Seedlings Eruptus!

Along with the seedlings I planted in the newspaper pots - I did a 72" cell of Jiffy....set those to seed in the jiffy pot on Sunday February 13th...and by Thursday, February 17, I had sprouts...see below.  Finally on Sunday - the climbing cardinals and cucumbers had about a 4" leggy sprout that I had to transplant to bigger pots.  These worked well, my alyssum, snapdragons and coleus and onions are also starting to sprout. 

Any suggestions on how to get strong stalks, please feel free to advise!  Wish I had more luck with my 52 little seedling pots that I put up.  I think I didn't either water enough, or put enough soil in the pots.  I have moved them all from the dark spare bedroom to my window in my bedroom - hoping that a little water and sunlight will surely do the trick...so far only one tiny sprout out of all 52....and I hope that will make it - I have a ton of impatients that i'm trying to seed.  If they don't work i'm going to go back to the jiffy pots....I bought a pack of morning glory seeds and plan on starting those this weekend. 

On other news, we had a small tunderstorm here today in Mckinney, high winds, supposedly we had hail, but I didn't see any signs of that.  Went to check rain gauges and two of the three are busted......but on as a side note....I went and plunged the spicot on the rain barrell and had a steady stream of fresh rain water in it - yippee! 


Also, just so you know how novice of a gardener I am.....last November (Thanksgiving Day, to be exact - my dad and sweet nephews gathered up all my pots of various plants and moved them to the garage for me, as we prepared for our first frost.  I left the plants in the garage for almost a month....right before Christmas, I had this great idea to get a pop-up greenhouse and put my garage plants in there.  I googled and found that a great heat source is Christmas lights.....even better.  I set up my greenhouse - moved little tables and benches into it - set up my plants; water them really well and ran an outdoor extension cord and a string of Christmas lights to the greenhouse.  A few days went by, non-freezing temps...so nothing to worry about - full sun during the day....then sometime first of January - we were hearing about our first snow of the season.  I turned on my lights...it was a cute sight...and watched the snow come down...here's what the greenhouse looked like amidst the snow....

How cute is that!!!  Well guess what...the lights I bought....umh, rope Christmas lights...Energy Efficient.....NO HEAT!  can you say plant killer!!!  Ugh...so I killed my beautiful lantana that I purchased in June in Pratt, KS on a trip to see my great uncle.  Also gone, my lovely boston fern, my cheap Pentas (that I didn't like anyway), a really nice purple passion flower I bought in Sulphur, OK, cute little ivys, my shamrock plant (which I know isn't really gone) and my sweet potato vines, coral bells...ugh.....I have alot to learn.
Last Sunday, I opened up the greenhouse and much to my surprise - not all hope was lost......my little ivy was still hanging on - go figure, I can't!

A Lampost, a rain barrel and one mad kitty!

This week my parents came down from Oklahoma to celebrate my twin nephews 14th birthday.  We had a great time while they were here, mom made a family favorite - Pork chops with tomato rice soup - it was delicious....each bite felt like home!

On Friday, before mom and dad went home, dad installed my rain barrel....he said he could remember as a kid, the Mallonees (my great grandparents) with barrels under their eaves catching rainwater.  I bought mine from master gardener. Beth Mortenson...of www.catchtherain.com after she spoke at the Mckinney 'rain harvest' seminar back in January.

Daddy was also kind enough to install my lampost in my east flower bed.  Charlie came over and helped him, while me, mom and Lisa went to Mckinney Trade Days.  Here they are mixing cement - I had to make two extra trips to Home Depot for more bags of quick set, who knew one lampost would take 180 lbs of cement to set!

Here's the lampost....while the cement is setting.....this is mom and dad posing just before they head back to Oklahoma....

On Saturday,  I finished the flowerbed, set the lampost and planted my two rose bushes that I bought.  A Mr. Lincoln and a John F Kennedy bush...in honor of Presidents day.  After the last frost, i'll plant my First Ladies' Snapdragons and this east flowerbed will be an honorary Presidential garden....haha.

My cats love to come outside with me....but Lola, my tortie has the heart of a hunter and wanders around the beds, lounges and stretches on the patio then without notice...she's over the fence and in the neighbors yard...here's the proof......

She did that everytime she was out this weekend, so all day Sunday - she had to stay in and it didn't sit too well.....she climbed up the windows, clawed at the door....she was one mad kitty!

 

 It was a great weekend, despite Lola running off - here's how the east Presidential garden transpired....outlined with border....

 Next got ugly with some cardboard...(pizza boxes work great)

 Then a lovely layer of newspaper, shredded bills, paper, etc.....cypress mulch, peat and repeat!

Then finally a layer of the good presentable mulch and it turns out something like this....

Can't wait to transplant my seedlings and other lovelies in the EPG!