn down trying out a new plant.

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The potting bench continues to be the Champion of 2021. I spend time with it each day, even if it’s just to pat it lovingly as I walk past, grinning smugly to myself for a job well done. After I started all the aforementioned seeds, I re-potted the peppers and tomatoes (again). I can’t believe how quickly they are all growing. It will be another month before I can plant them out in the garden. Until then, I’ve had to do some maneuvering to make sure everything can still fit under the grow lights. It’s recommended to keep your lights about 4″ above your plants, and these beasty tomatoes keep outgrowing their space.

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Back outside, the cold frame is stuffed to the gills with some of the new flower seedlings, lettuce, and herbs. It’s been another life-saver this year. I don’t have room for any other grow lights or seed trays with my current indoor setup, so being able to toss things outside has been awesome.

The milk jugs hanging out with the cold frame that I did my winter sowing in are also holding up well. I have seedlings growing in each of the containers, and I’ll be able to pop the top halves of the containers off here shortly. I stuck with all native plant species in those containers: swamp milkweed, purple prairie clover, and prairie blazing star. I’m very pleased that that method has worked out, and since the seedlings won’t need to be hardened off at all, I’ll be able to get them planted a little earlier. Score.

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Finally, I started the Giant Springtime Flower Bed Cleanup. Armed with gardening gloves and a new pair of shears, I’m slowly making my way around the yard, cleaning up the beds, and removing most of last years growth. I used to do this in the fall, but the last few years, I’ve been saving this job for the spring instead. A lot of wildlife relies on the seeds from your flowers, dried stalks, leaves, and other plant material for housing and food. This is an easy way we gardeners can all help out our local birds, pollinators, bugs, and other critters. Anyway, the old plant material gets popped into our compost pile, which we add to the veggie beds, helping to improve the quality of our crops. The circle of life tastes delicious.

Hope you are able to enjoy some time outdoors this week. I’m off to figure out where the heck I hid the spray nozzle for the hose last fall. Past Sara never makes this as straight forward a task as it should be… Happy Gardening!

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